PV Solar panels, what is your experience?

grandplonker

My family are debating putting in panels, but we want to hear someone's personal experience. There's a certain 'disgusted of Tonbridge Wells' mentality where a real life case is better than red tape. I'd like to hear from someone what happened to their money when they put them in 3+ years ago.

We have a 5 bedroom detached house in County Down, Northern Ireland. We spend about £2,000 on heating oil and £700 on electric a year. There's 4 people in the house. Built 1990.

Another house in the same development was 2013 rated 'Energy efficiency rating, current: E/48, potential: D/56.' Floor space: 135m2 or 1,453ft2. We have a south roof with 60m2 and a west roof with 15m2 - with some velux windows. Electricity costs £0.15/kwh.

If you've put in photovoltaic panels, I'd love to know any of the following:
1. When did you install PV panels, and for how much?
2. What sort of a house is it?
3. What did you spend on heating and electricity before?
4. What do you spend now, or how is your usage different?
5. How did you fund them?
6. What payback time are you expecting?
7. Feed-in tariff, what have you actually earned?

martinbuckley

1. December 2011. 12 panels and it cost approx. £10K.
2. 4 bed semi. Roof faces south-east.
3. Didn't actually live in the house before - we bought it in Oct 11. However, in our previous house we were using approx. 3000KwH per year.
4. We now use approx. 2,000Kw electric per year.
5. Paid cash.
6. Payback in approx. 6-7 years.
7. As at today, we have generated 4714 units. I'm one of the lucky ones who get the larger FiT payment. For the period 1 Jun - 31 Aug, I received a payment of £533.

Very pleased with my investment so far.

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

The situation now is very different to what it was 3+ years ago. I wouldn't advise basing decisions on people's experiences of that.

superflyguy1971

And weirdly I'm living in Tonbridge and have just signed the order form...

Made the mistake of entering my details on 3 solar quote type websites this generated 11 companies to quote. I saw 9 and had remote quotes from the rest. Most companies seem to operate like the double glazing salesmen of old - start really high and work down. for a 4kw system including a device to redirect any 'spare' energy to the immersion the range was 6k to 9.5k.

Once you start looking into it there is a huge array of different technologies available and manufacturers. Each panel manufacturer tends to make a fuss about the efficiency but this is irrelevant if you have the roof space and you should instead look for the power tolerance of the panel, this is usually given as a deviation from what the panel is rated at i.e. 250w if it's 0 and greater then you'll get what they say otherwise your panel could be giving you less from the outset.

Most panels are made in China or Korea even those that are from companies based elsewhere. Ask yourself what do I know about these companies, are they going to be around to support the panel warranty to the end. I decided to go for a well known brand that had other interests outside just solar.

Next the inverter technology is frankly a bit rubbish. On a string inverter if a panel is partially shaded it doesn't generate or pass on much power and this happens all down the array. If you don't have any shading issues that's fine but if it's offered go for a 2 mppt system so you have 2 strings to reduce these issues.I like microinverters but was concerned that it might result in more visits to the roof to replace the extra technology on the roof. I went for the middle ground of optimisers instead.

In the end I chose a local installer after speaking to 3 previous clients of my favourite two local companies. I checked them out on company webcheck and an internet search for4 bad reviews. They weren't the cheapest quote but I'm hoping they'll do the biz for me.

My roof is SW-SSW, 5 bed detached and from my 7k I'm getting:

Redundant boiler flue chimney reduced.
16 x Hyundai 250w mono panels with black frames.
SolarEdge inverter with optimisers.
Immersun (immersion diversion device).

Cool off period ends on thursday...

jimjames

You might want to add an option to pay back in under 5 years. Might be unlikely but at the moment I'm expecting payback in year 5 which may drop depending on inflation and sunny summers!

jimjames

1. When did you install PV panels, and for how much?
Nov 2011, £9000, 14 panels, 3kWp
2. What sort of a house is it?
Detached, South facing
3. What did you spend on heating and electricity before?
Around £1200, split gas and electric. Electric now dropped but hard to tell what it would be as also installed LED lights etc.
4. What do you spend now, or how is your usage different?
Currently use the 3000kWh that we generate but usage less as per 3.
5. How did you fund them?
Savings
6. What payback time are you expecting?
5 years
7. Feed-in tariff, what have you actually earned?
So far total FIT payments £2415 and next payment due end of Oct which I expect to take the total to over £2900. That would equate to almost 2 years FIT payments.

Output details here
http://solar-panels-review.321web.co.uk/yearly-solar-panel-stats.php