Buying solar panels - is it worth it?

timeou

I looked around as surely there must be an existing thread but I can't find one.

Was contacted by Solar Plants of Port Talbot earlier with an offer of a free no obligation survey with the intention of selling us panels. The chap said a typical system costs around 7k and with the feed in tariff and export tariff we would see a payback in 5 years. He said if we had 7k in the bank it would give us a better return than an isa!

Is it really as good as this? Am tempted by panels as I'm pretty sick of seeing my energy bills continuing to rise and I do think its just going to get more and more expensive as time goes by.

Can anyone give me an unbiased opinion on whether they really are the way forward, what we should be looking out for etc. We aren't a bit clued up about them.

Thanks :beer:

matelodave

I'd be really surprised if anyone would get a payback in less than 8-9 years, especially if we have another summer like last year. You really need to do a lot of research and do your own sums and work out what your electricity consumption & usage is. Get 3-4 quotes and really compare like with like.

The return is probably better than ISA's but you'll need to stay in the house (or live long enough) to make screwing £7k on the roof worthwhile as you wont break even for a long time and you can't spend it if it's bolted to the roof

LittleVermin

timeou wrote: »

I looked around as surely there must be an existing thread but I can't find one...............................

Try the Green and Ethical board here and have a read!

timeou

Thanks so much! I knew there would be many threads but couldn't find them!

Johnandabby

timeou wrote: »

I looked around as surely there must be an existing thread but I can't find one.

Was contacted by Solar Plants of Port Talbot earlier with an offer of a free no obligation survey with the intention of selling us panels. The chap said a typical system costs around 7k and with the feed in tariff and export tariff we would see a payback in 5 years. He said if we had 7k in the bank it would give us a better return than an isa!

Is it really as good as this? Am tempted by panels as I'm pretty sick of seeing my energy bills continuing to rise and I do think its just going to get more and more expensive as time goes by.

Can anyone give me an unbiased opinion on whether they really are the way forward, what we should be looking out for etc. We aren't a bit clued up about them.

Thanks :beer:

No way you could get a payback of 5 years - a 4 kWp system would probably generate circa 3,400 kWh a year, which at current tariff of 15.44 p/kWh is £525/yr. Assuming that you do actually use 60% of the generate elec this would save circa £224, and the export part would be £41. Total of about £790 per year, which is about 10 years payback.

Potential output could be higher, or you could use more of the electricity, but at the moment 8-10 years payment is fairly standard.