Can anyone recommend A good starting point in getting solar panels fitted and How much roughly for a three bed semi?

I looked into it recently, with the new feed-in tariff it’s not worth it unless you live in a much sunnier place than I do!

Marginal business case with the new FIT. I’d look at the sums very carefully as otherwise you’ll just be wasting money.

I’ve seen 4kw for £4K.

Depends why you want to do it – if you want to make a shed load of cash, forget it. If you want to do your bit and are happy that the ‘payback’ is marginal, then go for it. Your local authority might have a ‘trusted trader’ type of scheme where reviews are available for local installers.

I would advise against giving your details to those websites that say they will organise a few local traders on your behalf – you’ll be swamped by offers as they sell your details to 8 or 9 companies.

Solar thermal is usually betterer

Have you spent money on getting your house properly insulated and more airtight than the average house?

Do that. ‘Fabric First’ on a house. That way you drive down the energy required anyway, summer or winter. Do that, THEN sort out your heating, THEN think about roof bling.

Worth a read on combination with a lower wall
What’s the verdict? Australia’s first Tesla Powerwall six months on http://ab.co/2aw1VYL – via @abcnews
Yes it’s Australia and yes it’s sunny but the battery aspects should suit the UK better.
You need to consider the orientation of your roof etc. Also how long you plan to be in the house for? Its a long term game but power prices are most likely going in one direction. As the article says you also need to change the way you live in some ways settings things to run daytime when you are out.
Had solar hot water and it’s good if done right too.

Also depends if you want to actually use the electricity either at the time of generation or by storage and use later.

We are not putting any solar on our new place so it stays looking nice. Instead we are considering making the roof of a 9x9m tractor/lambing shed as all solar panels on a steel frame with no backing plastic so the gaps between each cell is clear for light to pass through. There is no way we will be able to use all that at full production so looking at salt water batteries for storage.

Question is DIY and ignore FITS or pay for for a FIT installation.

Worth a read on combination with a Power wall

They cost about £3k IIRC, which means you have even more money to make back…

A much cheaper solution is to just dump excess leccy into an immersion heater.

We have a 2kW array, it cost just under £4K fitted. I expect it will take about 10 years to pay for itself, but so far we have cut our electricity bill by 30% and exported 700 kWh this year (about 70% of what we generated). Just had an e-mail about a battery solution – that came in at £4K fitted. Getting the feed in tariff has been interesting, Scottish Electric have been very slow processing the forms and paying us. We have had to constantly nag, when my wife pointed out that they wouldn’t be so accommodating if we owed them money they finally paid us
Sad that government policy took the legs out from under the solar industry, just as it was getting started. Mind you £18billion for nuclear in 2025 looks like a bargain in comparison.

A much cheaper solution is to just dump excess leccy into an immersion heater.

but this makes the least sense for the environment.

but this makes the least sense for the environment.

Not if you subsequently used the HW….

Not if you subsequently used the HW

No it still doesn’t make sense for the overall CO2 output. It’s more efficient to use gas to heat water directly and export the electricity generated rather than using electricity to heat the water and gas to make the electricity that you didn’t export at a power station and transport it around the grid (which is inefficient).

that you didn’t export at a power station and transport it around the grid (which is inefficient).

So is the export, which is also transported by the same grid. If all your neighbours are out during the day, then there won’t be anyone near by to use all the excess leccy.

Transmission losses are far smaller than production losses. Better to use high grade energy (electricty) for applications that need it.