Energy Prices (Strictly NO referrals!)

[Haggisman]

What would be the point of solar panels on every home? they generate power in the day sure, but im at work in the day, for 6 months of the year its dark from 7pm onwards when im home using electricity. Unless the panels come with a massive storage shed full of batteries and somewhere to put it I cant see the benefit. Its not like the energy can be stored anywhere, we dont have that technology yet.

If they upped the FIT/SEG/whatever its called this year, then it would make it worthwhile to sell that power back to businesses (like your employer) to use during the day while you're working. Everyone gets cheaper electricity, win win, or if it was installed using a government grant or whatever then the money could go back towards paying for that.

 

[Ahleckz]

I’ve just fixed at

Morning,

I need a little advice, I’m currently with Eon Next, fixed last October for 12 months.

My fix is going to end on 7th October this year, I’ve currently got another fix deal where my payment would be double currently,

Unit rates are

Electric
SC - 44p
Unit rate - 60p

Gas
SC - 27p
Unit Rate - 15p

Would you fix for the next 12 months at that rate or go variable? I usually use around half of the price cap figure a year.

is that v19? I’m moving onto that at end of September. There are no exit fees so my thinking is I’ll sign up to that and see what happens with the cap. However, I did the sums and based on projected increases the variable will cost me £10 more a month over twelve months. The fix gives piece of mind if prices jump up a lot. Alternatively as there are no fees I can jump onto the variable should prices drop.

Share your annual usages and I can plug it into my calculator to see your situation if you want. It’s not perfect but it’s a good estimation.

I’m paring more in Oct - Dec on the fix but saving come January - June.

 

[rG-tom]

What would be the point of solar panels on every home? they generate power in the day sure, but im at work in the day, for 6 months of the year its dark from 7pm onwards when im home using electricity. Unless the panels come with a massive storage shed full of batteries and somewhere to put it I cant see the benefit. Its not like the energy can be stored anywhere, we dont have that technology yet.

that's an incredibly self-minded way of looking at it - 1) a huge chunk of people post-pandemic work from home at least a few days a week. 2) even if you're at work physically you're still using power I presume? therefore if that's coming from houses then less needs to be generated (and also you would make money from that).

 

[the shadow]

Iceland and Utilita launch cost cutting classes with tips to save £640

Iceland will also introduce energy saving cooking guidance on its product packaging, in a bid to help households cope with soaring costs.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[chrcoluk]

It's a tricky one, solar really benefits those who use the most. Putting it on everyone's houses would seem wasteful unless we're using overflow generation as part of a grid wide strategy.

I'd imagine the money would be better spent setting up more central solar or wind farms that everyone can use.

Solar as a individual investment is already commercially viable, but we need more background generation for the grid.

The elephant in the room here is also the fact that the more we have, the more we need to replace. Panels are great but they don't last forever, are the gov also going to be running around replacing inverters every 5-10 years and panels every 25-40?

Your idea is basically nationalised energy production (assuming you mean the state owns these farms and isnt sold on open market), which I agree on, but I was posting this as an alternative, as for whatever reason this country seems really opposed on owning energy production.

The advantages of sticking it on houses is anything generated from it has a zero cost to the occupier, which eases cost of living, and adds spending power to the economy, anything centralised you paying for it on a bill. If its owned by a company instead of the state, even worse you paying inflated open market prices.

 

[413x]

If the government provided a subsidy on solar I'd jump on it.

25 percent discount? Yeah I'd stump up the rest of the cash. Would mitigate much of ROI risk for me

Not sure what my personal cut off cost would be. Right now. ROI is too long for me

 

[200sols]

If the government provided a subsidy on solar I'd jump on it.

25 percent discount? Yeah I'd stump.up the rest of the cash. Would mitigate much of ROI risk for me

Why don't you just stump it up anyway, the ROI isn't a risk, you will get it eventually.

 

[Ironic Namesake]

We're lucky, we moved into a new office last Oct.
Got a 3yr fixed deal with octopus at 25pkw.
Can't complain at that.

Good timing We took ages to complete the lease so couldn’t do anything earlier really. Not massive users to be fair on electric but we need AC in the new place so it’ll add up quickly.

 

[413x]

Why don't you just stump it up anyway, the ROI isn't a risk, you will get it eventually.

No I won't. I plan to move in under 5 years. If it was a long term house. Yes. I'd already have it.

Ill add some context.

Wales weather.
Sub optimal roof space. And limited space
Currently have a cheap fix.

I'm not even sure a 4kw system would fit on our awkward roof.

Doesn't that save 2000kw a year? In a very good setup?

That's only 400 a year.

 

[chrcoluk]

No I won't. I plan to move in under 5 years. If it was a long term house. Yes. I'd already have it.

Adds value to the house anyway right?

If I owned my home, I would be investing in panels no question. Right now paying for energy is like me throwing cash down a drain, and its only getting worse moving forward. All political solutions been offered is the same old short termism.

 

[Ahleckz]

I’m not sure it does add value. May add perceived value to a buyer but would a bank consider it value adding? The latter is more important with mortgages etc.

 

[413x]

Adds value to the house anyway right?

If I owned my home, I would be investing in panels no question. Right now paying for energy is like me throwing cash down a drain, and its only getting worse moving forward.

