Are Solar panels any good?

Scorpiomarie

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ElefantEd

We had solar panels put in about 4 years 9 months ago. We are therefore on a fairly generous feed-in tariff, about 45p/unit.
They cost just less than £10k back then (would be less now) - a 3kW system ie the maximum output under ideal conditions would be 3kW. This consists of 13 panels, about 1 x 1.5m in size. - so you need a fair sized roof, preferably south facing, though as long as it roughly right it doesn't make that much difference. Not being in something else's shadow is probably more important (including other bits of your own roof at certain times of day).

So far they have generated nearly 10,000 units of electricity, or around 40 per week (6 per day). Obviously they do much better in the summer! The best week we ever had was about 120 units (I'm very sad and take a reading each week, not only that I plot the results on a graph. You don't actually have to do this, but it is quite fun!).

So in terms of income we have received around £4500, or about £1000 per year. Also of course we can use the electricity we produce at the time without it costing us anything at all, which saves a bit more - I'd say electricity use that we pay for is about 2/3rds what it used to be.

I know that the FIT is less now, but also that installations are cheaper. We are aiming to recover our initial outlay in about 8 years, and as the system (and the FIT) are guaranteed for 25, we should be in credit by quite a bit by the end!

There's also rather a nice feeling when the sun is shining that you can run the fridge, computer etc without it costing anything, an extra free warm glow!

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

Worth having a look at the FAQ in Green and Ethical. Lots of knowledgeable people over there.

Man_on_fire

Scorpiomarie wrote: »

Hi everyone, I've been hearing that getting solar panels put on my roof is a good idea to earn money and save on the electricity bills. I would like to hear from someone who either has solar panels themselves or knows about them, how much would I be earning from a solar panel and is it a good idea? I'm looking for ways to earn some extra income, Thank you

Unfortunately its not an easy answer, it depends on the direction you put them. Have you got a south facing roof? is there any shade? It also depends where in the country you are as well. Someone in cornwall will generate a lot more than someone that is at the top of Scotland.

If you have the cash sitting around in a savings account then the answer is it possibly is worth it, but its almost definitely not if you want to get them on credit.

Scorpiomarie

Thanks for the info

baxie

Man_on_fire wrote: »

Someone in cornwall will generate a lot more than someone that is at the top of Scotland.

Not so, Solar panels rely on ambient daylight, sunshine is not neccessary to create electricity with a solar panel. So therefore, because of the position of the top end of Scotland on the globe, we get fractionally more daylight hours in the summer, and fractionally less daylight hours in the winter than Cornwall does.

ElefantEd

Just for reference, I live in Scotland and the panels seem to perform as expected.

naff123

Scorpiomarie wrote: »

Hi everyone, I've been hearing that getting solar panels put on my roof is a good idea to earn money and save on the electricity bills. I would like to hear from someone who either has solar panels themselves or knows about them, how much would I be earning from a solar panel and is it a good idea? I'm looking for ways to earn some extra income, Thank you

Absolutely think of it like this.

Not only will you be earning a Feed in tarriff (which was reduced December last year) but also you will be pocketing the savings from not paying the major suppliers for electricity in peaks times of the year. Technology has moved on so much in 2 - 3 years now you can get a 3kW system from just 6-10 panels for about 5 grand (my quote) also you get a 20 year Linear degradation guarentee that the panels will not decay in output by so much %. You also get a 10 year maintenance warranty that any damage caused as a result of the install of the panels is covered by the installer.

And they will clean your panels for 10 years as well.

It is absolutely worth it. Also look into Biomass as the government have recently upped the incentive to get these.

Martyn1981

naff123 wrote: »

Absolutely think of it like this.

Not only will you be earning a Feed in tarriff (which was reduced December last year)

The last subsidy cut took place in April, expect the next one at the end of the year, cutting the PV FiT by another 3.5%.

Mart.

QuackQuackOops

Scorpiomarie wrote: »

Hi everyone, I've been hearing that getting solar panels put on my roof is a good idea to earn money and save on the electricity bills. I would like to hear from someone who either has solar panels themselves or knows about them, how much would I be earning from a solar panel and is it a good idea? I'm looking for ways to earn some extra income, Thank you

I don't think they are worth the time, trouble, money and ugliness anymore.
We looked into it a couple of months ago. We have a huge south facing roof and thought it would be a great idea.

The money you get back really does not merit the cost anymore. The boat has been missed on that one.

The saving we got amounted to £250 a year after electricity and the panals had been paid for.
£250 was not worth it to us to have ugly panals on our roof.

Anything less than South facing is not going to be worth it these days.
Do not listen to anyone who tells you "Its only daylight that counts". It isn't.

Make sure you do plenty of research before signing up.

Martyn1981

QuackQuackOops wrote: »

I don't think they are worth the time, trouble, money and ugliness anymore.
We looked into it a couple of months ago. We have a huge south facing roof and thought it would be a great idea.

The money you get back really does not merit the cost anymore. The boat has been missed on that one.

The saving we got amounted to £250 a year after electricity and the panals had been paid for.
£250 was not worth it to us to have ugly panals on our roof.

Anything less than South facing is not going to be worth it these days.
Do not listen to anyone who tells you "Its only daylight that counts". It isn't.

Make sure you do plenty of research before signing up.

I don't think the returns have changed too much. [Apart from the high tariff, proportionately low cost period late 2011/early 2012, when returns became too high.]

Assuming a generation of approx 3,600 to 4,000kWh pa from a 4kWp system on your south facing roof, then you'd be looking at around £700 to £800 pa index linked for 20 years, against a cost of ........ well that's up to you to haggle, but lately most/many posters on the G&E board are slipping under £6k.

Also, whilst south facing is clearly best for maximum generation, off-south is fine, but expect lower gen, perhaps 20% if east or west (or a mix).

Additionally location has an effect, with an approx 20% difference between far south and far north UK.

Mart.