Solar Panels --- a bit of a Gimmick

2010

Out walking recently I noticed a few houses whose roofs on one side were completely covered in solar panels.
To me they look a bit of an eyesore and could probably devalue the property.

Is this the latest must-have gimmick that`s being pushed on the theory you fork out £10/15k and in another 15/20 years they will pay for themselves on the electricity you don`t have to pay for.

From various sources it seems, with the crap weather we have in this country,(I know they say you don`t have to have the sun for them to work, but it certainly helps) the amount of energy generated by these panels would hardly be enough to cover your daily household needs, let alone being able to sell the surplus on to whoever.

£10/15k buys a lot of electricity over the years, do the calculations.

Dave_Fowler

2010 wrote: »

Out walking recently I noticed a few houses whose roofs on one side were completely covered in solar panels.
To me they look a bit of an eyesore and could probably devalue the property.

Is this the latest must-have gimmick that`s being pushed on the theory you fork out £10/15k and in another 15/20 years they will pay for themselves on the electricity you don`t have to pay for.

From various sources it seems, with the crap weather we have in this country,(I know they say you don`t have to have the sun for them to work, but it certainly helps) the amount of energy generated by these panels would hardly be enough to cover your daily household needs, let alone being able to sell the surplus on to whoever.

£10/15k buys a lot of electricity over the years, do the calculations.

The FIT income from my <3KWp panels has paid all my gas and electricity energy costs over the past 20 months, and there's a small surplus left over. Current FIT income since July 2010 is £1880 neglecting any savings on electricity and gas. I think I probably manage to use about 35% of what is generated (I'm at home most days) so the savings on electricity would be about an additional £150 over the same period.

All in all, I believe that even with the UK weather, financially they did make sense when the FIT rate was originally set at 41.3p Whether it makes sense now with the much lower FIT rate I don't know; but the cost of a set of panels has also dropped from the £10/15k figures you quote to £6/8k.

Dave F

grahamc2003

2010 wrote: »

Out walking recently I noticed a few houses whose roofs on one side were completely covered in solar panels.
To me they look a bit of an eyesore and could probably devalue the property.

Is this the latest must-have gimmick that`s being pushed on the theory you fork out £10/15k and in another 15/20 years they will pay for themselves on the electricity you don`t have to pay for.

From various sources it seems, with the crap weather we have in this country,(I know they say you don`t have to have the sun for them to work, but it certainly helps) the amount of energy generated by these panels would hardly be enough to cover your daily household needs, let alone being able to sell the surplus on to whoever.

£10/15k buys a lot of electricity over the years, do the calculations.

You're right in most respects - they are a mad way of generating electricity in the UK. On almost every measure going, they perform very poorly (e.g. cost/kwh, co2 saved per£ spent). To cap it all, no matter if every home in the uk had a rooffull of these, we still couldn't build less power stations. They dont' generate anything at all at 17:30 on a winters evening, so conventional generation has to meet that peak demand (and the costs there are in tens of billions in capital costs). As a nation, we are spending twice the amount necessary for all this duplictaion.

But, the powers that be bend to green demands however mad they are, so panel owners get very large subsidies (now dropping to just large), and they can get very high returns from any money 'invested' (I'd say most couldn't give a frig about the green aspects (which are in any case an illusion imv), being their original raison d'etre, and just think about their own financial return).

So you get incredible support for solar panels, even though they are in engineering terms, almost pointless - a very expensive bit of kit which solves no problems.

Those who just consider their own bank account think they're great - a licence to print money. But to UK plc and the taxpayers and electricity consumers who pay the subsidy, they are nothing short of madness - simply part of a green ideaology which makes no pretence at making any sense.

And I speak as a panel owner, which no doubt confuses many. I have nothing against people taking advantage of whatever system is going (we all do, all the time) - my problem is with the insane system itself.

[Deleted User]

2010 wrote: »

Out walking recently I noticed a few houses whose roofs on one side were completely covered in solar panels.
To me they look a bit of an eyesore and could probably devalue the property.

Is this the latest must-have gimmick that`s being pushed on the theory you fork out £10/15k and in another 15/20 years they will pay for themselves on the electricity you don`t have to pay for.

From various sources it seems, with the crap weather we have in this country,(I know they say you don`t have to have the sun for them to work, but it certainly helps) the amount of energy generated by these panels would hardly be enough to cover your daily household needs, let alone being able to sell the surplus on to whoever.

£10/15k buys a lot of electricity over the years, do the calculations.

This has been debated to death...

Devalue the house price? - unlikely
Free electricity is just a bonus.
People do it for the subsidy and make lots of money in times of austerity.
And provides lot's of jobs.

All good really...

