Solar energy for the home

[IceBoy]

Morning All,

Does anyone have a solar energy system installed at home?

With the rising cost of fuel, I've been think about the cost benefit of having these on my roof?

If you produce enough you can be paid by the grid too?

So thought please, is it worth spending £5-8k ?
IceBoy

[PH5121]

You can export units back into the grid, you can use the electric you produce, but the biggest financial factor is that at the moment you get a feed in tariff of 41.3p for each unit your system produces.

It is the feed in tarif which the installation on your home attractive.

The FIT is due to be reviewed by the government next year.

[m4ckg]

I don't think you'll get a lot for 5-8k, a contact of mine has started his own business doing this and he charged 14k for a 4kw system.If you do the sums is works our quite good in the long run but I'd be concerned about the life span of the panels and the length of time you intend to stay in the property

[Herbs]

PH5121 said:

You can export units back into the grid, you can use the electric you produce, but the biggest financial factor is that at the moment you get a feed in tariff of 41.3p for each unit your system produces.

It is the feed in tarif which the installation on your home attractive.

The FIT is due to be reviewed by the government next year.

The FIT payment will drop in April 2012 by 3-5 pence (i'm not in the office at the moment so do not have the exact rate to hand)so if you are considering make you you have it installed before then as you will be locked into the current rate for the next 25 years.

[onomatopoeia]

m4ckg said:

I don't think you'll get a lot for 5-8k, a contact of mine has started his own business doing this and he charged 14k for a 4kw system.If you do the sums is works our quite good in the long run but I'd be concerned about the life span of the panels and the length of time you intend to stay in the property

All the installers I've looked on the internet guarantee the installation for the 25 years. Whether the installers will still be around in 25 years is a different question.

[Paul Drawmer]

I installed solar thermal (hot water) myself and I think there's a financial benefit in it by way of gas savings. It's marginal though, but I guess the fuel prices will rise and make it more beneficial. I found it was cheaper to do it myself than to pay for a system and get a grant.

We have a 20 X 58mm evacuated tube collector driving a twin coil 210L cylinder. It's fine for two of us, for a bigger family, more tubes would be needed.

I have also bought a solar PV system. This I regard as a pure investment, at 63 I bought an income for 25 years at a rate that I couldn't buy using a pure financial vehicle. It's all about the income it will generate, if you are prepared to buy the installation - more like an annuity really.



I found out loads of stuff here:
http://www.navitron.org.uk/forum/index.php