Energy Prices (Strictly NO referrals!)

[bigmike20vt]

Why can't you command the same prices on export as it costs on import? If that is the market rate (we're in a global market so everyone keeps saying) why don't solar exporters get the same?

you need to get an agile tarif. the sell price is still less than buy but it's much closer. apparently it is because there is a lot of paperwork which needs to be done to sell your energy to the grid

 

[bigmike20vt]

I've been trying to get solar panels but E.On says we don't get enough sunshine to make it worthwhile. Yet the back of the house gets about 12 - 14 hours of sunlight. Cannot get it without forking out stupid amounts of money.

whilst I don't know your exact situation I suppose it's possible. but I would get a 2nd opinion off a company not trying to sell you electricity. I don't have ideal set up for max usage with an East west roof but mine is doing really well despite that . my £8300 15 panel 5kwh system and 7.2kw battery is operating beyond my most optimistic expectation.

 

[V F]

you doon't have to go with your electricity supplier, iirc there is an eu website that lets you enter in your location and facing of the house you want to put the panels on and it gives you an estimate of your monthly production based on that, your wattage of panels, and the angle of your roof.

Yeah, they wanted £18,000 I think it was when I checked. Hence why I was trying to rely on the energy supplier.

 

[bigmike20vt]

Yeah, they wanted £18,000 I think it was when I checked. Hence why I was trying to rely on the energy supplier.

it's a long shot but Google solar together. maybe there is one of those in your area. I saved 1000s by getting my system from that (it's legit and council backed but it's large scale so they get discounts ) my father in law has now signed up after seeing mine. in truth given he is 80 I am not sure he will make profit on it, but I think he finds the thought of generating his own power quite exciting (as do I, we are sad scientists (or ex scientist in his case) so I guess are a bit weird ) so is not that worried about the return.

 

[V F]

it's a long shot but Google solar together. maybe there is one of those in your area. I saved 1000s by getting my system from that (it's legit and council backed but it's large scale so they get discounts ) my father in law has now signed up after seeing mine. in truth given he is 80 I am not sure he will make profit on it, but I think he finds the thought of generating his own power quite exciting (as do I, we are sad scientists (or ex scientist in his case) so I guess are a bit weird ) so is not that worried about the return.

Not available to Scotland. This was what happened with E.On, once they found out I was in Scotland, sorry.

 

[danlightbulb]

What do you think the chances are of being able to put panels on a roof like this one?


The south facing part is narrowest and has the protruding section related to the bay window below. The longest part is just above east facing, so north east east probably.

 

[Surveyor]

it's a long shot but Google solar together. maybe there is one of those in your area. I saved 1000s by getting my system from that (it's legit and council backed but it's large scale so they get discounts ) my father in law has now signed up after seeing mine. in truth given he is 80 I am not sure he will make profit on it, but I think he finds the thought of generating his own power quite exciting (as do I, we are sad scientists (or ex scientist in his case) so I guess are a bit weird ) so is not that worried about the return.

Only open for registration in the Leicester County Council area. Other areas you can register your interest.

 

[LabR@t]

About 2 weeks ago, 80% plus of our daily usage, but we're exporting some as the battery fills up and doesn't quite last the whole night (or when the cooker and hob are on we exceed the 3k the battery can output).


Our roof is about average size for a 3 bed 70's house, we're lucky in that it's SSE facing so pretty good for most of the day (at the moment it starts generating about an hour after dawn and stops generating about 2 hours before dusk as the sun goes fully behind the house).

4.7k of panels are producing around 30kw a day in this weather, during the much cloudier weather immediately after they were first fitted it was around 18kw.

It's a huge cost but for us we reckon the payback under April's cost will be about 8 years, under Octobers projected pricing around 4-5 years. we're not planning on moving any time soon, the key thing is to get a battery to allow you to make use of as much of what is produced as possible so you're not exporting it to the grid (at as little as 1/9th of what it costs to import it).
We took one look at the projected price rises and started doing the maths, as we are very heavy users (around 2.5x average), and were very very fortunate in that we could drop the money now to hopefully protect ourselves a bit in the future (especially if inflation goes how it's looking, as there is no way we're getting ~5-10% interest in the bank).

Any recommendation on installers my mortgage is almost finished I might dip into the equity and purchase I'm in life time tracker br +0.5%

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

What do you think the chances are of being able to put panels on a roof like this one?


The south facing part is narrowest and has the protruding section related to the bay window below. The longest part is just above east facing, so north east east probably.

