Solar panel quote review please

Newbie_John

Martyn1981 said:

Hi @Newbie_John.

Shirley if a) the solar set up is -£12k, then b) the savings should be -£6k not +£6k?

Also I think your £700 figure is too low, which distorts your calculations. If we use £1,000 (based on ~20p/kWh (I believe you'd have to go back a further decade and ignore general inflation to get to ~12p/kWh)), then your bank balance is exhausted by the end of yr 19, whilst the PV asset still exists, and continues to generate/save.

Edit - I'm just trying to keep the calculations fair.

Nope, still £6k up. First year interest is £613, and we withdraw £700 so next year we have £11900 in the account.. down to £6k after 20 years.

Of course, the more ££ you generate the better for you - that calculator I have pasted does show that at 30 years with £1000 solar generation / year it starts looking the same - so it's probably the target. Anything below this, you better save, anything above cosnider solar.

I don't know what in todays days would cost to decomission old solar system with battery? £1-2k? New system can increase the price of the house, but an old 20-30 years, probably will lower it. Can you sell an old no longer working battery or have to pay for it to be taken? Will prices be 12p/kWh or 40p/kWh in the future?

Also, moeny in saving account still generate "income" if we move, not many people live in the same property for 30 years.

My original post was to bring different thinking, that's all really.

Martyn1981

Newbie_John said:

Martyn1981 said:

Hi @Newbie_John.

Shirley if a) the solar set up is -£12k, then b) the savings should be -£6k not +£6k?

Also I think your £700 figure is too low, which distorts your calculations. If we use £1,000 (based on ~20p/kWh (I believe you'd have to go back a further decade and ignore general inflation to get to ~12p/kWh)), then your bank balance is exhausted by the end of yr 19, whilst the PV asset still exists, and continues to generate/save.

Edit - I'm just trying to keep the calculations fair.

Nope, still £6k up. First year interest is £613, and we withdraw £700 so next year we have £11900 in the account.. down to £6k after 20 years.

Hi, if you start with £12k and end up with £6k, then you are down £6k, not up £6k. So your comparison earlier of a) at -12k, should be b) at -£6k. That's a net difference of £6k, not the £18k you implied.

Newbie_John

Yes, you're right - it did look too good.

So yeah.. at £700/year, after 30 years we have:
a) solar -£12k, savings -£6k
or
a) solar £0, savings £6k (as disposable cash)

Alnat1

Or simply dump the hot tub and save a bloody fortune, no maths required 

woolgar.c

Thanks everyone. 

Seems unanimous that the Light Renewables is the quote worth pursuing & others haven't been commented on much due to the cost comparison. 

@MallyGirl I presume GivEnergy and the Tesla Powerwall 3 work similarly with intelligently automating the charge & discharge times? Perhaps more worth it when the hot tub isn't on. We didn't realise how expensive the hot tub was to run before purchasing it either (it was a "we can't go on holiday during the pandemic let's make the most of being home" purchase)! What were your niggles with Light Renewables and how long ago did you get it installed?

@Screwdriva thanks for your help so far & pointing us to Light Renewables. I have indeed checked Trustpilot & great reviews there recently. 

@FlorayG good perspective, we'll be glad once we've made a decision & don't need to look into it anymore!

@nologo, thanks, hope your inverter arrives soon

@Newbie_John & @Martyn1981 I'm completely lost with those calculations. What I am taking away from it however are some concerns I already had which is that we may be paying for a system that takes a long time to actually recoup the cost, and hence my nervousness of opting for a system that is more than we need (& hence costs more) or we could lose the longer term savings if we were to move house. Of course aside from how long the system takes to pay for itself once we've paid for it we will feel better off each month with the offset energy bills. It is an advantage in terms of being green and seems sensible to do if it will effectively pay for itself in the end. The other fact is if we didn't buy the system we wouldn't be putting that money in to savings, it would be going on our energy bills or on other things. 

@Alnat1 this sure has made me realise how expensive it is to run!

MallyGirl

We signed on the dotted line with Light Renewables and paid deposit on 13th March 2024, significant scaffolding went up 20th March, installation 21st but it ran on through 22nd and into Monday 25th due to commissioning challenges. We started being paid for export on 11th April and then had some fun with Octopus moving on to the Intelligent Flux tariff but we got there in the end. We had to get LR back when we found an unconnected earth wire after a power cut!
We are still waiting for a revised application for export to be accepted as they only requested 6kW in the DNO first time round which is what we can get from the panels. When the battery export kicks in too we are exceeding that significantly.
Overall they were fine - we didn't understand enough about what we were buying to ask some of the questions we maybe should have. Since commissioning the panels have generated over 3MWh and we have been credited £585 for export 11/4 - 15/7.

woolgar.c

MallyGirl said:

We signed on the dotted line with Light Renewables and paid deposit on 13th March 2024, significant scaffolding went up 20th March, installation 21st but it ran on through 22nd and into Monday 25th due to commissioning challenges. We started being paid for export on 11th April and then had some fun with Octopus moving on to the Intelligent Flux tariff but we got there in the end. We had to get LR back when we found an unconnected earth wire after a power cut!
We are still waiting for a revised application for export to be accepted as they only requested 6kW in the DNO first time round which is what we can get from the panels. When the battery export kicks in too we are exceeding that significantly.
Overall they were fine - we didn't understand enough about what we were buying to ask some of the questions we maybe should have. Since commissioning the panels have generated over 3MWh and we have been credited £585 for export 11/4 - 15/7.

Thanks for the details & good to know you're making on the export already, should be great once the revised application is complete

MickO57

Another satisfied LR customer here, I had a 4.8kWp + two 4.8kWh Pylontech batteries installed on 15 May last year. The system has generated 5.95MWh since install.

Sadly the Solaredge inverter developed a hardware fault earlier this week, now confirmed by Solaredge, thankfully it has a 20 year warranty. LR are on the case and will carry out the work when the replacement arrives from Solaredge.

When the system stopped producing I called LR and have spoken to them a couple of times since for updates. I am trying to get timelines but that is in the hands of Solaredge not LR. Good to know that LR said Solaredge are one of the better companies out there to deal with on warranty claims.

I also had an exchange with one of the LR electricians who was on my install, he sent me instructions via WhatsApp on how to reboot, and when that failed to kick start production he walked me through powering down to safely put a meter on the two cables coming from the roof/array that connects to the inverter. The outcome, there was 12.2v there and he immediately said the fault was the inverter as the roof/array was ok, and that I should let the LR customer service team know. Fingers crossed, I think the replacement was approved and ordered today. I'll check with Solaredge support via WhatsApp tomorrow as LR gave me the case number. The WhatsApp support seems pretty good.

Overall my experience with LR has been good, yes they may need a reminder/chasing now and then but part of that is they are very busy.   

Screwdriva

MickO57 said:

The WhatsApp support seems pretty good.

I find SE's after sales support to be very good relative to other brands (Enphase, Victron and Fronius are comparable).

ecraig

Another positive review from me for LR too. Top class outfit.