Dingdongler

Will probably have my heating reconfigured soon and was thinking about these.

Do they actually save enough money on bills to justify their cost?

Are there grants to help towards these?

Any other pros/cons?

I know I could ring a company and find out but once people like that have your details they keep bothering you even when you aren't interested

RobsyUK

iTrader: (2)

Around here there are companies that fit them free and any electric not used goes back to the company that fit them... Something like £25k to fit and need replacing every 25yrs... What if a football hits them .... £25k please...
IMO THey are new technology and still cost more then they give... Otherwise everyone would be on the gravy train..

Oh it helps if you have a south facing garden...

The Zohan

announced on the radio today that the subsidies for solar panels will be halved for any orders taken after mid Dec 2011!

Dingdongler

Thanks.

It wasn't the inflated price you could sell the leccy back for that I was interested in, it was the reduction in heating bills they might produce.

Are the 'subsidies' that are being cut for the actual price of the solar panels or the price of the leccy you can sell back?

Anybody have an idea what a couple of solar panels might save you off your heating bill?

Ant

They do not cost £26k nowhere near

scud8

iTrader: (1)

I've got two companies coming this week to quote, but I've phoned them both and told them not to bother unless they can commit to having the job done and registered by December 12. The govt announced today that the feed in tariff for retro-fit PV is being cut from 43.3 ppu to 21.0 ppu for systems registered after that date. This reduces the return on investment from ~9% to below 4% - so you might as well put the money in a 5 year investment bond instead.

Looks like Chris Huhne's work to me, he really doesn't have a clue. This will kill the industry stone dead. In a delicious irony the announcement is in the form of a consultation and the closing date for comments is after the change will take effect.

Ant

Scud out of interest what companies are coming out?

scud8

iTrader: (1)

You might be better off with solar thermal panels rather than PV if you want to reduce your heating bills. The other thing to consider is a ground source heat pump. The Renewable Heating Initiative kicks off next year, and, IIRC includes grants towards installation and a tariff payable from later in the year. See http://www.rhincentive.co.uk/RHI/quick/ for details.

scud8

iTrader: (1)

Both local to me - SolarTech and Chiltern Solar. They're both still coming out, but are not 100% sure they will be able to do the job in time. They claim to have plenty of installers, but understandably they are predicting panels may be in short supply for the next month or so.

Huhne really is an idiot (sorry - had to say it again). Wish the police would hurry up and charge him for (allegedly) getting his wife to take points for him.

Ant

They Only take 1-2 days to install. I bet they'll manage easily

molko

I already have GSHP fitted, am i eligble for the tariff next year ?

JackClark

Great link. Phase 2 is very interesting.*

I saw a pretty nasty picture of a council estate turned into a solar farm today. It looked terrible.*

scud8

iTrader: (1)

To some extent I agree with you, but the government have to decide whether they believe in their renewables targets or not. Very few people would risk investing £10-£12K in a new technology just for the warm fuzzy feeling of saving the planet, so there has to be a sensible return on the investment to justify that risk. <4% compared to current rates for fixed term savings accounts is just stupid.

The mistake they have made is not distinguishing enough between industrial/commercial scale installations and residential installations (and the rent-a-roof schemes). The big investors have seen the opportunity and moved in quickly, taking up a big proportion of the subsidies the government originally intended for home-owner installations.

mslorach

iTrader: (22)

Check with your installer mate, if you had the system fitted recently you should be automatically eligible, I had solar hot water panels fitted last year and they have been registered by the installer so I'm just waiting for the scheme to start.

Dr Hu

Yep I reckon the Solar 'bubble' is about to jump off a cliff......

Frosticles

iTrader: (1)

We had these installed a couple of months ago.
We decided to buy them outright rather than to have the free jobbies.
We should be fine as our feed in tariff is fixed and guaranteed for 25 years. But, Like everything that Governments do, I suppose they could easily move the goalposts to suit themselves!

Chip

What size and type of system did you have fitted? And what do you envisage your return will be?

I have been quoted today £11400 inc 5% VAT for a 4KW system and it can be fitted before Dec 12 th as well. Seriously thinking about it.

Chip

Dr Hu

Where will all these Solar Companies be in a years time.....

I would be very careful about about the 'warranty' being offered.

Once the Gov have halved the FIT's the industry is effectively dead....

scud8

iTrader: (1)

I've just had a quote that is slightly more than that, but in the same ballpark. Will probably go with it because they can definitely have it commissioned before Dec 12. The roof is almost south facing (within ~10%) so we should get a reasonable yield.

BOB.T

Just how bad at football are you?

^Qwerty^

I've got a quote in for a ~4KW system using Sharp panels and a Sunny Boy invertor for ~£10k - with haggle I bet I can get that to just below £10k. That includes installation costs (i.e. scaffolding) and is from a company that has been around since longer than last week

One thing to check is how the company fixes the panels to your roof. My quote is to lift the roof tiles and put in some brackets which are attached to the roof trusses. Some cowboys will just drill holes in your roof tiles - which is fine until they get water in and then freeze, and they you'll have all kinds of problems to deal with. The warranty from some of these companies trading today is probably not worth the paper it's written on now that the FIT reduction will drive most of them out of business in the next few months so be careful.

The problem I have is that the shares I was planning on selling to put towards the cost have taken a tumble, so I can't quite afford it now

Chip

What returns are they saying you should expect?

stuart2008sti

iTrader: (1)

If you are looking to heat water,look at the thermomax range of tube as they are more efficient than most.

http://www.thermomax.com/

SPEN555

I looked into this and found;

Payback takes too many years and so many things could change in that time.

Will the panels really last 25 years?

All payback calcs seem to be very optimistic in what they will generate. They don't seem to factor we hardly get sunlight in this country. Must be plucking figures from the equator.

If you do a search there are many forums whereby people are very disappointed in the amount of electric they are producing.

HTH.

jono300

iTrader: (8)

Funny enough past a house earlier on today that had just had them fitted, spoke to the wife about them and she mentioned she had also heard a price off around 25k to have them fitted although she did say she had heard a grant would be available for a chunk off this amount.

one thing that did occur to me is that 25k is a lot to outlay and just wonder how long the average householder stays in one house before moving on ?! suppose if you thought that way you would never spend on additions to the house thou !!

Chip

Cheers Dave