Solar panels, is it possible to reduce bills to £0 with them?

Legacy_user

If I am living alone and want to get solar panels installed, is it possible that the power generated by them is enough to run the whole houses electricity and heat meaning £0 bills for the rest of my life?


average electricity uses - 1kW per day
also using electric heaters instead of gas - 5kW per day

total of 6kw would be needed per day.

EricMears

berbastrike wrote: »

If I am living alone and want to get solar panels installed, is it possible that the power generated by them is enough to run the whole houses electricity and heat meaning £0 bills for the rest of my life?


average electricity uses - 1kW per day
also using electric heaters instead of gas - 5kW per day

total of 6kw would be needed per day.

I don't think you'd get to 'zero bills forever' without installing a huge stack of rechargeable batteries and replacing them every decade or so at a cost rather greater than most people's bills.

However, under the 2011 scheme I've earnt more each year from FIT payments than I've spent on quarterly bills and if the FIT scheme really does get uprated in line with electricity price inflation I anticipate another 23 and a bit years of that remaining true.

HappyMJ

berbastrike wrote: »

If I am living alone and want to get solar panels installed, is it possible that the power generated by them is enough to run the whole houses electricity and heat meaning £0 bills for the rest of my life?


average electricity uses - 1kW per day
also using electric heaters instead of gas - 5kW per day

total of 6kw would be needed per day.

The electricity is only generated whilst the sun is above the horizon. Look at the sunrise and sunset times for your area. That is when you will get your free electricity. I imagine you have a need for lighting and heating in the evening and the solar power generated would mostly be exported and you will still need to buy electricity in the evening and at night.

System

do you think that the funding received for electricity generated will ever go down to almost zero?

zeupater

berbastrike wrote: »

do you think that the funding received for electricity generated will ever go down to almost zero?

Hi

The FiT scheme locks you into a fixed period of payment at a fixed(inflation adjusted) rate which is applicable at the time of installation registration, the period and tariff are under continuous scrutiny and will continue to be reassessed & reduced for new installations in line with the ongoing cost of those installations ... the only real issue is that a future government could review/withdraw the system, however this is probably very unlikely as it would inevitably lead to some pretty extended litigation ....

HTH
Z

Ectophile

I don't know about "for the rest of your life" - it depends on how old you are now. The panels are normally only guaranteed for 25 years, and the inverter may be a lot less (though they can be replaced if they go wrong). The FIT is only for a limited period as well.

Certainly, my overall electricity bill for this year is "negative" in that the amount I'm being paid is considerably more than I'm paying the electricity company. Even adding in the gas bill, I'm still making money. But I am on the highest FIT, which is no longer available to new customers.

Achieving profitability with the latest FIT would be much harder - but the cost of a solar install is a lot less than it used to be.

davebrik

berbastrike wrote: »

If I am living alone and want to get solar panels installed, is it possible that the power generated by them is enough to run the whole houses electricity and heat meaning £0 bills for the rest of my life?


average electricity uses - 1kW per day
also using electric heaters instead of gas - 5kW per day

total of 6kw would be needed per day.

Hello!
I found this interesting post with pictures written by one guy that not even generates enough power for him, but also sells it back to the grid. But he has many solar panels installed in his home area. Look at it:
homesteadingtoday.com/country-living-forums/alternative-energy/466874-array-4-a.html

zeupater

davebrik wrote: »

Hello!
I found this interesting post with pictures written by one guy that not even generates enough power for him, but also sells it back to the grid. But he has many solar panels installed in his home area. Look at it:
homesteadingtoday.com/country-living-forums/alternative-energy/466874-array-4-a.html

Hi davebrik

We, like many others with pv systems, generate more electricity from our system in a year than we use in a year and export excess power to the grid .... that doesn't mean that we don't need to import electricity overnight and on dull days ..... that's achieveable with a 16 panel 4kWp system ... furthermore we also use the generated energy to power the control system & pump for our solar thermal installation which in turn provides the majority of our annual hot water requirement, usually an excess in the summer with a winter shortfall which needs to be supplimented by gas-fired water heating ....

Overall, we have (/produce) excess energy, however we still need to purchase energy when not generating/producing ... that's not to say thet the income from the FiT payments doesn't cover the energy purchases though .... but we still have bills ....

HTH
Z

Martyn1981

Same here, our pre PV consumption was about 2,700kWh's. At about install time we changed from a gas hob to induction.

Very rough figures are probably now:
Consumption 3,000kWh's
Generation 4,200kWh's next year (3,300kWh this year)
Export 2,600kWh's next year (2,000kWh's this year)
Import 1,400kWh's next year (1,700kWh's this year)

Mart.

Ben84

Sorry, I can't answer your question. However, I'm very curious how you're managing to use just 6 kWh a day for all your household energy needs?

davebrik

zeupater wrote: »

Hi davebrik

We, like many others with pv systems, generate more electricity from our system in a year than we use in a year and export excess power to the grid .... that doesn't mean that we don't need to import electricity overnight and on dull days ..... that's achieveable with a 16 panel 4kWp system ... furthermore we also use the generated energy to power the control system & pump for our solar thermal installation which in turn provides the majority of our annual hot water requirement, usually an excess in the summer with a winter shortfall which needs to be supplimented by gas-fired water heating ....

Overall, we have (/produce) excess energy, however we still need to purchase energy when not generating/producing ... that's not to say thet the income from the FiT payments doesn't cover the energy purchases though .... but we still have bills ....

HTH
Z

Yes, you are right. What is important this is the bottom line, how much energy you putted to the grid against what did you conserve. This guy from that link calls it "passive income".