Solar roof panels - anyone got em?

[Notshortnottall]

Long story short - bought a house which needs a lot of work doing and looked at having solar panels fitted on the roof.

A chap came out to give me low down on it all (feed in tariffs, different options to buy/rent etc) and walked through how much i could receive back by 'selling' excess energy back to the grid.

This all just seems too good to be true so would be interested in hearing how other people have gone about it and if it's been a worthwhile investment or a waste of space.

[Paul Drawmer]

I've had mine for 4 years plus.
The house faces south, the roof pitch is 30deg. The actual generation over the last 12 months has been 4218kW. The system is rated at 3.88kWp. That's the real-life generation performance in Oxfordshire.

If your roof doesn't point south, or you live further north, you will get a little less.


If you divide your proposed system kWp by 3.88 and multiply by 4218, you will get a projected generation for your proposed system.
Run that against the generation and export tariffs and you'll arrive at an expected income.

There are savings as well, but in the overall scheme of things, they're quite small as most of the power is produced when you don't want it.

As I bought my system so long ago, there's no point in me quoting financials derived from my initial costs and tariff.

[JimM169]

We moved house last year and the new house has them, wasn't the reason we bought the house but certainly didn't hurt. From our point of view they are great, didn't cost us anything and in the 9 months we've been there, we've had about £1,800 back (we're on the 42p rate)
As an added benefit up until 2 weeks ago we had an old style dial meter which used to spin backwards when the generation exceeded usage, unfortunately the electric company caught on to this so have swapped the meter out to a newer digital one.

They're not the prettiest thing in the world but after a while you forget they are there and just let them do their thing.

[JimM169]

Should have also mentioned ours are owned. Had they been a rent a roof type affair we would have insisted that the previous owners remove and settle any contract buy out or would have walked away from the house purchase

[onedsla]

We inherited (owned) PV panels when we bought our current house, on the old 42p tariff. It's a large Victorian house, so welcome to help reduce bills.

However - not recommended to screw into a 100 year old roof. They contributed to roof leaks which brought forward our re-roofing project. They are now flashed in properly be competent roofers - something to consider if you have an old roof.

True that most of the excess power is 'wasted' during the day if you're not using it. Until domestic batteries make more financial sense, I'm using a £230 system that sends excess energy to the hot water immersion heater. During the summer, our gas use to heat water reduces to near enough zero.

It's a nice feeling to plug in an electric car during a sunny day without having to import any energy from the grid.

[mikeiow]

4.5 years in here (so maximum FIT tariff, but maximum panel cost originally!). Over 15,000kWh generated to date, on line for break even in another 3 years by my calculations.

Probably saves about 33% of our own electric use (wife home, so appliances on during day).

I'm surprised to hear someone would refuse to buy a house if they were 'rented' - I'd just want to know the panel owner would be liable for any leakages, otherwise all it would do is save you some electricity, surely!

[LS]

I've got solar panels and solar hot water. IMO the hot water is better than the panels. With the reduction in hot water costs (none between Easter and October) and the FIT payments, (from only a 1.6kw panels), all my gas and electric bills are covered. (Meter does run backwards), it will be a cold day in hell before I let 'em change it!!

[Jasandjules]

mikeiow said:

I'm surprised to hear someone would refuse to buy a house if they were 'rented' - I'd just want to know the panel owner would be liable for any leakages, otherwise all it would do is save you some electricity, surely!

You can have difficulties getting a mortgage on that basis I believe. I suspect that has changed/will change..

[JimM169]

LS said:

(Meter does run backwards), it will be a cold day in hell before I let 'em change it!!

I was going to put up a fight but it's their meter and at the end of the day they can change it if they want, plus they probably would have tried to back charge me for the assumed under billing (they can do this as agreed with Ofgem)

[Paul Drawmer]

LS said:

I've got solar panels and solar hot water. IMO the hot water is better than the panels. With the reduction in hot water costs (none between Easter and October) and the FIT payments, (from only a 1.6kw panels), all my gas and electric bills are covered. (Meter does run backwards), it will be a cold day in hell before I let 'em change it!!

I fitted solar thermal in 2008 - vary satisfying, although the DIY install made it worthwhile.

When I first had the PV installed, the meter ran backwards to the extent that I was exporting more than I imported, so the meter readings went down. Strangely enough I didn't get away with that for long.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPBNk2wIcTs

They replaced it with an export read meter, which is better for me as I export more than the 50% usually assumed for export tariff.

[jon-]

Lots of positivity from early adopters, and people on the "old rate / old meters", is there any point doing it now? My roof is south facing and gets a lot of sun, I wouldn't want to spend thousands only to reduce my electricity bill by a small amount (it's currently only about 60p/day, with a further 80p coming from gas - I had a smart meter installed!)

