Are solar panels worth investing in now as part of the energy crisis?

[thebellagio]

I’m getting quite scared about the energy impact. My dd is £250pm and it still tells me I’ll owe about £500 at the end of that term.

I’ve just upgraded my boiler (the previous one was 40+ years old!) but I’m wondering whether to invest in solar panels in a bid to lower bills. The house we’ve just moved into has a south facing garden plus it’s our forever home. but I have absolutely no idea about whether it’s worthwhile, whether it would make a difference, how long it would take to see a reduction in bills etc…

I was under the impression that it costs ££££ to do, and it takes at least a decade to see any return on investment. Is that true? In which case I’m wondering if it’s worthwhile…

For anyone who has them - have they been worth the investment and do you think it’s made a difference to your energy supply?

To the op - if you want to get really geeky you could calculate your production with this tool
re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvg_tools/en/#PVP
Then compare that to your electricity costs to get an idea of return on investment.

It's a free to use tool developed by an eu science group, geographical based pv generation calculator.

This was with "Solar Together".

Definitely switch to LED bulbs as part of your saving measures first.

Average sized house using old style bulbs is spending approx £400 per year on lighting, whereas with LED that drops to £60.

Oops, I’ve no idea how I managed to attach that extra picture to my last post I’ve asked @MNHQ to remove it.

@TopCatsTopHat

If your installer is MCS certified this is good and you should be careful if they're not. The micro generation certification scheme gives you assurances on standards and is a quality mark.

Good advice, our installers have this certification.

@TopCatsTopHat thanks so much, will have a read if all that.

We're in Ni where it's oil heating here & the switch for hot water is good so we won't use oil for the immersion but should have hot water most of the time from extra solar.

I think for our current use, we'll wait to see about a. Battery in a year or 2 & maybe put that money to windows & other insulation for now

The grant is only available to people in receipt of benefits

We are thinking of this too. Got our first quote of £14.5k for 14 panels and a battery from one of the biggest national companies. We think this can come in a bit cheaper by using a local firm. We are waiting for the 2nd quote.
We have a big new build with heat source pump, underfloor heating, good installation and good windows. Current DD is £265 p/m . We think we can cut our bills by about 60% maybe as much as 68%.

@dreamkitchenhelp is that your monthly price before the increase? Defo sounds like you'd benefit.

Our first quote was £14k with battery but think we're going no battery at the minute. From what I understand only certain batteries can still be used in the event of a power cut due to risk of any electric on the grid being a danger to engineers.

We may end up getting a battery down the line but think we'll see how we go with just panels for now. Definitely get 2-3 quotes as there seems to be a big difference in packages & different attitudes to what is the best solution, (a site visit helps a lot too)

Spring budget statement just said no VAT on these types of works maybe worth waiting a couple of weeks to see if 20% off is possible

Just come back to update I’ve had another quote for £5595 for 14 solar panels and a battery. First quote was for £10k.
Wondering if this will reduce now the chancellor has removed the 5% vat on green energy saving measures.

@SkiRun0077

Spring budget statement just said no VAT on these types of works maybe worth waiting a couple of weeks to see if 20% off is possible

It’s 5%, not 20% on this.

@ChillyB would you mind sharing which company your quote was from?

Solar Together have just quoted us £5,848 for 8 panels (installed), but want another £3,235 for a 3.3kwh battery

@awkwardpaws27 it’s a company called Ecocute based in Wakefield but they fit nationwide I believe. They appear to have some very competitive prices I’ve not had chance to look into the quality of the panels/battery yet though.

Thank you

That seems too cheap, we have two batteries, they were £4,200 on their own, we have 10 panels, cost was just over £10k installed. It have been worth it though, the battery is working really well for us the weather hasn’t been great but it seen us through cooking dinner, and covered use until the next afternoon, all topped up via the panels. I would recommend solar but only with battery’s, waste of time otherwise.

@ChillyB

I had a quote for solar panels yesterday for 10k. That was 14 panels on a south facing roof no shade. They said I’d probably be eligible for a 5k grant to bring the price down. They also said I’d get cheaper quotes elsewhere based on panels made in China whereas they only supply German made panels.

So once you've bought the panels, did they say what your bills would be like?

@HollowTalk they estimated an annual saving of £450 a year, and that it would take ten years for them to pay for themselves. Our projected annual electric bill was £900 for the year with the price rises from 1st April. (I’ve become addicted to watching the smart meter monitor as a result).

@Roselilly36 I can’t vouch for company or anything just stating the quote I’d had from them. Like I say my first quote from a different company was for £10k and they said I’d find other quotes substantially cheaper.

Thanks, @ChillyB. My mum has them on her bungalow - she was getting about £1,000 a year back - it cost about £10,000 and she earned it back in 9 years. Now it's all just profit and it's guaranteed for 25 years, total.

We got 5 at the end of last summer, and a 6th fitted after the grant inspection was done in December.

We are a 3 person household, 2 WFH still most days. We do most of our laundry, run the dishwasher, have 2 PCs running and a couple of lamps all day, we charge things like ipads and phones in the daytime, and a couple of powerbanks. Whenever there is power being generated but not used in the house, it goes to heating water in the tank, and only exports to the grid once the tank is at max temp.

It didn't make a huge difference last autumn, as it was a very dull season. But we had the exact same energy bill this January as last year, despite significantly increased rates. And I haven't yet got the bill for April. But it has made a huge difference on sunny days.

@thebellagio

Windows are definitely my next step to look into. I can literally hear the draught on my landing so they will absolutely be replaced!

I’m trying to do as much as possible to the house to try and make it as efficient as possible.

Having new windows fitted will make your house much more pleasant to live in as well as reduce your heating bills (if the old ones are on their last legs). SPs will reduce your bills and the more you pay for a unit of electricity, the more you will save. Watch this video

I have solar panels, I barely use any gas as a result

@thebellagio

Windows are definitely my next step to look into. I can literally hear the draught on my landing so they will absolutely be replaced!

I’m trying to do as much as possible to the house to try and make it as efficient as possible.

I had new windows and doors fitted at the end of 2020. The difference it made was incredible, sound reduction as well as insulation. I had to turn the thermostat down 2 degrees and I had the heating turn itself off 90 minutes earlier at night, and was still plenty warm enough until bedtime.

Best £9k I've ever spent.

@gogohm

Definitely worth considering now, thdd ex repayment time has dropped considerably. To get real value you also need a battery, because most households use electricity after dark.

Sealing your windows, turning the thermostat to 18 degrees and turning off lights when not in rooms is cheap and quick

Solar normally switches off during power cuts so no on gets electrocuted doing repairs.