Hard to know without scale, panels are roughly 1.7x1.2m and you need about 30cm each edge for gap (some installers will seemingly go close to edge, but its about wind loading).
The ENE would still generate but its going to be down to about 70% efficiency based on facing

You may manage to get a few panels on the south facing, and a separate string (many inverters will run 2 strings) on the ENE side.
Your really going to need a survey but you can estimate number of panels from above dimensions and allowance if you know the rough dimensions.
You can panel landscape or portrait and even mix both together

 

[LabR@t]

Finally broke the £600 threshold

2 Year Fixed​

(2 Year Fixed)

Estimated energy cost​

£613
a month

• Plan rates​

  Electricity​

  Unit rate:
  72.29p/kWh
  Standing charge:
  46.54p/day
  

  Gas​

  Unit rate:
  20.51p/kWh
  Standing charge:
  27.52p/day

 

[danlightbulb]

Hard to know without scale, panels are roughly 1.7x1.2m

Would they not make smaller ones for awkward spots?

 

[HungryHippos]

Would they not make smaller ones for awkward spots?

Have you ever seen tiny panels on roofs?

 

[LabR@t]

Would they not make smaller ones for awkward spots?

Efficiency

 

[chrcoluk]

I mean if the government said

We are going to build 5 nuclear power stations but we will have to put NI up by X to pay for it.


We hate increasing tax burden. All it takes is the opposition to say we won't do it and the voters would likely flock to the other party.

Saying that, like like hinckley cost 22bln. 1/4 of hs2.

Damn I hate hs2.
Hs2 and brexit handling. For me 2 huge defining single issues as to why I absolutely hate this government.

HS2 is just so stupid at this point.

On your tax point, this is why I think we need a cross party agreement, so basically we will have unified policy of investing in our power sources, instead of one trying to put tax cuts or alternative spending against it.

 

[LabR@t]

Wished I had ignored Martin back in Feb and locked in at £350 a month

 

[danlightbulb]

Efficiency

Of manufacture, or of the panels?

On an awkward shaped roof, smaller panels daisy chained together would provide more coverage.

Perhaps a gap in the market there.

 

[Werewolf]

Efficiency

Yup

And cost, a smaller physical size panel will likely not be much cheaper than a standard size one because even if you cut the actual solar panel size in quarters you still have to make the frame and the electrical connections so you might end up with a panel that is 25% of the size, 25% of the generating capacity, but still 60% of the cost or more.

I've seen some smaller ones on the like of amazon and they are significantly more expensive per watt.

There is also an element of the panels are fairly standardised in some aspects (IIRC connection and voltage) to make it easier to mix and match panels to inverters, so if you make them smaller you potentially have to deal with new voltage standards.

 

[Werewolf]

Of manufacture, or of the panels?

On an awkward shaped roof, smaller panels daisy chained together would provide more coverage.

Perhaps a gap in the market there.

Only if they can get enough demand for them to cover the costs of setting up and any changes in the ancillary equipment/fittings (such as brackets) as well.

There are already options in the works for such things that would potentially be faster, cheaper and more versitile than making a new standard for current panel technology, IIRC they are working on "roll out" panels that you can simply drape/pin on an existing surface, solar cells that can be used as blinds, and even a solar paint that at the moment has very low efficiency but you could effectively paint it all over at a low cost.

 

[danlightbulb]

Only if they can get enough demand for them to cover the costs of setting up and any changes in the ancillary equipment/fittings (such as brackets) as well.

There are already options in the works for such things that would potentially be faster, cheaper and more versitile than making a new standard for current panel technology, IIRC they are working on "roll out" panels that you can simply drape/pin on an existing surface, solar cells that can be used as blinds, and even a solar paint that at the moment has very low efficiency but you could effectively paint it all over at a low cost.

I can imagine it becoming like uPVC windows. The raw generating cell itself in a variety of standard sizes, and frame it up to suit the application.

Only having 2 quite large standard sizes doesn't make much sense when we have quite a variety of roof shapes in this country.

It doesn't sound overly complicated to do this. Even just having one smaller panel size would enable trickier areas to be infilled.

 

[touch]

are you joking? it is the only figure for electricity which DOES matter. I don't care what the "average use" is only what my use is and I can only do that with kw/h cost

Its the only only thing that does make sense, the units used.

He's saying that its kWh, not kW/h

Kilowatt hours, not kilowatts per hour.