Solar Panels Are they all what they cracked up to be?

dan2312

Today we had a sales person around from saint solar,

Whom is suggesting that if we purchase solar panels for our property at £6500 that within the 1st year we would be gaining a tax free benefit of £787

Is he blowing smoke?

He is guaranteeing these figures, I was wanting to know from people whom own solar panels are they a good investment and do they actually make a good return?

He was suggesting we would save around 50% off our electricity bill per month.

Also if anyone has had any dealings or heard anything about the company 'saint solar' and would recommend them let me know before we splash a lot of cash.

Hasbeen

dan2312 wrote: »

Today we had a sales person around from saint solar,

Whom is suggesting that if we purchase solar panels for our property at £6500 that within the 1st year we would be gaining a tax free benefit of £787

Is he blowing smoke?

He is guaranteeing these figures, I was wanting to know from people whom own solar panels are they a good investment and do they actually make a good return?

He was suggesting we would save around 50% off our electricity bill per month.

Also if anyone has had any dealings or heard anything about the company 'saint solar' and would recommend them let me know before we splash a lot of cash.

Lots of smoke probably. Try posting on the Green and Ethical board for more informed reply's.

ASavvyBuyer

dan2312 wrote: »

Today we had a sales person around from saint solar,

Whom is suggesting that if we purchase solar panels for our property at £6500 that within the 1st year we would be gaining a tax free benefit of £787

Is he blowing smoke?

He is guaranteeing these figures, I was wanting to know from people whom own solar panels are they a good investment and do they actually make a good return?

He was suggesting we would save around 50% off our electricity bill per month.

Also if anyone has had any dealings or heard anything about the company 'saint solar' and would recommend them let me know before we splash a lot of cash.

It is very unlikely that you would get that sort of return with the current FIT rates, unless you had a very large system on your roof (which would need special approval from the District Network Operator.

Also, very unlikely to save 50% of your electricity use, unless you are home all day and install extras to use the power when it is being generated.

As already suggested, post in the Green & Ethical forum for more advice.

dan2312

Gonna copy and paste with a few modifications to the post. Thanks.

reeac

At a price of £6500 that sounds like a 4kWp system. Our 2.2 kWp system had generated a consistent 2200 kWh per annum for around 6 years now so your system might generate 4000 kWh per annum. At best you might use half of that domestically ( we find that the half rule works for us), so saving maybe £250 per annum. I note that he mentioned monthly cost but the saving would be on power consumed,leaving the standing charge unchanged so the saving would be less than half. There would also be the FIT payments ...you can calculate that on an assumed 4000kWh output.

reeac

Just looked up current FIT ....4 p per kWh plus a bit more for exported power so nothing like the original rates of some years ago. We are heading for a capital payback time of 9 years. When we bought I don't think that there were PV system salesmen....the systems sold themselves.