Are Solar panels worth the initial cost

[neilyoungismyhero]

Hi. Advice needed please.
We're thinking about solar panels. Not sure if it's relevant but we are early and mid 70s in age. Small property. Our current monthly usage, is between £70 - £100 max.
We've been quoted 12K for 8 panels plus a battery and advised that Octopus currently offer the highest buy back prices for electricity.
It sounds reasonable but we would have to borrow the 12K initially or more likely put the amount on an IF CC. I'm wondering if it's worth it to be honest, it sounds like a no brainer but wondered what other people with the panels think. TIA

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Updated by MNHQ
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I think Martin Lewis advises if you have to borrow the money then it's not worth it. We have them and they have reduced our electric bills to zero at the moment and we are getting some money back from Octopus for our electric. However we have 23 panels. I think the pay back is a good few years (usually about 8 or so) and with 8 panels you won't have much spare electricity to sell. Also the paperwork involved to sell the electric is a lot! Make sure your installers are MCS accredited otherwise none of the energy firms will give you anything for your export and that they are willing to apply for the DNO for you. £12000 for 8 panels plus a battery is also expensive. You can probably get it cheaper than that. What size inverter are they quoting for and what size battery?

Forgot to say there is a great group on Facebook called Solar & battery UK (including any other renewable energy source/storage) which is a great source of information and if you post your quote there they will tell you if its good value or not.

Not in your circumstances I suspect.

What is your annual usage and what will 8 panels generate? I don’t think you’ve been quoted a great price. We have 15 panels with optimisers plus an 8kw battery plus solar immersion for £14k. Remember they won’t generate much at all between October and March (which is when we use most electricity). The buy back rates are peanuts. It’s hardly worth it (although I’m not sure you’d generate much excess to sell anyway

Thanks for the replies. Enlightening...I wondered this but my husband is pretty keen but suggested he looks at the replies.

I also think 12k for 8 panels and a battery is v expensive maybe look around get some more quotes. We had 20 panels and 3 batteries fitted earlier this year for 14k. Last month our total gas and electric bill was plus about £20 as we made £80 exporting through Octopus. We haven’t gone a winter yet but I’m hopeful the money we make from exporting now and the savings we make will see us through. I’m not sure how
long the pay back will be but it does feel nice generating our own electricity and getting money back this month rather than paying!

@MotherOfDragonflies Octopus Flux pays decent export rates. We get 22p per kWh in the daytime and 35p from 4-7pm. Was about £120 last month (we exported 645 kWh). Not sure how long it will last though with dropping energy prices and you have to be careful not to import anything from 4-7pm as it’s really a expensive rate.

We checked panels out as part of having an air source heat pump, in fact, we regularly check it out as things change all the time. Our house is a detached, and old, so insulation can't be up to modern standards, but has a lot of roof as it is part single-storey. Household members are engineers, so know what to look for re inverters, batteries, etc. You do have to be very careful with any predictions you are given on output of panels, they can be very overstated. There are maintenance costs, you need to factor them in. And if an inverter breaks, they are expensive to replace.

All I can say is that for us, here, it is still not yet economic to get panels and a heat pump, even though we wouldn't be borrowing to do it, though it is getting more so. We have certainly come to the conclusion that even with batteries to make best use of the generation, and the new type of panel where it doesn't work down to the minimum generation all over if just one area is in shadow, it's not yet worth it. But your circs are not the same, and if you just want the power alone, it may be worth it for you.

No.

If you spend £10,000 for example, it might take you ten years to save that much. It will generate most electricity on sunny summer days when you don't need it. In winter there will be hardly any.

Meaning that in ten years you will be as well off as if you had put the money in a tin and buried it in the garden. Not in profit.

If you invested £10,000, it might well double in ten years, and continue growing.

If you put it into your pension it would turn into £12,500 the same day due to tax rebate.

No one has asked where you live. It matters whether you live in Cornwall or Shetland.

my parents are retired and just got them installed for pretty much free. I can't remember the scheme but presumably theres some grants around?

