Solar Panels and Feed

wackojackouk

Evening folks.

Moved house a couple of years ago into a house with solar panels fitted. They were installed in around 2015 by previous owner who paid for them outright. 

We get a decent amount of free electricity in the day time when it's sunny (we don't have a battery to store energy etc) but wondering if someone can point us in the right direction for clawing some money back into the house from outgoing unused energy that goes back into the grid.

I believe they used to be called Feed In tariffs or something but wondering what they are called now - any info on providers etc would be great,

I think we don't need to use the same provider we use for energy (currently Sainsburys Energy) but any free money back would be great so if anyone has any info/tips etc that would be most appreciated.

Thanks

BarelySentientAI

Export tariffs or SEG.

mmmmikey

Hi, in order to sell any spare electricity that you export back to the grid, you're going to need some paperwork to prove that it's a pukka, professionally installed system.

Let's take this one step at a time to avoid a lengthy if this then that kind of reply.

You should have an MCS certificate, hopefully this will have been provided to you when you bought the house.

Do you have an MCS certificate for the installation?

Keep_pedalling

You should have been getting FIT payments from the day you moved in unless this was a dodgy installation. What paperwork have you got regarding the installation? Did your solicitor not bring up any queries regarding the panels? 

Reed_Richards

You should be getting quarterly payments.  These payments comprise a payment for what you generate and a payment for what you export.  At the time of your solar panel installation it was difficult to measure actual export so you are deemed to export half of what you generate and paid accordingly.  You only get paid a small amount per kWh for your deemed export and, as others have suggested, it might be possible to move to being paid for actual export and that might up your income.

If you are receiving FIT payments, look at one of the statements.  If you are not receiving FIT payments then something has gone badly wrong; check with your conveyancer what was done about the solar panels.

Qyburn

wackojackouk said:

I think we don't need to use the same provider we use for energy (currently Sainsburys Energy) but any free money back would be great so if anyone has any info/tips etc that would be most appreciated.

For metered export payment (which are additional to FIT generation payments) suppliers tend to offer the best rates to their supply customers. For example Octopus pays 15p/kWh if you're a supply customer but only something like 5p if not. Do you have smart meter?

debitcardmayhem

I wonder if the previous owner is still getting fit payments, or are the panels in a rent-a-roof scheme?
You really ought to chase up your paperwork from the purchase. 2 years is a lot of potential loss.