Solar Panels - Which company/scheme?

Solar Panels - Which company/scheme?

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Discussion

jason61c

5,978 posts

173 months

Tuesday 3rd March 2015
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DrDoofenshmirtz said:
Nope. What am I missing?
It'll be classed as a charge on your mortgage(if you have one), which means any new mortgage deals will not be anyway near the best on the market.

its hot

168 posts

111 months

Tuesday 3rd March 2015
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z4RRSchris99 said:
you can't see the downside in signing a 25 year lease to your roof?
well I can see several seems many are blindfolded by the fact that there is a saving of money, can see the logic sort of but there is more to life than just saving or making money, if I had to choose living in a street with every roof covered in solar panels or living in a street with nice roofs and no panels but paying say another £100 a year more for my electric , its the later for me. Every one has their own views and choices of course. Remember this is a business for companies and again its the money earner of the period, like the double glazing era and the tv dishes era, well thats my views aired, will sit back now and just look at what else people have to say,,

Casa1862

1,062 posts

164 months

Wednesday 4th March 2015
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I've just purchased a house with solar pv install, luckily on the back so I can't see them. The install was fully paid for yet still most of the questions were about the solar install, the generating income was over estimated by about 1/3 . I paid nothing extra for them but the original owner spent £10k, surveyors are adding NO value at all on resale, so unless you're thinking of staying well past the break even point, 10 years plus in most cases I would't bother. Put your money in some other financial product as that's what it is for most, at least you can take that with you when you sell up.

Rent a roof, forget it, you'll never be able to sell your house, who would buy a house where for 25 years you don't own the roof? Solicitors will charge a fortune and most mortgage companys wont lend unless the panels are owned outright and came with the house as say a kitchen.

frair

2 posts

116 months

Wednesday 4th March 2015
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Hi all

This is regarding FIT payout which is not all that great, a much lesser percentage of the amount spent on PV installation. How does installing a power switching device work out? In another forum I heard of solarimmersion, a fairly priced PV power managing device - http://solarimmersion.co.uk. I am getting a 1kw combi boiler system installed in my home and my PV panels produce 2kw. Wonder how well this device fits into my system. Any thoughts?

DrDoofenshmirtz

15,186 posts

199 months

Wednesday 4th March 2015
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The mortgage/remortgage/house selling issue is a myth.
In the early days their may have been some dodgy start ups offering free panels and iffy lease deals, but it's all settled down now. Go with a reputable company and you'll be fine.

I agree they aren't exactly aesthetically pleasing, but then it's not like I live on Arlington Row or anything. You don't really notice them after a while anyway.

As for savings - I'm going to stick a Solar iBoost on mine, and feed all the unused leccy back into the immersion heater - this will reduce gas bills (significantly for us because we're on LPG) as well as saving on electricity bills.

I'm still open minded, but I've yet to hear any solid argument against.


DrDoofenshmirtz

15,186 posts

199 months

Wednesday 4th March 2015
quotequote all
frair said:
Hi all

This is regarding FIT payout which is not all that great, a much lesser percentage of the amount spent on PV installation. How does installing a power switching device work out? In another forum I heard of solarimmersion, a fairly priced PV power managing device - http://solarimmersion.co.uk. I am getting a 1kw combi boiler system installed in my home and my PV panels produce 2kw. Wonder how well this device fits into my system. Any thoughts?
Solar iBoost is what you want (vids on YouTube) - but you need a hot water tank and an immersion heater.

IIIRestorerIII

841 posts

227 months

Wednesday 4th March 2015
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frair said:
Hi all

This is regarding FIT payout which is not all that great, a much lesser percentage of the amount spent on PV installation. How does installing a power switching device work out? In another forum I heard of solarimmersion, a fairly priced PV power managing device - http://solarimmersion.co.uk. I am getting a 1kw combi boiler system installed in my home and my PV panels produce 2kw. Wonder how well this device fits into my system. Any thoughts?
In short any electricity generated from your system and not used immediately gets sent to the grid. The Solar boost see's this and redirects the energy to something else. Usually the immersion in a hot water tank. I don't think that will work with a combi which provides instant hot water on demand.

Casa1862

1,062 posts

164 months

Wednesday 4th March 2015
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DrDoofenshmirtz said:
The mortgage/remortgage/house selling issue is a myth.
In the early days their may have been some dodgy start ups offering free panels and iffy lease deals, but it's all settled down now. Go with a reputable company and you'll be fine.
I can't see how this can be sorted, the rent a roof installs are massive to maximise the FiT payments and therefore expensive, do you really think as a new buyer of that property they will allow you to remove the panels if you wanted? you've agreed to a 20 year contract, they'll want to protect thier investment, any evidence to back up your claim its a myth?

