Solar panels - anyone happy with theirs?

[MirandaGoshawk]

We were cold-called by a company that then came round to assess the roof & give a quote. Seems like a win-win and that free energy from the sun is a no-brainer. However, we have quite a bit of shading on our roof from tall trees & I was wondering if anyone has any experience of this?

Or is an east-facing, shady roof in the UK just not suitable? Hard to see beyond the hard sell. Salesman took off only 8% in his calculations but the shade is more like 50%.

Our roof faces south east and has no trees shading it at all and we have solar panels that we paid for. We have saved ££££££ since they were installed.

If your roof has a fair amount of shading from tall trees, I would be very suspicious of a cold caller selling solar panels..

A good way to find out whether solar panels would be viable is to get in touch with one of the companies that offer "free" panels and see what they have to say about your roof.

i love my panels. were on the house when we bought it. I've had the line full of clothes drying and the tumble on today and its not cost a penny!

I would never use a cold-caller.

You can get a realistic quote and shade assessment from an electricity supplier or BG, they have a reputation to maintain and are very cautious. You can then research local independents with a good reputation, and see how they compare.

If you have 50% shade then the things will never cover their cost. Even when they are working fine it is not a fantastic deal.

e.g. I paid about £6.5k for mine, and it is estimated that after about 8 to 10 years I will have received/saved about enough to cover their cost. I am in a sunny coastal area with zero shade on the south-facing roof.

However if I kept the money in the bank, I would still have my £6.5k from day one, and after 8 to 10 years I would still have my £6.5k, plus a bit of interest, so I would be better off than if I'd spent it on solar. If I invested in wisely I'd probably more than double it.

If keep the house for 20 years, then I'd start to actually be better off after about 12 years, and then make a bit of a profit until they were worn out. I'll probably have to have a new inverter for maybe £2k every 10 years or so.

However, if you have a few thousand lying around that you don't need, it might give a better return than leaving it in the bank. Certainly don't take out a loan because the interest is likely to exceed the income from the panels.

BTW an ordinary solar panel installation won't work during a power cut, so don't look on it as an emergency backup.

re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvgis/apps4/pvest.php# here is an EU tool that calculates how much electricity you might get. It will mostly be in the summer, so not much use for heating the house in winter.

Love ours, generated 18kwh today!

But we do have the perfect roof - big and south-facing, with the full 16 panels. We have had them for about three and a half years and have already paid back over 50% of the investment (although the tariff rates are lower nowadays).

If you really are interested, Google some suppliers, ask for recommendations, and get three quotes. After that, you will have a much better idea of what you can do with your roof.

Thanks for your thoughts. No, we weren't going to go with them. All the fantastic reviews on their website are from people talking about how nice/quick/tidy the installers were - nothing about how happy they were down the line. Just to be clear, they called by phone and hadn't actually seen the place.

Ooh hello Bunbaker! your suggestion is very helpful - thanks!

Piglet - what is BG?

Which company was it Miranda?

british gas

BG is actually incorrect but often used as an abbreviation.

I worry a lot about some of the panel installations I am seeing in my area. I am in the northern wastes, it rains a lot, and there are people putting these things on north and east facing roofs. I am willing to be corrected on this if I am wrong, but I cannot imagine that they would generate enough to pay for themselves. I do believe there is some predatory selling doing on.

My parents, however, love their panels. But they live in a part of the south that has an almost continental climate with very low rainfall, and they have a large unshaded south-facing roof. They got in early, so are on an amazing tarriff. My Dad can be regularly found in the cupboard under the stairs watching the meter running backwards!

Roughly what's the ballpark cost to install? We have a big southfacing roof and 3 kids so washing machine /dryer are on constantly. Very cash poor at the moment though!

We paid about £10k for ours, but we bought the more expensive ones that generate electricity at lower light levels - very necessary where we live.

We bought our panels just before the government reduced the FIT (about three years ago). We also get 2p more per unit from our supplier, who also supply our gas, telephone and broadband. So the FIT covers not just our electricity, but all of our utilities except for water. During the summer months we generate more electricity than the value of our utility bills so our supplier (Utility Warehouse) pays money into our bank account.

One year I forgot to submit meter readings for a couple of months and our "bill" came to -£600!

Thank you, maybe something we could look at in the next couple of years. Our bills are huge.

"fantastic reviews on their website" are often written by the company and their mates

Unfavourable reviews mysteriously disappear.

I can't remember which company they were - Eco something. The website reviews look genuine, they had pics of the houses, but I imagine these people were their first few customers and had paid discounted prices (they reminded me of the houses that get cutprice windows in return for letting them use your house in advertising). All the reviews said much the same thing and none discussed the FIT or how well or badly the system actually performed.

chilly I think if you've got an unrestricted south-facing roof and you're not planning to move for 10 years then you're onto a winner. Energy from the sun has to be a good thing. But there seem to be other things to consider, such as the cost of replacement parts that Piglet mentioned.

Bunbaker - what are the different types of solar panels please, and what are the type you got that generate at even lower light levels? Just starting looking into solar panels now.