Is it woth?

[stef]

I haven't looked into this at all. Welive in a three bed semi, roof space facing east, south and west.
really sun light most of the day. Installation wise, what would be involved to get solar panels installed? I gathered so far that there is some sort of a dc / ac inverter involved, where would it be located? In the attic or under the staircase where the cu is? How would the power cables run from the pnaels to the inverter and to the CU? And, above all, is it woth doing? How much would the initial investment be? Any pitfalls?

It is early days but I am toying with the idea, however there is too much to read about it on the net. Some of you guys did some solar panel installations, maybe you can educate me a bit.:smartass2:

 

[Eco Deal]

We install inverter in loft , garages cupboards & next to fuse boxes etc etc .

it all boils down to the indivdual house ,

D.C cable runs short as possible

Roof work can be done in the day if you know what your doing

I am an installer so of course I going to say it worth it , i won twos systems myself And I have gone from a daily average of using 19 kwh per day to 7.8 kwh per day on average , I am producing 9 kwh per day on average so If I keep it up i will be getting FREE electricity all year round and getting paid for it aswell.

You need a SAP calculation doing for you house so you can see it all on paper then you decide if its worth it or not.

 

[davetherave1979]

Im also very keen on getting solar pv not for FIT but for free elec in the day and help save on the bill, waiting to see if it is cheeper for me to buy it on the new green deal or i might buy a 2.5kw system and fit it up for free. have had a look at the cost and for materials only and its not bad price. Would this be good todo or would I be better keeping the money in the bank for the bills

 

[moggy1968]

going off grid isn't worth it, the thing that makes solar worthwhile is FiT. In order to connect your system into your house and keep your house grid connected you have to use an installer, it's not a DIY job. YOur energy suplplier won't allow you to connect otherwise, for good reason, your not putting up a couple of lights here!

 

[Somecamel]

Lots of great installers on here, let us know where abouts in the country you are and some of the local companies can quote you

 

[sedgy34]

Well guys it is worth it I said in an earlier post I've halved my elec bills and savings are good even better now it's gone up 9% that's even more and the fit payments are awesome about £1600 a year as I got in before march! if you go green deal you don't get a fit payment and they want 7% interest too so you can get solar on finance From us at 10% interest and get the fit payments too it's a no brainer guys and you don't touch any money off your own in the bank.

 

[SRE]

Sorry Sedgy but you'd have to be off your rocker to take out finance at 10% if you've got money in the bank to pay for pv. Why would you pay 10% interest when all you'd lose if you used your own money would be 3% if you're lucky and you've got a decent rate of interest for tying up your cash for a while.

Yes solar pv is a no brainer if you have the cash in the bank and sometimes it's even a good idea if you can tack it on to your mortgage if you haven't long to run on it but as I'm not a financial adviser I wouldn't be giving you advice about how to fund it.

We have a 4kwp stsrem installed and we're using about 1/3 of what we generate and I work from home and try hard to use everything we generate.

 

[sedgy34]

People do it we have a few going carbon trust route too

 

[SRE]

Doesn't mean it makes financial sense though.

 

[Somecamel]

Either way it makes financial sense.

If you have the 'spare' funds earning nothing 10% is great, if you have funds but not a lot, might be worth looking at the financing model.

I would not expect my customers to spend their last £7k on solar and leave themselves with nothing for that rainy day etc.

 

[sedgy34]

People have money in the bank and have cars on finance it's the same thing but solar gives you fit payments too

 

[FB.]

I haven't looked into this at all. Welive in a three bed semi, roof space facing east, south and west.
really sun light most of the day. Installation wise, what would be involved to get solar panels installed? I gathered so far that there is some sort of a dc / ac inverter involved, where would it be located? In the attic or under the staircase where the cu is? How would the power cables run from the pnaels to the inverter and to the CU? And, above all, is it woth doing? How much would the initial investment be? Any pitfalls?

It is early days but I am toying with the idea, however there is too much to read about it on the net. Some of you guys did some solar panel installations, maybe you can educate me a bit.:smartass2:

I'm not a solar PV installer, so I can give an unbiased view.

I would suggest getting the house surveyed for suitability for solar. It can still be a good investment and bill saver for many people, but the roof aspect and the size of the system which can be fitted - plus any shading issues and whether you can meet EPC grade D will all have a part to play in determining whether it's worthwhile.

As for borrowing money to buy PV, it only makes sense in certain situations and for many people the interest on borrowings will outstrip any gains from the FiT or bill savings. Put simply: if the rate of interest exceeds the annual rate of return on investment, then it is unlikely to make the buyers any money.
Some would argue that inflation will push up FiT payments, which is true, but rising inflation is often stamped-out by the Bank of England raising interest rates, which hurts borrowers.

Additionally, the rate of return projected by certain solar installers doesn't take into account the near-certainty that the system will need repairs as it ages in order to keep it performing satisfactorily. The running costs are unlikely to be zero once the system is over ten years old; the need for a new inverter at least once during the system lifespan is very likely, and that expense would wipe out an entire year's gains - assuming you have the several-hundred-pounds cash handy to pay for the repair to get the system back up and running and avoid downtime and loss of earnings and savings.

 

[moggy1968]

disagree with FB

while the returns on the system won't cover the cost of, say, a 3 year loan once that is paid off it's money in your pocket. taling out a loan to pay for the system only adds about a 1-2 years to the payback time.

Use cash if you can but otherwise a loan or extending your mortgage makes more sense than doing nothing as long as you can afford the loan repayments in the first place.

 

[FB.]

disagree with FB

while the returns on the system won't cover the cost of, say, a 3 year loan once that is paid off it's money in your pocket. taling out a loan to pay for the system only adds about a 1-2 years to the payback time.

Use cash if you can but otherwise a loan or extending your mortgage makes more sense than doing nothing as long as you can afford the loan repayments in the first place.

I agree that the duration of the loan does make a difference. Short-term 10% loans (i.e. a few years) to facilitate installation costs may be acceptable, but longer-term loans (i.e. several years or more) are just a cash drain.
Mortgage-type rates of 4% are worth considering.

However, debt to fund the purchase of anything is an additional layer of risk as you're using someone else's money in the hope of making a profit for yourself. In the event that your "investment" fails to perform for whatever reason, the money and interest still have to be paid on the liability.

So for buying solar with borrowed money, you'd also want to have a high level of confidence that the installer is going to do a good job, and will still be around for the warranty period (5-10years) so that the customer doesn't incur additional costs later.
What would be worse than a debt-funded, badly-installed/underperforming solar array which subsequently developed a fault but the installer was not around to honour any warranty, and which is earning very little for the customer, yet they still have to pay the loan and interest?

 

[moggy1968]

So for buying solar with borrowed money, you'd also want to have a high level of confidence that the installer is going to do a good job, and will still be around for the warranty period (5-10years) so that the customer doesn't incur additional costs later.
What would be worse than a debt-funded, badly-installed/underperforming solar array which subsequently developed a fault but the installer was not around to honour any warranty, and which is earning very little for the customer, yet they still have to pay the loan and interest?

use us then:wink_smile:

also, if you use a quality manufacturer like SMA for your inverter they will refurbish them for significantly less than the new price (a third I believe).
There is little else to go wrong in a decent system.
This shows the benefit of paying a little more for a quality system and the folly of going for a cheapo.