Sorry I missed that you would borrow the money.

Interest costs would exceed the benefit.

The finances say no but the heart may say yes.

Sorry to say it, but at your age, no.
Was the plan to save money? Or go green?

So many things to consider, we had solar with battery installed in March 22, for us it has been worth it, we use a lot of electricity (household of four adults who all WFH). The installation also helps EPC rating. It is saving us money. We hardly buy any electricity from the grid April to October. We paid £10k but I think it would cost more now.

I had panels installed recently so can give some real world info.

Install was £6,500
Generation from panels since installed just over 2 months ago is 939 kWh.
I didn't get a battery.
Octopus SEG rate is 15p per kWh so that's £140 if I sold all the energy back to the grid. However I've been running washing machine, tumble dryer and dishwasher during the day so electric bills have been lower by £20 per month.

It's been really sunny, and spring long days, but I estimate they are 'worth' £50 per month on average. That's an 11 year payback without accounting for inflation

I think that's a conservative estimate. I do live in the South East and have an almost perfect roof for solar (South South East facing 40 degree pitch).

I could probably make more by investing that money, but I love the idea of lower day to day living costs and helping the environment.

Check your local council and see if they have any schemes that you might be eligible for.

I would advise getting more quotes. Prices rose end of 2022 and early this year but appear to be falling somewhat as supply and competition have increased. Could you let us know what KW of solar pv and what kw of battery storage you have been quoted?

You mention your bills but what is your actual usage of electricity and are you also on gas for hot water etc.

I would get more quotes. That feels very high. Our roof is massive (narrow and wide) and totally south facing.

We have spent circa £12k but installed something like 22 panels.
We used a council buying scheme which gave circa 40% off the cost of panels.

It's covering over 50% of our usage (also v high) but the payback period due to current energy costs has gone from 10 yrs to 3/5 so it's been worth it for us.

Current interest rates would suggest that borrowing is a bad idea unless you have the capability to pay it back quickly. Have you checked your eligibility for any subsidies or government allowances? Worth considering the next election is on the horizon so both councils and central government will start to make moves to flash the cash. It's worth lobbying your council for a purchase scheme if they don't have one. The economies of scale are amazing.

Will you be leaving your home to someone in your will? If so, ask them if they would like to contribute. If not, then please do not borrow. It sounds like someone is trying to scam you.

@neilyoungismyhero fyi. i bought a battery this year (already have solar panels) and joined a facebook group for the battery owners (I know, sad). Anyway advert just popped up for 4kw panels, 3.6 inverter and 5.12 battery for £7999. obviously, that is a guide not a fixed cost but indicative. the batteries are sunsynk which I don't know much about.

I echo what others have said- it may not be worth it for you, especially if you're borrowing the money. We have saved a small fortune in a larger house since we had 12 panels installed and battery.

Our initial outlay was lower than many though as our local authority does a scheme every 2 years where they get expressions of interest from any householder in the council's area interested in fitting solar panels, then negotiate a lower price with different suppliers for everyone on the list to get it done (if that makes sense).

We would love to get them too.

The only thing that puzzled me was - are the daily standing charges cancelled from the electric company if we just use the power from the solar and battery?

I have looked online but can't find the answer

You still need to pay the daily unless you are completely off-grid and very few are.

Thank you so much for answering - that is disappointing news though - I hoped it would be at least discounted

I'm still considering it but I track the Givenergy battery owners on FB and I hate all of the issues they seem to have with the battery management software - batteries not working or doing unexpected things. The technology generally seems too new to be useful to the mass market. What 70/80 year olds are going to enjoy doing firmware updates with their WiFi just to get the lights back on.

it’s usually not worth it if you want to sell back to the grid. We make huge savings using our 13 to power our 5 bed house (and to some extent the electric car) - we have a massive battery so store the power we use for later. We’ve barely ever sent back to the grid. We’ve got loads of power this past week but before that barely anything meaningful since about October. Ours will pay off in about 6-7 years but we had the cash upfront.