Free solar panels.

BISHI

Free solar panels worth £12,000: Save £120/year on your electricity...

Anybody here got any experience of these deals - basically they pay for your panels to be fitted, you get free electricity and the company keeps the surplus that is sold back to the electricity company. You have to keep them for 25 years and most of the profit goes to the company but you get some savings off your bill whilst reducing your carbon footprint and reducing the energy rating on your house. We have a south facing roof so am thinking of applying - thought I would see what you guys thought about it ....

sean5302

A bit of a con, actually.

I looked into this and the installer gets £35k from input relief, a Gov't handout.

If you spent the £12k yourself you'd be eligible for the same handout which would pay for the installation within 8 years and the kit would be yours to keep.

The NAEA estate agents report houses with solar panels are extremely difficult to sell. Many owners have had to get the panels removed before any buyer would even view their house.

BISHI

I don't understand why having solarpanels would be a bad thing !! If they were at the back of the house out of view I'm sure that would be fine !!! The energy rating of our house is almost as low as it can be so surely improving it would be a selling plus .
We don't have the 12 K to spend so I'm thinking at least we get some free electricity and as the price of it will inevitably go up and up it might be worth a punt ...

sean5302

Green living or a hot new investment? Tariffs for solar panels pay eight per cent a year - at taxpayers' expense | Mail Online

BISHI

Ok, read it and it simply makes the idea of somebody else taking the risk instead of me more appealing!!!
The way i see it I will be getting most of my daytime electricity ,if not free, at a significantly reduced rate and therefore my bills will decrease. If the feed in tarrif scheme folds then I have lost nothing as the installation company is takinh 100% of the risks. This has to be win win surely ?

sean5302

Yes. I couldn't find the link I wanted.

I read in the Telegraph that people could make £35k by installing the panels and owning them outright. If they got £12k worth of kit from the supplier, that supplier would make £23k out of the house owner, which you could have got for yourself.

BISHI

Yeah but you gotta have 12K up front...........which I dont. And that 23k will be over 25 years assuming the scheme stays in place..

la gran siete

A s with most things its probably best t wait a few years as the price of the panels is sure to drop as they become more popular

As for the scheme , on the surface it appears a good idea for those whpo havent the capital but it must be remembered the company effectively owns the roof during the 25 yr period, which must be strong enough to hold the panels,and could make selling the house very difficult.Of course they would be responsible for the maintenance of the panels and they will only fit them on south facing roofs anyway

johntheexpat

I know photovoltaics are 'in' and the cool and trendy technological 'must have' of the moment, but a microCHP, could actually be much more appealing.  Not only to the homeowner, but also to the people buying the power off the small producers.

Looking through the link, the Worcester Bosch jobbie produces 1KW of electricity for every 7KW of heat produced.  But as most people will have their heating on when it is cold (ie a period of higher demand for electricity) then surely this is a better time to produce power than at midday in the middle of summer* when presumably demand is at its lowest?

Admittedly you have to burn natural gas for the MicroCHP, but I don't think I have ever seen a comprehensive assessment of how green solar panels are from fabrication through to disposal (possibly not very green if the truth is told).

*I have very serious doubts about any scheme that pays through the nose to produce something very expensively at a time when the need for it is at it's lowest.

ojock

I think the Feed-in tariff goes down by about 9 or 10% if you install them after Apr 2011, anyone ?