Solar Panels still worth having with reduced tariff?

manrow

I considered fitting solar panels about 4 years ago when the government scheme was first proposed. The conclusion then was that this new and untried system was not likely to suit my situation as my house roof line is facing east and west.

Now I am told that modern panels can cope with non-south facing panels and still create savings to owners especially as purchase costs are now almost half of those 4 years ago? Has anyone this experience and able to confirm the sales hype?

It is also suggested that property prices rise where solar panels are installed; can anyone confirm that?

Martyn1981

Hello manrow, some answers/opinions working backwards:

manrow wrote: »

It is also suggested that property prices rise where solar panels are installed; can anyone confirm that?

How long is a piece of string?

If the return on investment for you is acceptable, then you'd need to convince the prospective buyers, as they'd take on the income from the panels. Whether or not they'd be willing to pay more will depend entirely on the buyer.

Statistically, things look good, PV as a technology is extremely popular, scoring into the 80%+ range each quarter in the DECC attitudes survey, and a couple of years back a housebuyer survey placed PV at the top of the 'additional extra' list with about 40% of the 'votes'. But that was as an extra, not the same as adding perhaps £5k to the purchase price.

manrow wrote: »

I considered fitting solar panels about 4 years ago when the government scheme was first proposed. The conclusion then was that this new and untried system was not likely to suit my situation as my house roof line is facing east and west.

Now I am told that modern panels can cope with non-south facing panels and still create savings to owners especially as purchase costs are now almost half of those 4 years ago?

Yes and no. No real change to the panels, just to attitudes. The panels work as before, it's just that an east, west, or east/west arrangement will generate about 20% less leccy each year than a south facing array.

Whether or not a PV system makes sense to you, will depend on the returns (income v's cost). You'll be starting 20% down compared to say a neighbour with a south facing roof, but if, for instance, you installed at £6k and they installed at £7.2k then 'swings and roundabouts'.

So you'll need to get a good price, no room for paying too much.

Technically, with prices around £6k, they are actually more like a third of what they were 4 years ago (£15k to £20k).

manrow wrote: »

Has anyone this experience and able to confirm the sales hype?

For reasons expressed above, I'm not trying to confirm the sales hype, but I have a E/W system. My ESE perform a bit better than E, my WNW a bit worse than W. However, my ESE are on the old high tariff, but did cost nearly £12k.

Lastly, whilst the subsidy (FiT) and export payments are linked to generation, so will be down about 20% (as mentioned), leccy savings won't be affected too much, and will depend on your usage patterns. In fact, west panels mean you generate a bit more in the late afternoon, when your demand may be greater or less flexible. Generally I suggest pessimistic leccy savings at about £120 (£80 to £160), but it's down to you.

Have a read of the PV FAQ for general advice. Happy to share loads of info on non-south thoughts.

Any idea how much you could fit on your roof? You'll need to get a decent size (4kWp or more perhaps(?)) as PV gets proportionately cheaper as you fit more, due to approximate £2k of fixed costs (scaffolding, inverter, paperwork, profits etc etc).

Mart.

nigelpm

Too many variables and options for it to be yes or no.

Suggest you post your likely setup so folk have got something to be able to form a view on.

ed110220

Given your location and the inclination and baring of your roof it's pretty straightforward to work out your annual generation and therefore FIT and export tariff. Electricity savings are more tricky as it depends on when you're using, but this is typically a fairly small proportion of the FIT income.

Ed

nigelpm

ed110220 wrote: »

Given your location and the inclination and baring of your roof it's pretty straightforward to work out your annual generation and therefore FIT and export tariff. Electricity savings are more tricky as it depends on when you're using, but this is typically a fairly small proportion of the FIT income.

Ed

Don't forget shading.

That comes into it as well and much trickier to work out accurately and can make a huge difference.

tunnel

Where does shading come in to it. The op has an e/w split so a 2 string inverter would suffice.

nigelpm

tunnel wrote: »

Where does shading come in to it. The op has an e/w split so a 2 string inverter would suffice.

Well there might an object in the line of sight to the Sun as an example.

ed110220

nigelpm wrote: »

Don't forget shading.

That comes into it as well and much trickier to work out accurately and can make a huge difference.

Ah yes, shading of course. It may be a little counterintuitive as if you don't know much about solar PV you might think a small amount of shading will only make a small difference, but perhaps best to think of it like Christmas lights - if one fails (is shaded) the whole lot go down.

But barring shading... if you have the proposed system size, location, roof inclination and bearing from north, getting an estimated annual yield and FIT is pretty straightforward!

Take any savings on electricity provided by installers with a pinch of salt though as esimating exactly how much you'll save is difficult and they often seem to over estimate or work on the assumption that electricity prices will carry on increasing at the rate they have recently - which may or may not happen.

Ed

lisyloo

if one fails (is shaded) the whole lot go down.

I have a solar edge system with power optimizers on every panel to mitigate the risks of shading.
In my case it was marginal but we felt happier having it.
It was more expensive of course.

nigelpm

There's another one to throw in the mixer as well - how long you expect to stay at your house and actually that's probably the hardest one to answer.

nigelpm

lisyloo wrote: »

I have a solar edge system with power optimizers on every panel to mitigate the risks of shading.
In my case it was marginal but we felt happier having it.
It was more expensive of course.

Yes, but doesn't help where you have close buildings or trees that cover all the panels!