Solar Power - best and most reliable suppliers

melanieconway

Hello

I'm thinking of getting solar panels as my garden is south facing and probably a very good source (like a hot house in summer).

I haven't got the money to invest at the moment but I've seen a few companies offering free panels (but I think they take the electricity off you for free instead of them paying you for it). One in particular is A Shade Greener who are offering free panels, you get to use the electricity you generate, but excess gets taken and you get no money back on that (which I'm not too bothered about).

Is it a con? I've not invested in any thing like this before and I'm wary of cowboy builders ruining my roof (I'll be moving out in about 2 years time) and small print that implies it's free then you get stung for charges further down the line.

Any recommendations?

Mel

melanieconway

Because I see it as a way to get cheap electricity whilst I am there and may well be an incentive to buy for prospective purchasers

fisherrees

I've just had solar panels installed, not under the scheme you mention, but we have invested our savings in them ourselves. We will, therefore, receive £0.433per unit we generate and £0.031 for each one we don't use ourselves on top of this.

I would not bother with the scheme you mention for the following monetary reasons. In the winter, when you use more electricity, you produce much less. A couple of days this week we have struggled to make 1kW, but when we had that brilliant spell for about 2 weeks, we were producing 18+ kWs per day. You cannot store the power to use when you want. We will not lose out as we get paid whatever. You will have other people's panels on your roof so that they get all the benefits. If you are home during the day like me, you will make the most of the solar panels by using the electricity they produce rather than drawing off the grid, but once the evening comes, even on those good days I mentioned, the production slowed right down at around 4 - 5pm. We face almost exactly south and our installation is the highest you can get and still be eligible for the FIT payments - 4kWP.

hutch610

I enquired about free panels with a shade green and homesun.

Both said my roof wasnt big enough. Its ideal as its directly south. Seems it has to be a certain size to get the amount on they want to supply. But why should it matter how many you can get on rook you would still save.

This leads me to believe that the bigger the house you can afford you can get them free, where as poor little us who wants to save money and get them free is penalised.

By paying for them, and no i cant afford that outright, but if could pay monthly would you get back enough to cover payments.

Having read this tho it has slighly put me off the free ones.

patd1967

if your wanting solar panels the way forward is to buy them outright,as someone as said already the last few days have been terrible.a shade greener is one of the more reputable companies in this field.if you look at ther information on the internet they only fit on straight forward roof so as to keep there costs to a minimum.and it doesnt matter how big your roof is as there is a maximum kw rating to get the higher F.I.T if you go over the size the money paid is lower.that is what a shade greener told someone on there facebook page

hutch610

dead straight roof directly south but a 4 row terrace, no roof obstructions, just couldnt get 16 panels on and they estimated using google maps

Companymole

Hi

If you are moving in 2 years there really is no point getting panels, if you buy them outright most of time you are looking at 10 years min to pay them off. If you sign up to a free agreement (all of which have some sort of way of you paying for them of course) then you not only have to sell your house you have to sell it to someone who is going to be happy with the free agreement you have. If you get them free make sure you read every last word of smallprint. If you buy them you need to be staying put for a while, no recognised added value to your house at the moment. make sure you get your feed in tariff, its non competitive so suppliers only give it to their own customers

Cardew

melanieconway wrote: »

Because I see it as a way to get cheap electricity whilst I am there and may well be an incentive to buy for prospective purchasers

It is not a con as such, but the savings to you are meagre - about £70 a year on average. A rent a roof company like A Shade Greener(one of the better companies) get around £1200pa

Far from it being an incentive for prospective purchasers, it might well be a deterrent.

They have to agree the the 'rent a roof' company have access and rights on their roof for the remainder of the 25 years.

They can't fit their own lucrative system, it may stop them having a loft extension and you cannot have trees grow so they will shade the roof.