Which free solar provider?

bikeman

Can anyone help me narrow down which of the free solar providers I should choose from?

My preferred criteria is:

1. Share of the FIT. Do they all offer the same deal or are there any that will share the feed in tariff?

2. I'd like to use one that will give me some sort of smart meter so I can see in realtime what the panels are generating, what i am using and how much I am exporting. Do any offer this?

3. Free of charge maintenance contract.

4. Allow me to retain panels at end of contract free of charge.

Realistic requirements?


Thanks

Cardew

Depends how you define realistic requirements.

As far as I am aware there isn't a firm that offers customers a share of the FIT.

Ditto an export meter. The cynic in me would maintain that with an export meter and cumulative generated power meter, you could see just how little was being used in the house.

In fact many firms are now asking for an up front payment from you of up to £500 and a monthly maintenance charge of £5 a month.

Another factor for prospective customers to consider is the conditions of contract for some systems - e.g. if panels are removed for roof repairs, you pay the firm cash in lieu of their lost FITs

I think you will find that the consensus of opinion on this forum is that A Shade Greener(ASG) are about the best 'rent a roof' firm. That said their lack of action for their clients with 'anti tamper' electricity meters that added the generated power on the meter was disappointing.

malch

I also don't think any rent a roof company offer a share of FITs but my neighbour is waiting to have his free solar panels fitted and they will get a one off payment of £250 pounds, then they will get somewhere in the region of £100 off their electric bill for 25 years. that will give them approximately £2750.00 for renting their roof out for the 25 year period the company will also remove and reinstall the panels two time in that period for any roof maintenance free of charge.
When I was looking at doing rent a roof most of the company's said the system would be yours after the rental period. What would they be worth after that FITs will have finished and the panels would have deteriorated vastly?

JenR8

Bikeman - a firm called Sunshare will let you buy a share of the system, and receive a share of the Fits to match. You can increase your share but you won't be buying at the best rate.

We didn't like the contracts that went with the big providers, particularly the bits about putting a charge on your property. I.e. when you sell the buyer has to carry on with the deal.

We found a local firm who will remove the panels, should a buyer not want them. We have a contract that states this. There is no charge on the property. We are happy with this, and there was no cost to us.

They all leave the panels with you after 25 years.

The Green Deal, which comes in next year, sounds good. You could then borrow up to £10,000 to buy your own system. Fits will more than pay back the loan, as long as the Green Deal starts before Fits are stopped!

bikeman

I think that solar panels would actually make the property more attractive so I'm not overly concerned about that. I am more concerned to hear that some mortage lenders don't like it so that might rule out some buyers in the future. Although I think it will become more acceptable to them as it becomes more common.

After the 25 years are up, I'd be happy to retain the panels even if the output has reduced I assume of course that the co had ensured they were still working.

Seems a bit off that none seem to offer an export meter. I am at home all day so I'd make sure I used almost all the generated elec by using the immersion for HW and perhaps using a few elec heaters instead of my gas CH.

I'm not really intested in buying as the cost is prohibitive and the payback too long. But the rate my elec and gas bills are rising I reckon anything that reduces myusage and has no cost has got to be worth doing.

Cant use a shade greener as I'm in the south. Made an enquiry to ISIS but not had a response.

Bit concerning that they might expect me to cover loss of FIT in the event of a fault - which company is that?

malch

[QUOTE=
Seems a bit off that none seem to offer an export meter. I am at home all day so I'd make sure I used almost all the generated elec by using the immersion for HW and perhaps using a few elec heaters instead of my gas CH.


Cant use a shade greener as I'm in the south. Made an enquiry to ISIS but not had a response.

[/QUOTE]

to make the best use of free electicity you will need to work out what your system is producing at anyone time, i would be no use putting on a 2 Kw immersion and 2 Kw of heating if you were only producing .5 Kw at the time.


The first people I approached about rent a roof was ISIS they took about four months to come back to me via post, my location and roof was ideal. Personally I wasn't keen on the rent a roof idea after reading the literature, everyone has different views, they kept calling so I said I wasn't really interested any more, they were almost saying I must be mad not to take them up on their offer. So I told them I was starting to be more inclined to buy my own system. It was my lucky day they could supply a system for me to buy it had been £18k it was now on special offer at £12k I have since bought the same size system for £8.5k
The firm which is to pay my neighbour £250 is Soliet Libre, but they started speaking to them in March and they are yet to have their survey yet.
It is still a proper minefield out there.

bikeman

Soliet Libre - ru you spelling that right? google turns up nothing.

malch

sorry my mistake should have left a space neighbour gave me name over phone, lazy i should have walked round.


http://www.soletlibre.com/index-3.html

had a very quick look, didn't say anthing about £250 cash back also they retain ownership for 27 years, i don't suppose my neighbour is too worried as he is 78.

bikeman

Thanks for that. I'm already wary of them retaining ownership for 27 years but only maintaining/insuring the panels for 25 years.

You say you bought your system. Can you share some figures. Does it really cost in when you allow for the panels being worth practically zero at the end of the 25 years?

Also might be a dumb question does a 4kwh system mean it can run a couple of 2kw heaters max?

Cardew

bikeman wrote: »

Also might be a dumb question does a 4kwh system mean it can run a couple of 2kw heaters max?

It is not a 4kWh system but a 4kWp system.

This means that under laboratory conditions of sunlight density, temperature etc it will produce 4kW.

Depending where you live in UK you might just approach 4kW around noon on a cloudless June day(when you don't need heating)

What you need to appreciate is that a cloud passing over will drop the output dramatically. Lots of days the panels will produce no electricity.

In middle England you might expect a 4kWp system to produce about 3,500kWh a year - most of that in summer.

Experience shows that you will do extremely well to use 1,000kW pa in the house - worth about £100.

Cardew

bikeman wrote: »

Seems a bit off that none seem to offer an export meter. I am at home all day so I'd make sure I used almost all the generated elec by using the immersion for HW and perhaps using a few elec heaters instead of my gas CH.

As said above, you get very little output in winter when you need heating.

If you use an immersion you are only saving the cost of gas at 3p -4p a kWh.

Also it is absolutely certain that you will at times be losing money by trying to use the immersion. Several posts on this but an immersion is 3kW which panels only rarely achieve. So your immersion will be using mains electricity(at 10p/kWh) to top up your generated power.