Whatever the case you're limiting the number of buyers for the property, making it virtually un mortgageable , loss of curb appeal etc for a saving on your electric bill

DrDoofenshmirtz

15,186 posts

199 months

Wednesday 4th March 2015
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Casa1862 said:
DrDoofenshmirtz said:
The mortgage/remortgage/house selling issue is a myth.
In the early days their may have been some dodgy start ups offering free panels and iffy lease deals, but it's all settled down now. Go with a reputable company and you'll be fine.
I can't see how this can be sorted, the rent a roof installs are massive to maximise the FiT payments and therefore expensive, do you really think as a new buyer of that property they will allow you to remove the panels if you wanted? you've agreed to a 20 year contract, they'll want to protect thier investment, any evidence to back up your claim its a myth?

Whatever the case you're limiting the number of buyers for the property, making it virtually un mortgageable , loss of curb appeal etc for a saving on your electric bill
I understand what you're saying, but I can't really see it as much of an issue. Any new buyer would need to take on the contract, this is true. I just can't see anyone thinking 'that house has solar which is fully maintained, won't cost a penny to run, and will reduce my energy bills - I don't like the sound of that - move along'.
So many houses have these panels now - I think it will actually make the house more salable.

Casa1862

1,062 posts

164 months

Wednesday 4th March 2015
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V
DrDoofenshmirtz said:
I understand what you're saying, but I can't really see it as much of an issue. Any new buyer would need to take on the contract, this is true. I just can't see anyone thinking 'that house has solar which is fully maintained, won't cost a penny to run, and will reduce my energy bills - I don't like the sound of that - move along'.
So many houses have these panels now - I think it will actually make the house more salable.
The vendor will say that but if a buyer can't get finance then that's a massive issue. Mortgage companies which I'm sure you know are very fussy these days, they just won't accept a separate contract for the roof, it's a major nightmare for them if say they need to repro, they'll just say no. I got loads of questions about my panels and they were a outright purchase.

The convayencing involved Is much more, solicitor basically needs to deal with two contracts, most will advise it's just not worth it, I'd agree with that.

I'm surprised you said it's sorted now, what's changed?

Edited by Casa1862 on Wednesday 4th March 15:23

dave_s13

13,813 posts

268 months

Wednesday 4th March 2015
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Gotta say, I agree with the Dr.

If the panels are on the rear elevation then the curb appeal thing is moot, personally I don't care what the back of my house looks like (well to a degree). When we are in the garden we look out on to the open feilds, not the kitchen.

We have got a lot of electrical apliances on, a lot of the time. Surely this will have a significant impact on our leccy bill.

Question.

On a sunny day - will the panels give out enough juice to charge an electric car???

surveyor

17,768 posts

183 months

Wednesday 4th March 2015
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Casa1862 said:
The vendor will say that but if a buyer can't get finance then that's a massive issue. Mortgage companies which I'm sure you know are very fussy these days, they just won't accept a separate contract for the roof, it's a major nightmare for them if say they need to repro, they'll just say no. I got loads of questions about my panels and they were a outright purchase.

The convayencing involved Is much more, solicitor basically needs to deal with two contracts, most will advise it's just not worth it, I'd agree with that.

I'm surprised you said it's sorted now, what's changed?

Edited by Casa1862 on Wednesday 4th March 15:23
There is a proforma Lease agreed nowadays that Lenders have had input on. Essentially the main protection gives them the right to terminate the Lease if they do repossess the property.

ARH

1,222 posts

238 months

Wednesday 4th March 2015
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dave_s13 said:
On a sunny day - will the panels give out enough juice to charge an electric car???
At full whack mine deliver 3.7kw this is a 4kw system. In june or july you can get this output for about 6 hours. The best I have generated in 1 day is 30kw. and the worst is 0.12kw. So probably in the summer, but when it rains on a winters day no.

Chris Type R

8,018 posts

248 months

Wednesday 4th March 2015
quotequote all
DrDoofenshmirtz said:
I understand what you're saying, but I can't really see it as much of an issue. Any new buyer would need to take on the contract, this is true. I just can't see anyone thinking 'that house has solar which is fully maintained, won't cost a penny to run, and will reduce my energy bills - I don't like the sound of that - move along'.
So many houses have these panels now - I think it will actually make the house more salable.
What about the consideration of having to allow access to read the meter every now and then ?