PS do people in the UK do anthying other than moan...

grahamc2003

jeepjunkie wrote: »

And provides lot's of jobs.

All good really...

PS do people in the UK do anthying other than moan...

Lots of jobs?

I suppose it creates some. Quite a few in China, Germany and, in my case, Spain, and about 2.5 man days of work over a single day for the good old UK - and of course the subsidy trundles on for 25 years. My installers drove over from Birmingham to install mine (and others over the week) in Surrey, which I thought odd for an order specifically placed through a local company. Surely this 'jobs' angle is a red herring (unfortunately) - at least as far as the UK is concerned - 25 years of subsidy creates a days work for two or three UK people. (No doubt other subsidies have created some sort of solar panel component manufacturing but I expect those jobs too will disappear if the subsidies which enabled them do).

Stupid comment about 'moaning' btw.

davidanddeirdre

2010 wrote: »

Out walking recently I noticed a few houses whose roofs on one side were completely covered in solar panels.
To me they look a bit of an eyesore and could probably devalue the property.

Is this the latest must-have gimmick that`s being pushed on the theory you fork out £10/15k and in another 15/20 years they will pay for themselves on the electricity you don`t have to pay for.

From various sources it seems, with the crap weather we have in this country,(I know they say you don`t have to have the sun for them to work, but it certainly helps) the amount of energy generated by these panels would hardly be enough to cover your daily household needs, let alone being able to sell the surplus on to whoever.

£10/15k buys a lot of electricity over the years, do the calculations.

All the pros and cons of solar panels have some objective validity except for the aesthetic, where beauty is purely in the eye of the beholder. Personally I like the look of them, expecially the ones on my house, and so far in a nearly full year of operation they appear to be heading to upwards of 120% of the predicted output for this area. As a result, with the current FIT, we will make in excess of 11% return on investment in the first year. Quite attractive to a potential purchaser of the property I should think. And we don't face ideally, being slightly east of southeast. As a matter of interest, at the 21p FIT we would have made in excess of 6%, still fairly respectable.
The cost of panels, ancillary equipment & installation won't have to come down that much, (or the price of electricity go up) in this area at least, to make the cost of electricity from solar panels to equate to what we are paying our electricity supplier per unit.
The main long term problem is night time. The generation technology has run ahead of the ability to make best use of what is produced, because of the absence of substantial electricity storage capability. The person or organisation that can solve this one in a practical manner will, I predict, make a very large amount of money in a very short time.

[Deleted User]

grahamc2003 wrote: »

Lots of jobs?

I suppose it creates some. Quite a few in China, Germany and, in my case, Spain, and about 2.5 man days of work over a single day for the good old UK - and of course the subsidy trundles on for 25 years. My installers drove over from Birmingham to install mine (and others over the week) in Surrey, which I thought odd for an order specifically placed through a local company. Surely this 'jobs' angle is a red herring (unfortunately) - at least as far as the UK is concerned - 25 years of subsidy creates a days work for two or three UK people. (No doubt other subsidies have created some sort of solar panel component manufacturing but I expect those jobs too will disappear if the subsidies which enabled them do).

Stupid comment about 'moaning' btw.

Stop moaning...

don0301

jeepjunkie wrote: »

Stop moaning...

It's his 'ticking Time Bomb' inverter.....

makes him Grumpy

2010

Thanks for the replies.
I spent £300 over the past year on electricity which equates to £9k over 30years which is about the price of currently installing these panels.

I won`t be bothering, and if people want to spoil the look of their property that`s up to them.

Martyn1981

2010 wrote: »

From various sources it seems, with the crap weather we have in this country,(I know they say you don`t have to have the sun for them to work, but it certainly helps) the amount of energy generated by these panels would hardly be enough to cover your daily household needs, let alone being able to sell the surplus on to whoever.

£10/15k buys a lot of electricity over the years, do the calculations.

But this is micro-generation, the aim is generate a households worth of electricity. In an ideal world, we would get the use of all that we generate, but of course supply and demand don't necessarily correspond.

Even my 3.6kWp system pointing ESE generates more pa than we use, 2,850 & 2,660 units respectively. An average UK house uses 3,600 units - a good south facing 4kWp system could generate that, or more.

As suggested, I've done the calculations, and a decent sized system will generate around 100k to 150k units in a 40 year lifetime. Not bad for £8k, but a lot better when systems get down nearer to £5k eventually. And remember PV fuel will remain free, unlike our inflation+ mains electricity.

Mart.

Equaliser123

2010 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies.
I spent £300 over the past year on electricity which equates to £9k over 30years which is about the price of currently installing these panels.

I won`t be bothering, and if people want to spoil the look of their property that`s up to them.

Quick question - do you understand the Feed in Tarrif?