overall cost of installing Solar panels

[dhutch]

Siko said:

My folks got one side of their double garage fitted with solar panels about 10-15 years ago. They got one of the last decent grants.

Same. Literally the last day.

[dmsims]

I have been told that if you install battery at the same time as solar panels the former is 5% VAT - is that correct ?

[dhutch]

Evoluzione said:

We'll look back and cringe at these retro fitted abominations not only now, but for years to come.

To be fair, that's one of the worst I have ever seen!

[ARHarh]

dhutch said:

To be fair, that's one of the worst I have ever seen!

That is bad, but in reality how often do you sit admiring the aesthetic beauty of your roof. In my experience most people who complain about how they look are the ones who cant afford to put them up And over the years I have had this said about mine often, but really a few panels on a 1960's bungalow is really not the worst crime against aesthetics.

[Bullet-Proof_Biscuit]

ChocolateFrog said:

Do it for environmental reasons not with the intention of recouping costs and it's probably ok.

Personally wouldn't do it. Retrofitted panels look gash and my next door neighbour is currently struggling to get their house sale completed because they rent their solar PV and that's not allowed for some reason.

Heard about this recently, it’s because there’s finance against the panels, meaning the lender doesn’t want to lend against a property which already has finance (guess a bit like buying a used car on finance off someone who hasn’t paid all the finance off.

Edited by Bullet-Proof_Biscuit on Wednesday 28th October 13:09

[dhutch]

Brother in law has a house where the roof space is rented out to those that own the panels, acquired that way from the previous owners. Created some paperwork but was I believe basically very manageable. Not sure if he now get the income from them or not, presumably so I would have thought.

Daniel

[Jambo85]

Evoluzione said:

Tesla however are here to save us with their new solar panel tiles. A house built for solar is a much better prospect, not only visually, but also in that you haven't paid for two roof coverings.

Have you priced those recently? I did, and decided to pay for two roof coverings instead

[Saleen836]

dhutch said:

Brother in law has a house where the roof space is rented out to those that own the panels, acquired that way from the previous owners. Created some paperwork but was I believe basically very manageable. Not sure if he now get the income from them or not, presumably so I would have thought.

Daniel

All he will get is some free electricity, the feed in tarrif will go to the panel owners

[Tim-D]

Mine were fitted in June '18 - total installation cost £5K (worth noting that the house was had been re-roofed the previous week so scaffolding was already there)

I have 14 x 310w piemar panels and a solax inverter sat in sunny North Somerset, since installation the system has generated 11959 kwh - which I assume is better than average as the roof pitch faces spot on due south with no obstruction or shading.

For the cost the panels came with a 20 year manufacturer warranty and a 30 year 80% performance warranty, the inverter warranty is 20 years.

Since installation the electricity bill has halved so at a guesstimate I'd pitch its free power at about £30pm and the FIT tariff payment ( at I think 3.79ppkwh) averages out at about £18pm - so total saving £48pm which means system pays for itself in 8 years 8 months - a little worse than the illustrations provided on sale - but I wasn't that naive in the first place.

Given the warranties in place coupled with the fact my savings, weren't, aren't and probably won't make any interest I consider it a worthwhile investment - and would do it again.

When considering supply & fitting the quotes I had ranged from £5,750 to £15K - needless to say on a recommendation i went with the cheapest - negotiated them down a little and as said already had scaffolding erected.

The irony being that the most expensive quote, and arrogant presumptious attitude, came from a firm on the other side of the field from my house!

That's just my experience as a consumer - the roof is now new and super insulated saving quite noticeably on heating bills and the panels are a bonus....

If anyone wants to know details of the firm that did mine feel free to PM me - as it turns out I get a £250 kickback for recommending them ;-)

[Jambo85]

dmsims said:

I have been told that if you install battery at the same time as solar panels the former is 5% VAT - is that correct ?

Not any more I don’t think. Solar panels were 5% VAT until I think October last year then went up to 20%. Prior to that what you say above was the case, if the battery was bought at the same time you got the whole system at the reduced rate. You’re now stuffed either way

[JagDroid Man]

ChocolateFrog said:

Do it for environmental reasons not with the intention of recouping costs and it's probably ok.

I'm not convinced about the environmental argument. I wonder what is the total environmental impact of the entire domestic PV industry?
From the factories manufacturing the PV panels themselves, and decommissioning the panels and recycling at the end of their life, you've also got the fleet of vehicles manufactured, maintained, fuelled to transport the sales people and technicians around to do the surveys, installs, repairs, maintenance etc.
What about the manufacture and distribution of all the associated additional switchgear, cabling, then you have all the offices housing the people looking after the billing, backend services, customer support etc etc. it goes on and on.

