Whats in your diary

[TedM]

If I was in the office instead of the living room I would have been able to have easily checked on my handy degression calendar and avoided any confusion.

 

[Gavin A]

Yes, forget that - I am a whole quarter ahead of myself. There looks to be no further cut from 1st November.

I thought that might have been what you meant to say.

I could be wrong, but I suspect the installation rate may well pick up to the point where we end up with a 3% cut in November, but possibly not as the main rush is going to be in July, though rates are ramping up.

 

[sedgy34]

Pitty the installs arnt ramping up here

 

[SRE]

We were at an agricultural show yesterday and I lost count of the number of farmers telling me they were going down the rent a roof route because they didn't have the capital at the minute. Only one of them was dairy and when I showed them the peak generation times they realised they weren't using much energy then. I was quite surprised that there were so many considering it (have to say most weren't when I'd explained a bit more and all had access to cash potentially after the next 12-18 months.)

There was no where near as much interest in domestic pv as there was a month ago which is really odd because it's such a good deal at the minute. Or should I say of the few customers with the potential to reach the the D rating - we did turn a lot of people away with old listed buildings on oil.

 

[akaPABLO]

I have too much work need to recruit 7 fitters this week

just completed a 150kWp

starting the largest roof mounted solar install in the UK Monday 250kWp (1000 panels 3 inverters)

others from 25kWp, 50kWp, 100kWp, 150kWp will begin in the next couple of weeks all for farmers who do have the money, the ones without should seek finance.

most farmers are on the limit of their electrical incomer with the use of large vats needed to extract moisture from the produce so they can spin the veg around to market, so either solar or wind is their only option to increase electricity on the farm.

 

[jc_150]

Hi all
This is a reply to FB on this thread. About 3 weeks ago had a cold call for PV, and mentioned it here, got some great advise from many members and the outcome is that a local installer has won the job (from an enquiry from the forum) from 4 estimates and gets installed last week in June. So on this forum I guess I am a client. So for FB's post.
1. Guess solar is a bit of a gimmick as doubt it would be worth the install if it was not backed by a FIT How long would it take to break even if FIT was 0? say a 2.5kW install
2. No comment as I guess thats inbuilt in people.
3. Now had 3 cold callers to install, invited 2 of them just to hear the spiel. "We do not offer loads of discount if you sign up today, but if you sign the contract today we will give you a 10 panel system for the price of 8. The 8 panel quote was dearer than my 10 panel quote from a company that visits this site. oh close the door on the way out.
4. As a customer, do the math and the research, I feel I have as much understanding of the system as the sales guys, obviously not as much as the installers but you generally do not meet those.
5. Whilst waiting for the site survey, mapped out how I thought the install would be, discussed in length and come up with a great compromise of how the install would look. (Without feeling I was telling the installer his job)
6. Disruption has to be a minimum, installers know that, and final payment isn't made until everything hunky dory.
A customer's point of view, and thanks for all the great advise on here.
Kind Regards
John

 

[sedgy34]

another happy customer from the forum^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

[SRE]

another happy customer from the forum^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Are you talking about the one that hasn't been installed yet - end of June installation??

 

[FB.]

Hi all
This is a reply to FB on this thread. About 3 weeks ago had a cold call for PV, and mentioned it here, got some great advise from many members and the outcome is that a local installer has won the job (from an enquiry from the forum) from 4 estimates and gets installed last week in June. So on this forum I guess I am a client. So for FB's post.
1. Guess solar is a bit of a gimmick as doubt it would be worth the install if it was not backed by a FIT How long would it take to break even if FIT was 0? say a 2.5kW install
2. No comment as I guess thats inbuilt in people.
3. Now had 3 cold callers to install, invited 2 of them just to hear the spiel. "We do not offer loads of discount if you sign up today, but if you sign the contract today we will give you a 10 panel system for the price of 8. The 8 panel quote was dearer than my 10 panel quote from a company that visits this site. oh close the door on the way out.
4. As a customer, do the math and the research, I feel I have as much understanding of the system as the sales guys, obviously not as much as the installers but you generally do not meet those.
5. Whilst waiting for the site survey, mapped out how I thought the install would be, discussed in length and come up with a great compromise of how the install would look. (Without feeling I was telling the installer his job)
6. Disruption has to be a minimum, installers know that, and final payment isn't made until everything hunky dory.
A customer's point of view, and thanks for all the great advise on here.
Kind Regards
John

A typical SE, SW or South-facing, 2.5kWp system with a decent 25-40 degree roof angle and no major shading, should generate around 2250kWh per year.
That's worth around £280 per year.
Which, in today's money (since money loses its buying power over time) is worth about £7000 over the system's lifespan.

Assuming only half of the power can be used on-site, we have annual saving of about £140.
The other half is paid at close to wholesale rates under the Export Tariff, being worth about £35.
(I would argue that given your electricity FiT provider can sell the 3.2p electricity on to your neighbour for four times the price (with minimal cable losses due to being used by another customer within a few yards of your address) that the FiT provider is getting a good deal (cheap power) out of export tariff.)

So if half the power is used on-site and half paid the export tariff, total gains around £175 per year in today's money, or in the mid-£4000's total value of electricity extracted from the 2.5kWp system over its 25-year lifespan.

So at the moment, PV is around the breakeven level. But note that subsidies can be a good thing, to bring a marginal technology into mass-production/mass-installation, with advances in knowledge and skills, which eventually lowers prices or raises performance so that it becomes a good investment.
So the subsidy should be there to nurture a promising industry, but eventually the subsidy needs to be removed (gradual reductions; not from 45p to 16p within six months!).

 

[jc_150]

Hi again,
Thanks FB for doing these calcs, as I like to do them myself and compare, and I have to agree with your estimations. I am convinced as all the evidence points to a good return for my 25 yr investment, provided no disasters on the 21p feed in tariff. I do not think I would have gone for an install if there was no feed in tariff as the pay back time would have probably been in excess of 35 years rather than the estimated 8.5- 9 years years presently. However there is probably a reduction in the cost of an install as the tafiff reduces as has been seen from the last round. Will be able to monitor the system performance on the net ( I think) and hopefully will see the returns increase as they happen.
Kind regards
John

 

[sedgy34]

well we have a few enquiries come in just need to secure them, shouldnt be a problem as we dont give out spiel just true advice. we do listen to the spiel others tell our potential customers and boyy it makes me laugh.

 

[FB.]

we do listen to the spiel others tell our potential customers and boyy it makes me laugh.

Let's have some light-hearted fun and hear some of the best ones. :blush5:

 

[sedgy34]

I'm sure you listened to some rubbish too,
Got a customer who was going with someone else they said quote "when you sign up I will tell you what panels we are supplying as they are special and they have a chip on the back of the panel to boost its performance but I'm not telling you what they are as it's a secret and you may tell another comPany!

 

[sedgy34]

Had another saying the inverter must go in your loft because of the resistance of the dc cable we are concerned about, the Distribution board was 8mtrs away and plenty of space in garage for the inverter

Think they just wanted an easy job to do, nowt technical as a reason

 

[sedgy34]

Also been asked
ive been told all panels have to be the same way cause the light hits the panels at different angles otherwise causing them to produce less