Solar Panels

lyniced

I keep seeing increasing numbers of houses with solar panels on their roofs and some friends recently got some. They keep saying how much money they have saved, and that we should get them fitted. After enquiring how much they have saved (thinking they'd say hundreds of ££s) they said £1.69 this week! I nearly fell off my chair, as apart from being the ugliest things I've ever seen, they aren't as money saving a I thought.

MX5huggy

You have rather miss the point. The savings are minimal. It's what you get paid for producing the electricity.

Google feed in tarrifs. For more info. But you need to get moving to get 21p per unit for the next 25 years (index linked) its being cut to 16p per unit for 20 years soon.

lyniced

MX5huggy wrote: »

You have rather miss the point. The savings are minimal. It's what you get paid for producing the electricity.

Google feed in tarrifs. For more info. But you need to get moving to get 21p per unit for the next 25 years (index linked) its being cut to 16p per unit for 20 years soon.

Well can they make the less ugly then?

cootuk

I know someone who had them installed so the installers get the feed-in tariffs - they save £20pm by doing all their washing/ drying/ dishwasher etc on days rather than offpeak

BertieUK

I think that you have to decide on appearance as well as saving money, I think that they deter from the look of, say a bungalow, especially if they are fitted on the front of the property. It is early days to proove or disproove their values.

Personally I dread to think of replacing a broken slate or two.

regards

BobUK

alleycat`

cootuk wrote: »

I know someone who had them installed so the installers get the feed-in tariffs - they save £20pm by doing all their washing/ drying/ dishwasher etc on days rather than offpeak

I've read that people who have "rented out their roof" will have potential trouble selling down the line.

If the buyer requires a mortgage it complicates who has what charge held against the property.

Buying the system yourself and getting the FIT money made sense (at 40p per Kwh).

Rent a Roof and the lower FIT values, I'm not so sure.

alleycat`

lyniced wrote: »

Well can they make the less ugly then?

You can get "solar tiles" rather than panels.
If you consider them better looking or not, i suppose that is a personal decision.

I'm also not sure if they add complication with regards to wiring, replacement, etc and are thus less value for money.

iamcornholio

If you get the FIT (fee in tariff) from the government then yes you will get £00's per year. Otherwise the installation company gets this back by you "leasing" your roof to them for 25 years

The homeowner's savings are minimal in terms of what power the cells produce and what power is fed back into the network. Bare in mind that the cells power output diminishes annually, so produce less and less power - so the FIT is the main earner

When the sun is shining most and generation at peak, then its midsummer and you are not using the lights/heating/power so you are not actually saving in usage. And when you need the power most in winter, the cells are not producing

The best way to save, is to pay the £10-£12k installation costs yourself, and reap the FIT from the government for 25 years - and don't lease your roof out for others

WestonDave

They aren't that expensive any more - if you are paying over £8k for a full 4kWp system you need to get more quotes!

The cells do diminish over time but are guaranteed to still produce 85% of their rated output at 25 years old so its not a major drop off.

On the current price of install etc, and the current 21p rate, most decent installs will pay back in 10 years leaving you 15 years income, or you could consider it as 10% return on the sum invested/spent. The companies selling these systems are required to quote conservative return figures - in reality most people find they get more than quoted.

The wiring is not that complicated - ours has one cable running from the loft to the main fuse area, with a few extra switches and a generation meter (about the size of a small book) to record what is generated. There are obviously cables from the panels to the inverter in the loft but they are tucked away amongst the roof timbers.

I'm sure some people don't like the look of them - personally I don't spend a lot of time looking at other peoples rooves - mine in any case are tucked away on the back and side of the house rather than the road side.

justjohn

The cost of them have halved in price in the last 3 years. They reckon it takes 8-12 years to pay off/break even

Heres my question how much will they cost in 5-8 years and how much more efficient will they be?

legoman62

Just got back from a holiday in Portugal and checked May's output.
497.8kWh including 2 days at just over 28kWh. June 4th new high of 28.449kWh.
Very nice!
Getting great results with my immersion heater switch.
Using a 1 kw immersion heater.
Nearly all my hot water is free. May fit a 2nd immersion later.
Could almost turn the gas off for the summer lol


16 x 250kWp Sanyo Hit250 solar panels. SMA 3.8kWp inverter. SW facing roof. 30 degree pitch with no shading. Cleethorpes