Solar panels

[definitelynotlistening]

Hi, can I have some advice please? With the rising cost of living, I am wondering why people are not getting solar panels installed? Am I missing something? We don't have much savings, but if the price cap is £6k, would it cost much more to install solar for a 4 bed house?
Any explanations gratefully received. Many thanks.

I don’t know how much they cost to install but I’ve had them for 9 years on my then new build house. I never have to turn my hot water on in the summer, I have really low fuel bills and I’m sure they make quite a significant difference. I pay £190 per month for a good size 4 bedroom property where 4 adults are at home most of the day. That amount includes charging an electric car.

Thanks for the reply. To be honest we only pay £135 per month at the moment, for a 4 bed with 5 people. No electric car though. I know costs are about to rise astronomically but now I am wondering if solar would be worth it for us or not.

Last we looked (a few months back) the cost would take decades to pay back at our use (about 200 units a month on average).

Also remember the price rises on electricity and gas are likely to be another 2-3 years before falling back again.

We are getting solar at the end of the month. Forecasted to pay off in 8years prior to electricity price increases we are south with south facing roof. We got batteries and ev charger in total comes to just over 10k it’s an investment and we are hoping it pays off.

Sorry but £190 month is not a really low fuel bill? Have you got this right?

We had a quote about six weeks ago. It takes about twenty years to make the money back you spend on them in the first place. Obviously that could change to eight and a half minutes to pay them off the way electricity is going up.

And at the moment you have to wait about three months for a quote never mind actually getting them installed.

Some houses can't have them. Like if they have skylights.

Lots of assumptions here, but the cost of the panels is probably going to be around about the £4-8k mark. You will probably make as much electricity as you use in the summer (assuming your roof is big enough, faces the right way, isn't shaded and you don't live too far north), but not so much in the winter. And in the dark you won't. So you'll want to think about a battery to store any excess made during the day so you aren't sitting in the dark. That's another £3-6k depending on lots of factors.

So it will be some years before you break even, less than before because of the rising cost if electricity of course. And you may not be self sufficient ever. Also while solar panels are available, there's a shortage of batteries at the moment so it won't happen instantly.

I think Which magazine just did Solar panels, might be worth looking for a free trial or buying a month.

Energy saving trust website is useful, to see what you might generate and info on loans etc. Ours due to be fitted in a couple of weeks and expect to recoup in 9 years. Most of cost covered by 10 yr interest free loan.

sorry but £190 month is not a really low fuel bill? Have you got this right?
yes

We have skylights and the solar man is working around them when we get them installed next month

OP we are paying about 15k but that will include a battery to store the energy- most of this will
probably power the car.

we expect it to pay itself back in 7/8 years at the most but then again no plans to move house ideally ever.

remember you will get very little return in winter when the energy prices will be at their worst. Some sunny days yes, but mostly not much at all.

I pay £156 a month for a 4 bed with a hot tub so £190 seems expensive to me. Not convincing me Solar panels are the answer.

I say it's odd because we have a 4 bed detached, 2 people often at home and am paying £90pcm over the summer (obviously this will go up during the winter.) I have been very tempted to get getting solar panels but this doesn't sound like it makes that much of a difference. Obviously in an ideal world, they're fantastic anyway because you're not using fossil/nuclear fuel.

The £190 includes charging my car too.

We were considering solar panels and the battery, the rough quote was about £11k but that would wipe out half our savings so with the cost of living going up we're holding off. I know we would save monthly but it feels too insecure to spend so much of our security right now

Wow £l90? Is that with solar panels?

True, though I don't spend £100 a month on diesel.

We were spending £100 per week on petrol so I’m very happy with the figures.
We are a family of two retired people and two WFH young adults with multiple gadgets so £190
for all that and no petrol seems good.

Some of my friends are paying £500 for their gas and electricity and another friend has just fixed at £320 in a three bedroom semi with just two adults.

Hi I have solar panels on my new build 2 bed home my monthly bill is about 100 pound a month but I only have electric no gas. We're on a high electricity tariff due to f-up from builders claiming our home is a business so we're paying business rates 48p per day 48pkwh. (only been living here 2 months) Been waiting on electric company to change it on ECOES to a domestic property so we at least have a bit cheaper bills for a month til October price cap rise on domestic.

Thank you for all the replies.

I looked into it but I am north west facing. Its cheaper for me to go back to the office full time which is what I'll be doing as it gets colder.

It’s not bad
We have a similar sized house and pay £250;pm

I’ve got an EV and I’m on a cheaper night time tariff, the car costs me about £10 a month to charge (I was spending £120 on petrol prior to this), even with the EV my gas and electric is £200pm, I am in credit though but that will be swallowed up quite quickly once the heating needs to come on (for gas I’m on the price cap).
We’ve just had 3 quotes for solar panels plus a 10Kwh battery and they are around £14k. They sent projections and at current rates I think it’ll take 8-12 years to pay for itself. We are also paying extra so that during power cuts we can still access the stored power in the battery (this requires some sort of additional circuit for safety reasons).
We are going with the company who can start first - the quotes took months and they are mostly booked up into the new year.

I live in the US, so a little different. Here is my experience. We lived in a rental 2 years ago and paid between $350 (summer with air con) to about $150 monthly in the winter for electric. We moved in Feb 2021 to a new house, same size & solar panels are mandatory. Our bill for the whole year was less than $100. Our panels were mandatory on a new house $16800 but we got $4400 approx from state and federal tax refunds. Our pay off time will be about 5 years, but we didn’t have a choice. I am now looking at whether to install at my Mums house in the UK. Quoted 4500 for panels. Might also do them for my rental property if the roof will take them

We invested in 11 panels 4.12kw system plus an 8.2kw battery the back end of last year. Best decision we ever made. Its essentially insulated us against this energy worry for now as were an electric-only household. We have a dorma window on the roof so got 5 panels on the house rood fitted round that so it can be done- we also have a detached garage so we have 6 panels on that.

It is excellent and over the summer have been basically just paying very little- around £30-£40 a month actual usage whilst building up a large energy account credit for the winter months - preparing for our electric heat pump to kick in for heating and that consumes a lot- the above summer usage includes charging a Plug in hybrid car.

the company that installed did a survey and gave us all the array and battery options with their relevant costings, estimated generation and payback time. The above system cost us about £8300. It was estimated to pay for itself in around 8 years but that was accounting for normal annual estimate increase in energy costs if 5%. It has obviously increased much more substantially than that. More than they could ever have known that so I guestimate it will actually pay for itself in 5-6 years?

any excess electricity made once the battery is full is on a SEG tariff , its pretty negligible tbh, get 4.1p/kwh, a tenner a month in summer. its tiny compared to the FIT tariff my MIL gets 16p/kwh but that’s whats on offer these days. Criminal really that I’m selling it to the grid at that yet they’re charging so much for “green energy tariffs”

with regards to the battery, we also have an octopus account that has a normal (high-ish) daytime kwh rate but overnight its 7.5kwh, so you can charge the battery up off cheap elec if anticipating a grey day. Also charge the car off that sometimes. Its an elecreic vehicle tariff so you should have an electric car really but I cant(octopus go) see how they’d know the difference between charging a car and charging a battery, its not like they can check is it?

its definitely worth asking a few companies locally to do you a survey, nothing to lose have you? If you are in yorkshire i can definitely recommend ours but I can bet they are very busy at the moment!