Solar Panels and savings

sevenhills

nonolerigolo said:

Solar panels without battery: £5,200. Estimated electricity savings £400. 

Why not bother about the battery? I thought the battery would be useful as I may not be able to use the electricity at the time it is produced.

£400 is quite low, does that include any FIT payment?
My FIT payment is around £250 year, so maybe a total of £500 per year. I have never calculated the total savings, but my panels were free.

nonolerigolo

spider42 said:

nonolerigolo said:

 Is it effectively the same as a 5% return on saving/investments. Any thoughts appreciated  Thanks

It isn't the same as a savings account. If you put £10,000 in a savings account and leave it there for 25 years, then you get your £10,000 back in 25 years time (plus interest). If the solar panels last 25 years, then at the end of the 25 years, you've completely lost the £10,000, and have only the £500 annual savings.

The £500 annual savings, when combined with a full loss of the capital, are equivalent to an internal rate of return of about 1.8%. But the annual savings will be very difficult to estimate 25 years into the future, so there's a high degree of unreliability in these estimates.

Would the internal rate for the solar panels (without battery) around the 4%? Thanks 

nonolerigolo

sevenhills said:

nonolerigolo said:

Solar panels without battery: £5,200. Estimated electricity savings £400. 

Why not bother about the battery? I thought the battery would be useful as I may not be able to use the electricity at the time it is produced.

£400 is quite low, does that include any FIT payment?
My FIT payment is around £250 year, so maybe a total of £500 per year. I have never calculated the total savings, but my panels were free.

I believe, this includes payment to resale to the grid. Those payments are typically low now and better to use electricity if possible or store (if battery). 

The roof is small and not oriented for optimal energy saving. I would expect those £400 to be low when compared to better located / orientated house.

nonolerigolo

grumbler said:

nonolerigolo said:

Why not bother about the battery? I thought the battery would be useful as I may not be able to use the electricity at the time it is produced.

Absolutely. And, I'm no expert, but I've heard that there are no decent feed-in tariffs available now. That's why I suggested to ask on other boards where people are more knowledgeable on this.
Your £400 figure is likely to be biased (compared to £500). How much energy do you really use in daytime in summer when the most energy is produced by the batteries? If you have a hot water cylinder, then solar water heating panels can be a more efficient investment.

No hot water cylinders. Pretty constant energy consumption throughout the year about 5kwh a day. 

nonolerigolo

Thank you everyone for the input. 

jimjames

sevenhills said:

nonolerigolo said:

Solar panels without battery: £5,200. Estimated electricity savings £400. 

Why not bother about the battery? I thought the battery would be useful as I may not be able to use the electricity at the time it is produced.

£400 is quite low, does that include any FIT payment?
My FIT payment is around £250 year, so maybe a total of £500 per year. I have never calculated the total savings, but my panels were free.

The FIT scheme has ended for new installations, you might be able to get paid for the electricity you sell to the grid depending on the tariffs

subjecttocontract

Octopus were offering 15p per kWh exported. Check the Octopus web site for details.

Freecall

Also, with such long-term payback forecasting, what happens if you need to move house or you die and your heirs need to sell the house?

Remember that houses with solar panels are generally considered less attractive to potential buyers.

grumbler

Freecall said:

Also, with such long-term payback forecasting, what happens if you need to move house or you die and your heirs need to sell the house?

Remember that houses with solar panels are generally considered less attractive to potential buyers.

Why if the panels are owned?

I think what you say is correct for leased (?) panels.

Ciprico

The sums may change if you factor in an electric car to dump excess generated energy over a static battery... Modern smart chargers can do this....