Especially now that the majority of UK energy is generated from renewable sources, how can all of the above be a positive environmental impact when you can simply draw electricity via the existing grid?

On the financial side, they only pay for themselves (after many many years) due to government subsidies, rather than being economically viable on their own merit. For charging EVs we now have the Octopus Go tariff available at 5p/Kwh, so even the financial benefit is vastly diminished.

Add to that the fact they often look ugly, can cause legal complications with house sales with certain schemes, and will eventually end up being a liability when the panels or switchgear start failing, I can't see how these make sense.

[Jambo85]

JagDroid Man said:

Especially now that the majority of UK energy is generated from renewable sources, how can all of the above be a positive environmental impact when you can simply draw electricity via the existing grid?

Majority can be a misleading word, it's still 40-50% gas, around 30 TWh per quarter which is fkload of gas and CO2! We've made incredible progress and gas is better than oil and coal but there's still a way to go with current electricity consumption. And then there's the longer term issue that electricity consumption is going to increase as EVs and heat pumps become the norm, and that we are going to see a decrease in our nuclear output in coming years (considered renewable). There will be a mixture of solutions to this, including more wind turbines, interconnects and perhaps large scale battery storage - however I also firmly believe there will be an increase in gas fuelled generation.

This article has plenty of good facts in it but you need to read beyond the anti fossil fuel bias in the text and do your own analysis:

https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-uk-renewables...

eg. in the opening paragraph he compares 29.5 TWh from renewables vs "just" 29.1 TWh from fossil fuels - laughable.

Also if you look at the graphs there you will see that total consumption has also decreased over the last decade - a mixture of causes but one of them is "behind the meter" generation such as roof top PV panels which for the most part can only be measured as a decrease in consumption.

[MrJuice]

Tim-D said:

Mine were fitted in June '18 - total installation cost £5K (worth noting that the house was had been re-roofed the previous week so scaffolding was already there)

Incidentally, do you know what the price would have been had scaffolding needed to be put up?

I'm going to have my roof redone too but want to use scaffolding in situ to get an extra chunk off

[James6112]

Not too much

[MrJuice]

Fair enough

Reading other threads, it seems the payback period is 10y+. In some cases 15y

Doesn't stack up for me because if I move, I'm down on my return. If I stay, I'd be worrying about replacing parts and service.

[NorthernUproar]

Jambo85 said:

JagDroid Man said:

Especially now that the majority of UK energy is generated from renewable sources, how can all of the above be a positive environmental impact when you can simply draw electricity via the existing grid?

Majority can be a misleading word, it's still 40-50% gas, around 30 TWh per quarter which is fkload of gas and CO2! We've made incredible progress and gas is better than oil and coal but there's still a way to go with current electricity consumption. And then there's the longer term issue that electricity consumption is going to increase as EVs and heat pumps become the norm, and that we are going to see a decrease in our nuclear output in coming years (considered renewable). There will be a mixture of solutions to this, including more wind turbines, interconnects and perhaps large scale battery storage - however I also firmly believe there will be an increase in gas fuelled generation.

This article has plenty of good facts in it but you need to read beyond the anti fossil fuel bias in the text and do your own analysis:

https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-uk-renewables...

eg. in the opening paragraph he compares 29.5 TWh from renewables vs "just" 29.1 TWh from fossil fuels - laughable.

Also if you look at the graphs there you will see that total consumption has also decreased over the last decade - a mixture of causes but one of them is "behind the meter" generation such as roof top PV panels which for the most part can only be measured as a decrease in consumption.

Absolute garbage. Throwing rocks at the moon, screaming at the tide utter rubbish.

I own a renewable energy installation business, we primarily have always done ground source heating systems. This last year we can not keep up with demand for solar PV installs as the payback for 95% of domestic clients is 4-6 years.

There’s a £30k package for standard homes that the government will get behind with funding in 2023 that’ll see domestic settings capable of becoming 65% self generating.

You think we’re in an energy crisis with prices now? We haven’t even started.

[NorthernUproar]

Jambo85 said:

JagDroid Man said:

Especially now that the majority of UK energy is generated from renewable sources, how can all of the above be a positive environmental impact when you can simply draw electricity via the existing grid?

Majority can be a misleading word, it's still 40-50% gas, around 30 TWh per quarter which is fkload of gas and CO2! We've made incredible progress and gas is better than oil and coal but there's still a way to go with current electricity consumption. And then there's the longer term issue that electricity consumption is going to increase as EVs and heat pumps become the norm, and that we are going to see a decrease in our nuclear output in coming years (considered renewable). There will be a mixture of solutions to this, including more wind turbines, interconnects and perhaps large scale battery storage - however I also firmly believe there will be an increase in gas fuelled generation.

