Is it worth Installing PV

ciku

Hello MSE
I just moved in to my home and considering whether PV is worth having / investing.

I don't have track record of my electrical usage and such as I just moved in.

But my house is has probably 30 degree V shaped slanting roof 50: 50 ratio with my back roof facing south east and my front roof is north west in East London.

3 storeys with no shading
Current EPC rating C
Usually we are home at night.
Boiler is Gas only (I think)
Dont own electric car
Mid terrace.

I believe the FiT payment is a lot more important than battery due to seasons in UK and battery only act as a buffer to certain extend.

We use most electrics after work and my house has loads of windows thus heating bill may go up in winter but there again PV is "non generating" during the winter.

Thus is it still worth doing the PV now with price of PV has fallen, but FIT income will be lesser thus lesser reward.

BUT, with government intention to zero C02, I have concern when govt brings out the stick to penalize non zero CO2 houses, the cost of owning a house goes up which it always does.

And since my roof is leaking at the edge of my roof (2 feet flat roof), I would need to spend on scafolding now too thus it will be a fixed cost and I can do PV installation on roof fixing at the same time

Location: at E16 near London City Airport.

Please thank you

Martyn1981

Hiya ciku.

The main issue with PV is getting a system and price that makes economic sense. And you'll see many threads were PV'ers chat and give advice on prices and quotes and what to look for.

But, you have a couple of important additional factors:

1. Shared by all, is the ending of the FiT subsidy, and the government mandating that export be paid for, by the end of Mch 2019.

2. You mention scaffolding needed anyway, which can be about 10% of the cost of the PV install.

........ so, I'm not saying PV is a good or bad idea for you, but I agree that if you are going to get it done, then now (next 3 months) is the time to do it.

There is a long thread on batteries, and I would suggest they are not yet economical, and you are right not to consider one at the moment, but you could add one later.

There is also a thread on installing a small ASHP (air con unit), which you can use to heat some of your property with, from excess PV generation. As a mid terrace, this might work well for you.

Size wise, you'll need to see what the installers suggest, and obviously try to get as large a system as possible on the SE roof. It might be worth considering the NW roof, but it will generate a lot less pa, but, if the scaffolding is there for that too, and the additional cost of the extra PV is low enough, it might be worth considering - a quick check on PVGIS suggests the SE roof will generate approx 950kWh/kWp pa, whilst the NW roof will generate about 650kWh/kWp.

So the NW roof is only 2/3rds as good, so needs to be 2/3rds the cost. If the SE roof is 4kWp for £6k (purely an example), then an additional 4kWp on the NW roof needs to be £4k or less.

With the scaffolding in place, let's aim for £5k or less for the SE roof, and £800/kWp for additional PV on the NW roof.

In reality, ignore most of my figures, and just shop around, then come back on here and chat.

All the best. Mart.

ciku

Thank you Martyn.

Hello everyone.

I have been waking up with sunlight shining into the rear of my house. Can't help to get quotes for installer in East London Near London City Airport.

Do you guys have any suggestion or personal experience with any installer. Please.

I saw a neighbour of mine (quite a distance away with different roof configuration). I will pop in to say hello to my neighbour too for his/her generation experience.

ciku

I went around my estate. Interviewed a few panel owners.
One of them leased the roof.
One bought it outright Cost around 6k plus since 2013 and now only have 3.4K Pound left to amortize. The lowest return per month was GBP45 the highest for 180GBP for 12 panels.

All PV owners said, it is worth doing as return on saving is so poor.

Questions now will be.
FIT used to generate a lot of return vs now.
PV now is it more effective to compensate the return

Waiting for my quotes for installation now.

Coastalwatch

Hi ciku, I can only echo Marts comments above and from which you should be able to calculate any return on your investment dependent entirely upon the price you are quoted for a given PV array. If you can arrive at a cost near to £1k/1kW of output then you are best placed to arrive at a reasonable figure.
As a guide my own experience since having an array installed at the end of April last year shows a return over the nine months of 4.8%. Should it's performance for the first year match pvgis forecast then a return of 5.4% will materialise. Don't know if this will meet with expectations!

ciku

Hello Coastalwatch and Martyn.

Thank you so much.

Had my first quote, not great.

300w x 8 panels - Perlight Monocrystalline at 4.5k GBP inc. inverter

I was told I can only have 8 panels. He said it's not worth doing north facing.

I saw a house on a google map (2 streets away) with 18 panels for south and East Facing. Surely he profited loads to install so many panels!

I will aim for this "£1k/1kW" golden bechmark.

Thank you.

ciku

Next quote:

2 x 5 panels potrait, 3 landscape = 3.9kw system - 300w per panel.
Black monocyc JA solar. all inc. 6450. Sma inverter.

This installer in confident he can install 13 panels.

The other said 8 panels only. How strange...

Coastalwatch

ciku wrote: »

Next quote:

2 x 5 panels potrait, 3 landscape = 3.9kw system - 300w per panel.
Black monocyc JA solar. all inc. 6450. Sma inverter.
This installer in confident he can install 13 panels.
The other said 8 panels only. How strange...

It could be the return on the northern panels does not represent a good return in the installers eyes, but that's up to you to decide. Reading Marts FAQ's it does mention about the EPC rating and your house does not seem to meet the minimum requirement of class D. You may wish to research this further in case it presents an issue. Mind you improving EPC can be money well spent/invested depending on what is required so worth pursuing.
Panels can be fitted landscape or portrait which ever best suits your roof.
Something else to complicate matters a little further is the just announced Smart Energy Regulation which may offer some return should you miss the March 30th deadline.
When seeking quotations I finally arrived at a figure some 30% less after some informed exchanges!

ciku

I have EPC C.

Both panel installers looked via google map. One said 8 Panels, another said 13. Same method for south facing roof only (i.e same area)

Yes please, if you guys got contact for installer at good price it would be great.

I am now proactively looking for installer by google now, as checkatrade returned with expensive quotes.

Need to find sensibly priced installers, highly critical to manage risk.

I have read some cases on premature failure of PV panels

Coastalwatch

Apologies citu I'd overlooked C being a higher clasification than D so you're well in there.

By all means seek additional quotes but you may find you'll arrive at similar starting prices. It is worth speaking further to your original suppliers to see if they can adjust their offering. After all you've various quotes for them to match or better if they want the business. Equally if scaffolding will already be in place then this is something that might have been included. Unfortunately there does seem to be a tendency to offer a higher first quotation before being prepared to sharpen their pencils in order to win the order. If you don't ask you unlikely to get!