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Solar panels

16 replies

Dobby123456 · 10/01/2023 09:01

Company contacted us about surveying our house for solar panels. There's a scheme that you can pay for the installation with extra energy that you sell back to the company. Could this really save us money on electricity? There's not much sun in the UK!


Updated by MNHQ
Landed on this page in search of solar panel advice? Find our guide to installing solar panels in your home in the UK. HTH!

OP posts:
WednesdaysPlaits · 10/01/2023 09:02

You’ll be paying back for a LONG time. My panels generate very little in the winter when our electricity usage is at its highest. In summer you’re obviously trying to use as much as you can by running everything during daylight hours, solar immersion etc.

DRS1970 · 10/01/2023 09:20

We had a free solar panel install. The company installing get the FIT payment and we get the electricity from them free. It saves us around £400 a year on our bills historically, will obviously be more now. We used A Shade Greener, and have had no problems.

WednesdaysPlaits · 10/01/2023 09:25

The FIT no longer exists

RidingMyBike · 10/01/2023 09:36

It can make it more complicated to sell the house if it's got solar panels funded through something like this. We're having some installed but paying for them ourselves.

WednesdaysPlaits · 10/01/2023 09:39

To give you an idea of how slowly you could be paying this off, in the past 20 days my panels on my large south facing roof have generated 24kWh of energy. It’s admittedly January and cold and rainy. We’ve obviously used everything that we’ve generated so no excess. I’m assuming interest accumulates..

UncleQuentinsWife · 10/01/2023 09:49

We had a quote before the last electricity price hike and it would have taken ten years for the panels to pay for themselves. It would be less now though as electricity is more expensive.

It will depend on how many you can fit on the roof as well. We have a velux window so could only use 2/3 of the roof.

RedToothBrush · 10/01/2023 09:52

Weird to contact you about a fit. Most of the reputable solar panel installers around here had been booked up for months. I know that my parents when they were looking for one, came across a really dodgy company who had a name similar to the company we used but the dodgy company had dreadful reviews (unlike the one we used).

In terms of whether you can save money, it will probably take us about 5 or 6 years to recoup the cost of the panels based on our usage, what we currently pay, what we generate and how much we are being paid for our surplus. My understanding is this is particularly good. My parents aren't generating as much as us and our friends who live 50m away on a different street are generating half what we do. Our set up is directly south facing at top of hill in a bright spot. My parents have two separate sets of panels on different roofs a south facing bungalow and our friends have an East West alignment with panels on both sides. The set up clearly makes a big difference. All of us are NW England.

You might also need to consider whether you want batteries. We decided against as we didn't think we could recoup the cost during the life span of the battery and we don't think the tech is quite there. We were having a wobble over whether we'd made the right choice when there was talk of rolling black outs this winter but I think we've made the right call. At least for now.

I think for us one of the big things is it's given us piece of mind with uncertain energy prices - we don't feel as exposed. We pay for electricity at night but over the course of a year we get most of that back in what we generate. It's a hefty initial investment for medium term security.

For us it's worth it. If we were like our friends who are generating half what we do, Im not so convinced.

The key is to get an assessment on how much you'd generate, compare suppliers (don't just go with the people who knock on your door without checking them out and seeing how they compare to others).

We'd been considering panels for a while but hadn't thought it financially viable until last March (because we missed out on all the early really good deals which we know people on). That really changed with the spike in energy prices which we can't see getting better for at least 2 or 3 years - which was sufficient for us to go for it.

We have been told by a friend in house sales/rentals it can be problematic to sell if you get on a deal where you don't own the panels outright (we do) because you are locked into a contract. If you own outright, it's now being considered as part of the house price which wasn't the case 12 months ago - which highlights that they something people are looking for when buying (so effectively the investment is now locked into our home and we have already technically covered for the cost).

I think the biggest thing is to properly do your homework. There's a million and one options on this so know what you are talking about and don't go into a meeting with a salesman without knowing your stuff first.

Trethew · 10/01/2023 10:03

@RedToothBrush very helpful answer

Dobby123456 · 10/01/2023 10:08

RedToothBrush · 10/01/2023 09:52

Weird to contact you about a fit. Most of the reputable solar panel installers around here had been booked up for months. I know that my parents when they were looking for one, came across a really dodgy company who had a name similar to the company we used but the dodgy company had dreadful reviews (unlike the one we used).

