So now I have a solar PV system how do I make the most of it???

thenudeone

MJay.

The income from panels after your death would belong to your executors until the house disposed of.

If the house was sold, it would normally include all fixtures and fittings including solar PV, and the FIT would then be due to the new occupant.

It's legally possible the panels to be sold separately (or retained by the executor) and for the FIT payments to be assigned someone other than the householder (just like rent-a roof companies do) but you'd need a very good agreement covering access, repairs/inspection, meter readings etc.

In any case, for as long as the FIT is being paid to someone other than the householder, it would be taxable income.

MJay

Thank you for those words, thenudeone that makes perfect sense and it was what I hoped for...... Both children and the grandchildren love my home and I sincerley hope one of them will buy/ keep the place..... Mind you if I live the years I want to, they will probably need to consider renewing all the stuff I've done over last ten years: heating/ electrice/ roof etc!!!!!!!

legoman62

If you go to Forums then choose the most relevant one. For example "Saving and Investing" or "Consumer Rights" the "New Thread" option appears at the top and bottom left hand side of the page.




16 x 250kWp Sanyo Hit250 solar panels. SMA 3.8kWp inverter. SW facing roof. 30 degree pitch with no shading.

themaverick1953

So I can keep getting paid by British Gas and switch supplier (to npower probably) - that right?

KevinG

themaverick1953 wrote: »

So I can keep getting paid by British Gas and switch supplier (to npower probably) - that right?

Yes, AFAIK, The BG FiT department probably won't even know about the switch. I don't know how separate the FiT and supply departments are in BG - in Scottish Power they don't seem to have anything to do with each other.

Hobbo2006

Just thought I'd post some progress on here. Have searched the forums and can't see any mention of these products so some members might not be aware of them.

Many people have been looking to divert the excess power from their solar PV arrays to the immersion heater in their homes to save on current costs. There are plenty of "home made" ideas out there but by the end of the month there will be two versions made by companies and sold commercially.

The first of these is called Immersun, you can see some general information here.

http://www.immersun.co.uk/

This is due to cost around £500-£600 fully installed and available through installers, who you can find on their website. Just put your postcode in and it will recommend the nearest.

The second option is available toward the end of the month and will be advertised on the website below.

http://solarimmersionheaterswitch.co.uk/

At present the mark II version is the latest model but they are working on a mark III version which will have intelligence and divert all excess generated electricity to the immersion. The price of this should come under the £300 mark but you'd need to find your own installer, by the sound of it.

Both have phase sensitive sensors, so you only need one clip on sensor to monitor.
Both are proportional so if you're only generating an excess of 200w then that's what goes to the immersion.
Both utilise the existing immersion element so no need to change.
Both will have a timer so if the water doesn't hit the right temparature you can can it a boost by importing electricity.

The more expensive one has a LCD screen which tells you how many kWh's you've saved and could be used on bigger set ups including a commercial setting.

Hope that helps!

digitaltoast

Hobbo2006 wrote: »

Jby the end of the month there will be two versions made by companies and sold commercially.

The first of these is called Immersun, you can see some general information here.

http://www.immersun.co.uk/

This is due to cost around £500-£600 fully installed

My mind is boggling here - our household of 3 manages just fine on one hour of 3kW immersion heating per day. At 6.5p/unit you'd get 2564 hours of heating for your £500; that's 7 years. Given that most new A rated washing machines and dishwashers are cold-fill to save wasted energy, it's not even like it'll be contributing to those appliances.

Immersun site says "We estimate a payback period of 3 years using immerSUN". The site is sadly lacking on any sort of helpful detail, so if anyone can fill in the gaps here, that'd be great. How does avoiding grid export help? What calculations are involved?

Given that you're least likely to be using or needing electricity when the sun is shining, what happens when you're into the 6th hour of heating? How big a tank would you need to hold all that? Has the 6 months of the year when the sun hardly shines been taken into account? It says "If the load from the house increases, eg. the washing machine is turned on, the immerSUN will reduce the amount sent to heat water to help you maintain independence from the grid."

Are immersion heaters even effective when used like that?

