Why don’t we put solar panels on every home?

[Whyaretheynotdoinganything]

Just as the tile says, I’m wondering why the government or the opposition are not proposing free solar panels for every home as a solution to the energy crisis and energy security?

Surely a cost benefit analysis would show net economic benefit, whereas subsidising household energy bills is expensive with little return for the economy.

One barrier would be the workforce, but we’ve managed mass construction projects in the past eg. post war council house building programme.

We need a radical solution fast, it would at least give us hope even if the returns are not immediate.

Those who don’t want panels can pay market rates. Apparently panels pay for themselves in 7 years. I’d happily contribute a proportion but don’t have the savings to cover it all.

4p per kWh is absolutely shockingly poor. The rate we currently get is 55p kWh
somebody's skimming a hell of a lot of profit from the excess your sisters generating and feeding back into the grid.

From this June, every new build will be required to have solar panels or a heat pump in order to pass the new carbon targets in Part L. Fabric targets are also improved. (There is a transitional arrangement which means that plots already started by June next year can be under the old regs). From 2025, the intention at the moment is for all new builds to be zero carbon ready (no gas, all heat pumps) with the residual emissions being met by decarbonisation of the grid.

If Cameron ("greenest government ever") hadn't taken a shredder to red tape, all new builds would have been net zero carbon from 2016.

4p per kWh is absolutely shockingly poor.

and this is why we need to be using as much electric from personal owned solar as possible to reduce usage from grid, not selling it back

And properly sizing the systems in the first place.

solar immersion to use excess power to heat water should be compulsory in every system

Because our government is corrupt and would rather pay their cronies from the energy companies top dollar tax money than actually do a proper job and support the ppl they claim to represent.

Solar panels are very limited use after summer. Family's have made 3kw today, despite bright sunshine. October totals below:

@strawberriesarenot So how come in September you made more energy to use than june and July?

I think those are days of the month? Not months of the year?

It is days of the month. We have generated 12.9kwh today but we have a home battery so much of that is in the tank for the evening.

Yes, days of the month. So 1st to 10th October.

Much will depend on where they are sited. Particularly at this time of the year.

So you could have storage heaters and have stored the electric in them for using later for heating the house this evening and over night if you wanted?

A lot will be used this evening, cooking dinner, a load of washing and then there will still be some left for the morning. There isn't so much left it would be worth using storage heaters and beside, I have an ev and very rarely export to grid.

@FourTeaFallOut

it would be free heating, if your heating is cheap to run then it’s better to run than the washing machine etc

for many though free electric heating would be a great bonus

I'm not putting the washing machine on for sport, I've got clothes I need washing.

Plus, I don't think you are taking account of the fact that solar generation is poorest in the months which are coldest.

Better to have solar immersion than to try to combine with storage heaters

You can do a bit of both — there are thermal batteries that you can use for your hot water, so you get the storage too.

If presently your heating is £2 an hour to run and the washing machine 70 p an hour to run

which one would be better to get from the grid and which one use the solar to get?

I doubt laundry is a sport anywhere, that’s not the point

Plus, I don't think you are taking account of the fact that solar generation is poorest in the months which are coldest.

then you want the best use of the electric you do make to get the best deal for you money

and the point of storage heaters is you wouldn’t need a battery, as the storage heaters would store the electric from the day time and give you heat during the dark hours

I understand what you’re getting at. The problem is that during the months when you need heat, power generation from the panels is typically quite low. Plus you’d need to charge the storage heaters during the day. This is fine when the power is being generated by the panels but you’d have to have a way of making sure it only took from the panel generated electricity (which fluctuates with the changing cloud cover) otherwise they would automatically pull from the grid and so you’d be filling them up at premium rate rather than the normal economy seven.

ive had a look and it seems there is a solar storage heater available which links in to the solar feed and has smart sensors but it looks like it’s fairly new to the market and not readily available just yet.

The difference of cost between the two is the different energy requirements of the two activities. But the energy stored is finite. So long as it is all used/stored then it's not wasted.

I have a 4 bed house, with 5 people an electric car, electric kitchen and electric shower. Even with a large home battery, it all gets used at this time of year.

I suppose some people have systems that are far too big for their usage who are not able to make full use of their generation. I'm not one of them.

We’ve had solar quotes recently, but the payback was still c 12 years - we may not live in this house then, and electricity prices will (I hope!) go back to something like “normal”.

Plus, our summer electricity bills are not the problem, it is winter when we spend most, and at that point solar generation is a drop in the ocean of our daily usage.

The 4p per kWh price for sending back to the grid is part of the problem - we’d have too much power in summer, but would only be able to sell it at a fraction of market value.

That will always be the issue unless you have An electric vehicle. Your quote will tell you that you will generate x000 KWh of electricity but the saving you will get from this is a fraction of what it could be if you’re selling it all back to the grid for a pittance because you can’t use it all when it is generating ie in the summer months. Most providers will only pay 4-5p a unit.

I don't think the electric prices will go back to normal - where normal looks like, say, 16p/kWh again. That ship has sailed.

ive had a look and it seems there is a solar storage heater available which links in to the solar feed and has smart sensors but it looks like it’s fairly new to the market and not readily available just yet.

Is that the Tepeo ZEB? I've seen a bit about that on Twitter.