In terms of whether you can save money, it will probably take us about 5 or 6 years to recoup the cost of the panels based on our usage, what we currently pay, what we generate and how much we are being paid for our surplus. My understanding is this is particularly good. My parents aren't generating as much as us and our friends who live 50m away on a different street are generating half what we do. Our set up is directly south facing at top of hill in a bright spot. My parents have two separate sets of panels on different roofs a south facing bungalow and our friends have an East West alignment with panels on both sides. The set up clearly makes a big difference. All of us are NW England.

You might also need to consider whether you want batteries. We decided against as we didn't think we could recoup the cost during the life span of the battery and we don't think the tech is quite there. We were having a wobble over whether we'd made the right choice when there was talk of rolling black outs this winter but I think we've made the right call. At least for now.

I think for us one of the big things is it's given us piece of mind with uncertain energy prices - we don't feel as exposed. We pay for electricity at night but over the course of a year we get most of that back in what we generate. It's a hefty initial investment for medium term security.

For us it's worth it. If we were like our friends who are generating half what we do, Im not so convinced.

The key is to get an assessment on how much you'd generate, compare suppliers (don't just go with the people who knock on your door without checking them out and seeing how they compare to others).

We'd been considering panels for a while but hadn't thought it financially viable until last March (because we missed out on all the early really good deals which we know people on). That really changed with the spike in energy prices which we can't see getting better for at least 2 or 3 years - which was sufficient for us to go for it.

We have been told by a friend in house sales/rentals it can be problematic to sell if you get on a deal where you don't own the panels outright (we do) because you are locked into a contract. If you own outright, it's now being considered as part of the house price which wasn't the case 12 months ago - which highlights that they something people are looking for when buying (so effectively the investment is now locked into our home and we have already technically covered for the cost).

I think the biggest thing is to properly do your homework. There's a million and one options on this so know what you are talking about and don't go into a meeting with a salesman without knowing your stuff first.

Thanks very much for the info. It wasn't a particular company that contacted us, it was in response to a form that I filled out advertising the pay-as-you go scheme and they put us in touch with a local company (a bit like an insurance broker). The survey is free and they claim they will only agree to fit the panels if you're going to be able to generate enough electricity to have surplace for payments and save on your electricity bills.

Wanted to know if anyone else has come across this and does it sound legit? Thing is, half of our energy use is powered by gas, so no saving there.

OP posts:
purpledalmation · 10/01/2023 10:29

We have these panels. Pay £78 pcm for joint bills to power company. Had them fitted 15 years ago. They maintain them and take the excess energy to sell to the national grid. Cost us nothing.

purpledalmation · 10/01/2023 10:29

A Shade Greener here too. Scheme no longer running

RidingMyBike · 10/01/2023 17:46

I'd be a little wary. We contacted a company in the summer to get a quote and survey done for energy saving including solar panels. It then emerged they wanted to charge £400 for this, although deductible if we did go ahead.

Our builder then told us the company they use offer the same service for free so glad we didn't go ahead with the first one!

KylieAndersen · 26/09/2023 05:51

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This has been deleted by MNHQ for breaking our Talk Guidelines.

WednesdaysPlaits · 26/09/2023 06:02

This year ours have halved our electricity consumption compared to when we didn’t have them. They’ve also saved us money on oil since we have solar immersion water heating too but that only kicks in when our battery is full and we are still generating excess energy.

it’s been a rubbish year for sun (apart from May/June). The panels will pay us back in about ten years I think

WednesdaysPlaits · 26/09/2023 06:04

I’m still very glad we have them but they’re not a money saving scheme in the short term.

imo all new builds should be orientated so that they can benefit from solar energy and panels and batteries should be compulsory in new builds)

Illumicrateme · 26/09/2023 23:00

We have had ours since Feb 2022 12 panels plus a battery. We make enough money to cover our gas and electric fully and profited £700 last year. We do however also use a special energy tariff where we buy energy from the grid at low cost to charge the battery then resell back to the national grid for a higher cost so it isn't solely from just the panels.

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