Three like houses: no PVC, rent a roof, and fully owned, I'd not go for the rent-a-roof. I doubt I'd pay more for the house with fully owned either. It's more of a bonus then desirable to me.

OP, one of the options to use day time leccy (timed washing machine & dishwasher aside) could be to drive the immersion heater on the hot water cylinder, if you have such a thing.

You'll need a £200+ adapter to do it though.

EDIT: Spotted that it's been mentioned a little earlier.

DrDoofenshmirtz

15,186 posts

199 months

Wednesday 4th March 2015
quotequote all
dave_s13 said:
On a sunny day - will the panels give out enough juice to charge an electric car???
Wiki suggests a Nissan Leaf needs 3.3Kw (and optional 6.6kw whatever that means...fast charge maybe?)

Most solar panels are 3kw.

So the car will max out the solar panels all the time, and you'll be drawing another 300 watts from the grid (at least, on good day - with hazy skies and a cool breeze..i.e the best conditions).

Although they won't fully charge it off grid, you'll significantly reduce your leccy bill.

herewego

8,814 posts

212 months

Wednesday 4th March 2015
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The Council of Mortgage Lenders have standardised input required from Installers. The only time there could be an issue as far as I can see is if someone without a mortgage takes a roof scheme out without mortgage company approval and it turns out to be non compliant.

DrDoofenshmirtz

15,186 posts

199 months

Wednesday 4th March 2015
quotequote all
Casa1862 said:
The vendor will say that but if a buyer can't get finance then that's a massive issue. Mortgage companies which I'm sure you know are very fussy these days, they just won't accept a separate contract for the roof, it's a major nightmare for them if say they need to repro, they'll just say no. I got loads of questions about my panels and they were a outright purchase.

The convayencing involved Is much more, solicitor basically needs to deal with two contracts, most will advise it's just not worth it, I'd agree with that.

I'm surprised you said it's sorted now, what's changed?
According to 'A Shade Greener', this simply isn't an issue.

'Any of our customers, or any potential purchaser of a property with our free panels, will not have any problems raising a mortgage or remortgage from any of the above lenders because of our lease. We are so sure of this we will guarantee that we will BUY any property from the customer (at the market value – no less) should this situation ever arise.'
http://ashadegreener.co.uk/mortgages/

Casa1862

1,062 posts

164 months

Wednesday 4th March 2015
quotequote all
DrDoofenshmirtz said:
According to 'A Shade Greener', this simply isn't an issue.

'Any of our customers, or any potential purchaser of a property with our free panels, will not have any problems raising a mortgage or remortgage from any of the above lenders because of our lease. We are so sure of this we will guarantee that we will BUY any property from the customer (at the market value – no less) should this situation ever arise.'
http://ashadegreener.co.uk/mortgages/
Sounds good ( too good if I'm honest - will buy at market value...Hmm) but the company I mortgaged with was on that list and made a big fuss about the panels, basically having to prove ownership and it said clearly rent a roof would have voided eligibility, i exchanged end of Jan so not that long ago.

Also, solar companies are as reliable as double glazing companies so seeing as the commitment is 20 years, not sure I'd trust them for 20 months.

I've actually done well out of mine, house came with them and certainly not pushed or priced as an extra, in fact agent only told me when I asked what the meter was for. I've also got the higher 0.49p per Kw rate, so about £500 pounds per year for the remaining 20 odd years, I certainly wouldn't pay for them as an investment as it's not portable and stays with the property. Orginal owner paid £10k and like most others thought that he was staying put, they well overestimated the potential returns and blame it on a neighbours tree which certianly hasn't grown as tall as the house in 4 years when they first installed, sorry but I just don't trust the industry, full of too many promises and hard selling.

z4RRSchris99

11,221 posts

178 months

Wednesday 4th March 2015
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personally think its basically the same premise as 'pay day loans'.. find something that chavvy families have loads of. i.e. a roof. and offer them something free that will make them money, give them money now etc... but may fk them down the line

i have the most cunning plan along the same jist, but am waiting for my moral compass to fully vanish before making my millions.

DrDoofenshmirtz

15,186 posts

199 months

Wednesday 4th March 2015
quotequote all
Yeah...I was trying to keep conversation intelligent. I'm surprised a property developer doesn't have anything sensible to add?
How exactly will they 'fk you' down the line?

Edited by DrDoofenshmirtz on Wednesday 4th March 20:19