Self funding solar panels

JenChar

I looked into solar panels in the past, with a company that didn't charge. They told me as the house was not completely south facing they wouldn't do it.

I now have a company coming round to discuss self funding I have been told it day light rather than sun light (the house is SE facing)

When I have been looking into it I have found that you are charged over the top for panels and then a high interest rate to pay for them.

Is this the case for all companies or has anyone came across any that do work well?

I'm also thinking if this is the case could I not just take out a personal loan and buy them from a company? My worry with this is my brother bought a new build house with them fitted but hasn't done anything about them because the paperwork is so complicated, if I bought them from a company would I get any support with this?

Any advise would be appreciated

pw22

I think the advice would be to look into funding options yourself and shop around as you can normally get a better rate than the one which the solar company is offering. A 0% credit card or adding it to the mortgage etc normally works out a much cheaper option.

My installation company helped with completing the paperwork.

Hope this helps

tunnel

Like any type of finance, you can shop around for better prices. I pretty much guarantee that the company in question want a premium for the install too.
Rule of thumb....work towards £4.5k-£5.5k for a 4kWp system depending on circumstances and ease of install.
Paperwork for FiTs is a doddle and should be completed by the installers(or at least helped)

theboylard

As both Tunnel and pw have said - if you want to go solar, then do.

Your research has lead you to probably one of the friendliest (and honest, as none of us can expect to gain anything financially from you getting, or not getting, solar pv) forums around.

The beauty of this place is there are some serious technical and financial brains around, along with the odd crackpot for that unbalanced element too!!

Most of us have already got our installation(s), some recently some for several years.
The numbers are getting tighter, but the costs keep falling which means it is still viable.

To start the ball rolling, without divulging too much personal info, is to let us have an idea of your rough location - first part of the postcode or name of nearest town is fine.

Next is your roof.
Simplest way that I've found, that makes things so much easier when you can actually see what someone is trying to describe, is with a picture!

Take a screenshot of your house on googlemaps, ie, browse to maps.google.uk, enter your postcode, zoom in as close as (by doing this you can remove streetnames etc.) and take a screenshot.

If you have an iphone (never mind!!), then Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button on the top or side of your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, then immediately press and release the Home button. You can find the screenshot in your Photos app.

If you've a proper phone on android, then it's simply press and hold your smartphone's power and volume down button at the same time for 1- to 2 seconds, should work for most recent versions (last 2/3 years) -

If you want, you can then crop it even more to remove any incriminating evidence, upload to a photohost (I kind of like postimage.org) and copy the link provided, like so....



Why do this? Google defaults to north being up so we can see what your azimuth is (important for getting the numbers right), and we can also see if splitting the roof might be an option, as well possibly highlight shading issues like my chimney!

But Tunnel is spot on the money, get lots of quotes, don't get too hung up about different brands, and if you're not sure, just ask!!