Solar Panels

[Parafox]

We've had a team from "A Shade Greener" round our area offering to put solar panels on our south-facing roof.

I'm umming and ahhing about it. It's free for us and we gain savings of approx £500 a year on our electricity bills. The company get the money from the government that the homeowner used to get if they were installed by the homeowner. We looked into this and it would take up to15 years to recoup the cost of having them installed by "selling" electricity back to the national grid. After that we would make about £1000 a year profit.

The company insures the roof against damage. They (apparently) are contractually obliged to buy the house if we want to sell the house but can't becuase of the panels on the roof.

I have spoken to a couple of estate agents and they said they weren't aware of any difficulities in selling houses with solar panels but, as this is a fairly new direction in the market they were unsure.

It almost seems like a damn good option if we can put up with having one side of the roof covered in these things. It's on the back of the house so can't really be seen from the road.

Effectively the company "rent" our roof for 25 years and take the money from the government.

I was wondering if anyone on here has these or is thinking of having them. Have you been approached? Did you say yes/no and what were your concerns? is anyone aware of any pitfalls?

[Darkon84]

It all sounds good straight off, as it would as they are trying to sell it, but there are alot of other factors to bring in to it such as how much energy your Solar PVs would actually generate. Is your house South facing? Is there surrounding foliage giving shade over the area etc?

[foz.foz]

Not sure mate but if it sound too good to be true then it usually is.

What happens if you move before your 15 years is up. Will the new owner receive the benefits (£500.0 a yr) or will it go straight to the installers? (just thinking of a sell on sweetener to perspective buyers)

Will they come out and clean them as I can only imagine they get shit up during the year.

I can see all new builds going this way soon, but at the moment fella, it's your choice of putting them up. Can they be taken off in say a few years if they are not working right etc??

Foz

[ADK]

Its probably a good deal, but you can never be too sure, i'm not sure i would want to take the risk.

[Parafox]

It all sounds good straight off, as it would as they are trying to sell it, but there are alot of other factors to bring in to it such as how much energy your Solar PVs would actually generate. Is your house South facing? Is there surrounding foliage giving shade over the area etc?

Yes

No

These were checked during a survey. I don't know in units how much electricity it would generate. It depends on the strength of the sun at the time. The normal supply cuts in when demand exceeds the amount generated by the panels. If we are careful with the appliances we use we stand to save approx £500+ per year.

[Guest]

If I could do that I would.

Are the numbers genuine?

Surely there is a drop off in efficiency over the years, and what is their lifespan?

[Guest]

I have a large house in an extremely sunny area of europe and I was told that solar pannelling wouldn't be cost efficient (this was 18 months ago)

.

[Parafox]

Not sure mate but if it sound too good to be true then it usually is.

What happens if you move before your 15 years is up. Will the new owner receive the benefits (£500.0 a yr) or will it go straight to the installers? (just thinking of a sell on sweetener to perspective buyers)

Will they come out and clean them as I can only imagine they get shit up during the year.

I can see all new builds going this way soon, but at the moment fella, it's your choice of putting them up. Can they be taken off in say a few years if they are not working right etc??

Foz

Mm good questions there. They apparently are self-cleaning but I will certainly ask about that before any decision is made, thanks. If we decide to take them down it's at our own cost unless they are irreperably faulty due to manufacturing defects.

Any subsequent owners of our property would inherit the panels and the savings on the bills.

Not sure about life-span or drop in efficiency. Again these are questions I need to ask, which is the benefit of asking you good folks on here.

[Parafox]

I have a large house in an extremely sunny area of europe and I was told that solar pannelling wouldn't be cost efficient (this was 18 months ago)

.

I think this could be true if you pay to have them installed yourself, certainly it takes time to recoup the cost. The ones we've been offered are free installation and servicing.

[Darkon84]

Yes

No

These were checked during a survey. I don't know in units how much electricity it would generate. It depends on the strength of the sun at the time. The normal supply cuts in when demand exceeds the amount generated by the panels. If we are careful with the appliances we use we stand to save approx £500+ per year.

With south facing and zero foliage around you are in essentially the perfect position for optimum energy gain.

They seem like a pretty stand up organization and could be a good deal for you. Did they mention anything about how much of the roof/how many panels they would use? Or are we assuming it would be the whole south facing rooftop?

[Guest]

I think this could be true if you pay to have them installed yourself, certainly it takes time to recoup the cost. The ones we've been offered are free installation and servicing.

I would be all over that. Think about the planet (and your wallet) man.

[Wycombe Fox]

We've had a team from "A Shade Greener" round our area offering to put solar panels on our south-facing roof.

