I’m after some advice on solar power. I’ve had an offer from a company called helms to install solar panels on my roof. The offer is for £10k worth of panels to be fitted, which will actually cost £18k over the course of a 15 year loan, but with national grid sell on clause plus energy at home saved, I will still be quids in even if I don’t pay the loan off early. It all sounds to good to be true, which is why alarm bells are ringing. Has anybody got experience with solar energy, and if so is it that good that it is worth going with this offer? Any advice gratefully received. Thanks in advance.

Won’t be viable over the period of the loan.
It works well if you can finance all or the majority at install. Also, check alternative finance arrangements, not the one from the installer.

£10k is lots for what I assume is a domestic installation? We’re getting PC cells fitted for circa £5.5k – and before anyone asks they’re not cheap Chinese ones! We reckon we should get payback in around half the period of the loan you’ve been offered. Don’t forget that there are loans and grants going – get in touch with the Energy Savings Trust for impartial advice.

We’re lucky in that they’ll be going on a south-facing bungalow with a 30deg roof – as close to ideal as you can get.

Sounds like those alarm bells are ringing for good reason. The idea of solar sounds great, but it seems I am being asked to pay way over what I should be.

Did they approach you? That would be enough to set the alarm bells off. Are you planning to stay in the house for 15+ years?

They did approach me, but it was an approach I was willing to accept as both myself and the other half were keen to hear what they had to say and what it was all about. The salesman pretty much agreed that funding the panels myself would be the best option, but without going “hardsell” said that with bills due to rise every year, even if I couldn’t pay off the loan early, I would still be in profit. Selling the house is a question which we asked and ultimately if we did move then we would have to pay off the loan with whatever we made out of the house profits. The new owners would be getting free panels to an extent.
But is solar energy on your home that good that you can seriously cut your energy bills? Or is it just a case of in the summer it’s great, but during the winter it becomes pretty much a no goer due to darker evenings?

Sounds like a right rip off that offer!! Can you extend your mortgage to cover the cost, cheap loan that way? Panels on your roof have proven to increase property value by £10k.

As househusband stated above, a full 4kw install is way less than half of what you’d be ultimately paying.

Yes solar power is a bit ‘too good to be true’ when you look into it, but it is genuine. I’ve had mine for nearly 2 years now, cost 10K to install, but I have made 2.5k back already in FIT payments plus my Elec bill has reduced by 40%. You get FIT for 25 years, and my forcast is a total ‘income’ of £35k + reduced elec bills.

I keep telling people if they have the money sat in the bank LOSING value every day, then it’s a no brainer to get panels on the roof. If you have to finance them, then obviously you need to find the cheapest loan, which is possibly extending your mortgage.

We bought a house with panels already installed, about 3 years ago. That’s a win win for us.
hope this helps. 😉

Thanks to all who’ve replied. I think my gut feeling was right and after reading this thread and we’re not going to go with the deal offered.

You need a system from my company, AWE energy Sheffield.
we offer a quality solar system with what we call the midnight sun which is a very advance electricity storage unit. This basically stores up spare power in the daytime for you to use free at night.It would make you free of electricity bills for 8 – 10 months of the year and you would need to top up from the grid in the dark short days of the winter. It does not interfere with selling power back to the grid.The midnight sun has a programable brain and can do all sorts of clever things. I’v just had one installed at my house and its brilliant.We can offer finance through hitachi at low interest rates which makes it very affordable,payable over an 8 year period.
Soory for the ad but could not resist it. Phone no is 0114 213 4610

Luncheon Meat.

Costs are out – get 2 or 3 other quotes in, take your time and find some nice people to deal with. They’re also making quite a bit on the finance, much better if you can fund it yourself. I’ve just put a smaller system in for £4k – even a full 4kW system shouldn’t come close to that.

Advanced electricity storage unit 😆 a battery?