solar panels, windturbines, energy efficient boilers and cavity wall insulation

Cardew

geordie_joe wrote: »

Most of post cut.....



Thanks Cardew, that is good enough for me. But have to admit that I thought you would provide calculations to prove, or disprove the claims. Poor me can't calculate how much you would make from pumping "nearly 3 Megawatts" into the national grid, so I can't work out if it is worth it.

I know he, or she generated 40% of their own electricity and "sold" nearly 3 Megawatts" to the power company, but I can't work out if it would be worth me doing. I haven't got a clue how much you would get for selling nearly 3 Megawatts.

Sorry to sound thick, but I'm just a money saver and want to know if yakky saved some money or just got a warm feeling from generating his own electricity by spend some money and putting some effort into it.

Geordie,

A megawatt is 1,000kW so exporting 3 megawatts and being given 10p/kWh would be £300.

The bottom line is that in 2 years 2 months his solar electricity system has produced 5,112 kWh - he uses some of that, and 'sells' the rest back to the electricity company.

So depending on how much you pay for electricity that is around £500 in just over 2 years. Roughly £200 used and £300 'sold'.

That 'selling' of electricity back to Southern Electricity at 10P(or the going rate) is a good deal - but is not quite as simple as it sounds and will that facility continue to be offered?

You should appreciate just how big Yakky's display is - 10 panels! - not including the hot water system.

As I have said in a number of posts, the long term future of solar will probably be for electricity generation. IMO solar Hot Water has absolutely no potential for money saving.

However for it to be financially viable the costs of panels will need to be drastically reduced - which China will probably manage to achieve in the future.

As said above, to invest £10,200 on a system(only got that low by DIY preparation) to save £400 a year makes no sort of money saving sense. You would easily get £600 a year simply by investing that money.

Even if it saved £1000 a year, taking into account loss of interest it would still take 25-30 years to pay back the cost of the panels and would not be a financial proposition I would consider.

Whilst the installation of these systems(panels usually on a roof) will never be an easy task, the Government will need to legislate against the cowboys who operate in this field.

yakky58

Just for info.

The deal with Southern Electric was the easiest part. I emailed the microgeneration team at Southern they sent me a contract which I filled in and emailed back. Job done. The contract is good on the house as long as I live there. The contract states very clearly that they will buy at the rate they charge. Any new buyer has the option to extend the contract but under their name. The same applies they write to Southern Electric.

Additionally they supplied the smart export meter free of charge and fitted for free on the day of commisson it could not have been easier. The worst part was registering with OFGEM. That took multiple emails and the form was a nightmare.

Even easier is the billing. One email with input and export they do the rest and they buy my ROCs via a 2 minute job transferring on the OFGEM site.

Given inflation is rising what would the £600 savings be worth after a year or two? If energy prices rise buy the proposed 40% then savings go up by the same amount.

If I use 5MW a year and generate 2MW a year simple maths tells me that's 40% saving on electric.

10 panels + the hot water on the roof takes up 60% of the available space. Its not an eyesore either, the opinion of the neighbours.

As to the cost of panels, I would actually say they will go up when people start buying, the old supply and demand equation.

geordie_joe

yakky58 wrote: »

Hope this answers some of your questions.

Thanks, that answers a lot of them.

geordie_joe

Thank, I'm a bit wiser now.

Cardew wrote: »

Geordie,
Even if it saved £1000 a year, taking into account loss of interest it would still take 25-30 years to pay back the cost of the panels and would not be a financial proposition I would consider.

Nor me, but I do admire the man for giving it a go.

charlie42bravo

We fitted solar tubes on our roof when we first moved in and were unaware that our hot water was actually provided by two emersion heaters. Consequently we now have a much more efficient way of heating our hot watr and as was pointed out before, we are very aware of when we use it and how much. Consequently, for a family of five in a large four bedroomed property, our combined gas and electric charges are £70 a month. Everyone told us we would never get our money back when we had it fitted. However, due to the inefficient system we had and the ever increasing cost of Gas and Electric, we have certainly reduced our outgoings.
We're happy and helping the environment - that's all that matters to us!

freddykruggar

any chance of some photos of your set up yakky58?

bluebelluk

i discovered this site over the weekend....they do a variety of low impact living courses...might be worth browsing....

http://www.lowimpact.org/

yakky58

Hi,

Can't imbed a jpg of the installation and I don't have a web page. If you post me a private mail with your private email I'll send a photo.

Electric Bill for April/May/June was a refund of £39.70 off the solar export and ROC refunds.

I am smiling

greenbee

For those of you who want to maximise the efficiency of your solar panels (both photovoltaic & solar thermal) they work best when combined with a green roof. The efficiency of solar panels is reduced as the temperature increases, and the vegetation helps to keep them cool.

So when Yakky is cleaning his panels, he needs to make sure that he's encouraging the algae and moss to grow underneath them

As well as the impact of the predicted rise in energy prices, the environmental benefits and energy security, it is important to be aware of the state of the market for solar panels. There is a shortage of silicon that is beginning to cause problems in the supply chain, and manufacturers who are currently struggling to keep up with demand are much more interested in delivering to their established markets in Germany (where they have decent feed-in tariffs, and domestic installation rates are therefore very high), Spain and Italy.

However, there are rumours that Sony have developed a silicon-free solar panel, which they are contemplating putting into production, in which case we can expect to see prices drop dramatically.

For up to date information on green technology try www.greenbang.com

yakky58

Whilst the idea of growing moss and algae on my roof to improve the solar efficiency has attractions I am not so sure its good for the property. Moss etc retains moisture that could ingress into my loft space and damage my roof which would offset in costs to fix the gains in solar performance. I have already had to pull off a virgina creeper that crept into the loft and fix that.

I get at maximum performance what the panels say so I am happy.

Thanks for the web link. Interesting reading.