We have had a survey done about getting solar panels installed, they have run through all the usual crap and left. Now he gaves us figures of getting £5-600 back every quarter from 12 1x1.5 metre panels, this is the average for a house like hours etc. The total cost is 10k for the panels and install etc. Has anyone had this done and have any info ? cheers
My parents have panels on their house and im looking into it. They have a south facing roof so sun all day and they got £1100 last year out of there 12 panels like yours. Last year was a bad year though they have been told and they should be expecting at least £1400 this year. Looking at a life span of 20 years at least before serious determination of the productivity you would make back £22k to £28k for a £10k investment. This is going minimum life spans of every component and low estimations of what your return financially would be on an annual basis.
Surely this year was worse for sun than last. My parents just got some solar panels installed too although we don't know the savings yet we did manage to offset the cost somewhat by doing some work on the chimneys and sorting the gutters while the scaffold was up
they are a great idea but beware of the government cutting back the rates that they pay for unused power as your pay back will be less.
when you sign up to it, your rates from the government are locked in, but the subsidy is being cut soon so all you get its free electricity, which makes it alot less worthwhile. thanks for the info, keep it coming
I have them on my house, came with it when I bought it, I don't know what savings in ££££ but we get like one free bath a day I was told
they cut the rates earlier this year, it might be worth double checking the pence per unit you get back.
To be fair if you can make use of the electricity then what the government do with the rates isn't so important, because unlike everyone else you won't feel the pain when the electricity company puts up it's price 40% every year
I used to work for a solar panel disti and also got my parents to get them before the new feed-in tariff came in March, so they are getting 42p per kw (3.8kw system). Then it went down to 21p and now not too sure what it is. But 10K seems a lot, also how big is the system they are offering and whats the name of the company. Now days a 4kw system should cost you about 7k max really as prices have come down a lot cause of the drop in tariffs. There are a lot of cowboy companys out there doing shit install jobs and selling really shit quality panels which wouldnt even last 10 years. If you want some help with what to choose and who to use, let me know.
sorry my parents got them just after the summer last year So I’m counting years from when they got them fitted in august to august so this year has just started for there solar panels i should have made that clearer.
I'm building a house at the minute and am considering solar panels. However the ones i'm considering are to heat domestic hot water and look like tubes!
d6yme - If they got them last year their tariff should be 42per kw. Thats solar thermal, dont know too much about them but they are also popular and you get a feedin tariff. Dont really know how it works through.
its myplanet thats offering us them, its a 12 panel system with a 3kw max output. so for 7k i should really be getting a 4kw system ? ive been trying to search online but its heard to separate the bullshit from the truth
7k should be the going rate at this point in time. There are a lot of different brands to choose from. Let me know some of the ones you have seen and maybe can help, worth doing a google search about the company and how long they have been making solar panels and what their ratings are in performance. But the brands that I know well about are REC, Suntech, Sanyo(Panasonic), Yingli, Sovielo, Hyundai, thats all panels. For an inverter I would choose only SMA or maybe PowerOne as they are cheaper, but SMA are the best and largest solar company around.
