Are Solar Panels Really Worth It?

N6xxy

My husband (40) and myself (37) (We have 3 young children) are looking into Solar Panels... 

We have had a quote from Octopus for £12,500.... 
Based on the figures (which i will post shortly) it looks like we start saving £625 a year (£52 a month) and after around 12 years start to earn from the electricity. 

Spending out £12,500 to save £52 a month until we get 12 years in seems doesn't seem hugely worth it to me. I know after the 12 years we can sell back electricity for around 15p per kWh but I feel like in 12 years time that could be down to 3p per kWh if the companies so decided. It's all a bit unknown.

Am i missing something? Please give an honest options. I can be a bit ditzy and miss the bigger picture. 

Thank you

Gerry1

kWh not kW.

FlorayG

First of all you can 'sell back' electricity from the day they are installed, not after you have paid for them. I regularly export £30 worth a month and up to £60 in midsummer
Secondly have you factored in the increasing price of grid electricity? Of course nobody actually knows but I expect it will continue to increase

powerful_Rogue

I've had mine for 3 years. This year already I have exported enough to earn me £600. My imported electricty and standing charge is currently at £500.

So that's free electric since January and £100 in my pocket. I've got an EV and batteries as well.

Getting solar was one of the best decisions I ever made.

wakeupalarm

Choices
1) Spend the £12,500 on a trip to Disneyworld for your kids, Disney needs the money more than the energy companies.
2) Leave the £12,500 in the bank and if you can earn 5% interest, you will have your £52 per month to pay your electricity bill and then in 12 years time you still have your £12,500 in the bank.
3) Install solar panels and don't move home.

Hoenir

Any plans to run an Electric Vehicle? 

powerful_Rogue

Hoenir said:

Any plans to run an Electric Vehicle? 

It's currently better not to charge an EV via solar. For instance, I pay 7p kWh to charge my EV via the grid, I get paid 15p kWh for export.

Ectophile

Are they offering anything in addition to solar panels for that money?  If it's a lot of panels and a big battery, then it's believable.  Otherwise, it's far too expensive.  Solar panels are cheap these days.

mmmmikey

Hi - a few thoughts on this.....

Solar panels are a long term investment and how long (or if) they pay for themselves is entirely dependent on future energy costs. The energy market is changing rapidly which makes it very difficult to predict future costs. Overall prices might rise over the long term, but it's also possible that the value of solar energy goes down at the same time as more and more solar farms are built, all generating electricity at the same time driving down prices. It's just impossible to say with any certainty. There will be lots of views and opinions on this but truth be told nobody really knows, it's just guesswork.

So if you can't reliably predict future energy prices, how to decide? Here's another way to look at it...

1. If energy prices go up in future then the solar panels will be a better buy. When prices went through the roof a couple of years ago, those of us with solar panels were isolated from much of the price shock.

2. If energy prices go down, particularly at times when the panels are producing solar energy, the panels may take years to pay for themselves, possibly barely breaking even during their lifetime. But if energy prices do go down then the price of pretty much everything you buy goes down so the impact of not having made a particularly good investment is reduced. If you don't make a decent return on your solar panel investment you're likely to be so much better off in other areas it's not a big deal.

In a nutshell, I'm suggesting looking at solar panels as a way of protecting yourself against future energy price shocks. They might save you a lot of money, they might save you a little money or they might end up costing you a little money. But it seems unlikely you'd lose a lot and even if you did it wouldn't be a disaster because you'd be saving in other ways.

My approach would be to first decide if you are in a good position to lock up money in a long term investment. If you are, shop around for the best prices. If, at today's prices, it looks like they would pay for themselves in, say, 10 or 15 years and you want to protect yourself against rising energy prices then go for it. But all just IMHO of course....

tim_p

N6xxy said:

My husband (40) and myself (37) (We have 3 young children) are looking into Solar Panels... 

We have had a quote from Octopus for £12,500.... 
Based on the figures (which i will post shortly) it looks like we start saving £625 a year (£52 a month) and after around 12 years start to earn from the electricity. 

Spending out £12,500 to save £52 a month until we get 12 years in seems doesn't seem hugely worth it to me. I know after the 12 years we can sell back electricity for around 15p per kWh but I feel like in 12 years time that could be down to 3p per kWh if the companies so decided. It's all a bit unknown.

Am i missing something? Please give an honest options. I can be a bit ditzy and miss the bigger picture. 

Thank you

What exactly are you getting for that £12.5K?  How many panels (so max output)? Batteries, and if so, what capacity?

Niv

N6xxy said:

My husband (40) and myself (37) (We have 3 young children) are looking into Solar Panels... 

We have had a quote from Octopus for £12,500.... 
Based on the figures (which i will post shortly) it looks like we start saving £625 a year (£52 a month) and after around 12 years start to earn from the electricity. 

Spending out £12,500 to save £52 a month until we get 12 years in seems doesn't seem hugely worth it to me. I know after the 12 years we can sell back electricity for around 15p per kWh but I feel like in 12 years time that could be down to 3p per kWh if the companies so decided. It's all a bit unknown.

Am i missing something? Please give an honest options. I can be a bit ditzy and miss the bigger picture. 

Thank you

Without knowing details of the setup proposed I can't say if the £12.5 k is good value but my solar went fully live May 23 and it works out that I don't pay anything for electric. To give you some numbers for 2024:
Produced 5.03MWh, self use 2.12MWh, exported (sold) 2.91MWh
Consumed 3.56MWh, self use 2.12MWh, imported (paid with credit from export) 1.44MWh

Obviously we are going into a period of shorter days, our worst ever month (December 23) we produced 108KWh which was still over a third of our usage.

Last I worked it out, it would take approx 8 years to break even. Panels lifed for approx 25years after which they still work they are just less efficient. Inverter likely to need replacement at some point. I didn't buy batteries, I could make it economically viable (I know some charge with cheap elec off grid and sell it back at high times but I don't want to do that). Battery costs are coming down though so may add some later - no need to install all at the same time if you don't want to.

Its great if you do not plan to move.