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Cost of living

Stretching your budget? Share tips and advice to discuss budgeting and energy saving here. For the latest deals and discounts, sign up for Mumsnet Moneysaver emails.

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Original poster

Q If you have solar panels

26 replies

Kendodd · 27/08/2022 22:17

How's that working out at the moment? Are you earning a lot of money from them? Really no clue how they work.

OP posts:

Original poster

Kendodd · 28/08/2022 10:35

Anyone?

OP posts:

HairyKitty · 28/08/2022 10:37

They won’t earn anyone a lot of money but have potential to reduce your own electricity bills.

Original poster

Kendodd · 28/08/2022 13:41

So if they reduce your Bill's by say... 50% That's a huge saving at the moment.
I was thinking of getting them or some other micro generation. I had my roof surveyed (west facing) about ten years ago but it wasn't deemed suitable. Maybe panels have improved since then though?

OP posts:

Tubbyinthehottub · 28/08/2022 13:55

We have 14 panels on a south facing roof. It's the scheme where the panels were fitted free of charge and we get to use what is generated. Anything not used goes to the grid. I'm not sure this scheme is still an option.
On a sunny day we can run the house for free - put the dishwasher on, washing machine, dryer, charge cars etc. It saves a lot during summer but obviously nowhere near as much in the darker months.
We'd definitely get them again on a new house, purchasing them ourselves and getting a battery to harness anything not used in real time. The initial outlay I presume would be high though.

PastMyBestBeforeDate · 28/08/2022 14:03

We haven't had them long enough to have winter figures or a FIT earning a decent amount but this month we've used 5kWh from the grid.

BloodyCamping · 28/08/2022 14:41

Acacia123 · 28/08/2022 14:51

Our panels earn us around £850 per annum...and through the summer really reduce substantially what we draw from the grid. Yesterday I did 2 loads of washing, ran the dishwasher twice and topped up the car battery, and the meter didn't move in at all so it was all free electricity. Obviously not so proficient through the winter....

Acacia123 · 28/08/2022 14:54

Just checked my app and can see that yesterday we used 19kwh but produced 17kwh. I have had days where we produce more than we use.

It doesnt matter if we use the electric, we still get paid for it.

MajorCarolDanvers · 28/08/2022 14:55

We get about £800-£1,000 a year back but we had them installed a no of years ago when good feed in tariffs were still on offer.

In addition to that as long as we do things like use the washing machine and dishwasher during daylight hours then we keep or electricity bills down by generating our own electricity

KarmaComma · 28/08/2022 15:00

Just had an updated quote last week for our house. The size/orientation of our roof means we could, on an optimum day, knock a third off our electric bill. The cost was £12k for info.

nannybeach · 28/08/2022 15:09

Had them installed in March, south facing bungalow roof. We were told roof needed to be as close to completely south facing as possible,and no trees or building causing shadow minimum of 10am to 3pm. No free schemes anymore,grants for folk on certain benefits. We have 2 batteries, signed up for a council run scheme. Takes several months for the installers,grid, your energy supplier to sort out so you get paid for your excess. We have electric cooker. I make an average of 20kws per day, with Octopus,get paid 7p per kw we don't use. Our monthly electricity bills have been £3 or less,most of that is the DSC. Before installation this year,we were paying £130 for the 2 fuels, reduced it to £60, the system is on track to pay for itself in 5 years,but it could be less the way things are going. We kept our emersion heater, everyone said we were mad. It goes on for just 20 minutes midday, for showers, washing hands, some washing up,and is still warm the following morning.

nannybeach · 28/08/2022 15:14

KarmaComma, how big is your house, how many panels is that? I forgot to mention,we have 12 panels,2 batteries,as I said it was a council run scheme,cost £8.5k

RedToothBrush · 28/08/2022 15:25

If you have only just installed then you cannot get a good buyback rate. They aren't available.

Where you save is by using what you generate.

We bought in March. On prices in march we are looking at 7 years to recoup costs.

On higher prices it will be quicker.

