Be Excellent To Each Other

I've been pondering this for a while... it seems like it would make sense in the long run to buy some as those who put them on your house for free must be earning a lot from it in order to give them away.

But when the cost of installation is getting on for about £6000 or more how long will it take to get that money back?

Don't you get some kind of payback from energy companies who buy any excess power you make back from you? Though I think there was a bit of a to-do when someone didn't hold up their part of the beerbath.

10-15 years

Also, those that do it free will only do it if your roof is a certain size and facing a certain direction, they want to maximise their return.

Malc

I think they changed how much money you get nowadays (feed in tariff) and it doens'seem as good a deal as it was. I'd ask Kalmar.

Other houses on my street have solar so the position and roof size shouldn't be a problem. Tying up the £5000 for 15 years seems a bit too much like hard work to me.

There could be complications if you wish to sell the hosue as well. I seem to recall some legal radio program discussing this a while back abut didn't listen to teh exciting conclusion. Basically, "what happens if you move?" is the question everyone is asking. Or was . law in Action, R4, about 3 weeks back.

Tariff and grants all changed last year IIRC, my bro-in-law had to get it done quick to still get the good deal.

I had dealings with a dodgy businessman* who was getting into the solar game. Told me all I needed to know about some of these companies.

If you are going to stay at a house for a long time it may pay off. But read the small print.

* The one I ended up taking to court.

I used to install PV systems - the original scheme was grant based (50%) and you sold excess energy at the market rate, 12p or whatever. Even with the grant it was a bit of a long term investment - 10 or 15 years typically for most customers.

Then the grant scheme stopped. There was a lot of dithering and they brought in the Feed in Tariff, about 2 years ago. This basically meant that with a suitably approved system, you could get paid as much as 43p/unit for everything generated! This coincided with China "dumping" panels on the market, so the equipment prices dropped dramatically too. I installed a small system for myself at that time and so far the cheques from Scottish Hydro have repaid about 50% of the capital cost of the system!

Not too shabby. In fact, way too generous, and the tariff was quickly reduced to a fairly paltry amount. As you have to pay for installation too, the payback time is again going to be 10 years + I'd expect.
Which isn't BAD exactly, as few other purchases actually repay themselves and depreciate very little after 10 years...

Dave's green deal thingy where you get some kind of loan sounded highly dubious and I don't know if it's been quietly shelved or what. Equally I've not really looked into these companies where you basically rent them your roof space, but I can't imagine it's a very favourable deal, but at least you get some cool shiny panels on your roof and some nice clean power.

But yes, if you've got a good south facing roof, get some quotes. There are good and bad companies out there - the bad ones obviously drawn in when there was a huge profit to be made, will have likely evaporated by now.

Do they change the temperature inside the house at all?

Little if any. On very very hot days, you may find that they are having a shading effect on your original roof cover (by reflecting away some of the heat) and that could lower your loft temperature by a few degrees. In turn that might allow room temperatures to be slightly lower.

OR, if you take advantage of the free power on sunny days and use it to run an air conditioner, the answer is yes

No good on an east/west roof, Kalmar?

You still get some power, but you won't get the companies giving it to you for free as it's not worth their time.

Malc

Ill get some windmills then.

they take the "profits" and they will only do it on sites where they can maximise those profits.

Malc

Malc

See, that seems like quite a good idea to me. Why wouldn't I want to do that?

No advantage in the evening for one.

Do we reckon they have permission to use the BBC trademark on their site? Do we think the BBC really endorses them? An organisation that every day endorses hundreds of products and services [subs please check]

And that ladies and gentleman is why I wouldn't trust any of these companies as far as I could throw them.

That's what I've got now, though.

True. My brother is getting it done very soon, so I'll report back on how they go on

Runs in the family I see. Tell him to make sure he is facing south when they come to fit them.

Real actual LOL.

My brother now has the A Shade Greener panels installed (on his house, funny man). The install is very neat and tidy and simple to understand. His house runs completely on solar during daylight hours now even with fridges, freezers, pcs and hoovers running.