Solar Heating - grant aid and advice?

Vital_Spark_2

Check out Earthships, Boys. :-)

Keith_in_Crete

Hi, I have lived in Crete for 3 years and am now thinking of returning to the UK for a self build project. For this I was considering solar heated water,but the Uk prices were a bit of a shock, here a 200l system is installed for about £700 with either a connection to your CH boiler or electric for the cloudy days, you do need some sun for these systems to work. Some companies in Greece and Spain will export system to the UK this could save you ££££. Some of the manufactures also have offices in the UK so guarantees are no problem.

Keith in Crete, slightly over cast with plenty of hot water!

Cardew

I have followed simonm’s excellent site(solarkent) most of last year – although the ‘strictly financial’ section seems to have disappeared.

IIRC he has installed a ‘Rolls Royce’ system with 3 panels & larger tank etc for an overall cost of £3600.

From his chart detailing the units(kWh) produced it would appear that the installation will only generate approx 4,500kWh in a full year – and this in Kent one of the warmest counties in UK.

If you have Gas CH, that represents a saving of £90 a year(with gas @ 2p a kWh) even with Oil CH the savings will not be much higher than £120 a year and must throw serious doubt on his predicted savings – indeed it will not cover the loss of interest on the capital outlay, let alone interest payments on a loan.

To my mind this is very disappointing and brings the viability of solar systems into question. I also note in his ‘sister’ site on solar electric it claims that a saving of 1,500kWh represents a saving of £150. Unless I have got something wrong the true figure is more like £30.

I do appreciate that with impending price rises for all forms of energy, there will be a year on year increase in savings; but even if fuel doubled in price I cannot see that solar heating will be viable. I accept also that there are environmental issues to be taken into account.

It is most certainly not my intent to be critical of solarkent’s website and I for one am grateful to him for posting his data. I doubt any other commercial organisations would have done so – from what I have seen they make extravagant claims with little data to back it up. However as this is a money saving site, I raise the above points to stimulate debate and hopefully provide advice to those thinking of installing a solar system.

Cardew

meadowcat wrote:

We don't have a gas supply and the water heated by the solar panel would otherwise be heated by electricity (in summer) at over 10p per unit. My panel is supposed to have an annual output of 2000kwh.

Meadowcat,

Why would you ever heat water at over 10p a unit?

Even British Gas elecricity is around 7p a unit for the daytime and 2-3p for Economy 7.
Whatever form of Central Heating you have it will still be much cheaper than using daytime electricity to heat your water, or use E7.

As this is a money saving site, the aim is to see if Solar heating is an economic proposition.

The cost for heating water by most CH systems is 2-3p per unit. So even if your single panel produced its claimed 2000 units per year, most people's savings would be £40-60 per year. Therefore it makes no economic sense to borrow or invest £1,700 to achieve that sort of saving. The 'lost' interest on savings would more than your gain and if you borrowed the £1,700 you would be even more out of pocket.

The system needs an annual service(SolarKent says £120 a year) I assume? and of course it uses electricity to operate. I know the operators claim a life of 20 years, but a couple of installations I saw(admittedly some years ago) would be lucky if they survived 20 months.

meadowcat

Northern Ireland Electricity is .095p + VAT per unit. I don't use oil during the summer, so if I want hot water it would be by immersion heater.

Didn't borrow the money. I have been told no maintenance, just check the antifreeze. But Cardew, think of the planet How would you feel about it if it was much cheaper?

Cardew, please tell me you are not an accountant. :snow_laug :snow_laug (I'm married to one)

webhamster

Can I add another option , havent read the thread indepth as heading off to bed.

Theres another couple of options that can be used in conjunction in some places.Theres the bore hole that heats up the water from the soil down to 200 ft , then thers a unit that looks from a distance like a solar panel but its actually more like a radiator that heats water pipes....but you do need some sun for that , used a lot in hotter countries.

tochriss

Certainly don't approach smartenergy. If you get a flier from them that they want to use your home as a "showhome" (everyone does!) then bin it. These guys are out of the same mould as the big double glazing companies.

cornerclose

I had someone round from Sunuser, offering not so much use as a showhome but real payback for talking to prospective purchasers on the phone, recommending it to other people and so on. I was impressed, but with my hot water costing me about £17.50 a quarter and the price of the installation (at discount) nearly £7000, even with the incentives I had to say no. Incidentally the salesman said that the Clear Skies grant waas about £400 but you had to apply for planning permission in order to get it (you don't need planning permission otherwise unless it is a listed building), so the grant is practically worthless.

Cardew

Hence my reference to 'cowboys' in this thread.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=117656

jammymutt

I have bought a house which does not have a gas supply but does have a south facing roof, so solar sounds like a good idea for me and with Rip off gas putting 22% on their prices there is one question i would like answered.

Does it work in this country?.

This company say it does http://www.eco-hometec.co.uk/ecosol2.htm

The costs for me would approximately be:

for gas £500 + Mr Browns cut.

the price of a gas boiler and installation roughly £1500 + a bit for Mr Bliar

So about £2k + the dreaded.

For a solar kit just to heat my water it would be £4500 + a bit for Mrs Bliar.

What way do i go ?.

Please help.