Are solar panel installs now free ?

[DIYspanner]

My mother, who owns and lives in a 20 year old detached house, got a call offering a free goverment scheme backed solar panel installation.

I understood that such schemes were now cancelled and the feed in tariffs were now so reduced that they don't offer much benefit.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I know that subsidies etc have been/are being/are about to be cut. Not before time.

Could be a con.

Must be an easy topic to Google though?

 

[foxhole]

http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/domestic/solar-panels

 

[JohnD]

obviously she should never accept cold-callers with their spurious offers.

The payback is not now very good.

If interested, she can contact BG or her electricity suppliers to see what is available. It may be a bit cheaper from an accredited local independent, but if you pay for it, it will take about ten years to recoup the installation cost. If you have to borrow money to pay for it, the interest charges may wipe out the gains.

The "free" installations are from investors who want to put panels on her roof and receive the generation payments themselves. They will have a charge against the property, for 25 years or so, which future buyers or mortgagers may not like so may reduce the value of the house. Your mother will be "allowed" to use the electricity generated, it might cut her electricity bill by about £10 a month if she uses her washer and drier on sunny days, and has an electric immersion heater, but the investors will keep the other profits. There will be no free electricity at night, and insufficient on rainy days to run a kettle or electric heater.

As she is not the customer of the installers, she may not have much hold on them if they kick holes in her roof or damage the gutters or brickwork.

It is proposed that the subsidy will reduce by about 85% in a few months, VAT on the panels will increase from 5% to 20%, and extra duty will be charged on cheap Chinese panels, so probably the solar roof panel scheme will shrivel away. People who already have panels will however continue to receive their subsidy payments.

I have a feeling that some people will continue to buy panels outside the subsidy scheme, especially if they have big roofs and are roofers or scaffolders. A typical installation currently costs in the region of £6k.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

People who already have panels will however continue to receive their subsidy payments.

Here's hoping....

 

[big-all]

buy from e bay its free postage
free installation may cost a fortune in other areas

 

[PBC_1966]

I'm afraid that the solar business seems to be infested with sharks, on both sides of the Atlantic.

My wife and I just moved into our present house about 3 to 4 months ago, and while on our home search we found one place which we really liked, which had solar panels fitted. It turned out that the owners had only just signed up for a 25-year lease and had somehow been suckered into paying almost $300 per month to the solar company for the "privilege" of having solar energy (and the equipment was not even going to be theirs at the end of that time). How they got talked into that, I don't know, but their get-out options if they wanted to move were (a) pay to have the system moved to their new home, but only if within the same area that the company covers; (b) have the new owners agree to take over the remainder of the lease; or (c) pay a huge lump sum to terminate the agreement early and keep the equipment.

Taking the system wasn't an option due to where they were moving to, and obviously we weren't going for the second option! We were so interested in the house that we actually made inquiries as to how much the company would want to terminate the agreement completely and just remove all their equipment, figuring that it would be worth a few thousand dollars to us if it made the sale. They came back with a "really great deal" which was only just shy of $50,000.

I know they were desperate to leave as they already had somewhere lined up to be near family, and we kept an eye on the place out of curiosity and saw that it didn't sell. I drove by the house a few weeks ago and saw new people there, so I assume they must have had to resort to renting it, but it must have made a huge impact on their financial plans.

 

[stillp]

Don't you have any 'unreasonable contract' laws in the USA?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Not sure that our unfair contracts legislation extends to rip-off pricing, does it?

 

[stillp]

No, but it does cover unreasonable lock-in clauses doesn't it?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

TBHIHNI. But if an agreement to pay $90K over 25 years is deemed reasonable and lawful, would paying $50K to get out early be unreasonable?

 

[stillp]

NDI. IANAL.

 

[PBC_1966]

I'm sure there would be something in California state law which could be used if they wanted to, but we already had a buyer lined up and a prospective closing date for the home we were selling and couldn't afford to wait for an undetermined amount of time. The sellers didn't seem prepared to pursue it, and genuinely seemed to think (at that point) that they'd find a buyer who would eagerly take on the deal for the (supposed) savings on their PG&E bill over the next 24-plus years.

I suspect they've revised their view a little now, but I feel sorry for them that they got conned into signing up in the first place. They're a nice, older couple, and we already knew them as the house concerned was just along the street from our temporary home when I first arrived in California.

At least I've already managed to steer one of my wife's co-workers away from any of these deals when it was being considered. Oh, and as the system works here, anyone leasing the solar equipment doesn't even receive the federal tax credit, since that goes to the owner.

 

[Adam_151]

somehow been suckered into paying almost $300 per month to the solar company for the "privilege" of having solar energy (and the equipment was not even going to be theirs at the end of that time).

How much are energy bills over there? I am assuming that this couple must have been paying quite a bit over $300/month to have given it a thought?

 

[PBC_1966]

How much are energy bills over there? I am assuming that this couple must have been paying quite a bit over $300/month to have given it a thought?

That's one of the things which didn't make sense. I just don't see how they could have believed they could save money, even if they were being very extravagant with their usage.

When we were living just along the road from them and paying the same rates with the same utility company in a similarly sized house, I think our largest bill for a hot August was still under $200, and that was not long after I arrived, was still getting used to the summer heat, and we certainly had our A/C keeping the inside temperature down to the mid 70's most of the time. Perhaps they liked their place chilled to ice-box temperatures?!

But whatever their monthly bill, there's no way that the system as installed was going to provide $300 worth of electricity each month anyway. As I recall from the owners' comments at the time, I think a big part of the sales pitch was also about how much they'd be saving over the years with PG&E's rate increases (versus their "modest" increase in the monthly fee over the same period). Except that it's all based on grossly exaggerated assumptions about how much those increases will be, of course.