'free' solar pv panels schemes - anyone got one? opinions?

Chat Forum

[closed]

'free' solar pv panels schemes - anyone got one? opinions?

25 posts & 17 voices | Started 1 year ago by Christowkid | Latest reply from Christowkid

Tags:

No tags yet.

Christowkid - Member

Dear All,
My next door neighbour has had a visitation from a company who will fit solar pv cells to her roof to produce electricity. The deal is she pays £500 and gets her electricity bill reduced to 30% of the current costs. Obviously, they get the benefit of the payback from the grid that her cells produce.
She asked my opinion, so I got digging on the web and it feels like it's not as good as it seems. I happened on the Which? article and they imply that the'll be getting by far the best deal, and sh should at least get all her electricity free.
The implications from several sources are that if you get them set up by a fully registered company, you'll get all the benefits and it pays back after ~ 8-9 years.
The only thing is the cost ~ £12k. Gulp!

Any people out there either had something similar done?
....or in the buisness and would like to comment on it all?

Knowing this website, someone somewhere will know!
cheers
Q

Posted 1 year ago #
allthepies - Member

Google "feed in tarrifs"

Posted 1 year ago #
funkynick - Member

The general opinion seems to be against these sorts of deals...

Think of it the other way round, if you were a company, would you be offering these sorts of deals unless there was a good return?

Also, they were talking about this on the radio the other day and it was stated that some mortgage companies won't touch a property with this sort of deal in place. Obviously, if you are never going to move then that might be fine...

The other point that was raised was what happens if the government decides to reduce the feed in tariffs? Who takes the hit then?

Posted 1 year ago #
big_n_daft - Member

other providers are available, this stuff tends to get sold like double glazing

reality is that if you have the cash (£10-12K) you will get 8-10% ROCE, try getting that in a bank

if they are hiring yoor roof the deal is a lot poorer and you need a lot of guarantees/ indeminities to keep your risk low

the best deals are for early entry

if they are keen, shop around

Posted 1 year ago #
big_n_daft - Member

The other point that was raised was what happens if the government decides to reduce the feed in tariffs? Who takes the hit then?

alledgedlly the tariffs are protected by contract, however one european country has renaged on similar contracts (which tells you why the scheme is a typical green "con")

Posted 1 year ago #
funkynick - Member

big_n_daft.. I think the point they were making was that the terms of these deals are longer than the length of our current parliament, and so who knows what might get happen then! And lets face it, I doubt the company is going to be worse off if they can help it!!!

Posted 1 year ago #
bland - Member

If you live in spain then definately a sound idea, however if you live in an area that can only manage to grow haylege, never mind straw then its a complete and utter waste of cash and time

Posted 1 year ago #
big_n_daft - Member

big_n_daft.. I think the point they were making was that the terms of these deals are longer than the length of our current parliament, and so who knows what might get happen then! And lets face it, I doubt the company is going to be worse off if they can help it!!!

depends on the contract, get legal advice before signing

If you live in spain then definately a sound idea, however if you live in an area that can only manage to grow haylege,

most of the contract value is based on a "notional" calculation

never mind straw then its a complete and utter waste of cash and time

that's a completely different issue, and yes you are right

Posted 1 year ago #
DaveGr - Member

The FIT isn't paid by the Government but by us the consumers via the generating companies through increased prices. It's an incentive to make people adopt PV panels early 'cos without it the pay back isn't very good. Therefore it's unlikely to be stopped by the Government. EDIT - sorry, it will be stopped in the future but if you've signed up then you should continue to get the rate agreed.

The scheme described is one of many using a loop hole which means companies have been set up to take advantage of a subsidy meant for individuals.

How long is the contract for? 25 years? How will that affect selling your house? I wouldn't touch a house with this contract in place.
What do they mean by "electricity bill reduced to 30% of the current costs" ? if they mean you get to use the generated electricity then this figure is rubbish, you won't get near that reduction.
£500 !!!!! there are companies doing this for free.

Basically you're better off buying the panels yourself - after 12 to 15 years you'll be in profit.

A rather long and sometimes tedious post on
MSE

Posted 1 year ago #
TooTall - Member

Tarrif are being reviewed - planned for 2012 but sooner now. Figures will go down, not up.

You are leasing roof space to a company - what are the comebacks if something goes wrong? What happens if you want to sell the house? No test case yet for selling with some leased kit on the roof.

Posted 1 year ago #
Mike_D - Member

2012 tariff reduction will be for new entrants. In theory you'll stay on whatever you get when you start. They probably said that in Spain too

Free panel schemes = rubbish. Benefit to you is saving a couple of hundred quid a year, and there's easier ways to do that than giving someone else the use of your roof for a quarter of a century

Posted 1 year ago #
Trekster - Member

hope lots of people start buying PV panels = pays my wages = bikes/ing
Reckoned to be a money spinner for the next 5yrs or so until the Turks and Chinese flood the market..We make the white circuit insulation film btw.

Posted 1 year ago #
Christowkid - Member

thanks for the replies.
The Which? report hints some companies are doing it for free, and a 30% reduction + £500 up front is a no no for them. Good point there.
I hadn't realised mortgage comapmies viewed it poorly, that's another nail in the coffin.
Akk in all I think it's a no-go for me, but my neighbour's looking at the saving on her energy bill as an incentive.
I have a vague memory of hearing that China/someone will soon start producing pv panels at such a reduced price everyone will jump on board, so might be worth waiting, which is what our friend up there has just reiterated.
Interesting stuff.
thanks guys.

