Solar Panel advice

Admiral Huddy · 12 Aug 2019 at 16:19

I'm sure this has been asked before.. Has anyone here had solar panels installed?

I've had a few companies come round to give me a few quotes.. Cheapest I've had is £7,000. Seems a bit steep to me given it will take approx. 10 years to break even and we're being encouraged to go the renewables route.

Admiral Huddy · 14 Aug 2019 at 14:27

fastwunz said:
bare in mind the cosmetic impact it may have on the propeprty and future saleability.

I'm not to overly concerned about this.. Our roof level is not as acute as some and I'm not really overlooked. There are far worse monstrosities in the area tbh.

balls said:
Definitely worth getting a few quotes, we had massive variance from £500 - £9000 for roughly the same setup

I've got 4.4kwp installed on our house roof, albeit before the FIT cut off.

With the house being used a lot during the day, My partner and kids are at home, a lot of whats generated throughout the day is use, and the excess is heating the hot water via a Solar Iboost. Used only a few 100 KWh of electricity since April, and only 12 KWh of gas when we had a few bad weather days in a row.

I'm very tempted to get battery storage also, however I realise they'd only really be worth it if/when I get an electric car.

This is kind of the situation I'm in myself.. My wife is a child-minder and at home most days. Washing machines, TV, cooker, dryer etc are in use most days. Then at some point we will have to think about a new car. This only came about as a friend of mine stated he gets all his electric free during the day. Why would anyone turn that down? but it seems I've missed the boat though.

Admiral Huddy · 14 Aug 2019 at 14:32

weescott said:
Having a property with Solar already fitted is only going to be more desirable as it means lower bills. In summer our electric bills are around £15pm. Half of that is standing charges. The only real costs for us is bulk LPG in winter.

Solar PV + Solar Thermal. Not too negative a cosmetic impact I don't think :

Just looks like another window tbh..

Admiral Huddy · 14 Aug 2019 at 15:06

I've noticed that the panels are pinned very tightly to the roof. Our neighbours on the other handstands quite a long way so it's more noticeable as you can see the supports underneath.

Admiral Huddy · 14 Aug 2019 at 15:19

Journey said:
And there is the stupidity of the human race at it's finest. Clean, free (to some extent) energy, with the draw back being people can see it on your house and that makes it bad. Much better to have more gas power stations so people in can have a roof that looks the part.

Not a dig at you, just you are right about the attitude, some people need to start actually considering what is important. I'd rather see every house (than can support them) in the UK have solar panels fitted. Then we all benefit.

Agreed, there has to be compromise somewhere along the line. I'd choose clean free energy over aesthetics any day and i'm surprised that new build don't have them as standard. it seems common sense to me.