Official MSE Free Solar Panel guide discussion

Dird

Cardew wrote: »

Do you own your property?

I will from Wednesday :eek:
To clarify what I mean...assuming the energy supplier charge £80/month and I'm normally £20/month in credit without solar panels, if I added panels should I expect to see my account go £30-40/month in credit (at least more than without)?

Cardew

Dird wrote: »

I will from Wednesday :eek:
To clarify what I mean...assuming the energy supplier charge £80/month and I'm normally £20/month in credit without solar panels, if I added panels should I expect to see my account go £30-40/month in credit (at least more than without)?

That is different from your earlier statement i.e. 'If you normally pay £80/month regardless of usage'

The savings you will make on your 'electricity bill' tend to be exaggerated by the Rent - a - Roof companies. You will get a better idea of 'real' savings by going to the 'Green and Ethical' board on MSE.


However a typical figure would appear to be more like £10 a month; and then you have to work hard at using the generated electricity.


Also there is plenty of evidence that, having given a company a 20 year lease on your property, it will be more difficult to sell as some mortgage companies will not grant a mortgage.

Dird

Cardew wrote: »

That is different from your earlier statement i.e. 'If you normally pay £80/month regardless of usage'

It's the same, no? You pay the same amount then your credit just keeps going up & up until you ask for a refund. I guess I'll forget the idea then.

t2000becky

Hi
Just wondered if anyone has any advice - my mother in law purchased a house that has some solar panels installed but not hooked up to supply the property, we did some investigating and it turns out the company who installed them went bust and also the previous property owner put a stop to it as she was missold it.
So basically we now have the panels connected up to what looks like a meter but no idea where to go from here..... Any suggestions?
Thanks

Froggitt

Establishing ownership might be a good starting point.

t2000becky

How would I find that out? Don't think we had any docs from the previous owner

Froggitt

Try the administrators of the installer. It may be one of the deals where the panels are theirs, and the FIT is theirs. If so, they may be trying to sell the companies assets off to someone else.

If its not hooked up, and they turn out to be yours, you may need another installer to register you for the FIT before it goes down again shortly.

newbie8

Recently brought a house and was wondering if its still worth installing panels?

Parents had it done back in 2009 just before the drops in rate started, plus cause a mate was installing them back then they had a good deal.. £9000 for 10 panels i think.

But with the returns dropping and the price of panels also dropping is it worth it?
To avoid complication of selling the house in the future, i will probably pay for panels myself rather than getting the free ones.

Silly question.. but once the house is sold would the return of the FIT money go to me or the new buyer??? The only reason why I asked was because an agent selling panels said I would still get the quarterly income from the panels??? Think this is a porky tbh.:rotfl:

thanks all

zeupater

newbie8 wrote: »

Recently brought a house and was wondering if its still worth installing panels?

Parents had it done back in 2009 just before the drops in rate started, plus cause a mate was installing them back then they had a good deal.. £9000 for 10 panels i think.

But with the returns dropping and the price of panels also dropping is it worth it?
To avoid complication of selling the house in the future, i will probably pay for panels myself rather than getting the free ones.

Silly question.. but once the house is sold would the return of the FIT money go to me or the new buyer??? The only reason why I asked was because an agent selling panels said I would still get the quarterly income from the panels??? Think this is a porky tbh.:rotfl:

thanks all

Hi

Yes, even at the reduced FiT the panels should still be 'worth it', but you'll really need to get a good price, not use finance, have a decent roof orientation with no shade and be able to use the generated energy for an installation to make financial sense - however, if it's not to be seen purely as an investment but as a contribution towards a more sustainable future, then that doesn't really matter as much.

Regarding 2009 - are you sure? - the FiT scheme wasn't released until 2010 (although there was a degree of previous installation backdating inclusion) with the first reductions being early 2012 .... anyway, if you're looking at selling the house soon then you should consider that you could lose the full value of the panels as it's all down to how much extra a buyer would be willing to pay. As for you looking to keep the FiT if the house is sold, well, you could possibly look to enter into a private lease contact with the buyers, but their solicitor would probably advise them to walk away very quickly ... the salesman would be right in theory and keeping the FiT could possibly happen (if both parties & solicitors consent), but think about the proposition from the buyer's viewpoint to consider the likelihood - what would you do ?

HTH
Z

newbie8

Planning on paying outright so no finance and there's no obstruction from trees etc. Dont work from home so the only time I would be able to take advantage would be weekends and have washing machine etc on the go then :rotfl:
Its a terraced house so will have to see how many panels I can put onto the roof. Also do I need to check if neighbours consent as it may affect their roof??? This I dont know the answer too.

I defo want to make my house as eco friendly as possible, so solar panel is the first step (for electricity and heating if possible, and store electric for usage in evenings) and the next step would be to add in a system to reuse rain water.

Could well have been 2010 thinking about it. But they had a very good deal and possible already broken even, if not close to broken even by this year.

I did wonder about the FIT money coming towards me if I was to sell. Personally, I would want to sell the house without the need to worry about the legality of having to worry about maintaining the panels. Anything to reduce stress :rotfl: