Solar Panel Advice?

Briggs_Family

I am currently otaining quotes for Solar panels for installation on my house roof. I want to gather a few quotes before purchasing to check the market rates. I have been quoted approx £9,000 for a 16 panel (4kilowatt) system by Caymax (I havent really tried to push the cost down yet). Can anyone tell me if this price is high (MSE general says that £7k is average)? The salesman who came round mentioned there were a number of panel manufacturers but these vary in quailty and price.

I dont have the money outright to purchase the panels and I am trying to weigh up if it is worth getting a low interest bank loan to help fund purchase of the panels (I dont want to get free panels due to the contract implications). Any thoughts from people who have been in a similar situation would be appreciated on whether it's worth investing at current feed in tariff rates and what is the market rate for purchase and installation of solar panels.

Thanks

rogerblack

The big question is - what price can you get a bank loan for (say) 8 years for, and how certain are you to stay in one place.
If there is even a 10% chance you may move - that can dramatically skew the calculations as to if it's worth it.
Sale of houses with panels on the roof installed by a private individual would not normally come with any requirement for the new owner to keep the panels, or do maintainance - they would not as I understand it get the FIT payments anyway.
Is it in principle possible to do this - certainly - but that will add extra costs.
Do you have an unshaded south facing roof?
Where?

silverwhistle

I recently paid 6K for 4kw in the south of England and have been happily generating up to nearly 20kwh on some days for the last couple of weeks. Others with slightly more efficient systems may have achieved more than 20kwh. Either way, 9k is too expensive.

Martyn1981

Briggs_Family wrote: »

I am currently otaining quotes for Solar panels for installation on my house roof. I want to gather a few quotes before purchasing to check the market rates. I have been quoted approx £9,000 for a 16 panel (4kilowatt) system by Caymax (I havent really tried to push the cost down yet). Can anyone tell me if this price is high (MSE general says that £7k is average)? The salesman who came round mentioned there were a number of panel manufacturers but these vary in quailty and price.

Hiya, the price is high. I don't particularly like the use of an average in this situation, which may sound odd coming from someone who likes maths and statistics ..... but ..... an average only works if you can have an equal spread, and whilst some installers (or many) will be happy to make extra profit with higher quotes, none will be willing (or able) to sell at a loss to balance the other side of the 'average'. So why would you aim for average?

Think WhatCar target prices, they don't suggest average prices paid, but tell you the lowest 'target' price to aim for.

Check out this thread, as it's so recent, and has all the explanations, bumf, links etc. However, note that it's an all electric house so the leccy savings are ginormous. Normally, you should expect somewhere between £80 and £160 of leccy savings. £80 being a number hard to 'not' achieve on a 4kWp system, as it's just baseload savings, and £160 possibly being the upper figure before you have to start making an effort to save more.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4754866

Briggs_Family wrote: »

I dont have the money outright to purchase the panels and I am trying to weigh up if it is worth getting a low interest bank loan to help fund purchase of the panels (I dont want to get free panels due to the contract implications). Any thoughts from people who have been in a similar situation would be appreciated on whether it's worth investing at current feed in tariff rates and what is the market rate for purchase and installation of solar panels.

Thanks

This is going to be tight, but might be possible. But you'll need to give a bit more info, such as expected annual generation (try PVGIS see links and info in other thread), cost of loan and most important you'll need a much lower install price of £6k or less.

Sorry to pry, but will it all be loan financed? If you are financing some of it, that will help as the price comes down.

Mart.

dreaming

I also paid just over 6 grand in April for 16 panels (10 + 6 configuration). Actually could have got it cheaper (around 5k mark) but went with local established firm who were excellent and offer good back up service too.
I actually hate it when companies quote a high price then knock it down under "special offers", or use scare tactics (this price won't last for ever). I know all's fair in business etc. but if they can easily knock off 2 grand (in some cases quoted on this forum) then they were obviously over-priced to start with.

Briggs_Family

Thanks for the reponses. I live in Warwickshire and have an unshaded south west facing roof. The calculated profits according to the Energy saving trust for a 12 panel system the 25 year profit is estimated to be 3K and for 16 panels 5K. Around half of this profit I would lose in loan finance but I am hoping to use some savings to improve the profit return. However, I am concious that electricity prices are likely to rocket as the UK power generation mix is swayed more to imports with nuclar power stations closing etc so the benefits may be larger in the long term.

The profit figures I was given by the sales person were far higher (approx 30k over 25 years but I had a feeling the installation price seemed high and return on investment too high (as usual I got the talk about phoning the boss and giving me a discount if I signed up that day but this is something I wouldnt do without other quotes and a sales tactic I deplore; but I am also wary that other solar business salesman may also initially quote high too).

Giving the differential in the figures I was quoted and those I have calculated on the energy saving trust website I am not sure what else to believe of what I was told such as the Caymax panels are more efficient and lower operating voltage than all other supplier such as Panasonic etc. The posting provided above have been very helpful

Thanks

Martyn1981

Hiya Briggs Family. Using PVGIS, and sticking a pin in Northampton, I got a guesstimate of 3,600kWh's pa, for a 4kWp system at SW (azimuth +45). So your starting point for consideration will be:
FiT = 3,600*14.9p = £536
Export = 3,600/2*4.64p = £83
Leccy savings(£80 to £160?) = £120
Total = £739pa

Just to note that you've mentioned 25 years a few times, but the subsidy was reduced to 20 years 1/8/12. Hopefully the panels will work for 25+ years (maybe 40), but the inverter may need replacing during the first 20 years, though standard warranties are getting longer (one of mine is 12 years) and many can be extended to ~20.

I'm not impressed that several posters are saying they've been quoted high prices based on quality. This seems like naughty practice on behalf of the salesmen to justify prices over £6k/£7k.

I've been watching the website of one company, just to gauge price movements this year as the falling prices were reversed by the EU v's China trade war, and have now reversed again.

I saw prices fall to around £5.5k, rise to around £6.5k, then fall back to about £6k. This isn't very scientific but gives me an idea of how prices are moving. But the best source of info is posters on here saying what they got for their money.

Also worth noting that FiTs and export are index linked, and that leccy prices will be rising. Also, nuclear subsidies are currently hidden in general taxation, but if they ever arrive, 'new nuclear' subsidies will be added to leccy bills, as will increased PV, wind, bio-mass etc.

Mart.