What do you think about Solar Panels?

[PinkBobble]

Do you have them? Have you had a quote? Are they worth it? If you have them have your bills gone down significantly?

We had ours fitted in May. Yes, we're pleased with them. Despite the less than brilliant summer we think our bills were halved and expecting first FIT payment of £220 ish for generation May to end August. We have 4kw 16 panel system and are SW facing.

The subsidies keep reducing. It is not a very good financial deal, but if you have ample money and have already fully funded your pension and ISAs, it is probably as good as the interest on any deposit account you can currently get.

Mine cost me about £6500 a year ago and have knocked about £240 p.a. off the electricity bills, and will earn about £650 in FITS. The amount generated has been greater than the vendor's estimates. As the FITS are dropping you will get smaller payments.

If you know what Discounted Cash Flow is you will know that the payback period is longer than the vendors will say. On my figures above it might be about 12-13 years before I see a profit.

If you do not live on the South Coast you will generate less electricity. Electricity saved depends on your washer, drier, dishwasher, iron being used while the sun is shining. If you have a gas boiler, the cost of hot water and CH is so low that you will not save on them and it is not worth spending another couple of hundred on an immersion controller, unless you already have to heat your HW with electricity.

I can't get the Solar Generation estimating tool to look up your position from town name or map click.

But if you know your latitude and longitude you can use this
re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvgis/apps4/pvest.php

Here is a map showing how solar energy varies by location
re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvgis/cmaps/eu_cmsaf_opt/G_opt_UK.png

If someone has a better link to an estimator will they post it please

My roof is an odd shape so I cannot do PV,
but I love my solar thermal panel : it does all my hot water for 6 months of the year and acts as a preheater for the rest of the year

friends who have PV love it : you get in the habit of using electricity when you are generating it
and the sooner wall batteries become cheap, the better it will get

Thanks all... all sounds pretty positive!