This article has plenty of good facts in it but you need to read beyond the anti fossil fuel bias in the text and do your own analysis:

https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-uk-renewables...

eg. in the opening paragraph he compares 29.5 TWh from renewables vs "just" 29.1 TWh from fossil fuels - laughable.

Also if you look at the graphs there you will see that total consumption has also decreased over the last decade - a mixture of causes but one of them is "behind the meter" generation such as roof top PV panels which for the most part can only be measured as a decrease in consumption.

Absolute garbage. Throwing rocks at the moon, screaming at the tide utter rubbish.

I own a renewable energy installation business, we primarily have always done ground source heating systems. This last year we can not keep up with demand for solar PV installs as the payback for 95% of domestic clients is 4-6 years.

There’s a £30k package for standard homes that the government will get behind with funding in 2023 that’ll see domestic settings capable of becoming 65% self generating.

You think we’re in an energy crisis with prices now? We haven’t even started.

[NorthernUproar]

Jambo85 said:

JagDroid Man said:

Especially now that the majority of UK energy is generated from renewable sources, how can all of the above be a positive environmental impact when you can simply draw electricity via the existing grid?

Majority can be a misleading word, it's still 40-50% gas, around 30 TWh per quarter which is fkload of gas and CO2! We've made incredible progress and gas is better than oil and coal but there's still a way to go with current electricity consumption. And then there's the longer term issue that electricity consumption is going to increase as EVs and heat pumps become the norm, and that we are going to see a decrease in our nuclear output in coming years (considered renewable). There will be a mixture of solutions to this, including more wind turbines, interconnects and perhaps large scale battery storage - however I also firmly believe there will be an increase in gas fuelled generation.

This article has plenty of good facts in it but you need to read beyond the anti fossil fuel bias in the text and do your own analysis:

https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-uk-renewables...

eg. in the opening paragraph he compares 29.5 TWh from renewables vs "just" 29.1 TWh from fossil fuels - laughable.

Also if you look at the graphs there you will see that total consumption has also decreased over the last decade - a mixture of causes but one of them is "behind the meter" generation such as roof top PV panels which for the most part can only be measured as a decrease in consumption.

Absolute garbage. Throwing rocks at the moon, screaming at the tide utter rubbish.

I own a renewable energy installation business, we primarily have always done ground source heating systems. This last year we can not keep up with demand for solar PV installs as the payback for 95% of domestic clients is 4-6 years.

There’s a £30k package for standard homes that the government will get behind with funding in 2023 that’ll see domestic settings capable of becoming 65% self generating.

You think we’re in an energy crisis with prices now? We haven’t even started.

[NorthernUproar]

Jambo85 said:

JagDroid Man said:

Especially now that the majority of UK energy is generated from renewable sources, how can all of the above be a positive environmental impact when you can simply draw electricity via the existing grid?

Majority can be a misleading word, it's still 40-50% gas, around 30 TWh per quarter which is fkload of gas and CO2! We've made incredible progress and gas is better than oil and coal but there's still a way to go with current electricity consumption. And then there's the longer term issue that electricity consumption is going to increase as EVs and heat pumps become the norm, and that we are going to see a decrease in our nuclear output in coming years (considered renewable). There will be a mixture of solutions to this, including more wind turbines, interconnects and perhaps large scale battery storage - however I also firmly believe there will be an increase in gas fuelled generation.

This article has plenty of good facts in it but you need to read beyond the anti fossil fuel bias in the text and do your own analysis:

https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-uk-renewables...

eg. in the opening paragraph he compares 29.5 TWh from renewables vs "just" 29.1 TWh from fossil fuels - laughable.

Also if you look at the graphs there you will see that total consumption has also decreased over the last decade - a mixture of causes but one of them is "behind the meter" generation such as roof top PV panels which for the most part can only be measured as a decrease in consumption.

Absolute garbage. Throwing rocks at the moon, screaming at the tide utter rubbish.

I own a renewable energy installation business, we primarily have always done ground source heating systems. This last year we can not keep up with demand for solar PV installs as the payback for 95% of domestic clients is 4-6 years.

There’s a £30k package for standard homes that the government will get behind with funding in 2023 that’ll see domestic settings capable of becoming 65% self generating.

You think we’re in an energy crisis with prices now? We haven’t even started.

[anonymous-user]

The system we’re getting should generate 100% of our current electricity use by using an EV to disk up extra in the summer. Obviously it can’t produce 100% of the new ( house+EV) requirement but the system should be paid back between 4 and 7 years depending on how long elec prices stay high.

It’s much more attractive than a few years ago