Project Solar

getmealemon

Hi all. We had Project Solar in to do a quote for us.....3 hours of my life i'll never get back!

Difficult for me to discuss the quote in detail as no paperwork has been left with us.

Basically quote of just over £12000 for Sunpower panels, inverter Boiler Dr, Voltage Dr and Owl monitor. Rep projected energy prices would double within 10 years.

It's been a long while since i last really looked into solar so price at time of quote didn't seem terrible, don't have the money upfront so we were going to use there finance at 9.9% (given the speech about overpaying it).

Now i've had a chance to do a bit of research it seems £12000 is frankly a ridiculous sum, possibly double what we should be looking to pay. And i can clearly do better than a 9.9% loan. As part of the check to see if we could get the loan we basically had to apply for it so needless to say will be cancelling it.

I live in Surrey, from what i can tell the front of the house is south 197 facing, our roof is about 40 degrees front/back pitch if that makes sense. The sales chap said panels would be on the back of the house though.....?

Anybody ever bought the panels themselves and paid a company to fit them?

ajbell

North facing panels?

Martyn1981

£12k ..... Ouch!

Assuming this is 4kWp, then you'd want to pay half (as you say) and ideally aim for £5k or less.

All the basics should be in the PV FAQs.

Obviously, first choice would be your front roof, you could use the north roof, but it'll generate a lot less, especially if it's a 40d pitch (play with PVGIS, see sect 5 of the FAQs).

The subsidy is now very low, so returns are tight, best to try to avoid any finance, or see if you can find a way to minimise it (0% balance transfers etc etc).

Regarding leccy price inflation over the next 10yrs. The NAO estimate that the wholesale price will peak in 2027 at £70/MWh compared to ~£40/MWh today (all in 2016 monies). So that's a 3p/kWh rise (say 20%-25% increase in retail price), plus 'normal' inflation on top.

Surrey is a good location, and 40d pitch at 17d off south will give you about 99% of ideal, and with a tiny bias to the afternoon, which helps with the evening peak in the summer.

Any questions, just ask away. All the best.

getmealemon

Any idea if all the extras they talked about are actually worth considering separately? I've had a read about the voltage Dr and the general opinion seems to be not worth it for a house. The boiler dr was explained as hooking up the solar to power our immersion heater during day (we have gas boiler for mains heating and immersion for hot water).

ajbell

Don't know about the voltage thing but I have an iboost which sends spare watts to the immersion.
I get free hot water Feb thru to Nov but whether it's worth the money is up to you.
Also have the second output hooked up to a radiator.

Ectophile

Lots of people use the solar diverters to give free hot water in sunny weather. I didn't bother as I already had solar panels, and the cost of retro-fitting didn't seem worth it for me.

The voltage optimisers have been around for years, and are widely considered as being totally pointless. Having failed to make any impact on the general domestic/light industrial market, the makers now seem to be trying to sell them to people with solar panels instead, where they will still be pointless for most people.

Martyn1981

getmealemon wrote: »

Any idea if all the extras they talked about are actually worth considering separately? I've had a read about the voltage Dr and the general opinion seems to be not worth it for a house. The boiler dr was explained as hooking up the solar to power our immersion heater during day (we have gas boiler for mains heating and immersion for hot water).

As per other comments, I've never heard a good word for voltage devices in domestic properties.

Regarding the immersion heater, I have a combi, so I don't have one, but others seem pleased. But can I check, do you mean your water is currently heated via an immersion? If that's right, then not only is it a must, but it could also improve your returns quite a bit as most save 'free' PV v's gas price, but you'd be saving v's leccy price.

getmealemon

So as intended i have cancelled the install, bit surprised how easy that was - not even a phone call back to try and persuade us to continue.

Does anyone have any companies they would actually recommend? After losing 3 hours of our lives to the last sales person i don't want to waste anymore! PM recommendations is fine.

I have quite alot of aquariums which use power constantly, am i right in thinking i need an install with battery to make the most of the panels?

Also one last thought, i would expect to live in this house for only ten years or so before we move. Should this put us off as that is roughly the break even point?

Martyn1981

getmealemon wrote: »

After losing 3 hours of our lives to the last sales person i don't want to waste anymore! PM recommendations is fine.

I have no recommendations, but if you say that you have had other quotes, then the installer/salesperson should cut their chat right down, but should also check that you understand the basics.

So hopefully 1hr, with half checking measurements and the desired package. You may well find that they'll give you a basic quote over the phone/internet with the caveat that it may need revising if there are any particular problems when they check properly, like a tricky scaffolding job etc.

getmealemon wrote: »

I have quite alot of aquariums which use power constantly, am i right in thinking i need an install with battery to make the most of the panels?

Yes - PV would almost certainly benefit you more than the average, as you presumably have a higher baseload than most. So you'd consume more generation (saving import 12p/kWh(?)), export less (losing export 5p/kWh)

But - don't worry too much about batts today. They would certainly benefit you, but they are currently too expensive, so divide their cost by the lifetime cycles and the cost of storage Xp/kWh is probably more than the import price you pay. But when costs fall further (they are falling fast), you might want to consider installing batts then. Some background reading on this thread

On-grid domestic battery storage

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say, that whilst it's only my opinion, I don't think anyone else disagrees yet, and that batts are not yet viable for you.

getmealemon wrote: »

Also one last thought, i would expect to live in this house for only ten years or so before we move. Should this put us off as that is roughly the break even point?

With the aquariums and water heating, you will hopefully get a 10yr payback, as you say, fingers crossed for a decent quote.

Should that put you off? I don't know. There's a chance that a potential buyer will be put off by the PV, but hopefully it will be seen as a plus by more people, so that's an impossible question. If it breaks even and helps with the sale great. If it hasn't quite broken even, and hinders the sale ......