"FREE" solar PV schemes- are they a rip off?

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ABCwarrior

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Our house seems to qualify for this scheme, but the fine details seem a bit sketchy to me.
The company isn't doing this for our benefit, they hope to make money obviously so how does it work in honest laymans terms? Ie what do we REALLY get out of it?
If we use, for example, 1000kwh per year and the panels generate say 4000kwh, is our electric free and they sell back the 3000kwh at whatever rate (41.3p plus 3p export- 44.3p)- £1329 per year? Over the 25 yrs this yields £33,225, so deducting the supposed £17k installation they profit £16,225?
None of it seems clear to me- they do all planning apps, installation, maintenance, insurance etc for that small amount?
Plus- if they profit from what's "excess", why shouldn't I run the immersion all day every day and have continuous hot water, and my oil filled radiators on full pelt in winter? that way if they may only get 1000kwh back(£443) and I've tripled my consumption would they not be very annoyed- would there be an agreed legally binding "free" amount we get- say the 1000kwh for example?
We already have solar thermal, works great on a sunny summers day, crap in winter- the roof is at a 45 degree pitch so the panel isn't ideally suited for either summer or winter, just all round. And at 57.7 degrees North, getting close to the arctic circle it'll never be great for solar anyway.
The company asks for a minimum of 25m sq roof coverage- but if they're going to bother doing the work surely it would end up with them covering every spare bit of the roof to maximise profit for themselves?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated !

 
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Overall you probably don't have much to lose, but remember you are renting your roof to them and they will require some agreement with your mortgage company. If the roof has to be repaired you will need their say so and pay them a penalty for every day its out of action. You are locking in for 25 years and if you sold up in a few years the next owners would have no choice but to take on the deal or find another house to buy. They may want to have the FIT!

Yes you are getting free electricity while the sun shines but your life will be taken over by micromanaging appliances etc so you feel you are getting the most out of it. You go out for the day and leave everything running flat out and it gets cloudy, all off a sudden that free electricity will soon be down to zilch. You may even end up paying more for the electricity. Don't forget in winter the sun is low and there will be very little output from pv.

If you can invest £10k over 25 years then arrange the install yourself and claim the financial benefit rather than some investor with deep pockets. Doing that will also add value on the resale as I think you can transfer it to the next occupier.
 
how i see it is on a hot sunny day it will produce lots of power that you will not use as you are at work so it goes into the grid and they get paid for it, when you get home you draw from the grid and you pay for it, and you are stuck with them on your roof for 25 years
 
Good replies, thanks for taking time to do so folks- it's good to get other perspectives on it and there's a lot there I hadn't even contemplated. It's that old adage- people don't give you something for nothing eh?!
It might be worth doing further research to doing it so we get the full benefit- ie if we got finance for it may take a few years to pay the system off while reaping nothing but after that it might be profitable?
So I take it my interpretation of how it works is wildly off- If it's not generating say at night I still pay for electric off the grid, during the day if it is and I'm around then it may be free and any excess goes to the FIT. If I'm not around then it all goes to the grid (bar running the fridge/freezer, standbys)?
Sounds like something I'd end up regretting, I knew the slick wording on the sites was covering a finer detail they probably don't want you to know until you've signed for it!

Any other comments about it welcome- especially from anyone who has done this and had it installed?
 
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the maximum output is for the sunniest location with the sun nearest to over head as possible after that its down hill
the likely average output will be around 10-25%

remember no generation when dark :eek: :D
 
Just done some 'back of the envelope' calculations.
Hope someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

A 1m² PV cell will produce about .5KwH in 4 hours of sunshine.
(extrapolated from an 80w .6m² PV cell giving 320wH in 4 hours of sun)

So 25m² will produce about 12.5KwH in 4 hours of sunshine.

That'll generate about £5 per day in FITs

If the installation costs £15,000 it'll take 3000 days, or about 8 years assuming 8 hours per day every day of the year to reach payback, assuming all things remaining equal.

Any questions?
 
Why doesnt someone invent solar roofing tiles so everytime a roof is redone it automatically becomes a huge solar panel?

Presumably solar panels last 25 years in all weathers?
 
merlin50 said:
how i see it is on a hot sunny day it will produce lots of power that you will not use as you are at work so it goes into the grid and they get paid for it
Click to expand...

That's about the size of it. Those companies know perfectly well that demand for electricity peaks when the sun doesn't shine. :evil: :evil: :evil: To get any real benefit you will need to shift your peak power consumption into the middle of the day.

Nothing consumes more power than heating so look at this first. You can easily set an electric immersion heater to come on during the day. With careful use of water and a big enough tank, this will see you through to the next day. :D :D :D Of course those companies also know that you can't do that with a combi system! :( :( :(

Washing machines - especially washer/driers - and dish washers are power hungry appliances and some can be set on a timer. What about yours? Do you have an electric oven? Most of these do have timers so you can come home to a ready made casserole. :cool: :cool: :cool:

The way I see it, these companies are cashing in on a dubious government scheme whereby we, the tax payers, pay way over the odds for electricity. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: The usual rule with any new technology is "don't be first in the queue". The price invariably comes down as more companies try to get in on the act. Consider all the options carefully, read all the small print and don't be too quick to jump in. Those nice people on Watchdog have said it often enough: If something looks too good to be true, it probably is! :!: :!: :!:
 
Excellent replies- our house is all timber, highly insulated and we're on "economy 10" with our supplier- between 4:30-7:30am, 13:30-16:30pm and 20:30-00:30am our unit price is about 6.5p, outwith this it's 13.5p. Me and the missus have got fairly regimented regarding when the washing machine goes on etc so nothing demanding goes on during peak times. The Thermal solar keeps the water at a usual minimum of 30-35 degrees- as I say perfect in the summer on good days we get a full tank of hot water for free(210 litres at 65 degrees), but even if a "top up" is needed generally the upper immersion element for an hour (3kw, 20p?) is enough to give us both a shower(as long as I go first- she's got hair to wash I don't!!). In winter the multifuel stove provides house heating(directly and through the radiators) and hot water and is very efficient.
Our electric bill is £51 a month and over winter we seem to "bank" it more and in the summer when the stove isn't on it is used up in topping up the immersion when the sun don't shine.
The solar is good at keeping that minimum temp though, means not heating from stone cold.
Starting to wonder whether PV would be a waste of money up here- and how winter proof it would be. last 2 have seen -20 and waist deep snow regularly, and the winter sun is barely above the horizon.
 
the high power can fall flat on its face you will seldom get constant output for several days on end and if the sun goes in you are paying peak amounts for you use :eek:
 
Yeah, just been wondering what the electricity company would do once we installed a FIT- bet they would put us back to the standard rate 24/7 rather than give us a cheaper option! :eek:
Mid winter on a good day it gets light about half 9 goes down after 3pm and just rises above the tree line. Useless!
 
The fit can be paid on an estimate of what the panels will produce without the need for a generation meter so if you get a lot of cloudy days you will still be paid FIT, Dont know if the free solar companies do it this way.
 
I've a friend who has solar panels fitted although not through this scheme , he brought them outright. He explained it to me that the connection to the grid means that ALL the power he produces is fed into and brought by the grid and then the producer buys the electricity as normal i.e as if he had no panels. So no worrying about when to use the washing machine and so on.
However, the sticking point on his situation is the route to actually get a payment for the power he has fed into the grid. He has gone round and round in circles contacting first one department after another and being asked to provide serial numbers meter readings and paperwork to prove the compatability of the panels themselves, even though they weren't self fitted but installed by a company. At the moment something like a year down the line he still hasn't recieved any payments :rolleyes:
 
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