This is the big question. Does it? It might do soon. But im not happy to gamble with that amount right now.

Could be throwing away several 1000

 

[OldKitMan]

If the government provided a subsidy on solar I'd jump on it.

25 percent discount? Yeah I'd stump up the rest of the cash. Would mitigate much of ROI risk for me

Not sure what my personal cut off cost would be. Right now. ROI is too long for me

Problem with that is that prices would probably go up 25% overnight due to the discount. Only people who win with that kind of thing are the installers.

 

[SDK^]

What would be the point of solar panels on every home? they generate power in the day sure, but im at work in the day, for 6 months of the year its dark from 7pm onwards when im home using electricity. Unless the panels come with a massive storage shed full of batteries and somewhere to put it I cant see the benefit. Its not like the energy can be stored anywhere, we dont have that technology yet.

It really isn't a 'massive storage shed full of batteries' !!

This is my 10kWh battery, which provides enough storage to power the house for 10 months of the year using energy generated from the solar panels . The battery is floor mounted with 3 units - top unit is the BMS and the other two are the batteries (2x 5 kWh). It's also possible to add another 5 kWh battery unit onto the stack, which would provide enough storage capacity to cover 12 months.

Battery Dimensions : 67cm long, 15cm wide

 

[PlacidCasual]

Solar is counter cyclic with demand on a daily and annual basis. It does nothing to solve the underlying issue of not enough reliable generation at a price point we can afford right now. Cheap energy should be a major strategy goal for any would be Government in the UK in my opinion. UK productivity and cost of living are major disincentives to growth. Cheap energy would underpin all sorts on industries that will drive productivity and re-shore industry we have lost through glabilisation. The blinkered view that the gloablised World can provide everything has been thoroughly disproved by Covid and the Ukrine War. We just need a China war to completely bury it. We need to be more self sufficient in everything. That is not complete self sufficiency there is very mucha place for global supply chains but we need some of everything in the UK to provide resilience to global supply shocks. Energy is number one on that list for me. Build more nukes. Build centralised hydrogen storage if we can get the engineering to work and focus on the lowest cost provision of eneegry we can. Make the UK an inviting place to do business.

 

[HungryHippos]

This is the big question. Does it? It might do soon. But im not happy to gamble with that amount right now.

Could be throwing away several 1000

I can't see them subsidising solar for people who can afford it, it pays for itself after some years.

Problem with that is that prices would probably go up 25% overnight due to the discount. Only people who win with that kind of thing are the installers.

This would be my logic essentially.

Installers will just ramp up prices, free money so they'll win.

The installers are likely already too busy to add a lot more to their workload as well.

 

[413x]

I can't see them subsidising solar for people who can afford it, it pays for itself after some years.



This would be my logic essentially.

Installers will just ramp up prices, free money so they'll win.

The installers are likely already too busy to add a lot more to their workload as well.

Everything is so up in the air who knows what might happen.

Its more tory to subsidise people who can afford stuff after all!

Think it would be silly to dive in now when in just a couple of months went goal posts on energy are likely to change in some significant way

 

[HungryHippos]

Think it would be silly to dive in now when in just a couple of months went goal posts on energy are likely to change in some significant way

I considered this because I was also keen to get subsidised solar if I could a while back, my choices were to wait and see if the gov did more to incentivise domestic solar, or to just go ahead and get it done with the data I had to hand and the ROI at the time.

My install was booked a few months ago, since then installation costs look to be 10-20% higher than my quote, couple that with installers who may take advantage of subsidies to raise prices yet further, I think even if they did 25% discounts today, it would be a wash in the current situation we're in.

I am fairly risk averse so I wanted to take action before the prices of solar went up too much, remains to be seen if it's a good move or not.

 

[HungryHippos]

No I won't. I plan to move in under 5 years. If it was a long term house. Yes. I'd already have it.

Ill add some context.

Wales weather.
Sub optimal roof space. And limited space
Currently have a cheap fix.

I'm not even sure a 4kw system would fit on our awkward roof.

Doesn't that save 2000kw a year? In a very good setup?

That's only 400 a year.

My 4.4KW system going up in a few days should, in theory, generate about 3500-3800 kwh per year, slowly dropping yearly as panels degrade.

If I use most of those, it's very good value for money at the new cap prices in October. Even using just 2000 kwh of that generation (I'll have a battery as well so I think I can do better than 2000 / 3500) it's a little over £1000 for 2000 kwh of electric.

I think you've answered your own question somewhat though, if you're on a good long term fix, then the benefit to you is much smaller. Those of us on cap pricing are going to feel the pain much sooner than you.

So you can afford to wait longer potentially anyway, because the cost of doing nothing is small enough for you.

If I can use more of that generation, and perhaps look at getting paid better for additional generation, I'm anticipating this could save me £1.5K or more per year, and that only goes up as unit prices go beyond the planned October caps.

 

[Doobedoo]

What would be the point of solar panels on every home? they generate power in the day sure, but im at work in the day, for 6 months of the year its dark from 7pm onwards when im home using electricity. Unless the panels come with a massive storage shed full of batteries and somewhere to put it I cant see the benefit. Its not like the energy can be stored anywhere, we dont have that technology yet.

Businesses will use that power during the day, so what you don’t use personally someone else will.