SLROC Forum

Not exactly to do with Land Rovers, in fact nothing at all to do with Land Rovers....but anyone out there with any knowledge/experience with fitting solar panels to their house?? 

I've been told that I could 'earn' approx ?100 per month with reduced bills and selling power back to the nationl grid.  Is this reasonable  (living in West Lothian, that equates to approx ?100 per sunny day!!)

To be honest, it sound like a good investment - just wondering if anyone has good/bad experiences of this.  There aren't too many houses with solar panels in this area - is there a good reason why?

Cheers

not sure that you will get as much as ?100 per month back from solar panels. You don't actually need sunny days just daylight to produce electric. As far as I am aware the electric companies are obliged to buy back any excess electric that you produce.

As a sideline I look after some remote sensing kit that runs off Solar Panels with a diesel genny as back-up. Even in cloudy weather they produce a couple of amps of charge but .....

The FIT ( Feed in Tarriff) for Solar PV that you sell to the grid is currently (sorry) nuts. Its subsidised way over what the leccy produced is actually sold for - so in theory if HM Govt is willing to agree to pay that price for 25 years jump at it.... BUT. There are a pile of people jumping on the bandwagon with overpriced and optimistic installation schemes. I know of quite large schemes where the house-owner has shelled out a wad of money up front and a year later not seen a bean in his bank account - If you are doing it at all go with your leccy providers own scheme if they have one, rather than an intermidiary.  There are also a lot of schemes out there with "pay nothing, get free leccy" in the title. These guys tend to work on the plan that they will take all the FIT in return for your getting a bit of free leccy for having a tonne of ironmongery on the roof.....and it all becomes yours, magically, just as the contracts for the FITS run out in 25 years time, or somesuch....

The old " If it sounds too good....." comes into play methinks...

BEWARE SOLAR PANEL SALESMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 After having the sales pitch,what you are buying is an investment to make money(or so i was told) The system I was quoted on cost ?15,200 with payback period of around 7 years,the feed in tariff (FIT) being 43.3p per unit generated therefore making around ?2200 per year.Upon putting the figures into the calculator on an Energy Saving website,the payback period was actually 17 years, so I gave that idea a boot into touch!To get the FIT the system must be installed by an MCS registered installer,ie a company,be rest assured they make the money right away,you have to wait up to a maximum of 25 years,the last time I did something similar I was expecting a round the world cruise,a new Landrover and my house fully paid off. NOT A CHANCE!

....and the other gem is that the Govt is shelling out up to 90% on loans to local groups and communities to investigate and plan for renewable energy schemes.... Or in plain english, HMG is paying to create a whole little world of "energy consulatants" etc who will charge ?15k to tell you that the top of your hill is quite windy or that the stream falling down yon hillside, together with your annual 2 metres of rainfall might run a turbine..... Your community will then pay HMG back the loan when they get the FIT...from the Govt.

Tommy - I agree with the comments, stay well clear.......  My father in law had the same type of discussion with a solar panel salesman and when I looked into it for him, the payback was more like 19 years!!!  Now I know where all the double glazing sales people went 

Gordon

When I looked at solar panels a couple of years ago I looked at ones which heated your water rather than generate electricity, the advertising blurb makes them sound better the better option. There is also a grant available from the government ?400 in England but in Scotland you can get ?1000, which I was approved for, only snag is you have to have it fitted for you to get the grant, how much is that ............ exactly ?1000, co-incidence? We never went ahead at the time as the extension went over time and over budget so no money left.  

You would have to think with energy prices going the way they are then they must be getting more worth it?

You would have to think with energy prices going the way they are then they must be getting more worth it?

Well, PV panels and water turbines certainly work and the Govt are heavily subsidising the power from them - but the problem is the shoal of sharks you have to navigate past to make sure the benefit goes to you and not the installer.  Over 20% of leccy in Scotland already comes from renewables of one sort or another.

Seems to be a general theme here. We too had prices for PV etc and it work out to be about 15yr until we broke even. Thats without maintanence.
The same chap said our location wouldn't work with a wind turbine, too much interferance from the trees and were no at the top of the hill where there are 2 wind farms with the 3rd in construction. Meanwhile the guy at the road end at the bottom of the hill with trees around him is getting funding for 2 turbines. We wait to see if they turn.

. We wait to see if they turn.

Ha. I have a bit of kit down in Galloway that has two small ones, on opposite corners of a horsebox sized trailer.......when first fired up they were both turning but one was at 90 degrees to the other - over a distance of 12 feet !

Thanks for the info guys.  The basic info ties up with what I was told - initial outlay fo approx ?16k for PV panels, payback approx 8 years, then making money for the next 17 years.  Told we'd recieve 43p for each unit generated, and a further 3.1p if its fed back into the grid.

We were told that the 43p will reduce as more people start fitting the panels, but I figure that as more people start fitting them the initila cost will reduce.

Thants for all the comments.  Need to do more homework I think, but I'm not siging anything yet!!

(wonder if I can build a nuclear reactor in my shed!!)

One important thing I found out during my brief look at solar panels that only contracts etc signed in your own home have the 7 day cooling off period,enabling cancellation without penalty,(I had also NOT handed over a deposit as requested) Anything signed inside business premises is a different matter,no cooling off period as it regarded you can leave at anytime you wish. A Phrase which includes the word bargepole springs to mind if a certain company based in Hillington Industrial Estate Glasgow is involved.

Tom, have a look at this. I have to say I trust this guy's advice.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/free-solar-panels

cheers.

Drew.

It really all comes down to the the sums.  It is a great idea if you can get the panels fitted cheaply enough (and by an approved dealer - otherwise no pay-back!).  When doing the calculations, be aware that if you don't have a south-facing surface to mount the panels on, the benefits reduce by a lot, and also if the panels may be shaded by trees or another house for part of the day.  See www.EnergySavingTrust.org.uk for impartial advice and a cash-back calculator.