'free' solar panels - things to look out for?

shodan

What about if you decided to move house within the next 25 years?

Deadringers

My uncle does.

Okay it is their home in the country so only there for a couple months of the year (spread over the whole year) but basically they do not pay anything for the electricity but in fact get paid by the government/energy suppliers (or whoever it is) for producing the electricity.

He has the maximum number of panels you can have (forget the exact number) but at peak times in summer it can produce just over 4 KwH I think.

djcla

well i guess it would add value to the house as the new owners would get free electric and benifit from the feed in tarif im not 100% sure if it works like that mind.

djcla

yeah i was hoping for a 4KwH installation which i think is the max before there is a rate reduction or somthing

signs

how much does the average house use in Kw per day and how much does a pv install produce ?

Stefano

Could you please explain exactly what these Government kickbacks are?

My parents have 10k in a stupidly low interest savings account plus they're always complaining about electricity bills.

Seems like a no brainer if I knew a little more about it.

imightbewrong

You'd need to think you can get 2.75% return from an ISA or about 4% (gross) from a fixed bond - so if you are investing £10K you would to to be saving £275 to £400 per year in electricity to break even, plus the hassle/move factor.

FZR400RRSP

My neighbour directly opposite had solar panels fitted a couple of months ago.
He'll have paid for them himself, guaranteed.
I did some research myself and there are umpteen articles from legitimate sources (Telegraph was one) saying that it's one of the few things they would recommend begging/borrowing/stealing the money to do.
I'm considering adding to the mortgage to get it done.

IIRC, if you let them install panels on your roof free of charge, you only benefit from daytime electricity for nothing.
Not much use to us.

BISHI

So far I have had £200 cash back FIT ( I expect to get more than that for the summers worth of sunshine and a smaller cheque for the winter. I reckon I'll get about £600  cashback for the year. On top of that I will be getting free electricity when the sun is out, we have got really disciplined and use appliances sequentially during daylight hours to maximise use and minimise cost. I think to get the most out of PV you need to be clever about when you use it. I have even started cooking bulk meals in the middle of the day to freeze and eat at a later date.

Stefano

Did you pay for the pannels yourself? How much do you expect to get per year in cashback and leccy?