Buying a house that has Solar installed

greyteam1959

tim_p said:

greyteam1959 said:

One thing that might be worth looking at is the actual rate of FIT payment at the moment.
A system installed 9 or 10 years ago should be giving a payment of around .5536 p /kw.
Would the payment carry on at this rate if the property changed hands I wonder ??
Or would the rate drop to the rate available on new solar PV installed now ??

It transfers to new owner at the same rate (so, your 55p / kWh)

Thanks for that info.
Never knew that.

inspectorperez

Just one or two further comments in addition to what has been posted previously.

The current property owner should have received quarterly payments arising from the Feed in Tariff (FIT) relevant at the time of installation.

My array of 16 panels was installed in 2012 (just before the generous tariff was downgraded) and produces circa 3,500 KW per annum, in money terms circa £2,000. You should request sight off all Einvoices generated by the energy company with which the installation is registered to give you an idea of what income you will receive if you proceed with the purchase.

My capital outlay was recovered in just over 4 years taking into account the fact that the income is tax free. It would be interesting to discover what premium if any the seller is asking for (by inclusion in the asking price) relevant to the remaining term of the solar generation contract. Don't forget, you may well have future outlay in terms of cleaning and/or repair/replacement.

You might also like to enquire via your solicitor whether the inverter has any remaining term left on the warranty as these can be expensive to replace.

Also, are they protected from pigeons? I know that sounds daft, but they can be an absolute nuisance if they try to nest under the panels. There are products out there such as mesh guards to prevent pigeons gaining access. Again from personal experience, I had these fitted (not expensive) to deter the varmints as they were noisy and dirty as well as the risk of pecking away and damaging the cable feeding back to the inverter.

Cardew

You can find the FIT rates for 2014 to 2015 here: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/environmental-programmes/fit/fit-tariff-rates

For systems under 4kWp the FIT ranges from 17.16p/kWh in Jan 2014 to 14.13p/kWh in Dec 2015. In addition a small export tariff is paid. FIT payments last for 20 years(for post 2013 systems) and are inflation linked and tax free.

Most systems then were under 4kWp (usually 16 panels for 4kWp). Some had much smaller systems and the output is proportionally smaller - so it is crucial to know the size if you are considering buying the house.

The output of the system depends on the geographic location of the house - generally the further South the better - and which direction the panels Face - due South is best. For a 4kWp system 3,500kWh to 4,000kWh PA would be a ballpark output.

It would be worth investing £1 in  WHICH reports on various aspects of solar. In particular you should not ignore potential problems see: https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/solar-panels/article/solar-panels/solar-panel-problems-and-how-to-solve-them

'The most common – and most serious – problem is with the inverter. In some cases it means that you don’t get any usable renewable electricity from your system. It’s also a pricey problem to fix, costing upwards of £900 if you need a professional to help, according to our research.