Non Boaty - Solar panels, Yes/No

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tarik

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Evening all,



Erlier this week my sister in law had a cold caller selling solar panels. She is now convinced thay are the answer to everything,

She is thinkng of having 16 panels on the roof which will make her a fortune - apparently. Total cost £7000.


What does the team think? Are solar panels a good/wise investmant.


As always many thanks for all replies.

David
 
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Lounge subject
 
I'm not in any doubt about the value of solar panels and would certainly fit them at home if I wasn't thinking of moving house fairly soon. £7,000 sounds expensive vs. systems I looked at but I don't know what output you are talking about. Almost certain that it will be <4kW and think I saw a quote of around £5,000 for one that size.

The numbers seemed to add up even in Scotland. Don't just believe the figures given by a salesman, it isn't difficult to work out yourself. My calcs. were close to figures using factors quoted on a government site.

1) I never ever buy anything from a cold caller. Get quotes from at least 3 firms (& get to know what you are buying)
2) How long will your sister in law be staying in the same house?
3) Check everything yourself to confirm that figures quoted are reasonable (I could pm more info if you supply location)
4) Look at risks (i.e. Is guarantee insurance based or just worthless certificate)

I think that payback was around 7 years for my property. However, roof is very suitable for easy installation with good angle and direction.
I also suspect my estimate was 30% lower than one you've been given (so big impact on viability).

Might not be an entirely suitable subject for this forum.
 
I had mine fitted in August for a similar price. In 4 1/2 months they have produced 1.02 megw. This is west Wales and the weather has been horrible. This equates to £174. As the weather improves the rate of production should also improve. Hopefully feed in tariff will reach between £800 and £1000 at the end of 1 year.
The rates are 14.9p/KW whether used or not, plus, on assumption that 1/2 will go to the grid, 4.64p/KW for 1/2 production. I'm hoping to cut even in 8 - 9 years. If we get a lot of good weather it could be 7. :)
 
tarik said:
Evening all,



Erlier this week my sister in law had a cold caller selling solar panels. She is now convinced thay are the answer to everything,

She is thinkng of having 16 panels on the roof which will make her a fortune - apparently. Total cost £7000.


What does the team think? Are solar panels a good/wise investmant.


As always many thanks for all replies.

David
Click to expand...

If you have the money available it seems a good investment but we paid a lot less than that last year, and they threw in a new fuse box and other extras. More quotes are needed, and you should have no trouble getting more quotes
 
Ours are giving us about 9% return on investment, but would be even better if I could slew the house round from SE to S.:D
 
tarik said:
Evening all,



Erlier this week my sister in law had a cold caller selling solar panels. She is now convinced thay are the answer to everything,

She is thinkng of having 16 panels on the roof which will make her a fortune - apparently. Total cost £7000.


What does the team think? Are solar panels a good/wise investmant.


As always many thanks for all replies.

David
Click to expand...

Apart from the foregoing very good info you might want to ask a couple of local estate agents what effect the panels would have on the resale value of yer property - that is if you were considerin' selling up before or even after, the BE date...
 
My experience will not be much use to OP but here goes. I have had a 1.5Kw nominal system installed for 2 years and 5 months. It has generated 5944Kw H in that time.
Averaging 6.9KwH per day. It cost about 6000 squid but with about 2700squid government rebate. So about 2.5K squid to me. At the time the state government were offering to buy back units at 48cents per unit (1Kwh) compared to 24 cents per unit to buy from the grid. (for 5 years) So I have a 400 squid credit with the elctricity supplier and I figure I have saved about 1300 squid so far from the 2500 odd squid purchase price.
Mostly I love to be able to run aircon without concern or guilt over electricity prices or the environment.
Essentially however we have 4 months with virtually no cloud in the sky in summer and lots of winter sun and a Lat of 32 degrees S. Re aircon every day for next 7 days forecast to exceed 35 degrees max. So it will be punished. olewill
Purchase price is now much cheaper and no government incentives. I think they frightened themselves with take up cost to Gov. So pay back period on installation might be somewhat similar.
 
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16 panels likely to be less than the 4kW max allowed, usually 180 or 220W per panel. Should get a better deal than that, well under £6k.
Mine were £14260 in April 2011 for 4kW, done 12000 plus units to date. Don't get hung up on how much free electricity you will get to use in the house, it doesn't work like that. Yes, turn stuff on when the sun's out, but you don't get to use it all unless you have a smart meter system.
 
The sun is out at the moment so 2KW fan heater running at no cost. 4KW of panels Old rate so 18% return on my money each year.
 
bendyone said:
The sun is out at the moment so 2KW fan heater running at no cost. 4KW of panels Old rate so 18% return on my money each year.
Click to expand...

That is one area we enjoy, cold but bright weather, fan heater no cost. If you look at the FIT meter a light flashes for each watt, and similarly on the incoming mains meter, so you can see which way the power is flowing.
 
tarik said:
Evening all,



Erlier this week my sister in law had a cold caller selling solar panels. She is now convinced thay are the answer to everything,

She is thinkng of having 16 panels on the roof which will make her a fortune - apparently. Total cost £7000.


What does the team think? Are solar panels a good/wise investmant.


As always many thanks for all replies.

David
Click to expand...

I have 4KW Sanyo panels, south facing in central Scotland. The Sanyo panels were more expensive, but also more sensitive so hopefully will be generating earlier and later than others.

£3300 return in two years, but the system was installed before the tariffs were slashed.

> 7000Kwh generated

> 30% return on capital thus far

On a good day I can reach close to the 4Kw, but currently it's in the low hundreds of watts.



For the hell of it, I'm streaming the inverter output and merging it with my weather station data - http://weather.agurney.com/





Here's a useful tool that will let you see what you can hope for in the way of sunshine: http://suncalc.net/#/55.9447,-3.161,13/2014.01.20/12:03
 
fisherman said:
16 panels likely to be less than the 4kW max allowed, usually 180 or 220W per panel. Should get a better deal than that, well under £6k.
Mine were £14260 in April 2011 for 4kW, done 12000 plus units to date. Don't get hung up on how much free electricity you will get to use in the house, it doesn't work like that. Yes, turn stuff on when the sun's out, but you don't get to use it all unless you have a smart meter system.
Click to expand...


I have the older brother if this http://www.solarmerge.co.uk/solarcache i export very little, my hot water cylinder gets first dibs on free electric over export

19 months in i have been paid approx £ 1350 cash. my FIT payments exceed my electricity bill PA
 
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