Posted 1 year ago #
Bunnyhop - Member

We had a surveyor round a couple of weeks ago from British gas, with their rent a roof.
It takes them 14 years to get the money back.
The only saving to the house occupier was £247 per year.
We didn't take it on because the roof size, even though very wide wasn't long enough. They need to put 12 panels up and it really would cover the whole of a normal detached property's roof.

Other things they don't tell you about is the noise. It makes a buzzing sound, so most people would have that above at least one bedroom.

Posted 1 year ago #
donks - Member

This is actually quite an insight as today at work I was asked if I could dig around and find a PV supplier willing to put systems on our new buildings for free. We are currently looking at a new project of either shared ownership or social housing dwellings but we have to achieve code level 4 or higher which means applying some renewable technology to the buildings. This is fine except the client never want to pay for this so we have been told that there may be PV firms out there doing exactly what has been talked about. Right or wrong this could be a good way for builders to upsell their products and hit the statutory building requirements without pushing their build costs through the roof.

Posted 1 year ago #
TheArtistFormerlyKnownAsSTR - Member

My mate is one of the first to take up the installation side of it in our area. He has a website that you can use to calculate installation cost/payback.

He says the return is approx 10% installation cost P.A. with a guaranteed return for 25 years - so 15 years profit, probably extending way beyond.

Posted 1 year ago #
djglover - Member

Wait until DECC launch greendeal, you buy the stuff on a low rate loan over 25 years, probably the same rate as a mortgage. Under the scheme if you move the new occupier will be obliged to take over the payments. That way you will get the benefit of the FIT and the generation.

Posted 1 year ago #
Christowkid - Member

djglover: I expect that's the real way forward.... not sure who DECC is and when they'll launch. Any extra info?

At the moment the 'rent your roof' deal seems a poor half way house and they get all the goodies!
Q

Posted 1 year ago #
Johnny Panic - Member

Thought I saw something about this on the box the other day. IIRC they said that with a solar panel system you (or the installer) got around 40p per Kw generated to the grid. With a wind powered system you only got about 12p per Kw. A bit bonkers as wind powered is a more practical & cheaper prospect in this country.

Posted 1 year ago #
Dudie - Member

Other things they don't tell you about is the noise. It makes a buzzing sound, so most people would have that above at least one bedroom.

Wouldn't worry too much about this. Some inverters (the bit that converts the DC voltage from the PV modules into AC 'mains' voltage) can make a bit of noise, which can be noticeable if they are mounted to a plasterboard surface, but this is rarely an issue if mounted to a brick wall such as a gable in the loft. However, many inverters are silent. Also, any noise stops when it gets dark and the system stops generating, so it won't keep you awake at night.

Posted 1 year ago #
Christowkid - Member

Dudie: yes even in sunny Devon we don't get much at night!

Googled DECC but can't get into the microgeneration bit yet, woll try to.

Johnny: In the SW there are wind farms for ever being mentioned, and they've just in the process of renewing a large one at Delabole, first in this country?? I'm hugely sceptical about wind especially as the turbines are only about 30% efficient? and it seems to me you'd need to cover half the country to get much back. Maybe everyoone generating it's power and selling back to the grid is a half good idea?
Also a 'proper' wind turbine makes the cost of pv panels pale into insignificance. we live in a very windy spot, full on SW prevailing wind all the time, but it's prohibitivley costly. Whereas we've all got roofs.

Anyway....pv panels, that's what we're trying to get to the bottom of!
cheers
Q

Posted 1 year ago #
lister - Member

There is stuff on the energysavingtrust website that covers most of this.

Posted 1 year ago #
Smudger666 - Member

Guys - we install PV, thermal, heat pumps and wind turbines.....the free PV schemes are reckoned to be the option of last resort by the likes of which and energy savings trust but if that is the only way your neighbour can afford PV and she understands the T's and C's, then go for it.

She will save no more than £200 a year on a £12k system, and as said previously there are companies doing it for free or even paying a fee up front to you so she should shop around.

Payback on a system can be anything from 7 to 13 years depending on the size of system and the pitch/azimuth of the roof.

Posted 1 year ago #
TooTall - Member

I'm hugely sceptical about wind especially as the turbines are only about 30% efficient?

What are the efficiency figures quoted for these solar panel companies then? Given the cutting edge solar PV are about 37%, what you get on a roof is nowhere near that.

Posted 1 year ago #
Christowkid - Member

TT: I haven't got as far as that yet, so wouldn't question your figues. I suppose the inefficiencies of them all ( wind, soloar, wave )are what I worry about when considering oil alternatives.
My neighbour isn't doing for any 'green' ideas, simply seeing it as a good saving on electricity. What I did see on one website ( a council manchester way?) was pictures from the work carried out by registered installers.....cracked tiles, blobs of mastic everywhere..... general trashing of the roof.
It's looking like what you'd save on electricity, you'd end up spending more on repairs in the end.
My wife's just told me tonight someone in the village has got panels going up, so we will try and find out some info.
cheers
Q

Posted 1 year ago #

RSS feed for this topic

Topic Closed

This topic has been closed to new replies.

Singletrack Mountain Bike Magazine

Chat Forum

'free' solar pv panels schemes - anyone got one? opinions?

Topic Closed

Don't miss…

Singletrack

Website & Forums

Exits