Solar panel quote

Antonio101

Hi Everyone
I know this has been done a million times but I just wanted an opinion. I have been quoted £6995 for a 5kw array with 4.8kw of storage. Is this a fair price?. On had such a spec be found for less? From my calculations this is a very good investment financially and in terms of reducing my carbon foot print. I want to be as energy independent as possible. Based on SEG payments and savings made on my energy bills (not including inflation) I believe I could break even between 7-10years. In the near to mid term I also plan on purchasing an electric car also. I am only 31 so would then hopefully get 25 years of free energy from them. 

ASavvyBuyer

That seems a reasonable cost for that size of system. What are the details of the equipment, make, model, etc and what company?

Achieving a break even in 7-10 years is very unlikely.

It is also worth getting other companies to quote & compare prices/specs.

Solarchaser

Hi, it's all about the numbers.
A 5kw array, depending on where you are will produce 4-5mwh a year.
If you use none of that, and export all then with a 5p seg you would "make" £200-250 per year.
And so would be looking at a 30 year payback. 

If you used all of if, assuming a very high electricity user and paying £0.15/kwh just now.
Then you could save £600-750 a year.
So that would give a 10 year payback... but let me be clear, you WILL NOT use all of your generated electric, its not possible.

I have a young family, there is someone in my house all day, we have an EV and the wife loves her white goods,  and we still don't use all we generate, I also have a lot of batteries, about 4 times what you are being quoted, so I have a better chance.

If you are single and out working then you will be out of the house for roughly 75% of the time your panels are producing so would export roughly 75% of your generation. 

Ahh but the battery eh?
A 4.8kwh battery will be about 4kwh useable. 
It's not unreasonable to say you could fill and drain that every day with a 5kw array.
So 365 x 4 = 1460kwh of potentially used electricity,  cool but that comes from the earlier generation figure, so it helps up your consumption,  but doesn't produce more electricity. 

The point is a 10 year roi is highly unlikely,  a 7 year roi is impossible imo.

If you look for a thread started by Screwdriva a year ago, he found he used only 25% of his generation,  and so if you are only using a quarter of what you generate then the economics push to about a 15 year roi.

I'm not saying don't do it, solar is great, I love it, I'm saying don't follow the salesmans figures, run your own and get a realistic roi

jimjames

Solarchaser said:

So that would give a 10 year payback... but let me be clear, you WILL NOT use all of your generated electric, its not possible.

The only way that is possible is if your meter reverses for generated electricity and then for only as long as that meter remains installed.

Antonio101

Hi Solar Chaser
Thankyou and very insightful. No I have totally ignored the salesmans figures. We are a high user of electricity and my wife is home all day. We live in the SE (Kent) so benefit from better weather than most of the UK. If I manage to save use say 70% of what I produce and export 30% based on 4500kwh out put then yes I would be looking at 7-13years. However this does not include the inflation of electricity across that time period. To be honest the battery is only there to allow more usage of what I produce as that is the golden egg with solar. Looking at my meter throughout the night we are using 2-3kwh of electricity. Im hoping to use the battery to cover peak hours however 4pm-7pm when tariffs are highest?
I your option is £7k a fair price?

mickyduck55

We paid £7.5k a year ago for 6kW array and 7kW battery so I guess the figure is not far off

(Ignore my sig... the system was for my son)

Antonio101

That is very good. Who from if you dont mind me asking?

Solarchaser

Antonio101 said:

Hi Solar Chaser
Thankyou and very insightful. No I have totally ignored the salesmans figures. We are a high user of electricity and my wife is home all day. We live in the SE (Kent) so benefit from better weather than most of the UK. If I manage to save use say 70% of what I produce and export 30% based on 4500kwh out put then yes I would be looking at 7-13years. However this does not include the inflation of electricity across that time period. To be honest the battery is only there to allow more usage of what I produce as that is the golden egg with solar. Looking at my meter throughout the night we are using 2-3kwh of electricity. Im hoping to use the battery to cover peak hours however 4pm-7pm when tariffs are highest?
I your option is £7k a fair price?

Hi Antonio If you use 70% of say 5mw at 15p then you will make / save £525 if we then assume you export 30% at at 5p then that's £75 so a total of £600 a year. So a 11-12 year payback,  and thats not bad.

But I really do think you will struggle to use 70%.

I'm not doing this to pick at your figures, to pull you down, just using my experience. 
When I was producing 3400kwh with no batteries even with the young family and stay at home mum I was using approximately 1500kwh, and exporting 1900kwh.

You see the problem with solar is you produce more when you don't need it (summer) and less when you do need it (winter)

Electricity may increase in price, but with all the new wind coming on, it may not.

Anyway to answer your question,  I do think it's a good price, for what you are getting,  but it would definitely be better to know what system and what battery you would be getting supplied?

You mention peak of 4-7pm so I assume you are looking at octopus agile, and that could improve your roi if used well.

[Deleted User]

Tariffs such as Agile actually increase the project break even time which is why most calculations are made against fixed tariffs. Octopus does this for its Tesla Plan. This time last year on Agile I was averaging 8p/kWh, and it was lower in the summer. Yes, with a battery, I could argue that I was saving 35p/kWh in the peak period but the only person that I would be kidding is myself. Even with a big array(7kWp); big battery(PW2) and an EV, 80% solar usage is a challenge. At the moment, I am using 95% of the solar that my array is generating but with the odd day of 20kWhs of output in February, the battery needs to be flat and the EV needs to be charging to prevent export. It will only become more of a challenge from March onwards.

I don’t regret installing a new array and battery in September last year, but I confess that it was more an emotional than financial decision to do so. We had PV solar in a previous home when we did cover our costs in 8 years based purely on FiT/export payments.

mickyduck55

Antonio101 said:

That is very good. Who from if you dont mind me asking?

A year ago today

https://www.ecorenewablesgroup.co.uk/

Antonio101

thanks, I will get a quote from them