And £500 is a bit steep given that there are other products which do the same thing for about £30. http://www.reuk.co.uk/Water-Heating-with-Surplus-Solar-PV.htm

What's that funny smell? Is it snake oil? We need cardew or grahamc2003 to come and help with the numbers!

sly_dog_jonah

Hobbo2006 wrote: »

installed price will be £500 - £600

Their website quotes a 3 year payback period, which implies around a £160-200 saving per year of gas/elec/oil, depending on how you would otherwise heat the water. Our water heating costs are a maximum £240/year (using gas) based on current prices, so the PV powered immersion would have to account for between 66-83% of our annual water heating needs to get that rate of return.

Those numbers just don't seem right to me, so it would be interesting to see how they arrive at their 3 year payback figure.

Martyn1981

One thing that jumps out at me is that PV electric is being priced at zero, zilch, naught, free. But of course it isn't, its true value today is 3.2p and for installs after 1/8/12 4.5p. Both prices will of course rise with inflation.

I appreciate that under the current 'deemed' 50% system, it may appear free, but who exactly are we fooling.

Also, even if you decide to value those units at 0p, what will happen after investing £500 if the govt and REC's finally decide on what a smart meter is, and begin to roll them out. I can't believe that the opportunity to measure export won't be included, given the countries decision to encourage many forms of household micro-generation.

So whilst many might feel that excess PV is free, at the risk of moralising, I'd suggest it should be priced in at a minimum of 3.2p/kWh, and consideration given to the larger amount of gas that will have to be burnt to replace any missing exported units, probably a ratio of 2 to 1.

Apologies for being boring.

Mart.

Edit: Back again, not happy with that post. Need to make it clear that I'm not attacking anyone for trying to maximise consumption of generated electricity. There is certainly a swings and roundabouts element given that export is deemed at 50% but I believe on average is closer to 70%. I'm approaching 1yr anniversary and will have reduced demand by approx 1,000 units, from generation of approx 2,800. So export is around 65%, but only paid for 50%.

Also, I've said previously that I don't feel 3.2p is fair and that it should be 4.5p to match wholesale prices. I'd even go one step further and suggest the 'lack of' distribution losses (approx 10%) should bump the value of those units up to 5p. But, the FITs scheme is very generous, so as a package it all balances out and seems fair.

Mart.

zeupater

sly_dog_jonah wrote: »

.... Our water heating costs are a maximum £240/year (using gas) based on current prices, so the PV powered immersion would have to account for between 66-83% of our annual water heating needs to get that rate of return.

Those numbers just don't seem right to me, so it would be interesting to see how they arrive at their 3 year payback figure.

... I'd go even further ... your max £240/year on gas would equate to around 18.8kWh/day (240/0.035/365), so it does look a little high ....


Just as a common sense sanity check on the claimed payback on the power diversion gadgets ... let's assume that the average household has a standard cylinder of around 120l capacity and there's a daily requirement to raise the contents from somewhere around 15C to 60C then including system losses that would only require somewhere around 6kWh of gas/heat input per day, which, although definately higher, isn't a million miles away from our own (metered) hot water heating ....

In mid summer, tier 1 gas pricing would be approaching 9p/kWh, so on days where you generate somewhere over 9 to 10kWh of energy you could in theory just about heat the water from self-generated electricity, thus saving ~50p(max) whilst on cloudy days you wouldn't, so let's take an (optimistic) estimate that the average would be 80% of 50p, so 40p. In mid winter we'll assume that the the heating will be on and the average gas price for any saving is is 3.5p and estimate that only around 1kWh/day would be available for the water heating, hence a saving of 3.5p/day. We now have a workable 40p/day for half a year and 3.5p for the rest, an average of 21.75p/day ((40+3.5)/2), therefore three years worth of savings would equate to somewhere around £240(0.2175x365x3) ..... but only if the power management is almost perfect ....

Lots of assumptions and I wouldn't expect to save anywhere near that, but it's good enough for an optimistic sanity check ... I'll leave it to others to inject some realistic pessimism to the payback period claims .... :cool:

HTH
Z