Our first solar quote....

Relbs

Hello there,

With Christmas 1 week away, both of us being flat out at work and baby turning 1 tomorrow, Hubbie and I thought now would be a good time to look at getting solar panels installed!:p

The first quote we have got is:
£6500
4kWp
16 x 250W Phono solar Onyx Mono all black using a Power-One Auroa PVI-3.6TL inverter.

Expected panel performance = 3460 kWh
They reckon an annual saving of £277 (based on 16p/unit price and saving 50% on electricity)

We are in Cheshire (south Manchester), 30degree SE roof, no shading.

Any thoughts on this? We are getting another quote on Friday from a different company.

Also, a side question- is it worth going all out to have them installed before the end of the year to avoid the FIT price decrease? (one company said they could do this).

Thanks, and :xmassign:

Martyn1981

Hiya Relbs.

Just a quick comment.

Off the top of my head I suspect the generation figure is reasonable, but why not check it out for yourself, use the link and walkthrough in section 5 of the PV FAQs.

Leccy savings are too high, expect/hope for about half of that depending on your circumstances, more likely in the £80 to £160 range.

Price looks like a nice start, but worth shopping and haggling, also you may get some installer suggestions from folk on here, fingers crossed.

Should you install this year, two arguments:

1. The FiT rate drops 3.5% on the 1st of Jan, and the annual inflationary uplift only kicks in, in the year following the install. So an install registered this year will get it in April, but one registered in January (or later) would have to wait till April 2016.

2. Only the FiT drops, (doesn't affect leccy savings or export rate (or the inflationary uplift for the export rate)) so total income probably drops about 2 to 2.5%. So you can match/beat that by getting a lower price of around £150 or so. Taking your time may mean a better deal. Remember you'll need to get the FiT application (complete and correct) to your provider, and recorded as received before the end of December. This may be tricky depending when the install takes place, and any holidays.

My thoughts, shame to lose the higher FiT, but you'll probably make up for it in a lower price if you take your time, and don't rush. Plus, do you need the hassle of the install and the FiT registration across late December?

Also ..... there tends to be a small rush for installs before a FiT rate drop, and then a small lull afterwards. So the companies may be a bit quiet in January.

Mart.

EricMears

Relbs wrote: »

Expected panel performance = 3460 kWh
They reckon an annual saving of £277 (based on 16p/unit price and saving 50% on electricity)

We are in Cheshire (south Manchester), 30degree SE roof, no shading.

That seems a fairly reasonable estimate.

Your latitude is pretty similar to mine and your 30 deg roof should give better results than mine. My true S should be rather better than your SE but probably not spectacularly so. My annual average Sept 2011 - Sept 2014 was 3650 kWh

Their saving assumes that you really will be able to use 50% of everything you generate. If you're at home all day and able to use a lot of greedy appliances (or just have a very heavy baseload) that might be true but wildly optimistic for most people. Diverting power to an immersion heater will let you use a lot more but that saving needs to be costed at your normal water heating fuel rates rather than the 16p (for instance if you use it to save gas you'd benefit by less than half that cost).

Several people here have reported package costs of rather less than that even when things like monitoring & immersion diverters were included. Tell your next salesman that you're waiting on a visit from someone who did your friend's house for less than £5000.
Good Luck !

JimLad

Ours was £5700 6 months ago with black LG panels, monitor and immersion diverter included. I would say that anything over 6k is too much these days, especially since it doesnt have the extras.