Scary prospect of getting solar panels - is this a good deal?

mwddrwg

Hi all,


Had a visit yesterday from the myplanet rep for our area with a view to getting solar panels for our property. We're going for the finance option to pay for it but the amounts involved are scary!
:eek:


In summary, we have a large detached house, southeast-northwest facing (roughly) and have room for 16 panels altogether. We use up to around 6000kW/h per year (which is a lot, I know) so that's why he recommends getting the full array of 16 panels to make it worth it.


The finance quoted is £100 deposit now with a loan for £10,099 over 10 years, paying £130 per month. They estimate we would get back about £113 per month (paid quarterly) whilst paying our current supplier e.on an amount of around £25/month for evening and night use. We pay them around £80 per month already.


What's scaring me is the additional outlay above the £80 per month we pay now whilst not getting the 'income' from the system every month (every quarter).


Is this an extortionate price or should I be knocking this on the head before we've had the survey?


Appreciate any advice/comments. Thank you

jimmyboy420

Extortionate. You should be able to get a system for around £5,000 or a little less.

EricMears

mwddrwg wrote: »

Hi all,


Had a visit yesterday from the myplanet rep for our area with a view to getting solar panels for our property. We're going for the finance option to pay for it but the amounts involved are scary!
:eek:


In summary, we have a large detached house, southeast-northwest facing (roughly) and have room for 16 panels altogether. We use up to around 6000kW/h per year (which is a lot, I know) so that's why he recommends getting the full array of 16 panels to make it worth it.


The finance quoted is £100 deposit now with a loan for £10,099 over 10 years, paying £130 per month. They estimate we would get back about £113 per month (paid quarterly) whilst paying our current supplier e.on an amount of around £25/month for evening and night use. We pay them around £80 per month already.


What's scaring me is the additional outlay above the £80 per month we pay now whilst not getting the 'income' from the system every month (every quarter).


Is this an extortionate price or should I be knocking this on the head before we've had the survey?


Appreciate any advice/comments. Thank you

YES !!! It's an extortionate price.


You should be looking for a quote at around half that price.


And they'd be doing you no favours with a loan at around 10% APR. If you need to borrow money for a home improvement, an additional advance on a mortgage will be around half that rate.

Martyn1981

mwddrwg wrote: »

Hi all,

Had a visit yesterday from the myplanet rep for our area with a view to getting solar panels for our property. We're going for the finance option to pay for it but the amounts involved are scary!
:eek:

Appreciate any advice/comments. Thank you

I could spend ages telling you this is a nightmare, but it'll be faster to post this thread:

I've been a massive fool...My planet UK Solar.

At the very least read the last page, and my posts asking people to contact RECC and report this company.

Quick numbers, for a better roof than yours (due south) you'd probably expect total income (FiT + export + leccy savings) to be in the £600 to £750 pa range.

Compare that to the suggested £1,356 (£113pm) you've been told. I can't stress this enough, those numbers aren't wrong, they are untrue. Please, please, please contact RECC.

Thanks.

Mart.

Martyn1981

mwddrwg wrote: »

Appreciate any advice/comments. Thank you

Cancel the deal, then start chatting on here for proper numbers.

Mart.

Martyn1981

mwddrwg wrote: »

Hi all,

We're going for the finance option to pay for it

Quick question, is the finance option via Barclays? It always seems to be, and I've been pondering whether or not to ring the bank and ask if they think the association is ethical/moral.

As a nobody (just a nosey PV'er) they may tell me to 'go away', but you have to start somewhere!

Mart.

zeupater

mwddrwg wrote: »

Hi all,


Had a visit yesterday from the myplanet rep for our area with a view to getting solar panels for our property. We're going for the finance option to pay for it but the amounts involved are scary!
:eek:

In summary, we have a large detached house, southeast-northwest facing (roughly) and have room for 16 panels altogether. We use up to around 6000kW/h per year (which is a lot, I know) so that's why he recommends getting the full array of 16 panels to make it worth it.

The finance quoted is £100 deposit now with a loan for £10,099 over 10 years, paying £130 per month. They estimate we would get back about £113 per month (paid quarterly) whilst paying our current supplier e.on an amount of around £25/month for evening and night use. We pay them around £80 per month already.

