Free solar panels - decrease property value?

daisbuys

Hi

I am just to sign the lease agreement for free solar paneling.

Whats everyones thoughts on these kind of deals?

I am concerned that it might devalue my house or may delay in the sale of it if I was to sell in the future?

Pros:

Free electric during daylight hours.

Free solar panels.

Free maintanence.

Panels and any FIT (Feed in tarrif, if any) are yours after the 25 years.

May increase property value?

May sway prospective buyers over a house without solar?

Cons:

25 year lease on the roof of your property.

Feed in tarrif payment goes to installation company.

May put off prospective buyers in the future?

May decrease value of property?

I see this as a win win situation personally, as over the 25 years I would have saved approx 16-20k in saved electric bills and also the cost of the installation.

I know it would be better to purchase them if I could afford them as the FIT would cover the costs off the panels after 10years.
But I can not afford them anytime soon so think this is a too good an offer to turn down, especially as this guaranteed FIT payment is going to be seriously reduced come April 2012, and would possibly see the end of the free solar panels on the Market?

Thanks in advance, all advice appreciated especially on the value and saleability of my property!

Toby1990

hang on, what have they have said about maintainance? You won't save that much money, how did they work out you would save 20k? Did they mention an invertor at all?

Oh and it'll mess you up when come to sell. What have they said about when you come to sell?

poppysarah

If you are at home during the time and can max out your usage to the max output of your system then you will save about 160£ of elec a year approx. (I think thats what the stats I've seen recently said)
So over 20 years its about 3200 ...

The feed in would generate you about 1300 a year in revenue if they were yours.

(Figures off the top of my head)

Don't sign until you've had a quote from a real installer.

Sytstems cost 10-15k for 3-3.8kw according to the type of panel you have.

Maintenance is checking they are clean (window cleaner could do this) and cjecking the electronics work (There's a warranty on them and installers will check anyway I think)

Toby1990

Poppys right, too put it blunty, you can never pay them off, invertor needs replacing at 6-7 year intervals. £800 so over 25 years that 3 x so £2700, after ten years they only perform at 80%. The manufactuer will not pay for the invertor.

Did they say they are paying for the maintainance? And that Feed in tarriff is being revised meaning it could become less. You use most electric at night and maybe a washing machine hoover during the day and things that our on stand by.

What the government needs to do is bring out the green initiative. They would pay you I think £350 a year for having solar thermal and you save on average about £300 a year with solar thermal. Solar thermal is the best renewable for buck. £4000 install, so hoping they bring it out that would get paid off in 6-7 years, gas and electric are going to keep on climbing so even quicker probably.

Only reason people go photovoltaic panels (electric) is because they here the word feed tarrif. And got told bull from the installer.

And you can't take them off, so you can't do any roofwork, loft conversions etc

They are clever the people who came up with this plan. get a 100k loan from the bank that'll get you 10 kits, 10 x £1000 is £10k a year 100 houses £100k a year. Very good.

PasturesNew

I'd not even view your house to buy it with those things on the roof because if I wanted them then I'd choose to do it my own way .... and, I believe, that within 10 years there'll be something better/cheaper that will easily outperform whatever's available today, so over that lifespan of 25 years, I figure I'd make more money by delaying 10-15 years first and going with the latest things at that future point.

Selling a house with that contract on it might make mortgage companies nervous too in the future, if there's adverse publicity about them or issues.

Toby1990

Once people realise they are a con then they will stop being sold domestically. farmers buy them and fill there land up with them, can make quite a bit doing that. But to the OP please don't suckered in like so many other people.

Only one way of doing them really cover your whole roof lol Have you even got a south facing roof? Or is it west and east?

G_M

Only do this if you are going to really max out the day-time electricity you use. Bin your central heating and buy electric storage heaters, then time them for day-time use and relaease the heat in the evening.

Of course then you have to factor in the cost of doing this.

Go over to the utilities forums - lots of discussion there.

I'm not convinced it will increase your property value and may do the reverse.

Lokolo

G_M wrote: »

Only do this if you are going to really max out the day-time electricity you use. Bin your central heating and buy electric storage heaters, then time them for day-time use and relaease the heat in the evening.

Can I ask why you think that?

Surely it doesn't matter if the meter is reversible. It reverses 10 units in the day, then over night you use 10 units, the net is still 0 units.

---

As a side note, I think if you plan on having the house for 25 years (even if you buy it then rent it out should you move elsewhere), then it's a good idea.

However I don't see the point as I agree with Pastures, the technology will increase greatly over the next 10-15 years and make your panels redundant (with the newer panels generating more electric than older ones).

G_M

Lokolo wrote: »

Can I ask why you think that?

Surely it doesn't matter if the meter is reversible. It reverses 10 units in the day, then over night you use 10 units, the net is still 0 units.

---

Maybe I misunderstood when I looked into it. I thought you got your units free if generated by your panels during the day, any excess generated resulted in the FIT which went to the installer, and you bought any additional units you needed in the normal way.

daisbuys

Thanks everyone for your posts.

The company did say that they will change the inverter twice and do any maintenance on the panels
.
They would also remove the panels twice for 14 days at a time over the 25 year lease for roof repairs or even loft conversions! Although my loft is to small for the latter.

The panels are at the rear of the property and are not on show. So the house still looks it's best

I work shifts, so am there during the day quite a bit and we tend to only watch tv during the night while all household chores are done durning the free electric period.
We would probably heat the water using the immersion heater to, rather than gas.

I think we could save easily enough, my main issue is the value of the property and the saleability of it!

What I have read on a study in 2010, they apparantley put an approx 8.6% value onto your property, but this is with a bought outright system and not a rent a roof scheme.

I have emailed 5 estate agents local to me and have asked for their opinions and if they have had any experience in dealing with them when it has come to selling and valuations.

I shall let you know of their outcomes.

Pastures new, I totally agree with your outlook on future developments and technology, question is do I stick or do I twist now???

Toby1990

That makes it better they actually take care of them, as long as you don't pay anything at all for them then it seems ok. But again I don't think they would anything to your house, whats £160 a year to a buyer?
400kj to heat a litre of water from 0 to 100c. So say 200kj from 20 to 60, immersion heaters are very expensive, I'd only have one as back up.

They'd need to work 14 days 24 hours to get a loft conversion done lol