I'm umming and ahhing about it. It's free for us and we gain savings of approx £500 a year on our electricity bills. The company get the money from the government that the homeowner used to get if they were installed by the homeowner. We looked into this and it would take up to15 years to recoup the cost of having them installed by "selling" electricity back to the national grid. After that we would make about £1000 a year profit.

The company insures the roof against damage. They (apparently) are contractually obliged to buy the house if we want to sell the house but can't becuase of the panels on the roof.

I have spoken to a couple of estate agents and they said they weren't aware of any difficulities in selling houses with solar panels but, as this is a fairly new direction in the market they were unsure.

It almost seems like a damn good option if we can put up with having one side of the roof covered in these things. It's on the back of the house so can't really be seen from the road.

Effectively the company "rent" our roof for 25 years and take the money from the government.

I was wondering if anyone on here has these or is thinking of having them. Have you been approached? Did you say yes/no and what were your concerns? is anyone aware of any pitfalls?

A good friend of mine is a plumber/heating engineer who has installed a solar heating system in my house.

He has investigated these deals and reckons you should be very wary.

One of the problems he mentioned was that you're contracted to 'rent' your roof space and sell electricity back to the National Grid for a period of 25 years. However, in his professional opinion, the panels will only be efficient for a period of approx 15 years after which time there is a good chance that the householder will be contractually obliged to pay for new ones to be able to continue to supply electricity for the remainder of the 25 years.

He reckons that there will be a new industry created in about 15 years - the removal and environmentally-friendly disposal of obsolete solar panels!

[Parafox]

A good friend of mine is a plumber/heating engineer who has installed a solar heating system in my house.

He has investigated these deals and reckons you should be very wary.

One of the problems he mentioned was that you're contracted to 'rent' your roof space and sell electricity back to the National Grid for a period of 25 years. However, in his professional opinion, the panels will only be efficient for a period of approx 15 years after which time there is a good chance that the householder will be contractually obliged to pay for new ones to be able to continue to supply electricity for the remainder of the 25 years.

He reckons that there will be a new industry created in about 15 years - the removal and environmentally-friendly disposal of obsolete solar panels!

As far as I can make out, we don't sell back to the national grid. We just take the electricity generated by the panels for our own domestic use.

[Darkon84]

A good friend of mine is a plumber/heating engineer who has installed a solar heating system in my house.

He has investigated these deals and reckons you should be very wary.

One of the problems he mentioned was that you're contracted to 'rent' your roof space and sell electricity back to the National Grid for a period of 25 years. However, in his professional opinion, the panels will only be efficient for a period of approx 15 years after which time there is a good chance that the householder will be contractually obliged to pay for new ones to be able to continue to supply electricity for the remainder of the 25 years.

He reckons that there will be a new industry created in about 15 years - the removal and environmentally-friendly disposal of obsolete solar panels!

Whilst Isle of Wight Fox is right that you should be wary of things like this, the lifespan of Solar PVs is longer than 15 years.

Basically the panels will decrease in power by 1% MAXIMUM per year, so will still be operating at 80% or more after 20 years, with their main profitability lifetime ending after about 25 years. However the problem is with general mechanical deteriating which would tend to start to take hold at around 20 years.

[Guest]

http://www.lovemoney.com/news/the-economy-politics-and-your-job/the-environment/5423/free-solar-panels-the-small-print-exposed

[Wycombe Fox]

As far as I can make out, we don't sell back to the national grid. We just take the electricity generated by the panels for our own domestic use.

OK but I think 'A Shade Greener' only receive the feed-in cash as long as you're producing electricity. So if the panels aren't working the householder would have to cover the loss of feed-in cash from the government.

Have a look at http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/free-solar-panels#free

[Bellend Sebastian]

A quick Google search about them didn't reveal anything too alarming about them - if anything, far less negative stuff than you'd get about most corporations, but I'm probably being blinkered because I like the sound of it.

I know someone that installs the solar hot water systems and I'd have one like a shot if I had £10,000 kicking around, WHICH I DON'T. Pah

[m00nie]

there popping up everwhere. even the council estates are having them all fitted. cant see it being dodgy if LCC doing it, them tight gits hardly going to waste money

[Captain...]

This is all it really needs for solar panels to take off, yes they are not the most efficient, and no they are not going to work well in the winter, but somebody with the capital to do this and to rent roofs id going to rack in the money after the operating costs are met.

This is what has always frustrated me with green energy, the prohibitive outlay upfront.

If every building had solar panels on their roofs then that is a hell of a lot of energy being produced without draining natural resources (except in the production of the panels.)

It all looks legit, I would go for it, did they just contact you, like cold calling?

