Solar Panels and savings

Grandad2b

If you've an unshaded southish facing roof the case for installing PV is pretty much unbreakable. Battery? Not so clear cut. If I was choosing between two neighbouring houses with or without PV I'd almost certainly pay more for the one with. I don't think I'd pay extra for the battery though. Maybe it's a worthwhile investment and maybe not. There are a lot of variables to consider.

powerful_Rogue

69bertie said:

silverwhistle said:

 I've also had the peace of mind in the current crisis of having manageable bills.

If I were to move I'd want panels on my new property even with a poorer payback

Very true. Yes, solar and battery isn't a cheap option. But not that long back I got an update (our 'cheap' fixed tariff was finishing) on our estimated bills going forwards were going up to around £2400 a year. Wow! I decided to use the money sat in a bank to finance the solar and battery installation. 6 weeks in, I now use about £1.40 a day of electricity from the grid (some times its less than a £1.00 a day) and that is primarily to charge the batteries on the cheap E7 rate. Next week, I'll be stopping even that to let the solar do the charging instead.

However, what I do find comforting is to look at the current cost of electricity displayed on the smart meter monitor. From 8.30 am through to 01.30am it always reads.... 0.00p. We no longer worry about turning energy guzzling appliances on during the day, the solar and batteries supply the power. It'll get even better once all the paperwork is done so I can get paid for exporting.

Get yourself onto Octopus  Flux!

Kofidog

This is all hard work!
I'm looking into this as i'm at a point where i figure that investing in panels now means that when i retire the panels will have paid for themselves and my retirement will be one of lower bills. I have no plans to move.
The challenge i face is the differing advice of two providers, one saying use all of my roof space to add more panels to create lots of excess generation to benefit from export, the other provider advising a system with less generating capacity but with a battery.
The extra roof panels are about half the cost of a battery.
I guess the maths are based on whether to trust that export prices from companies lies Octupus will last v the cost of import remaining high.
I'm aiming for a third quote to see if their view is different again!

random321

Kofidog said:

This is all hard work!
I'm looking into this as i'm at a point where i figure that investing in panels now means that when i retire the panels will have paid for themselves and my retirement will be one of lower bills. I have no plans to move.
The challenge i face is the differing advice of two providers, one saying use all of my roof space to add more panels to create lots of excess generation to benefit from export, the other provider advising a system with less generating capacity but with a battery.
The extra roof panels are about half the cost of a battery.
I guess the maths are based on whether to trust that export prices from companies lies Octupus will last v the cost of import remaining high.
I'm aiming for a third quote to see if their view is different again!

Personally, installing panels last year was the best decision I could have made.

We got what I believe to be an extremely good quote of 4KW Solar Panel system and 5KW battery storage of £7495 fully installed. As everyone's situation is different, the reason this has worked out extremely well for us are:

- We have a fully south facing roof
- We fully charge the battery on winter nights / forecast rainy days at the cheap rate of 7.5p per KW with Octopus Go (shortly due to increase to 10p)
- We have an electric vehicle which we essentially run entirely off of solar energy between April - September, and in winter charge at the cheap rate overnight

The battery powers the house for the majority of the day even in winter months if high-usage appliances can be programmed to run at the cheap rate overnight.

Being able to monitor on an app also allows you to track usage/generation and energy savings.12 months since our installation and we have saved 18% of our initial outlay on electricity costs, so approximately 5-6 years for the panels to pay for themselves.

On the extra panels, we were recommended to get as many on the roof as possible as the relative cost of extra panels when compared to the overall package we purchased was low. However our roof could only fit 10 so that is all we could get. Remember that these extra panels will also benefit in the winter / cloudy days when the sun is not generating as much energy to help capture as much as possible.

solidpro

Also worth noting, if you don't want a battery, might be moving house in the next 25 years, on a lease, rent or want to suppliment your existing renewable, you could invest in https://rippleenergy.com/

You have to use a 'compatible' energy supplier, but there are a few and I think some of the best, anyway.

You're allowed to invest up to 120% of your annual electric usage. We have put 109% into a new scottish wind farm and 11% into a new english solar farm.

Remember, you're selling it wholesale and buying it at double the price @ retail, so you generally can only generate about 60% of the cost of your annual usage. However we decided it was still worth it. I think our investment is about £7500.

Next year projected to get £821 or so off our electric bill and I think the average is projected to be about £500-600 a year off our bills.

I think we worked out it will pay for itself in less than 15 years. The investment is in a co-operative and not owned by Ripple. It could last more than 25 years depending on how efficient they continue to be after that.

wmb194

Kofidog said:

This is all hard work!
I'm looking into this as i'm at a point where i figure that investing in panels now means that when i retire the panels will have paid for themselves and my retirement will be one of lower bills. I have no plans to move.
The challenge i face is the differing advice of two providers, one saying use all of my roof space to add more panels to create lots of excess generation to benefit from export, the other provider advising a system with less generating capacity but with a battery.
The extra roof panels are about half the cost of a battery.
I guess the maths are based on whether to trust that export prices from companies lies Octupus will last v the cost of import remaining high.
I'm aiming for a third quote to see if their view is different again!

More panels, no battery. That, "excess" generation won't be a thing in the winter.

grumbler

Hecky232 said:

nonolerigolo said:

Hello, I wondered if solar panels give same return as savings/investing as per example below. 

Solar panels plus battery £10,000. Expected electricity bills reduction £500. Rate of bill reduction will reduce with year in service. Solar panels expected to generate electricity for 25 years. 

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

[DELETED BY FORUM TEAM]

And the long (and correct) answer is on the very same first page of this thread:

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.

EcoScruples

I'm just about at the 1 year mark now and have applied the following formula for my savings.

Energy cost avoided
Energy cost sold to grid

So the figure I have is £1,550 for the first 12months.
With my system cost of £10,000 It's on track for a 7 year payback.

I'm happy with that.

avionos

Has anyone come across these guys? Just curious. The information on this page was very useful - are they saying the right things? Ant Solar

Just found their website AntSolar