We decided against a battery for now (a decision we may live to regret) but realistically we did not have the cash to invest that much and we did not think the technology is quite there to recoup the cost over the battery life with our usage level. Give it 2 or 3 years and it will be. For others it may be worth it though.

wonkylegs · 28/08/2022 15:31

We have solar panels and a battery.
We had them fitted just over a year ago so the price we sell back to the grid is ok but not a super tariff like those with older systems.
Ours are south facing.
We have partial electric underfloor system (set up in a way that uses the concrete as a thermal store so requires less input) also have an electric car.
Combined with the battery and a low overnight tariff for any excess use we have they are currently working out a good investment for us.
We do not pay for any expensive day time electricity just overnight top up of the battery and nothing in summer when we produce enough to not need that and we export excess.
Added bonus is that we went for a more expensive system that automatically switches to the battery in the event of a power cut as we get these semi regularly in our rural area and I work from home so they are very disruptive.
We want to get a bigger array and have some spare roof for this so that's the long term plan.
It's not a cheap investment but will pay off over time and quicker than we anticipated.
We did a lot of research though as to what would work best for our circumstances and got a really clued up installer who tailored the system to the location and usage.

KarmaComma · 28/08/2022 22:23

nannybeach · 28/08/2022 15:14

KarmaComma, how big is your house, how many panels is that? I forgot to mention,we have 12 panels,2 batteries,as I said it was a council run scheme,cost £8.5k

It's 12 panels and a battery, with some of the quote for scaffolding/installation.

My house is a 3 bed semi, it's SSE facing, half single storey flat roof and not much a facing normal sloping roof. Just enough to squeeze 12 panels in, but some of the panels will be on flat roof, so not ideally placed, and from what I remember from inspection, they need a frame thing to angle them which also adds money.

Flamingmentalcats · 31/08/2022 16:24

We have had a quote today for them. 8 panels and a battery, all in including labour, scaffold ect, £10100. I was thinking around £8-8.5k. Not sure what to do. It's a lot of money...

wonkylegs · 31/08/2022 16:35

Our 16 panel 4.8kWp in roof system, with Tesla powerwall 2 with backup gateway was £15k installed just over a year ago.
We didn't need scaffolding as it was part of a building project so scaffold was already up.
We went for a slightly more expensive system as it had better/ longer guarantees and it had automatic switching in the event of a power cut (although we have had some issues with this and have to say Tesla customer services are very friendly but shit)

Vebrithien · 31/08/2022 16:45

We have an older system, installed by the previous owner. South facing, and signed up on one of the higher tariffs (45p per kWh, I think). We usually generally about £750-1000 per year. We also have solar hot water, which means that we only had to put the hot water once all summer.
It saves a massive amount of money across the summer, and we can still generate some electricity in the winter months.

PollyEsther · 31/08/2022 17:11

Rented house with panels (I don't know how many, but cover the whole of the south-facing roof). We don't make any money from them, but we also haven't actually 'used' any electricity over the sumer months. Our readings mid July were lower than April. It's catching up now. I would estimate they reduce our bill over the year by around 25-30%.

PollyEsther · 31/08/2022 17:13

Should add: we live on the South Coast, so a lot of sunshine this year. Haven't run the tumble drier in that time, did have the hot tub running for a couple of weeks though. Other than that, we are average users of electricity I think. Don't switch everything off all the time, but do have almost all LED bulbs (some in this house are vile halogen things we can't replace) and kick the teenagers out of the shower if they're in there too long etc. Lots of consoles/computers and DH WFH 3 days a week.

fatsatsuma · 31/08/2022 18:29

Following with interest as I have a large south facing roof and would love to put it to work! For those who've had panels or quotes recently, can I ask how you found reputable local companies?

KarmaComma · 31/08/2022 19:47

fatsatsuma · 31/08/2022 18:29

Following with interest as I have a large south facing roof and would love to put it to work! For those who've had panels or quotes recently, can I ask how you found reputable local companies?

Ours is through a local scheme to buy green stuff in bulk - like a community purchase, have a look at eco/green groups in your area? That way we got 'experts' to find a quality installer and we got a bit of a discount for a certain number of homes participating.

nannybeach · 02/09/2022 08:32

KarmaComma, same as us,(we also are near South coast) however, the installation company were arseholes, one lot installed panels, following week the electrical system,we weren't advised this would happen. They explained nothing,alarm going off in loft the next day,any problems,they aren't interested. The manager shouted then laughed at my DH. Noticed any negative comments and reviews on their site,were replied by "customer was lying or trying to get money off".

LaMariposa · 02/09/2022 20:39

We had 12 panels and a battery fitted last October. Paid £8.8k.
For the past 3 months we’ve used about 10kwh from the grid all month.
It’s nowhere near as productive in the winter, but a sunny day still allows us to be independent of grid energy.
We also had a solar immersion diverter (iBoost) installed, although annoyingly our immersion element is a bit too short to properly heat a full tank of water.
We took the money from the mortgage.

BaileysBreakfast · 02/09/2022 20:53

Ours are wonderful and we are earning as much as we spend on energy. So grateful we have them

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