British Gas increases gas and electricity bills

doire_2

Gas bills to go up by an average of 18% and electricity bills by an average of 16%

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14077651

LilacPixie

solar panels are starting to look more attractive

Radiantsoul

Their telly advs have moved away from being "the cheapest in 13 out of 14 regions" to their range of services and how quickly they can fix your boiler.

I wonder if they got their hedging strategies wrong.

wotsthat

LilacPixie wrote: »

solar panels are starting to look more attractive

I keep looking at solar but a couple of things keep putting me off

1) It's increasingly sold like double glazing.

2) Electricity prices look like they are going only one way. Even so I can't see how a return can be made; the feed-in tariff makes it more interesting and presumably a 'green' house would be easier to sell. The claims of £x per year look, to me, like they are being over egged at the very least.

Has anyone had solar installed?

kabayiri

wotsthat wrote: »

I keep looking at solar but a couple of things keep putting me off

1) It's increasingly sold like double glazing.

2) Electricity prices look like they are going only one way. Even so I can't see how a return can be made; the feed-in tariff makes it more interesting and presumably a 'green' house would be easier to sell. The claims of £x per year look, to me, like they are being over egged at the very least.

Has anyone had solar installed?

I personally haven't but a neighbour has, and I was reading a recent Which report and relating what I read to what she told me.

It seems installations tend to range from 2 to 4Kw in terms of generation capacity.

Her installation cost was not unusual at £11K. Payback period was quoted to be 7 years, but I suspect this might be optimistic.

One factor which needs to be borne in mind is that the inverter part of the installation will need replacing once a decade or so. This is currently a £1K overhead.

The other comment I read was that the setup becomes more attractive if you are likely to be home during the daylight hours. I didn't quite understand the logic of this though!

I'd also be wary of the 'rent-a-roof' schemes springing up.

lostinrates

kabayiri wrote: »

The other comment I read was that the setup becomes more attractive if you are likely to be home during the daylight hours. I didn't quite understand the logic of this though!
.

I think its because rather than buying it you are just not selling it iyswim, you are going to pay more to buy elec than you'll get for selling it.

A few of us here are looking at solar. We hope to have a couple of panels in, just in time for winter, lol. But we are having solar thermal not PV. I think.

wotsthat

kabayiri wrote: »

The other comment I read was that the setup becomes more attractive if you are likely to be home during the daylight hours. I didn't quite understand the logic of this though!

Thanks

As I understand it the feed in tariff is higher than the usage tariff. Therefore it makes sense to export as much electricity as possible in the day and then use appliances at night.

With a rent a roof scheme the opposite is true i.e. as much of the generated electricity needs to be used at the point of use as the householder has zero interest in sending electricity to the grid.

wotsthat

lostinrates wrote: »

I think its because rather than buying it you are just not selling it iyswim, you are going to pay more to buy elec than you'll get for selling it.

I don't think that's correct. It's the other way round because the government want to encourage the use of solar.

DervProf

I wonder how long the panels will last ?

I'm guessing that like most things, they will be made as cheaply as the manufacturers think they can get away with.

The roof of your house can be quite a hostile environment. A few hot summers and cold winters might "test" these panels.

lostinrates

wotsthat wrote: »

I don't think that's correct. It's the other way round because the government want to encourage the use of solar.

You might well be right. I'm confusing myself with the rent a roof scheme probably.


re durability as I understand it there is a huge amount of difference. We using what my architect has used before.

wotsthat

DervProf wrote: »

I wonder how long the panels will last ?

I'm guessing that like most things, they will be made as cheaply as the manufacturers think they can get away with.

The roof of your house can be quite a hostile environment. A few hot summers and cold winters might "test" these panels.

I think they are meant to be quite robust as there's not much to go wrong with them. 30 - 40 years is possible and guarantees can be 25 years. The cynic in me does wonder how many of the solar companies in the market will be around in 2 years let alone 25 years if there's a problem.