Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Property/DIY

Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Original poster

Just had Solar Panels fitted and DH is driving me mad!

26 replies

Milliways · 16/02/2012 14:43

OK, we have only had them a whole day, but EVERY time I switch something on, he rushes to see if our meter is moving! He was very excited when telly + 3 PCs were on, and I switched on the hoover and still nothing was registering. We have to have permission for the toaster so he can "watch"!

Now, it's like weather watch too! "Ooh, sun is out - what are we producing now" etc etc

The saving grace is none of our neighbours, or passing people, can see them due to house position cause they sure are ugly things.

Have you had them and how long does this sort of novelty last?

OP posts:
Pudden · 16/02/2012 16:06

bless him! on a similar vein my dh was like this for a while when we had an energy monitor fitted. Every light switched on had him over to it with lots of "ooh our use has gone up by 30/300/3000 watts etc etc. There are only so many "oh how interesting"s one can generate before you tell the offender to "belt up you boring bugger".

His interest declined after about a week so console yourself it wil soon be over :o

mumblejumble · 16/02/2012 16:23

Oooh, solar panels, think I would be the same as your dh, very exciting!

fresh · 16/02/2012 18:13

Same here. Occasionally if it's a sunny day he mentions it, and every quarter when we get the money Grin but otherwise...a one week wonder!

Original poster
Milliways · 16/02/2012 18:22

Phew! He has had to go away tonight on business and has already phoned me up to make sure I take a reading and get one in the morning..........

Now, I will get more excited when the first payment arrives and they start repaying themselves :)

OP posts:
SwedishEdith · 16/02/2012 19:24

Oh, think of the fun you can have making up readings...

Original poster
Milliways · 16/02/2012 20:05

Grin SwedishEdith!

OP posts:
PanicMode · 17/02/2012 17:21

I still get phone calls from my father on sunny days telling me what they are generating......! I had really hoped it would wear off, but it's been over a year now. Still, he's the sort of person who fills in a little book EVERY time he fills his car with fuel and puts it in a spreadsheet to see how his MPG is going.....

I do love him dearly, but sometimes......

Original poster
Milliways · 17/02/2012 20:57

He sounds just like my DH :)

OP posts:
ragged · 17/02/2012 21:03

3 months & DH still notes the numbers daily (sigh).

Yorky · 17/02/2012 21:35

Save me a seat - we are having ours fitted next week.

Should I buy him a special notebook for readings as a solar panel present?

Technodad · 18/02/2012 10:19

Sadly (and as a bloke I can say this), you are just going to have to put up with it. If it was DH that has been the main driver behind getting the solar panels, he will want to make sure that he was RIGHT in that decision and remind you about it continually.

Deep-down, us blokes feel that we have such little opportunity to be right about things around the house, that it is extremely exciting when we can draw a graph in M$ Excel to say exactly how right we were to the nearest 3 decimal places!

The quickest way to get through it, is to make a big thing about how right he was and that you should trust his judgement more often. Tell some of your best looking female friends (in front of him) what a good decision it was and how clever he is (probably best to hide the graphs and spreadsheet at this point). Sooner or later he will calm down.

Everyone needs to be told they did a good job from time to time!

Technodad

smalltown · 18/02/2012 10:26

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Technodad · 18/02/2012 10:28

He sounds like my FIL too. Fill in the notebook with numbers like 8mpg and 12mpg and leave it around to find!

SkivingAgain · 18/02/2012 10:42

Two weeks, and I'm still putting the reading on the calendar every day. We were away for a few days this week and the first thing I did when I got back was look at the meter.

I agree with Technodad's analysis, as I was in the driving seat with this project and DH was Hmm. He's now coming round to the idea and I predict that within 6 months he will be taking the credit.

Technodad · 18/02/2012 11:18

He should take the credit for being pessimistic about it, which forced you into doing the sums correctly to justify the requirement. Tell him how right he was to make you do the research thoroughly and he will let you have the credit for the idea.

We are a lot like children - and possibly dogs.

SkivingAgain · 18/02/2012 12:35

Technodad you are so wise. I often forget what simple complex creatures you men are.

inmysparetime · 18/02/2012 12:45

Never mind DH, I've had solar panels for 10 months and still note down the reading (and the amount generated in the last 24 hours) every dayGrin
I have a spreadsheet and graphs, but I stopped telling everyone about how much I'd generated after about the first 300kWh
(Today it's 1246.4). I no longer expect people to care how much we generate, I just enjoy looking at the pretty graphs and savings balance

basic · 18/02/2012 12:51

So just how So just how much does it actually cost

basic · 18/02/2012 12:52

it actually cost in the first place to watch the

Yorky · 18/02/2012 14:51

Our scaffolding is up ready for installation on Monday - they didn't tell me that would keep the DC entertained for an hour - salesmen don't understand the appeal of these details Grin

Original poster
Milliways · 18/02/2012 15:08

My parents had theirs fitted this week as well so DH & DF can compare notes on the phone. DH is impressed that we are still generating in the rain, and I was allowed the Tumble dryer AND washing machine on this morning whilst it was bright! Grin

Good job DD is at Uni as the control panel/inverter thingy is in her (huge) built-in wardrobe - which backs onto our loft, and she wouldn't take too kindly to the persistent visits to read it. We have now had the internet cable connected so DH will just be able to monitor it all from his laptop from next week.

OP posts:
Fluffycloudland77 · 18/02/2012 15:44

I would love solar panels, and I would be just as bad as your dh with them too.

ggirl · 18/02/2012 15:45

can someone explain the meter reading and money back thing
I have no clue what you're on about but am interested.

And what's the initial cost?

Original poster
Milliways · 18/02/2012 15:54

Your panels produce power which is fed into the grid, via and your meter. If they are producing more power than you are using then the surplus is "sold back" but as they can't really calculate that properly then you get paid for about half of everything you produce (I believe!). Some meters apparently run backwards! Ours doesn't, but it def. stands still a lot now in the daytime so you also pay for a lot less on your bills.

Cost depends on how many panels and what deal you get. We have 17 panels on one side of our roof (it is big) and it cost around £10k all in, but they should pay for themselves within 10 years if the gov. manage to reduce the tariff they pay, but a lot quicker we hope as we have got in before the deadline and should get the higher rebate, and we have very high bills usually here so hope to notice that.

OP posts:
Technodad · 18/02/2012 16:22

My FIL has the old style meter and that runs backwards when it is sunny - it is enormously satisfying to watch.

I did however make a comment about how satisfying the backwards metering looked to FIL and out came the spreadsheets! I won't make that mistake again!