What's scaring me is the additional outlay above the £80 per month we pay now whilst not getting the 'income' from the system every month (every quarter).

Is this an extortionate price or should I be knocking this on the head before we've had the survey?

Appreciate any advice/comments. Thank you

Hi

Cancel and run, then take time to think ....

Forget the energy which you currently use for now. the quote you have is based on a system supplied for £10199, which others have already mentioned is approximately double what you should be paying for a 4kWp system. From a finance point of view, you'll be paying £15700 ((130x12x10)+100) for a return of around (£FiT+£EnergySavings at current costs) £7000 over the 10 year life of the loan, or £14000 over the 20 years which your FiT contract would run ....

Effectively the supplier has worked out how much money you would get back over the length of the FiT contract and worked back to a price which will relieve you of all of that money ....

Taking a simplified view ... as it stands, you're currently paying £80/month for your electricity - if you take this deal up you'll be paying £100 up front to buy into a scheme which would cost you around £200/month (130+(80-10)) for the first 10 years, around £22/month (80-(700/12)) for the following 10 years and then £70/month (80-10) thereafter .... all, of course, at current costs & assuming no maintenance/repair/replacement costs - which is possible, however it's probably best to allow for around £1000 expenditure for each 10 years ....

Get cheaper quotations for a supplied system and if necessary, look into a better finance offering ...

HTH
Z

tunnel

Looking at those figures it would seem that for a reduction of £55 a month for your electricity then they are using a 100% usage for the generated electric which is not possible, not even close, nowhere near, not happening, ludicrous...etc etc, I guess you get the idea, if they can lie about that they'll lie about anything.


Why not post your rough location(nearest town) and hopefully get some recommendations from the good folk on here.


Take a look at 0% balance cards for finance(I did(nearly 3 yrs with a 2.8% fee)) or there's plenty of cheap loans available over longer terms.


As has been stated, get mores quotes and post them back on here, everyone on here will try to help you get the best deal without lightening your pocket unlike certain robbing so and so's.

mwddrwg

Martyn1981 wrote: »

Quick question, is the finance option via Barclays? It always seems to be, and I've been pondering whether or not to ring the bank and ask if they think the association is ethical/moral.

As a nobody (just a nosey PV'er) they may tell me to 'go away', but you have to start somewhere!

Mart.

Hi Mart, yes the finance is with Barclays. The rep tried to apply online while he was there to another bank that I didn't get the name of, but that came up as 'further info required'. If we're going to get solar panels then our only option is a loan via an intermediary I think as we wouldn't get one independently.


Seriously reconsidering the whole thing now to be honest, especially in light of the figures supplied on this thread.


Thanks to everyone for your input

windup

led bulbs are a lot cheaper

Martyn1981

mwddrwg wrote: »

Hi Mart, yes the finance is with Barclays. The rep tried to apply online while he was there to another bank that I didn't get the name of, but that came up as 'further info required'. If we're going to get solar panels then our only option is a loan via an intermediary I think as we wouldn't get one independently.

Seriously reconsidering the whole thing now to be honest, especially in light of the figures supplied on this thread.

Thanks to everyone for your input

Hiya mwddrwg. Run away from these cowboys. I've now contacted Barclays (not too easy - there's a surprise) but eventually explained to their loans (Partner Finance section) what is happening. Whether they do anything I don't know. I've also added a copy of your original post onto the main myplanetuk thread, and asked RECC to have another read of the thread, as there's about 3 more stories like yours recently added.

Please don't be put off PV, do some research, have a play with PVGIS (walkthrough in section 5 of the PV FAQs) and work out what you could/should earn each year.

Then chat on here and try to get quotes in the low £5k range.

For PV to work with finance it will have to be very cheap. As tunnel suggests, perhaps a long term 0% credit card deal. Or some sort of mortgage rate deal. Anything in the medium to high personal loan range will probably be tough to manage during the loan period.

If it doesn't work, then it doesn't work, but at least you'll have some semi-solid numbers, and know what's what for the future if circumstances change.

Mart.