Energy prices! Is solar the answer?

[Fredthefrog]

Is anyone else finding that their energy prices have shot up again! We now need to find potentially £1200 a year according to our direct debit statement. Anyone else?
Also if you have solar panels are they the answer? We have come in to some money. It'll be eaten up by the above bills but wondering if investing solar would help?

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Updated by MNHQ
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Thanks everyone . Really useful to hear how its working. We do have a South facing roof and live in the south east. Interesting g hear about charing the battery overnight to use in the day too. Just can't see the biils going up this much all the time is sustainable.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.