EON Solar Panel Deal - £99 but would it affect my house resale

fluffymovie

We are EON dual fuel customers and are considering their £99 solar panel deal.

However, I have concerns that we have to sign up to a 25 year deal with the solar panel company and that this may affect the price we would be able to get for our house?

We have been toying with the idea of moving but wonder if anyone knows if having solar panels increases or decreases the value of your home?

http://www.eonenergy.com/At-Home/Products/Generate-your-own-energy/SolarExchange/?WT.svl=4

SailorSam

That sounds like a good deal, i'd imagine any improvement you made to your house would only ever be a benefit if/when you sold. I've been reading the 'any questions' part of that site and there's information there about what would happen if you decided to cancel or move house.

rob7475

I've just had a quick look at this and i'm not sure if it's a good deal or not.

Firstly, then energy created can't be stored, so any electric you don't use as it's created is sent straight back to the grid. So, the majority of electric will be created during the day between 10-3 for example - if you are not at home using electric, you are going to make no savings.

I'd be more tempted in paying for the panels to be installed and getting the money for selling the electric to the grid.

SailorSam

rob7475 wrote: »

I've just had a quick look at this and i'm not sure if it's a good deal or not.

Firstly, then energy created can't be stored, so any electric you don't use as it's created is sent straight back to the grid. So, the majority of electric will be created during the day between 10-3 for example - if you are not at home using electric, you are going to make no savings.

I'd be more tempted in paying for the panels to be installed and getting the money for selling the electric to the grid.

I thought what happens with these sort of plans is you share the value of any energy that was produced, so if it goes back down the pipes to the grid but the electric company buy it off you.
Lets say it's worth 10p a unit, they'll only give you 5p, the other 5p they keep for themselves, and it's this that is paying for your cheap installation.
There was a similar thing on Mse last year and i applied on line but couldn't get it done, They asked me to put my post code into Google Earth so my house could be checked out to see if i had enough of a south facing roof to be allowed to go ahead. They said to much would have been in shadow.

Innys

Do a search for Feed In Tariff on Google. If you do this deal with Eon, they will get the lion's share and you get peanuts.

Oh, and when it comes to sale time, I reckon you'll have issues as well in terms of who owns the roof.

Summary - fund the panels entirely yourself or don't have anything installed.

iamcornholio

Other companies will do this installation for free, so save yourself the £99

fluffymovie

Thanks all for your input but our roof doesn't have sufficient square metres so a moot point!

McMillan_2

I guess that you can return your investment (£99) with eon in less than a year. On the other hand it can not bring significant savings and it would definitely affect your house resale price.
I was considering similar offer myself last year, but at the end I decided to build my own 2KW solar panel (for less than £99 :T) out of empty pop-cans.
My advice would be to think it over twice before signing that 25 year contract...

Leif

The problem as I see it is that you effectively give over control of your roof for 25 years. That would probably squash any future plans for a loft conversion, or an extension involving work on the roof. So you might be reducing the resale value, and in the case of a bungalow I'd be tempted to change that 'might' to 'will'. I had someone come round, and decided against it. A house like mine has panels, and they look okay although they take up all of one side of the roof.

rob7475 wrote: »

I've just had a quick look at this and i'm not sure if it's a good deal or not.

Firstly, then energy created can't be stored, so any electric you don't use as it's created is sent straight back to the grid. So, the majority of electric will be created during the day between 10-3 for example - if you are not at home using electric, you are going to make no savings.

I'd be more tempted in paying for the panels to be installed and getting the money for selling the electric to the grid.

Yes, the return for the house owner is relatively minor, and insignificant in my book. The real return is for the panel owner who gets an absurdly high amount per kWh fed power back into the grid.

The way to do this is to pay for PV panels oneself. I believe the 'offer' lasts until early next year. From what I have read, the investment will pay off in about 8 years, which is pretty damned good. And from then on you are getting paid so much to feed in that you effectively pay for your electricity throughout the day.

MaggieBaking

Leif wrote: »

The problem as I see it is that you effectively give over control of your roof for 25 years. That would probably squash any future plans for a loft conversion, or an extension involving work on the roof. So you might be reducing the resale value, and in the case of a bungalow I'd be tempted to change that 'might' to 'will'. I had someone come round, and decided against it. A house like mine has panels, and they look okay although they take up all of one side of the roof.



Yes, the return for the house owner is relatively minor, and insignificant in my book. The real return is for the panel owner who gets an absurdly high amount per kWh fed power back into the grid.

The way to do this is to pay for PV panels oneself. I believe the 'offer' lasts until early next year. From what I have read, the investment will pay off in about 8 years, which is pretty damned good. And from then on you are getting paid so much to feed in that you effectively pay for your electricity throughout the day.

There was a company that did this on the latest episode of Dragon's Den - the average installation cost cost was £12-£14k, and you make £1k-£2k in profit per year. Business is booming for him apparently and he ended up getting 5 offers of investment.

Some friends of mine have had a free installation of solar panels on their (large) roof, the installation was extremely easy (if you can put up with some scaffolding for a few days). They get free electricity in daylight hours.

I'm unsure of the complications of selling the house afterwards, but as far as I can see it's an asset and as any future occupants would extend the house over the garage, not up into the roof. If I were to buy their house, I would get the advice of a solicitor to get their take on the legalities of it.

If you can get £12k on your mortgage and you intend on living there for years it would certainly be better to buy outright, but I don't think I would pay an extra £10k for a house with solar panels so it's important to be able to stay there long enough to get a return on your investment.

HappyMJ

MaggieBaking wrote: »

If you can get £12k on your mortgage and you intend on living there for years it would certainly be better to buy outright, but I don't think I would pay an extra £10k for a house with solar panels so it's important to be able to stay there long enough to get a return on your investment.

That's the only thing I would be worried about. Selling. Why wouldn't you pay an extra £10,000 which can be covered by a low interest mortgage. You would get free daytime electricity in the summer and most of autumn and spring. You would also be getting a cheque for nearly £1,000 every year to put towards the extra cost of the mortgage. I would think that's it's a good thing to spend an extra £10,000 for a tax free return of 10%.