Energy Bills...that time again

Just been reviewing my figures, which I had not done since last year, and find that after a couple of slightly poorer years, it will now be 9 years before we are in profit.  

Being further north presumably cuts down on the production, plus due to the shape of our roof the best size panels for us were the slightly more expensive ones.  Our FIT brings in between £1650 and £1700 each year.

Just over 5 years since we had the panels installed, so I need to survive a while yet!!

 

How many panels do you have Kj to get a return like that, we have 10 but not getting anything like you. Ours are SW facing so do get loads of sun.

I remember when we bought our panels we were told that if you move house they would remove and re-fit the panels once for you for free, or you could add the cost of the panels to the house sale and keep the fits for yourself but the new owner would get the cheaper electricity. In practice not sure how all that would work.

I've got friends up on Orkney and another couple locally who boost their water heater with solar, seems to work quite well. They don't have solar power for anything else, just the water.

The council here have fitted 2 panels to some of their properties for boosting the hot water, some of the other properties have been fitted with 10 solar panels, I think they are trying them out to see what is best.

Just been reviewing my figures, which I had not done since last year, and find that after a couple of slightly poorer years, it will now be 9 years before we are in profit.  

Being further north presumably cuts down on the production, plus due to the shape of our roof the best size panels for us were the slightly more expensive ones.  Our FIT brings in between £1650 and £1700 each year.

Just over 5 years since we had the panels installed, so I need to survive a while yet!!

 

How many panels do you have Kj to get a return like that, we have 10 but not getting anything like you. Ours are SW facing so do get loads of sun.

I remember when we bought our panels we were told that if you move house they would remove and re-fit the panels once for you for free, or you could add the cost of the panels to the house sale and keep the fits for yourself but the new owner would get the cheaper electricity. In practice not sure how all that would work.

We have the max allowed for the 4 (3.6 really)kwp allowed for the max FIT.  We have the maximum rate, so probably paid the maximum price!

Our roof is just west of totally south facing, but being shaped, not rectangular, a certain size/brand of (more expensive) panels worked best for us.  We also have a 20 year warranty on the invertor.

So higher initial cost but a slightly better return.

Our son got panels just after we did, same installer.   He has a property in East Ayrshire, an old farmhouse with a nearby cottage which his MIL lives in, it has a separate supply and address.

He has max panels on the cottage, and his (max allowed) are on his byre, both have a nice ordinary roof, so he was able to go for the larger, cheaper panels.

They have similar weather to us, but do seem to get very slightly more sun, and are exactly south facing, so are getting at least £1700 per year on each installation.

TG, OH says we have 16 x 250watt panels, which sounds right.

In really strong sun we do get the full 4kw.

TG, OH says we have 16 x 250watt panels, which sounds right.

In really strong sun we do get the full 4kw.

Ah! makes sense then, we have 10 and OH says we get 2.4kw on a good day. So that means we are probably doing about the same 

I was led to believe that domestic properties cannot have 4kw as that puts you into another FIT band. We have 16x240watt which do give a true 3.8kw when recieving maximum light. More important our FIT supplier BG informed us that our ROI is currently 13.1% which gives pay back in under 7 years.

The actual output to the grid is limited by the setting on the invertor, it does not allow any more than the 3.6 kw, but we have had moments when it has shown the full  4kw is being produced by the panels.

Can I just ask......does anyone know whether all this solar energy actually does go back into the grid to be used by someone else?

I recall reading some time ago that in many areas the grid wasn't capable of accepting / using it......but maybe things have changed?

Also, when they reduce the FIT do they ever do it retrospectively or do you keep the level that you had when the panels were installed?

Can I just ask......does anyone know whether all this solar energy actually does go back into the grid to be used by someone else?

I recall reading some time ago that in many areas the grid wasn't capable of accepting / using it......but maybe things have changed?

Also, when they reduce the FIT do they ever do it retrospectively or do you keep the level that you had when the panels were installed?

First part of your question I don't know.

Second part, yes you do keep the level at which you signed up for the panels and its linked to the CPI.