Solar Panels do you actually save any money?

[Elenajc86]

Hi everyone,

I’ve just had an offer accepted on a house that has solar panels. I’m just wondering do they actually save/make any money? I’ll own them outright. The house is a 3 bed semi.

Any information would be appreciated!

Thanks

Ours have halved our bill, and we get around £4-500 per year back in FIT tariff.

Hi . We bought a house with them. We own them outright too. It is great especially as we didn't pay to put them in. We get about £800-1000 a year.

We save money on our electricity bill and we also get money back on the FIT but we installed them about 9-10 years ago before the tariff was actually established so we get the highest rate payments, I think it is much less now (and being abolished completely soon). You also need to agree taking over the FIT contract as part of the sale process.

We own them and save perhaps £12 a month on electricity. We also get around £850-900 pa in Feed In Tariff. Our rate isn't as generous as others as we didn't get them until June 2015. You have to submit readings online every 3 months to the feed in tariff provider (who may be different from your electricity company).

Sorry to jump on this thread but we recently bought a house with solar panels and they are leased through a company called a shade greener.. there is 18 years left outstanding so a long time yet. I have tried to work out how it all works but I'm clueless! What is this FIT thing and would it apply to me?
Thanks in advance.

The feed in tariff payment will go directly to A Shade Greener I believe as your vendor will not have paid for the panels. You will benefit from the reduction in energy costs only. We cycle our appliances so we use electricity while the sun is up (even on a cloudy day some is being produced), and so e.g. our dishwasher isn't on at the same time as the washing machine as you can only use the electricity at the same rate it's being produced. It takes a bit of getting used to if you've been on Economy 7 and we're still not proficient at it but it's worth trying it especially in summer.

Thanks for replying everyone really helpful, the current homeowner said she makes over £1000 PA but she’s trying to sell it so I wasn’t sure if she was exaggerating. Other people I’ve spoke to who don’t own solar panels have told me to be wary about them so it’s good to hear from people who actually have them installed.

I will also make sure I speak to my solicitor about transferring the FIT contract over.

Appreciate the advice

The payback is now quite poor, so they aren't a good investment.

You say they are already fitted, so unless the installation is very bad and they are making the roof leak, they are likely to be of some benefit.

How much you get will depend on the rate per kW (which used to be high and has slowly reduced) and how much they generate. So a large south-facing roof on the South Coast will generate the most.

£1,000 p.a. sounds a lot but is not impossible.

If you want to know the truth you could ask for copies of her FITS remittance advices for a 12-month period.

You will get much more off them in summer, when you don't need it, so (assuming you heat your hot water with gas) the saving in electricity will not be high. You could run your tumble drier for free on a sunny summers day, but if you had a washing line, it would also be free. Neither will help on a wet, cloudy day.

A lot depends on when the contract dates from and thus what rate you are being paid for what you generate. The rate had been coming down but then so has the cost of installation. We got ours 2 years ago and we're expecting to pay off the cost in about 10 years. We got a battery too so hardly use any mains electricity in the summer. Obviously if you don't have to pay for the initial installation and you will own them outright it's just money in the bank! I would steer well clear of lease your roof type contracts through as these seem messy.

We've put them on our house. Had them a few years now so get a reasonable feed in tariff, and earn about £600 a year from them. I haven't worked out exactly what we save on the electricity bill - the blurb you get estimated that it was an average of £500 a year saving but that was including for rise in electricity costs etc and I think it's probably overstated.

The thing people are normally wary about is if there's a contract with a company for them like jq28 has. If they are owned outright I would definitely see them as a positive, unless the seller has included a high valuation for them - assuming a 4kw installation I wouldn't value it at any more than £4k personally.

Having said that it does depend on when you got them installed - my colleague had to pay a lot more for his as he got them done when the feed in tariff first came in, but he gets about £1.5k a year from them.

Congratulations on your new home!

Have to disagree with @PigletJohn they are still a worthy investment until the feed in stops in April (while not as generous as it once was it's still something).
Aside from FIT you use the energy you generate so if you're home during the day it's free electricity and if you have a battery installed like @UnaOfStormhold you use it as and when you need...
This week in January I have generated enough to power my house entirely (5kw system)... Entirely dependant on your usage of course.

With tech moving forward and the increase in electric cars solar with battery is a great thing, not to mention the environmental benefits.

From my experience you Need to look into it if you are getting the house with a mortgage.

Rent a roof schemes can be hard to find a lender for

@SweetheartNeckline thanks that's really helpful.

My parents put 20 panels on their house and the electric bill went down in the summertime from £40.00 to £15.00.

Yes makes a massive difference to our electricity bill.