[Zingari]

i've got them and get free electricity when there is enough sun on them to generate . what i don't use goes into the grid , and that's were the company makes their money . ( it will take them about 10 years to recoup their investment so they say )

my elec usage ( through the metre) is down 30% this year even though i'm using the tumble dryer etc more often

no problems so far , but there is a heck of a lot of gubbins ( switches inverters cutouts etc ) in the roof space

edit ;

it was free to have them installed and the company is responsible for the upkeep and they are satellite monitored so the homeowner doesn't need to check the elec outputs etc

you can check the output on the metre so you know when to use stuff like washing machines tumble dryers etc without paying for electricity .

[Parafox]

This is all it really needs for solar panels to take off, yes they are not the most efficient, and no they are not going to work well in the winter, but somebody with the capital to do this and to rent roofs id going to rack in the money after the operating costs are met.

This is what has always frustrated me with green energy, the prohibitive outlay upfront.

If every building had solar panels on their roofs then that is a hell of a lot of energy being produced without draining natural resources (except in the production of the panels.)

It all looks legit, I would go for it, did they just contact you, like cold calling?

Yes they cold-called. But we had a follow-up call from a supervisor to make sure all the important points had been covered by the rep-on-the-step. I was invited to ask more questions that may have arisen following the initial contact. It all seems vey well organised with the focus on the customer, which is obvious as they want my roof!.

I have looked on MSE website as suggested by IsleofWightfox and it seems to give a good opinion of this particular company and the system. Customer feedback is also good.

Since I can't afford to have panels fitted myself and get the Feed in Tariff (FIT) then this seems to be the next best thing as i will save approx 40% on bills. There is no buyout scheme so I have to have the panels for the 25yr minimum then I can do what I like with them and as they then become effectively mine, and assuming nothing changes, I can get the FIT rather that the installing company getting it.

[Parafox]

Quote: There are other reasons - you can't put rooms in your loft, and you are responsible to ensure no trees etc grow and shade your roof. What happens if a neighbours tree grows in the next 25 years?

Response from ASG...Loft conversions are NOT barred under our agreement. We have already had one customer who had a loft conversion with our system in place – we simply removed the entire system to allow for the conversion then re-installed it free of charge, as per the terms of our lease. There is no bar to conversion, renovation or extension. As regards shading, if a neighbour’s tree does eventually cause shading then it is ASG that is responsible for removing the system at no cost to the homeowner.

Quote: ASG collect something like £1,300 each year from using your roof and you typically(according to the Energy Saving Trust) will save £70 a year off your electricity bill.

Response from ASG...Even the EST admit that their figures are based on estimates, it is also based on a smaller system than the one we install. What we have is concrete feedback from many customers who have had our system for over 12 months now and all of the feedback contradicts those figures. From the feedback we are getting, the savings appear to be between 30%-60%. However, it is accepted that if customers who are out all day and who make no concerted effort to use the daytime electricity provided by the solar PV then the savings are, of course, likely to be minimal, and that wouldn’t surprise anyone.

Above for Info to those interested

[Bellend Sebastian]

Here's some vaguely interesting info which I've just received via the gift of SMS message, beamed across the heavens from my mate who's on holiday in the Med.

He fits them and says that whatever system you have should generate at least 3kw, which usually means at least 12 panels. He says he knows someone with 10 and although they get some benefit, he only has to use a couple of appliances at the same time and then he's paying for it.

I think I'd have to be pretty sure that I would be getting a clear benefit in light of the commitment, but I'm struggling to see any big downside to it.

I think you should sign up, Parafox, and then let us know how you get on. If it's a disaster, then we'll all stear well clear. You seem like a goodly soul, and it would be a pretty much selfless act

[Parafox]

Here's some vaguely interesting info which I've just received via the gift of SMS message, beamed across the heavens from my mate who's on holiday in the Med.

He fits them and says that whatever system you have should generate at least 3kw, which usually means at least 12 panels. He says he knows someone with 10 and although they get some benefit, he only has to use a couple of appliances at the same time and then he's paying for it.

I think I'd have to be pretty sure that I would be getting a clear benefit in light of the commitment, but I'm struggling to see any big downside to it.

I think you should sign up, Parafox, and then let us know how you get on. If it's a disaster, then we'll all stear well clear. You seem like a goodly soul, and it would be a pretty much selfless act

In the interests of fellow FT'ers that's what I'll do, taking the risk on your behalfs could be a way of getting people to like me

[Zingari]

In the interests of fellow FT'ers that's what I'll do, taking the risk on your behalfs could be a way of getting people to like me

i've already taken one for the team and had solar panels , but they still don't like me .

I feel used