Energy prices! Is solar the answer?

We have panels without a battery, and am on track to pay back the outlay in 4-5 years. The numbers didn't make sense to add a battery into the system, based on the additional cost for the battery, the inverter etc and the need to replace the battery every 5-10 years or so.

Uummm we've had the most expensive electricity in all of Europe for at least 18months, long before Miliband.

Our gas prices are comparable to Europe, because the loading is put onto Electricity, this needs to change, so gas users pay the true cost for their fuel.... electorally not possible.

Ofgem have put up prices, despite international gas prices falling, UK drilling or anything else wont change this, until we reform how pricing is done.

Again, until energy price reform happens, it wouldn't matter if all of our energy was nuclear & produced in the UK... we'd still pay the international gas price formula... also nuclear takes decades to build, SMR reactors don't even exist, its a concept.

They can save you money. But will probably take a long time (decade or so) to pay back.

What you really need to do firstly to reduce your energy usage and look at why you are using so much and what can be done about it. Adding in extra loft insulation for example is really cheap and can make a big difference.

Only when you have done all the cheap easy things does it make sense to move onto looking at stuff like solar.

I am not quite sure what you mean by energy prices rising "again". They were double what they are now 2-3 years ago. I can only assume you were on a fix then and didn't care.

They're not much use to the over 20% of people who live in flats.

If you do choose to have solar installed, I would recommend obtaining 3 quotes from local installers. Personally I would avoid the big national companies as in my experience they tend to use pushy sales reps who exaggerate the benefits of the solar panels.
I did a lot of research before having my panels installed and I am pleased that I had them installed. They dont generate much electric in the winter, but in the spring and summer they generate a lot of electricxity.

If you have an electric (or hybrid) car then solar panels can be a really good investment. Likewise if your electricity bill is large.

I also connected my solar panels to my water cylinder so that some of the water is heated via the solar.

Yes, I’m selling at 15p per kWh but buying at 21.5p. Certain batteries you can set up to draw from the grid when it’s cheapest and export when it’s most expensive. Helps balance the grid and saves more money. Our system isn’t compatible at the moment.

who is your energy provider since that is an exceptionally low rate and I suspect it’s not a rate widely available otherwise we wouldn’t be in the middle of an energy crisis

As I said, maths for my profile is 10 year payback if I use everything I can generate and hardly have a single bill.

im a heavy ish user but when the blended rate I’m on is already less than 15p typically the maths just don’t math even nearly.

i think people assume you only get cheap rate for 5-6 hours at night - I typically get it from 7pm onwards every day if the week and much of the weekend.

Not sure how that works… when it’s shining I’m out driving it!

We have solar panels with a battery and pretty much spend nothing on electricity across the year - the summer generates enough to heat our water and charge the battery so from May to September (and into October if it’s a sunny month) we import very little electricity from the grid, and export a lot. The amount we get paid for exporting we leave on our account across winter to pay for the imports over winter. We are rural so our heating is oil fired, meaning the water heating add on is brilliant for us.

I wouldn’t have had it without the battery, as most of our usage is at a time we’re not generating - e.g in the evening when cooking or with lights on - and importing electricity at 27p or whatever it is is far more expensive than the export tariff at 15p so it’s cheaper for us to use what we generate.

The setup cost about £10k. We are in the south east, south facing garage roof with no shading from neighbours or trees. We intend to stay here forever - we wouldn’t have installed them if there was a chance we’d move within 10 - 15 years.

You have two EV's the answer is to install solar without a battery. DH has done the figures batteries are to expensive.

We have a charger (Zappy) which can use the extra energy we generate to charge our car. Also the excess also goes to heat our hot water as well. In summer we therefore use very little electricity or gas.

If you have a car which can do battery to house (very few do) then you could use the car battery to run the house as well. But not many have this feature, stand alone battery are still to expensive our Nissan leaf cost less to buy then a house battery.

15p is incredibly low though. We were on 27p

The answer can’t be drill, the world is literally on fire at the moment. Reforming energy markets is what’s needed to bring down prices. Regional pricing will reduce everyone’s bills and take Scotland from the most expensive to cheapest energy in Europe.

We have panels on our east and west facing roof, cost us about £12k, it was a bit more due to having scaffolding on two sides of the house. We also have a battery, our electric was just under £200 for the year. We use octopus who we sell to at 15p per kwh. We still have gch and so combined fuel cost is about £100 a month, we have a fairly new 4 bed detached.

horrible horrible investment with many scam installer falsifying the pay back.

i desperately want a solar/ battery solution but can’t make it stack.

im on and avg rate of 15p per kWh using 12,000 a year right now with nothing (EV tariff and 2 cars).. even if a battery system could reduce to 30% (which it can’t) that’s only c£1200 saving a year, so more than 10 year payback with a decent capacity battery assuming not a single penny in maintenance in 10 years.

and in reality you probably top up the battery overnight which reduces the savings further.

until the pay back is sub 5 years it’s a no go for most people.

There are lots of things that I'd like to influence government policy on but I can't. I can only adapt with the resources that I have.

You can hang around and wait for an era of drill baby drill, and wait for the work to be done to the creaking infrastructure of our grid so it can meet the demands of an increasing population and tech industry growth, and then hope that the cheaper raw fuel costs turns into a cost reduction to you at some point down the line but it's just not something I'm betting on.

We have solar. It came with the house. Our energy bills are lower than houses without

Ours cost about 12k with a battery and with optimisers.

During the summer our bills are very low (south facing roof). During the winter in the midlands I generate about 2kWh a day. Possibly slightly more on a very sunny day.

It currently sunny and I'm generating 623w

So in winter it makes very little difference to our bills. This is the case from october through to march. We do however have an EV rate so we charge our battery overnight on the low rate so make a saving that way.

I mean here we have a wind turbine and have solar panels to power some buildings we have. We regularly have to top up the batteries from the house. Which we can do because there’s still oil and gas power.

Unless you want regular blackouts don’t back these idiotic policies

The answer is to drill baby, drill

it is a disgrace what Ed milliband has done to the drilling licenses. And no surprise we have the most expensive energy in Europe.

we have wind and solar, and live in a place where they are trying to install more wind turbines. It’s completely unreliable. And a stupid stupid thing to do to rely on fully,

it will also be very vet expensive. Wind turbines and solar require a lot of maintenance, and as the names suggest are completely reliant on the weather.

Nuclear is a way better second option to oil and gas drilling

That isn't even vaguely true. It might have been partly true in a small number of cases where the panels were owned by a company which rented roof space from a home owner.

I've booked to have some installed, about £7k cost and 7 year payback period so £1k pa saving. Using contact solar or similar name, EDF preferred supplier

Yours taking about a leasing scheme where you send the power to the grid. They don’t exist anymore.

op is talking about buying her own and using the power herself. Not comparable.

Depends on your roof and the way it faces but we spent about £7k on 13 of them 2 years ago

we now pay far less for electricity May-august (we don’t have gas anymore) and a bit less year round. We occasionally get money for feeding into the grid but our electric car takes most of the excess

an op is referring to a scheme where you lease them- don’t do that (I don’t think you can anymore anyway), buy outright