Has anyone had solar panels fitted?

dj_padd

We're getting them installed tomorrow.
But as I live in a housing association house I had no choice.

The H.A. Are paying for them to be installed and we can use as much of the electricity generated as we want but any spare that gets sold goes to the H.A.

Most annoying thing its they are putting up the scaffolding right now and have blocked off the signal to the sky dish!

AndiC

When choosing to have free solar panels you are basically renting your rooftop to the solar panel installation company so it is in their interest to keep the solar panels working efficiently as they are the ones benefiting from the feed-in-tariff. Due to this reason they are often very particular about which houses they install them on as they want to make the most out of their investment.

Engensa is a company that installs free solar panels and they take the  responsibility of servicing and maintaining the solar panels and they even allow you to purchase the panels at the market rate during the 25yrs if you choose to do so.

Check out Free Solar Panel FAQs | Solar Panel Facts | Engensa for more details.

The Dark Horse

Hmmm you don't happen to work for them by any chance?   

IronGiant

hmmmmm....

url=htp:[[/www.Brxxxxxxmexxx.co.uk/extranet/engensa/]Engensa | BrxxxxxMexxx Ltd.[/url]




Naughty boy Andi...  

Probably best to fess up now...

IronGiant

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Smurfin

I've been looking into this lately, and although I love the idea I can't help but think it's a bad investment.  With an optimistic 8 year payback, I can honestly say I don't know if I'll be living here in 8 years...and if I move before then we'll have lost money, let alone made any.

The whole leasing your roof side of things doesn't appeal, because you have a restrictive covenant built into your house deeds which could seriously affect the saleability of your property in the future.  

If I buy a system outright and it costs £12k to have a 4kw system installed (aside from any maintenance needed, bearing in mind the payback time is probably 10 years), I wonder how much interest I would save by paying off £12k of the mortgage, and just keeping my monthly repayments the same?

Not only that, but if government grants and subsidies are decreasing each tax year, the only way for the industry to survive is to keep reducing the costs of installing them, which will surely happen.  Give me a 4 year payback and I'd be looking at it seriously, but 8-10 years with lots of unknowns?

Need to do some more research, but I can't help but think this is good for only one party - the solar panel installers.

Miss Chief

My cousin is a salesman for a scottish company up here and according to him it makes a very worthwhile investment. Certainly better than any bank account over the 25 years although he did say a solar panel loses efficiency if it gets very warm, over about 24'C i think he said which surprised me.

Smurfin

My point exactly

Miss Chief

Yes, but I'm in no position to buy from him as I'm renting so why would he give me a sales pitch?

Bl4ckGryph0n

Because that is all he know and trained to do

Smurfin as highlighted before in this thread I am in the same place. We looked into it and for us it would take longer than the optimistic 8 year, more like double that. I can't say I am impressed to have to wait an generation to start getting a return    Also the whole return is based upon any future government no messing about with the feedin tariff.

As an aside just notice that our neighbours opposite have got the whole eastern side of their house covered in the panels. What is all that about?