Felix.

Has anyone got them - what are they like, do they save you money and are they worth it

We seem to be using more and more electric these days which is only going to increase when all cars are going to run on the stuff in future. Just wondering is it worth looking into getting some panels to try and off set the future costs?

ted bass

I've never looked into it personally but if solar panels were such a great thing then why isn't every new build fitted with um, if you think about it they ain't, you see all these new houses going up but ive yet to see any with solar panels on the roof from new, why is that

hedgecutter

iTrader: (5)

I'm in a similar position, but self building a barn. Our issue is that Western Power, who own and maintain the grid infrastructure, wont let us generate or use more than 3.7kw, to avoid consumers generating too much and then ploughing it back into a grid infrastructure that can't cope with it, due to all the other wind and solar farms overloading it. WP also make it hard to go full fat, generate as much as you like.
Without a battery to store the electricity made, you will have to adjust to using during daytime.
To sum up, it's a minefield, without the rhi payments it's going to take a long time to pay back, and it will only cover your daytime use unless you have batteries. It suits the system we are designing, with underfloor heating and heat store, but as a standalone, it wont be generating when you really need it, at night or deep winter.

mrtheedge2u2

We are having solar panels fitted in March. Obviously the efficiency of solar panels are not great - 15 to 20%. My sister-in-law's father-in-law is a world leading expert on photovoltaic energy conversion and leads the European Technology and Innovation Platform for Photovoltaics and he does not have them and keeps stating that when efficiency gets to 40% then he will. He believes they will get towards 40% soon though.

However, financially they make sense and you will recuperate your money. The more you have the quicker you recuperate.

RobsyUK

iTrader: (2)

From what I can tell, if you buy a house with them on you're onto free money.
If you have to pay out for them or tie into a 25yr contract with the fitter it's a waste of time.

Oh, and don't forget to opt for the mesh to stop birds getting under it.

andy97

iTrader: (1)

I wouldn't say its a waste of time. Having solar or wind is helping reduce the reliance on the remaining fossil fuel energy generation.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

The house I purchased already has them. As my only source of heating is electric (no gas/oil), it does make a difference. As the cost of electric per kilowatt hour is double of that of heating oil (approx 7p per kwh).

Also I'm on a Feed in Tarrif which is fixed by the government. This has ended for new installations and its replacement is yet to be fully implemented.

It's not as simple as "fit 'em 'an watch the wonga roll in". I still have to pay for the electric because I can't practically time peak use to hours when the sun shines...unless I install a big battery storage system, but my panels still don't generate enough to cover overall use so unless I fit even more panels I still need to draw off the grid.

That said, FiT/export payments has more or less halved my electric bill.

The ultimate bottom line is return on investment. So that is the cost on install vs. time it takes for it to pay for itself....if it takes ten years for it to pay for itself you may not get any benefit from it. Especially if you suffer a component failure out of warranty or you move house beforehand.

There are also lot of installers that charge the earth for lower end equipment and potential inflate returns by using peak figures to make it look like you'll get a quicker/bigger return. Do your sums; Uk real world sunshine hours in middle England is roughly 1450 hours per year. Panel/system output can be half its peaks rating, that should give you a rough rule of thumb. Without a traditional FiT, export to the grid will be actual and not calculated so you are at a further disadvantage compared to those on the old FIT (which exploited exaggerated generation figures).

My system has been installed using the cheapest components; My panels are only 250watt each and real world output is about 150watts per panel, that's a 40% less than their peak rating. New good quality panels of the same size output over 400watts each. Using 16 of the latter over the former would give far quicker returns. And if my system had used even higher output 495watt panels (slightly larger, but there is space), the same roof could generate almost double of what they do presently.

If I had paid for them I wouldn't have been impressed, as such I'm looking at installing further better output panels to supplement the existing system (swapping the existing panels financially doesn't work out due to labour costs and realistic second hand trade in values etc) ; However the conditions regarding FIT allowance and permissions from the grid owner (DNO) for fast-track permission will limit you to 16amps for a single phase (unless you go for a g99 install which has more hoops to jump through), doesn't make it a straightforward task to upgrade it legally. Everything has to MCS approved and certified so it's a bit like Gas safe are with boilers.

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Interesting, I'm also Western Power and doing a self-build barn conversion! I'm slightly different setup possibly as I (will) have 3 properties on the same site - 2 holiday rentals and my home. I'm intending to run 8kw array but although grid tied, will not be exporting anything as will push all excess production into HW immersion in any of the 3 buildings via something like this. If that's too much, then I'll just lose the rest. Will get batteries eventually but anything to offset an ASHP in a not particularly well insulated (existing) building is worthwhile!

hedgecutter

iTrader: (5)

That's interesting; sounds very similar, as we have 3 barns here. I'm looking at a heat store for the main building, which is being heavily insulated. How do you avoid WP capping your generation at 3.7kw, or is it just their infrastructure being particularly bad at my end?

andy97

iTrader: (1)

I applied to have 40kw array with WP. They said as long as my incoming supply has capacity to handle the solar array, it was ok. We were aiming at 125kW 3 phase grid connection.

So you need bigger 3phase power coming into the property

hedgecutter

iTrader: (5)

The incoming supply has no capacity whatsoever, as the farm transformer was installed in 1957. 3 phase is financially not an option, as line upgrading has been quoted at over £300k. WP do whatever is necessary to protect their capacity, and unfortunately everything for miles needs replacing. We have been capped at 4.6kw.