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

imightbewrong

If those numbers work out you could do well - e.g. 11K in a 3% account would be worth £23K over 25 years.  If you had £1000 extra ready cash each year through the panels and put that in the same 3% account you would end up with £38K over the same period - so that's £15K profit, however you are taking a number of risks:

- the panels don't require significant maintainance - either through faults, damage due to wind, whatever
- sucessive governments (5-ish) keep all those benefits in place - this is the ideal type of scheme to be scrapped if there is not enough up-take
- if interest rates rise in the near-term the cash-saver would do better - the break even point currently is 9% - i.e. if you could get a 9% ROI on your cash today then the saver does better than the installer.  If you could get 7% the profit drops from £15K to £10K etc.  The later the interest rates rise, the less it matters, eventually swinging in the installer's favour.

hutch

I would be very wary they had a similar scheme here in Australia and all of a sudden the grants have disappeared and the energy companies have just cut the amount paid for energy back to the grid by 2/3rd's making it a complete waste of time for the majority of people

Mr.D

I'm betting spending the same amount of money making your house more energy efficient would probably give you the same overall cost benefits.

imightbewrong

I doubt that - that would mean reducing your energy bill by £1k per year - that's probably a typical entire bill.

Toasty

Yes, the 25 year thing is the risk. This is the length of a mortgage and how many things in your house need replacing / repairing over time? This is new tech and if it fails after a few years, how much to fix?

The free fitting and maintenance doesn't sound so bad if the electric savings can seriously reduce your electric bill.

FZR400RRSP

Took a quick snap of neighbour across the road's house/panels.
Or the 'dominos', as another neighbour has christened them.
They've caused a bit of a stir in the neighbourhood, interested parties can be seen taking a slow drive past every now and then.

djcla

A few things i would consider is will they really add any value to my house should i decide to move

Do they need regular cleaning i.e. once a year as that will probably wipe out the money made on the energy

imightbewrong

For me, whether or not they add value to a house hinges on whether the warranty and support transfers over to the new owner - anyone know?

signs

Ugly things aren't they , clever use of the street light though

FZR400RRSP

I've heard of prospective buyers asking for solar panels to be removed before they'll buy a house.
I seriously doubt they'll add value to the house.
But they may make it more attractive to a buyer than the one down the street.
Then again, it may make people walk away.
Bit of a 'marmite' feature to have.
I'm of the opinion that if you're financing solar panels, you better be pretty sure you're staying in that house for a long time.