Reasonable cost

tunnel

SamRose wrote: »

It was a recommendation from a PM off here!
Ok Tunnel thank you, how do I go about finding a company who are going to make a reasonable offer? and is there a way we can work out ourselves how many panels we can fit on?

I'd be very very surprised if it was the one I recommended, let me know if it was as i'll have a word with them on your behalf.
You can get a rough idea of the size of your roof by measuring half the length of the house and then the width. Do that and we can get a good idea of your roof size and how many you can get up there.

SamRose

tunnel wrote: »

I'd be very very surprised if it was the one I recommended, let me know if it was as i'll have a word with them on your behalf.
You can get a rough idea of the size of your roof by measuring half the length of the house and then the width. Do that and we can get a good idea of your roof size and how many you can get up there.

No def not your recommendation, they are on my list for the next wave of quotes. do you think I should be panicking about the up and coming reduction in feed in tariff, will it make that much difference?

tunnel

SamRose wrote: »

No def not your recommendation, they are on my list for the next wave of quotes. do you think I should be panicking about the up and coming reduction in feed in tariff, will it make that much difference?

Don't worry about the cut, its only the generation part that's cut, the export is still index linked.

Martyn1981

SamRose wrote: »

It was a recommendation from a PM off here!
Ok Tunnel thank you, how do I go about finding a company who are going to make a reasonable offer? and is there a way we can work out ourselves how many panels we can fit on?

Hiya mate, you're not having much luck so far are you. Hopefully T's recommendation my start to bring some real quotes for you, don't panic, it'll all come good.

As T said you can measure the width of the roof, by measuring the wall at ground level. For height, measure the house the other way and half. If you post, then a quick bit of trigonometry will give the height, but it would be very useful if you have roof pitch, perhaps 30d to 50d.

Another method would be to pop into the loft and measure the internal dimensions, left to right, and eaves to central ridge, that'll be close to useable space as it will omit a small amount all round (obviously internal will be about 300mm to 400mm smaller than external).

Whilst in the loft, if you measure the height in the centre, that can be used to work out the roof 'height' (gutter to ridge) in combination with half the floor width and trigonometry again.

Still in the loft, if you have a smart phone, download a free spirit level app, and pop the phone against the roof pitch (a slate or a rafter), and it should give you the angle, but be careful you get it the right way round, so don't measure a 30d roof as 60d, though logic will probably step in.

Post some numbers and we'll make sense of them, do some maths etc and work out roof space, then useable roof space after deducting approx 200mm all round.

Third trick, you could count slates/tiles across and up, and work out from there. Forgotten tile sizes, but visible part of slate should be approx 12" (300mm) across, and 10" (250mm) up ...... I think!

SamRose wrote: »

No def not your recommendation, they are on my list for the next wave of quotes. do you think I should be panicking about the up and coming reduction in feed in tariff, will it make that much difference?

Nope, no, uh uh, forget it, don't worry, put it aside, are you bothered, no you're not bothered.

See post #25.

It's too late anyway, if you rush you'll end up paying more for the install than if you spend another week or two researching. Depending on roof size and orientation you are talking about a yearly drop of £10 to £20. If your roof is a little small, then perhaps £15pa. So you 'lose' £300 over 20 years, but hopefully save several £,000's now by getting a better deal. £2k saved in a carpy ISA at 1.5% = £30pa.

Don't let any salesmen talk up the 3.5% drop, after all you missed the drop on the 1/1/15, and the 3 before that, and the drop from 21p to 16p, and the drop from 43p to 21p. What matters is the price you pay, as it drops, so does the FiT, but it's all relative. Returns today are roughly equal to the returns when I installed my ESE back in Aug 2011.

Don't panic, we've got your back. But try to keep a good poker face when the good quotes finally arrive. :cool:

Mart.

SamRose

Thanks Mart, will task my husband to get some roof measurements, I have to confess to not really understanding a great deal of what you have suggested but my hubby will so will post some figures. I didn't think we had a particularly small roof, its a decent size 3 bed semi, but up until 2 weeks ago I don't think I have ever given any thought to roofs lol


Thanks for the reassurance re the drop at the end of the month, I have to say last night when he was waffling on about it and that they only have 20 slots left to fill (which they will fill this weekend so best sign quick blah blah) I did thank goodness I had been pre warned.


I have to say that this experience has been a real eye opener, every company 'slagging off' the others, using underhand techniques to pressure in to signing, wouldn't surprise me if in a couple of years, there will be a new wave of 'have you been mis sol solar panels' because if it wasn't for you guys we would have paid 8k for a 3kw system!

theboylard

You may not have grasped the maths, but you have learnt to hold back from signing, so you can see it's easy to take on new things!

SamRose

theboylard wrote: »

You may not have grasped the maths, but you have learnt to hold back from signing, so you can see it's easy to take on new things!

lol, I get the maths behind the investment, but just not around how to work out how many panels, but then given that we have been told two things by two different companies, it would seem that neither do they, which doesn't leave me with a lot of confidence!


Thank goodness for this forum:j

tunnel

SamRose wrote: »

which doesn't leave me with a lot of confidence!

Most of the posters on here are confident though, you only have to read a few of the other threads to see what people have achieved once they've had the information to throw back at the installers, as long as you take on board what information you are given you'll end up with a reasonably priced solar system.
Believe me, nobody that contributes to these boards wants you or anyone else to pay more than a fair price.....it is all about moneysaving after all!!

Martyn1981

SamRose wrote: »

Thanks Mart, will task my husband to get some roof measurements, I have to confess to not really understanding a great deal of what you have suggested but my hubby will so will post some figures. I didn't think we had a particularly small roof, its a decent size 3 bed semi, but up until 2 weeks ago I don't think I have ever given any thought to roofs lol

It's not a problem, if hubby can find some of those numbers, one way or another, it will be pretty quick and easy to guess at useable roof space.

Possibly, a 3 bed semi, may be 6m wide, and have a roof (gutters to ridgetiles) of about 5m. That would allow approx 5m wide by 4m high panels.

Panels are normally 1.6m by 1m, so in that example you could fit 3 panels landscape across (4.8m), and 4 panels high (4m), so a total of 12 panels, which with regular 250Wp panels that would be 3kWp.

Once we've got an idea of roof space, we can then waffle on about other options, such as regular(ish) panels upto 285Wp, or high efficiency panels, which cost more but squeeze more Wp's per m2.

The reason we make a fuss about costs (and the conmen out there) is that it's easy to confuse people with PV as it involves so many, many, many numbers. But as an example, I'd expect a 3kWp system to earn you about £500 pa, not bad for a £4k investment. But at £8k, plus say £1k in costs over 20 years (mostly for a replacement inverter at some point), then you're in for £9k and an 18 yr payback ...... plus lost interest on your capital!

Speaking of income, I may have got a little lost here (with other threads) but have you had any numbers? If not try these:

Barnsley, south facing, 3kWp should generate approx 2,800kWhs pa. [Note this is only a guestimate.]

FiT 2,800* 13.39p = £375
Export 1,400* 4.85p = £68
Leccy savings (£80-£160) = £120

Total = £563 (I wasn't too far off with my £500 guess ).

Have fun.

Mart.

SamRose

My hubby has measured the roof it is 5m by 5m.


I am pretty certain that we were told we are south east facing, with a 30 degree something or other.


thank you x