Energyreductionuk - free solar panels?

Sallyre

Anyone heard of this company? Just had a doorstep salesman (despite my MSE No Cold Caller sign) offering free solar panels- in return they keep the night time usage of the panels and we get the daytime. Not sure exactly what this means but he pointed me at the website energyreductionuk dot com- can't find any reference to it on the site or on the MSE forums. I've read Martin's guide to solar but can't find a reference to this company or this kind of offer. There'd be a £200 installation fee to cover the scaffolding.

Not sure if this is one of those too good to be true things - anyone got a perspective? Would really appreciate some advice

Thank you!;)

Andy_WSM

Night time usage of the panels? Really?! Think about it!

Plenty of companies offering free solar panels without the charge for scaffolding...

macman

Seems that this company hasn't heard about the imminent FIT's reductions (unless they're promising to install and register you within the next 3 weeks?
The rep sound particularly clueless if he said that!

rogerblack

Assuming the rep is merely confused.
This is 'rent a roof'.
How it works is quite simple.
They rent your roof for 25 years, and receive the feed-in-tariff from the electricity generated.
If you are in a good location, you may get a modest saving on your electricity - say a hundred quid or so a year.
(more if you shift your usage, and only put the washing machine on when it's sunny enough).
So, you get a hundred quid in 'free' electricity a year, and they get about 600 quid of feed-in-tariff.
(1400 if they manage to install and get paperwork by Dec 12)

macman

Rent a roof is dead in the water under the new FITs. The return will be too long (twice as long) to justify the investment.
I suspect the rep is a freelance who hasn't called in recently..

Brummie71

Had a glance at their rather amateurish website (dot co dot uk address, not dot com) and wasn't filled with excitement. Some of these free schemes are still plodding ahead and accepting much lower returns, but I know that many have closed their doors to new applicants already. Remember that you are handing your roof over to them for 25 years - even if you sell the property, the panels stay on the roof. If the roof needs repairs, you will be charged to remove and refit the panels and may even be charged for the electricity generation lost while the panels are down. I'm really sceptical about these schemes because of the long contract period, but they can be worthwhile - although remember that your side of the deal may only amount to £70 - £150 a year in electricity savings, while they pocket thousands.

Sallyre

Fab advice as always. Think I'll give this one a miss.....

rogerblack

macman wrote: »

Rent a roof is dead in the water under the new FITs. The return will be too long (twice as long) to justify the investment.
I suspect the rep is a freelance who hasn't called in recently..

It's not that bad.
At 16.5p/kWh and 880kWh/year (as here), for a 4kW panel, the return is 582/year.

If Tesco are advertising panels at 9K/4kW or so, the costs will presumably be (once the spike in panel prices passes) 7.5K or so, for a stripped back operation only doing it on the most suitable roofs, perhaps with clever incentives - for example 300 quid if you can convince your neighbour to get panels installed at the same time.
The return is not outstanding, the panels initial return being 8%, but this is index-linked.

It's a pretty guaranteed investment, and would make sense as part of a balanced long-term portfolio.

Dot2011

You need to be very wary of the 'free solar' panel offers whereby the panels are leased especially if you have a mortgage. There are several legal pitfalls - I found information on this at the iconvey website - luckily so as I was about to sign up for free solar panels for my house.