Assuming you can afford the installation cost in the first place, and not have to borrow the money, can anyone explain the advantages to me?
In my simplistic assumption, which may very well be wrong, do you ever get back the initial cost, plus loss of compounded interest?
I assume that having solar panels adds value to the property, but you still have gas/oil/LPG/coal/logs to pay for the heating and as my leccy, in a 4bed is only £27 DD pcm why would I bother. Does it increase your Buildings insurance costs, and are they completely maintenance free?
Just wondered because a close relation has just spent £10k on solar panels.
And 10 years in any house is long enough for me...after 11 years I am itching to move...
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My brother had panels installed two or three years ago.
I forget the precise arithmetic, but the feed in tariff is so generous he will be in profit in six or eight years.
By profit I mean capital repaid and more than the interest he's not received, plus reduced energy bills along the way.
So the attraction - unless you are an investment genius - is money.
Last edited by: Iffy on Sat 26 Nov 11 at 09:19
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Do they feed all energy generated straight into the grid, then you draw your requirement as normal, or do you draw off what you need then feed surplus into the grid? (obviously talking during a good hot summer, not a 400w day in Winter)
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>> Just wondered because a close relation has just spent £10k on solar panels.
They probably wanted to get it installed pronto because after 12th Dec, the FITS (feed-in-tariff scheme) will go from 43.3p per KWh to 21p. This is the amount the goverment (tax payer) will pay for any excess energy you don't use back to the grid. So the average solar-panel-fitted house will make around £500 a year instead of £1100 a year.
And who's to say that the cash-strapped government won't cut tariffs still further?
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If you want to stay in your current house for 15+ years, it might makes sense. If you move in few years, it is not. You won't get higher value for solar panels when it comes to sell your house.
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Speaking to an estate agent solar panels are apparently seen as a turn off by many house buyers who see them as a potential problem and a bit naff - bit like swimming pools.
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Yes CG, but the pool came in very useful for Ray Winstone when he was living in Spain....an excellent film and Mr Kingsley was very scary.
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Cant' bury someone under a solar panel though so I guess a pool is a better proposition
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The problem is that they also just look plain horrible on most houses.
I was very careful to get black framed panels because the usual silver frames and metallic lines down the panels simply look dreadful. the bluish tint doesn't help either.
All black on a dark grey roof looks fine.
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>> And who's to say that the cash-strapped government won't cut tariffs still further?
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Thats the rub, seeing the record for economy of truth (lying) from PM's, even elected ones, over the last number of years i wouldn't be too sure that existing get rich quick schemes will be honoured.
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Thanks for all your replies. I have noticed that 3 houses in the locality of swmbo have had panels fitted in the past few months, and if you get your money back after 10 years, and, of course, intend to remain in the house for longer, then it is a no brainer.If you don't have to borrow money.
Assuming of course that interest rates do not increase substantially, and that you continue to receive this generous feedback rate from the tax payer.
For an itinerant such as myself, its not going to happen. Living within the YDNP boundary, doubtless they might have something to say about it as well!
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The feed in tariff (FIT) is paid for by the energy companies by charging a green levy on everyone. In short all those who don't have solar panels are subsidising those who do. See
www.fitariffs.co.uk/FITs/principles/funding/
Here is the irony. This was all put in place by a socialist government, but the main benefactors are those with a spare £12K and a big house. Ie. the rich. And now the "non-socialist" government is looking to reduce the FIT because for one it favours the rich by using subsidies from the masses.
As I understand it the "Generation Tariff" is paid for whatever you generate regardless of whether you use it or sell it back to your energy provider. That's currently 43.3p / kWh reducing to 21p / KWh for installations after December 12.
Any electricty you produce that you use saves the 10p/KWh you would have had to pay your energy provider.
Any excess energy that you don't use gets fed back to the grid. This is known as the "Export Tariff". Old style mechanical meters will go backwards to reflect this and so there is the additional saving of reducing your quarterly bill by that amount. Newer digital meters don't go backwards so you don't get this saving. Because or this the rules pay you half the energy you produce at a flat 3p/KWh. I.e. around 1.5p/KWh on top of what you get anyway.
See : www.fitariffs.co.uk/FITs/principles/export/
The upshot is that if one puts aside the generation tariff, because you get that anyway, the next best thing to do is to use your own electricity because they pay you 1.5p vs the 10p /KWh you pay to buy it back.
So if you use all the energy you generate, based on a price of 10p/KWh for electeicty, the overal saving is around 55p/KWh generated, which only increases as the price of electricity rises.
As for rate of return on investment, typically a 4KW installation will earn £1800-2000 per year from the Feed in Tariff, not counting the saving in not buying the electricity in the first place.
That means a typical installation of £14K for this size system will take about 7 years to pay back at the worst.
Last edited by: car4play on Sat 26 Nov 11 at 17:01
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...the next best thing to do is to use your own electricity because they pay you 1.5p vs the 10p /KWh you pay to buy it back...
Brother has gone all-electric for this reason.
Think he still has a gas hob, which costs him about 3/6 a year.
I believe he also got a grant towards installation, so a £12K job cost him about £8K.
Income, as car4play says, is £1,500+ a year, so brother will be well in profit in five or six years.
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"How much money could I receive?
The amount of money you receive depends on the type and size of the system you use to generate the renewable energy. If you’re installing solar PV panel technology, from 1 April 2012 you will receive up to 21p per Kilowatt hour available for all installations registered from 12th December 2011 – click here to see the official tariff levels table for all renewable energy technology.
As well as the payment you receive for generation, an extra 3.1p per Kilowatt hour of electricity produced that is exported to the grid will also be received, taking it to a total of 24.1p/kWh.
These tariffs should provide a return of up to five per cent. To calculate the potential payback from installing a solar PV system use the Solar Guide Solar PV Feed-In Tariff Calculator to estimate your annual income and overall investment payback time.
When is the Feed-In Tariff available and for how long?
The Feed-In Tariff was opened and payments were made available on 1 April 2010. All systems that are eligible under the scheme now qualify for receiving the tariff. And the best news for anyone considering installing solar PV panels is that the tariff will be available for the longest period of time with this technology. Solar PV tariffs are paid for 25 years, while most of the remaining technologies will only benefit from 20 years of payments."
www.solarguide.co.uk/feed-in-tariff-fit
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Solar panels.Whats the attraction? - Iffy
