Solar panels

[beggingforsleep]

Looking for some information on solar panels please, and whether they ever pay for themselves.

I've got a quote as part of a collective buy type process which has an installation cost of £4.8k. It then says we're likely to save £131 a year on our bills and earn £132 in export tariff.

That means it would take 18 or so years for us to recoup our investment.

I know the savings/earnings are just an estimation but are solar panels for the good of the environment rather than for really saving money? If we could recoup our costs in 5 to 8 years or so it would be doable but 18 feels like it's just a badging exercise.

We can probably bring the installation cost down a bit as the roof is being redone this year anyway so we'll have scaffolding up already. We could also 'save' more money in energy bills by having a battery but that costs over £2k so again would take a long while to recoup

I've never been able to work out how it would pay. 18 years is a long time - what chance the whole system lasts that long?

Where in the country are you? The further north you are, the less return you get. Is your roof south facing and with uninterrupted sunlight all day? Would this reduce the price of your house?

See here:- www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/free-solar-panels/

If you want to 'go green' then one of the best things you can do for the environment and your pocket is to insulate your house - I mean really insulate it. This is one thing that keeps on saving you money, year on year.

Of course, there is an even easier way to save money AND help the environment which costs pennies. See here :- bit.ly/3xDNzO9

we have solar panels & use them to charge the electric car which saves money & is more eco friendly.

export tariffs are v low, but you save much more if you are using electricity in the day time from the solar panels rather than the mains. so we now only run the dishwasher etc in the day.

I wouldn't get them only for the money savings, but money + eco friendliness is worth it.

There are major shortages of solar panels globally. It's frankly ridiculous to put the ones that are being produced on roofs in Northern Europe.

Never lease your roof to a solar panel company it can be very detrimental when you come to sell your house.

I have often wondered what happens to solar panels when they are 'end of life' (which I thought was about 15 years) do they just end up in landfill?

One more thing, someone I know had sar panels fitted and pigeons like to build nests between the panel and the roof and he had to find another company to fit a wire grill around the edge to prevent it. (the original company had ridden out of town on their horses...)
If you are having your roof done I have seen solar panels that are flush /embedded with the roof tiles and that looks so much better.

You are right OP- they make little financial sense & on that basis I wouldn't go ahead. I have them on my house but only because they came with the house.

my friend in Durham got them 15 years ago....on a really good deal which doesnt exist anymore...he gets free elec in summer and earns about 700 a year back from the grid...he paid 10k...i have looked into it a lot and would take maybe 10 years to get money back..5k installation...you also need large batteries so you can use elec stored in the evening or in winter or you have to pay for useage....standing charge also stays the same...i feel i have left it too late...

in purely financial terms, no, it is not a paying propositon.

If you have £6,000 to spare, you can invest it and get a better return.

Even if you stuffed it into a sock and put it into the mattress, or put it in the bank at 0.01% interest, it would still be worth £6,000 tomorrow, and next year, and in ten years, and in 18 years. You would not have to wait 18 years to "get your money back."

If fact, if you invested it wisely and had luck, in 18 years it might have have grown to two, five, ten times its original value.