I've no problem with an upfront payment if I can get rid of monthly payments

ETA: The Tesla Powerwall must have an impact, anyone run the math?

http://www.teslamotors.com/en_GB/powerwall

[Zoon]

jon- said:

Lots of positivity from early adopters, and people on the "old rate / old meters", is there any point doing it now? My roof is south facing and gets a lot of sun, I wouldn't want to spend thousands only to reduce my electricity bill by a small amount (it's currently only about 60p/day, with a further 80p coming from gas - I had a smart meter installed!)

I've no problem with an upfront payment if I can get rid of monthly payments

ETA: The Tesla Powerwall must have an impact, anyone run the math?

http://www.teslamotors.com/en_GB/powerwall

It will have a massive effect if it reduces grid usage 100%.
I'm not sure how they cope running say a tumble dryer or washing machine however.

[IIIRestorerIII]

jon- said:

Lots of positivity from early adopters, and people on the "old rate / old meters", is there any point doing it now? My roof is south facing and gets a lot of sun, I wouldn't want to spend thousands only to reduce my electricity bill by a small amount (it's currently only about 60p/day, with a further 80p coming from gas - I had a smart meter installed!)

I've no problem with an upfront payment if I can get rid of monthly payments

ETA: The Tesla Powerwall must have an impact, anyone run the math?

http://www.teslamotors.com/en_GB/powerwall

I fitted my 3.5kw system last year at a cost of £6.5k. Its on for 4MW generation so over £600 in FIT payments and my energy bill has gone down over £30/month (helped by the hot water cylinder being heated during the day by the solar). On for 1k a year in that case.

7 year payback, a little longer for any maintenance costs that may arise.

[Mr GrimNasty]

Zoon said:

jon- said:

Lots of positivity from early adopters, and people on the "old rate / old meters", is there any point doing it now? My roof is south facing and gets a lot of sun, I wouldn't want to spend thousands only to reduce my electricity bill by a small amount (it's currently only about 60p/day, with a further 80p coming from gas - I had a smart meter installed!)

I've no problem with an upfront payment if I can get rid of monthly payments

ETA: The Tesla Powerwall must have an impact, anyone run the math?

http://www.teslamotors.com/en_GB/powerwall

It will have a massive effect if it reduces grid usage 100%.
I'm not sure how they cope running say a tumble dryer or washing machine however.

If you do a bit of looking around you will see the opinion that it is not economically viable, and not suited to PV charging, basically a means for Tesla to get rid of all the batteries it committed to buying for the cars it can't shift despite being pay-rolled by subsidy billions.

Like all 'green' innovation, it's dumb. Just like PV panels, but you won't convince the minority benefiting at the expense of everyone else.

[Elsdin66]

horrid things look unsightly and spoil the look of a nice property not all they made out to be would never buy a property with them fitted, id rather pay the full elect bill and have a property that has some kerb appeal but thats just me!!!

[e8_pack]

Elsdin66 said:

horrid things look unsightly and spoil the look of a nice property not all they made out to be would never buy a property with them fitted, id rather pay the full elect bill and have a property that has some kerb appeal but thats just me!!!

Luddite's arrived..

[Elsdin66]

e8_pack said:

Luddite's arrived..

not opposed to technology but be honest if they made the panels to look like roof tiles then maybe

[Trevor450]

Elsdin66 said:

not opposed to technology but be honest if they made the panels to look like roof tiles then maybe

I'm with you on this. I am sure the tech is great for many but I do think they look awful. Thankfully, I live in a conservation area in an AONB so there wouldn't be a hope in hell of any houses in the village getting ones visible from a road.

[98elise]

Mr GrimNasty said:

Zoon said:

jon- said:

Lots of positivity from early adopters, and people on the "old rate / old meters", is there any point doing it now? My roof is south facing and gets a lot of sun, I wouldn't want to spend thousands only to reduce my electricity bill by a small amount (it's currently only about 60p/day, with a further 80p coming from gas - I had a smart meter installed!)

I've no problem with an upfront payment if I can get rid of monthly payments

ETA: The Tesla Powerwall must have an impact, anyone run the math?

http://www.teslamotors.com/en_GB/powerwall

It will have a massive effect if it reduces grid usage 100%.
I'm not sure how they cope running say a tumble dryer or washing machine however.

If you do a bit of looking around you will see the opinion that it is not economically viable, and not suited to PV charging, basically a means for Tesla to get rid of all the batteries it committed to buying for the cars it can't shift despite being pay-rolled by subsidy billions.

Like all 'green' innovation, it's dumb. Just like PV panels, but you won't convince the minority benefiting at the expense of everyone else.

What batteries have tesla commited to buying and can't sell? If that was the case why are they building the gigafactory to build their own batterIes?

Tesla also have no problem shifting cars the cars they build.

[mildmannered]

I've been helping the in laws out with a few jobs around their house of late. And one thing I have noticed is the sheer amount of debris on the drive. Which is from the various birds that nest in and around the solar panels on the roof. Not something I've heard mentioned before, that may be worth considering?