Solar Panels - Which company/scheme?

Solar Panels - Which company/scheme?

Author
Discussion

Fastchas

Original Poster:

2,640 posts

120 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
quotequote all
I've got a couple of appointments coming up soon and wondered if anyone else has experience and could advise which way to go or what questions to ask?

1. A Shade Greener
These guys 'rent a roof' (or the space above your roof, they say)
No outlay. I get to use free electricity during daylight hours but don't actually
own the panels and I make no profit on any units sold back to the grid.

2. Better Energy
This company sell you the panels at a reduced cost (I think)due to gov't subsidies and you
own the panels outright, selling all the electricity you don't use back to the grid.
£6-12k cost depending on size of installation. Saleswoman says the method of repayment
is to use the savings to pay the monthly repayments. Estimate 6-8 years paying off the
scheme.

Better Energy say they don't use the 'rent a roof' scheme as it's difficult to sell/mortgage a house with someone else leasing your roof, in effect. Of course, A Shade Greener dispute this.

Thoughts?

ColinM50

2,630 posts

174 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
quotequote all
Been loads of threads on this, maybe do a search? But I'd add that for a 4KW 16 panel system with all the bells and whistles, you don't need to spend more than £5K max. The people I got mine from,. Greener Living in Huntingdon, charged me £6.5k Jan 13 and they'd now do it for £4.5 inc scaffolding.

In the two years I've had it (bought Jan 13) I've generated 5,243Kw from a north of west facing roof, and I get an f.i.t. of 15.86p plus 4.2p on half of what's generated and deemed sold back to them. IMHO a good deal but you might calculate things differently. I was fortunate to have the money in the bank doing nothing, well 1/2percent so to me it seemed a good deal. Wish I'd done it when the f.i.t. was higher but then the purchase price was more too so swings and roundabouts

its hot

168 posts

111 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
quotequote all
wouldnt even bother ................ plus it makes the property look ugly yuck just my view of course

herewego

8,814 posts

212 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
quotequote all
Mostly they look fine to me but I think they can look a little visually intrusive if the supplier/homeowner has gone overboard with the number of panels if they are also visible from the road. I think this is more likely if the panels are owned by the installer who wants to maximise his FIT returns.

Also this is the only reason I can think of for someone not wanting to buy a house with panels owned by the installer. Afterall they would be getting free daytime electricity.

944fan

4,962 posts

184 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
quotequote all
I've been out of the energy efficiency market for a while but back when the Green Deal and FITs were launched there was a lot of concern about the rent a roof schemes and some troubling noises from the mortgage lenders about not lending on something were someone else as a potential lien on the property.

The second scheme sounds to me like either they are using the Green Deal as the loan mechanism to reduce the cost of the solar panels (doesn't reduce it of course you have to pay but the cost is offset by the savings) or they are going to be keeping the Feed In Tariff. You will get some money back from selling used leccy to the grid but he FIT is where the larger subsidies lie. Would look very closely at exactly how they are funding this and what the potential income to you is.

GD and FITs were the only "subsidy" scheme I was aware of that was running at the time but as I say I left a year ago and there maybe more. I did hear something about the Green Deal Home Improvement Fund where you could get vouchers for installing certain products but know little about it.

z4RRSchris99

11,220 posts

178 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
quotequote all
what is the point?

unless it was on a barn away from my main house and i was making a packet from FIT.

beeej

1,400 posts

192 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
quotequote all
Why do people think solar is worth it?

- the UK is cloudy
- panels are ugly and affect ownership and resale
- there's no real profit

dave_s13

13,813 posts

268 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
quotequote all
Rear of my house is south facing. Someone is home 3days per week (at least) and my wife is a teacher so that's another massive chunk when the place is occupied.

We have an electric car, an induction hob, electric oven and 3 kids so the washer/drier/dishwasher are on virtually all the time. Also lots if always on stuff...nas, router, media streamer, TVs on standby etc...

I'm not in a position to buy panels but surely even a rent a roof scheme would benefit us, wouldn't it???

MarshPhantom

9,658 posts

136 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
quotequote all
herewego said:
Mostly they look fine to me but I think they can look a little visually intrusive if the supplier/homeowner has gone overboard with the number of panels if they are also visible from the road.
Mostly they look terrible.

Mr GrimNasty

8,172 posts

169 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
quotequote all
If they made economic sense without a subsidy and without causing dangerous pollution far afield, fair enough, if not, it's just more of the un-green madness and people that participate are just being selfish, not that that bothers a lot of people these days.

robsdesk

187 posts

131 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
quotequote all
We're in a new build house (as of last summer), has a 1Kw system fitted, I assume as part of the planning requirements, I wouldn't bother if I was paying with my own money (or rather had a choice in the matter!), since last summer it's generated 370Kwh, it does kick out a reasonable amount of power on a bright day - last week I was seeing ~300w for several hours - but at this time of the year that's rare, on a cloudy day I'm not seeing 50w out of it when I look. The financials don't make sense (imo), at least at this scale now that the FIT values have dropped (there are some farmers our way who have fields full of them so it must make sense at that scale or they got in early when FIT was much higher).

