Had solar panels for 8 years and ran economy 7 heating for 7 of those years. Monthly electric bill for my 4 bed semi was £57 a month and I got a FIT repayment each December of between £5 -600 so effectively I paid £100 to £150 a year for my electricity. The 4kw solar system cost me £9k and previously I was paying £160 -180 a month, so I have saved roughly £9600 on payments which have paid back the outlay and I still have 17 years of the FIT payments left. I did think it was money well spent but this energy price hike has wiped out a lot of future savings as the FIT payment has only gone up by 7%. If I was looking at fitting them now I’d seriously look at the figures as there is no longer a FIT payment . It might still be worthwhile but it would definitely depend on the installation cost.
The thing that swung it for me is how the battery fits into the system and how the panels are better now in and east west orientation. The whole kit was about £9k with removal of the redundant solar thermal added in and a solar diverter The export price is terrible at 6p/kW so instead of exporting we store in the battery and divert the electrical energy into the water cylinder. Then we use that free electricity during the evening. The battery can also charge over night on economy 7 - ideal for the winter when the sun is in short supply. The solar calculation when we got our quote in February was 9 years payback but it didn’t take into account the battery which knocks a few years off. We’ve since had two other price rises and the forecasted storm in April where I doubt the government are going to be as generous to all families as they are currently being. Payback should be around 6-7 years now assuming the prices start to tail off a bit next year. Payback is also a crude tool. For us there is a value in replacing the old solar thermal and replacing it with this kit in order to be able to sell the house (should we want to) as convincing someone that a house with £2k energy bills is a lot easier than £4k! Oh, and we’ve reduced our CO2 output, apparently. The rich get richer… I don’t subscribe to that in this instance. We have a mortgage and increased the mortgage to cover this investment. The timing worked for us more than anything.
How much research did you do? I quite like the idea of solar for the house but always been put off by the large capital cost, perhaps its time to justify that. The other negatives have been our house doesn't have great orientation with one roof being SSE and one being NNW and the garage SW probably too small. On the battery front how much does that store and could it give you enough to charge a plug in hybrid and run some electrical heaters and how much space does it take up? Any chance you could PM me with the details of who did your install ... as I'm only 20 miles north.
Hmmm…. I guess I don’t live in a flat so that makes me roof rich! Our house is a modest terrace and fortunately it’s two room wide rather than two rooms deep like most terraces! We are at maximum capacity with 6 panels on one side and 6 on the other. Any less would be a constraint on viability…. More would be nice… but in turn that would mean more house underneath to keep clean and decorate!
