Mortgage repayment vs solar panels

wprost1986

Hello,

I buying a house in the end of april and my plan was to make as much overpayment on my mortgage (Halifax, 3.9%APR) as posible, when possible...I was considering "renting a roof" as well for a solar panels. My houses roof facing south east( more on south). But now Im considering buy my own solar panels( quotation about 6500 for a 4kw ones).

Do you thing I will be better off by paying off mortgage with 6500 or with buying my own solar panels? Its the house for two adults only, if thats important, not sure we need 4 kw...

tunnel

I think you'd be better getting some more quotes as £6500 is way too much for a 4kWp system, you should be looking at lowering that price by around £2k. On a SE roof you should hopefully get a return of around 10% on your investment, use that to pay off the mortgage....plus....rent a roofs(RaR) are ok but it may cause issues should you come around to selling the house in the future, much better to own your own.

wprost1986

10% a year you mean? anyne know any companies in wirral who will made cheaper than 6500?:) and is t better having bigger and sell to the grid, or smaller but saving on instalation...becouse like i said before, I think 4kw could be too big for 2 adults...

tunnel

Better going for the 4kWp size as that's what's allowed for the higher FiT, you're deemed to be exporting 50% of any generation you make anyway so you may as well max out.
Plus going smaller doesn't necessarily mean the price will go down accordingly, there's certain associated costs that can't be avoided like scaffold, labour, inverter etc etc

wprost1986

so ok,4 KW it is...so how much will that cost me...anyone know any quotes from Wirral? And thats correct that I should have about 10% a year back?

Martyn1981

wprost1986 wrote: »

so ok,4 KW it is...so how much will that cost me...anyone know any quotes from Wirral? And thats correct that I should have about 10% a year back?

Follow T's advice, if you can 'do' 4kWp then do that.

Income wise, I've stuck a pin in Wirral on a very handy tool called PVGIS (see the PV FAQs section 5 for a walkthrough). That suggested a generation of approx 3,790kWh per year.

[For orientation I entered -30. South is zero, East is -90, so slightly south of SE would be about -30.]

So income streams are:
FiT subsidy 3,790*13.39p = £507
Export (50%) 1,895*4.85p = £92
Leccy savings (? £80 to £160) = £120
Total = £719

So if you can get the price down to £5k or below, that would be a gross return of 14.38%.

At £6k (please aim lower) = 12%

Knock off 3.9% for the cost of capital, as you'll be paying that on the mortgage, rather than reducing the mortgage.

Mart.

tunnel

Cheers Mart, you beat me to the calcs and saved me a job

Martyn1981

tunnel wrote: »

Cheers Mart, you beat me to the calcs and saved me a job

Teamwork!

Mart.

wprost1986

I check exact position of the house...dont know what slope is:( Showing me 3820...dont know about other staff to change there so I left everything, exept pyt -30 on azimuth..so even with 6500 I should be way better with solars than paying off mortgage...cool:) So anyone know where i can do that for a 5000?:) Better local companies or nationwide ones?

tunnel

Have a look on this thread
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5145774
Its all I could find for your area

Martyn1981

wprost1986 wrote: »

I check exact position of the house...dont know what slope is:( Showing me 3820...dont know about other staff to change there so I left everything, exept pyt -30 on azimuth..so even with 6500 I should be way better with solars than paying off mortgage...cool:) So anyone know where i can do that for a 5000?:) Better local companies or nationwide ones?

Well done, lots of people get intimidated by PVGIS, but it's extremely good. You did the right thing, leave all the defaults, and as you are close to south, pitch isn't too important.

Regarding companies, be patient, hopefully you'll get a few recommendations over the weekend as people pop on.

Best of luck, and please keep chatting, checking, and updating.

Mart.