I'm told water based systems (so heating your water tank / central heating rather than generating electricity) are a better option in terms of saving money etc..

wolfracesonic

6,940 posts

126 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
quotequote all
With the 'rent a roof' type scenario, who pays if say a ridge tile gets dislodged in high winds and takes out a couple of panels?

McWigglebum4th

32,414 posts

203 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
quotequote all
There is a new thing on the market

Hybrid panels

Solar PV has a big downside

It doesn't work very well when it gets hot

The best way to get something hot

Paint it black and leave it in the sun


You can now get water cooled panels which dump the heat into the central heating.


I would hunt down the experts on here instead of the sales idiots

MarshPhantom

9,658 posts

136 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
quotequote all
Some big solar farms out there now, seemed to a few around Oxfordshire last time I was there.

A charming addition to the English countryside.


surveyor

17,767 posts

183 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
quotequote all
Fastchas said:
I've got a couple of appointments coming up soon and wondered if anyone else has experience and could advise which way to go or what questions to ask?

1. A Shade Greener
These guys 'rent a roof' (or the space above your roof, they say)
No outlay. I get to use free electricity during daylight hours but don't actually
own the panels and I make no profit on any units sold back to the grid.

2. Better Energy
This company sell you the panels at a reduced cost (I think)due to gov't subsidies and you
own the panels outright, selling all the electricity you don't use back to the grid.
£6-12k cost depending on size of installation. Saleswoman says the method of repayment
is to use the savings to pay the monthly repayments. Estimate 6-8 years paying off the
scheme.

Better Energy say they don't use the 'rent a roof' scheme as it's difficult to sell/mortgage a house with someone else leasing your roof, in effect. Of course, A Shade Greener dispute this.

Thoughts?
I think there is an approved scheme for the leases which makes sales more straighforward.

http://ashadegreener.co.uk/faqs/

http://www.cml.org.uk/cml/policy/issues/6229



Chrisgr31

13,440 posts

254 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
quotequote all
When there is a question about solar panels you can bet that people will post they are ugly. Reality is whether they are ugly or not depends on your opinion and it also depends on how visible they are. We have solar panels and the only time I see them is when cutting the grass or gardening, they are on the back can't be seen from the front, or the patio etc.

As regards schemes with the benefit of hindsight I would have got several companies in to quote and got a personal loan. Ours are on a loan organised by the installer and whilst the loan interest rate is reasonable I think the installation cost was ratcheted up. Having said that we still at a minimum break even. It's slightly difficult to calculate the exact benefit as the electricity meter went backwards in the summer so gauging the correct saving in electricity is difficult.

The savings are higher if you have a traditional hot water tank and can divert the spare electricity into the immersion heater in the summer.

ClassicMercs

1,703 posts

180 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
quotequote all
Forget Rent a Roof ! Get a few quotes from installers for your own installation. As well as ''Solar'' Companies there are local electricians who are likely to be experienced in installing systems (as happened with my installation).
Keep the installation neat - a plain rectangle will look better, even if its seldom seen. All black panels will look much nicer than silver frame examples.
Does it work - yes - orientation and shade are big factors. I'm almost due south with minimal shade. And MrsMercs is home during the day so it saves us lots of electric, plus the anticipated payback of 8 years - 17 years profit (as I just made it into the 25 year contracts).

My mate who has solar hs just jumped into pellet burning, as has his neighbour. He's not near a gas main so its working well - and the payback there seems good as well. Just not sure about longevity of the boiler compared to my old pre condensing boiler. You get paid for installing based on the EPC estimate of kwh required - irrespective of whether you use the boiler or not !

Simpo Two

85,148 posts

264 months

Tuesday 3rd March 2015
quotequote all
It's all ste. Next question.

Pferdestarke

7,179 posts

186 months

Tuesday 3rd March 2015
quotequote all
My Uncle has just paid £6k for a company to come and stick some panels on his roof to generate a bit of income each year. He seems to think it'll be about £1k / year.

I'd rather not take the risk and have it potentially break down or cause damage to the roof and the associate hassle. He seems quite pleased about the whole thing and I suppose when compared to bank interest over say a 15 year period it could be a good investment.

They also dropped a piece of scaffold through his neighbour's shed.

dazwalsh

6,095 posts

140 months

Tuesday 3rd March 2015
quotequote all
A quick question, does having A bunch of solar panels on the roof boost the EPC of a property?