Solar panels - anyone got them that actually dislikes them??

[WhyCantPeopleBeNice]

Solar panels are ugly, period, they don't look good.
They've got massively expensive in the last 12 months.
Most claim you need to be in your home 10 years before they pay for themselves.
Mixed messages on value added to homes, some say 4% others just £1800

Yet everyone who has them is absolutely crazy about them, no-one has said they regret them, they aren't what they were expecting etc so....
Anyone got them and willing to admit they aren't all that?!

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Updated by MNHQ
Landed on this page in search of solar panel advice? Find our guide to installing solar panels in your home in the UK. HTH!

@senua you need to be careful with the council group bid schemes. You'll get older, less efficient equipment and potentially shoddy workmanship. Join a FB group and review what they're offering carefully.

I wouldn't buy a house with solar panels.

I'd want to fit my own - and have a full battery system to store any excess energy.

One of my neighbours has some lovely pigeons nesting in hers 🐣

We don't get birds nesting but that might just be because we have lots of better nesting places nearby. We do have solar optimising since shading is an issue. If you have any shading and you don't have optimising then you won't generate as much since the output will be limited to the level of the panel that is generating the least amount of power. Optimising costs more

We went big on our system so 16kW batteries, 2 EPS outlets, a bigger inverter etc. It means we can use Economy 7 to charge batteries at night if the forecast is cloudy. We wfh and have teenagers plus I'm disabled so it makes a lot of sense for us. We're settled in this house and can't see us moving. Even if we did we could take a lot of the kit with us easily.

Absolutely love ours. We have 16 all black ones and I did worry they wouldn’t look good but they’re on the back of the house and the garden slopes down so we can’t really see them. Dh wants a battery and islanding capability now too. We also have an iboost so free hot water for at least 2/3 of the year.

Thanks for the heads-up @PastMyBestBeforeDate.
The Council are in with Solar-Together

I'd definitely check with a group like Solar & Battery UK. It's hard to tell from the suppliers' Web pages.

They are usually an eyesore. I read a while agoy ou cant get a mortgage on a hose with them. I wouldnt have them.

I have to say I agree. I admit to being style over substance and cant deny what others are saying about the energy bills but I wouldnt want them on my house and we did reject houses that had them when were house hunting

Im the same about satellite dishes, cant stand them either and have terrible reception because I wont have one.

Absolutely love ours. We have panels and a 13.5kw battery. We also have an EV and, like you, are on Octopus Go, so can fill the battery during the cheap period overnight if sun isn’t forecast.

Only generated 87.2 kWh in January and used a total of 595.7 kWh but most of that was used to fill the battery during the cheap times. Our electric bill was £65.27 for January. We are expecting to have recouped our installation costs in around six years.

Today we have generated 8.2 kWh, unlikely to get much more today as sun is too low now. We have only used 6.6 kWh so far today as we haven’t needed to charge the EV because we trickle charged it from the solar panels yesterday.

But we’re not planning on moving any time soon, which makes a difference to our outlook. It’s a legitimate concern.

Put them in a year before the price of electricity peaked. East and West rather than south for aesthetic reasons. Really like them. Will pay for themselves quite quickly. Used a diverter for hot water rather than a battery which works well.

My dh was very much against ours but we have pretty constant sunshine from now until November - it’s a no brainer. Wish I had done it 20 years ago when we first lived here.

We had 5, and have just added 32 to our outbuilding roof. They aren’t an eyesore as they are black and you can tartly see them. They look better than the food. No pigeons can get in them. We are awaiting a battery to store the excess energy. I have swapped my car for electric, and today, it charged my car up to max for free. The panels are 12 watt max an hour. We are looking to get a heat pump, and switch our boiler to this. We will end up paying the standing charge for elecy, but hopefully get that back in selling the excess to the grid and be at zero on balance. Our older panels are on a high rate sending into the grid, and the new panels will be on Octopus I believe as they are offering the highest tariff.

For us, it was an expensive outlay, but I too want independence, and wanted this out of principle. We are out most of the day and it’s pumping it into the grid.

All new houses should have solar panels, heat pumps, heated wallpaper (yes, it’s s thing) but the govt. are too short sighted.

Bloody spell check.

Look better than the roof, and you can hardly see them, not tartly.

I am a fan; but one thing to be careful of is that pigeons can nest under the solar panels; and that can cause damage. Netting prevents this though

I regret that we got them through the council scheme. Shouldn't have bloody trusted them! The app never works and they set it up wrong. Also probably would have been cheaper to use an independent person. The after care has been shocking, couldn't get anyone out to fix the issue.

I still would get solar panels again on a different house, just not trust the council!

You do have to be careful with installers. There was a MNer on here a few months ago insisting that she was having the type of solar panels that generated electricity at night in the dark and she wouldn't hear that it wasn't the case. She had apparently been told that by the sales person..

Of course people can get a mortgage! We had no issues obtaining our mortgage with a major lender.

The problem you have read about is where the roof has been rented and the panels are leased. If they are owned outright, there is no issue.

I'm insufferably smug in the summer when i'm air conditioning my house from the solar, it must be so annoying for my colleagues at work.

We've had panels for about 8-9 years. There's a big difference in our energy exporting time window now, compared to a month ago.

I second on pigeon-proofing. We had no issues for years, but have in the last couple of years developed a pigeon brothel. I'm wondering if pigeons moved out to suburban areas from the city centre when they were quieter in the Covid restrictions, and then settled with the solar panels as it's been quite an abrupt population explosion of them.

You have solar panels and a word burner? Confusing.

Easy to find out

Does your husband like money? Because that's what you'll save. Yes, the longer term the more. Had em 26 years, Victorian cottage, honestly don't notice them much. Big fan.

why is that confusing? I have solar panels and two wood burners. No gas here.