bruno22rf Posted November 15, 2014 Report Share Posted November 15, 2014 Looking at spending £5500 on a 4KW 16 panel system. I own my house outright and the rear of the property faces due south with no shaded areas or trees to block the light. Anyone out there know of any pitfalls or disadvantages? my property seems to be ideal? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sable Posted November 15, 2014 Report Share Posted November 15, 2014 thats very cheap chinese panels Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruno22rf Posted November 15, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 15, 2014 (edited) German made panels with a Swiss built inverter-both with 10 year warranty.-company called createrenewableenergy.co.uk. I have spoken to several companies (one quoted £11800!!) and these guys were the only ones who did not try any pressure selling techniques. Edited November 15, 2014 by bruno22rf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lexikia Posted November 15, 2014 Report Share Posted November 15, 2014 What energy will you get? Most promise 4kw, but only on bright days. Looked at this and wasn't very impressed. I would want the energy in the evening not day time. Also pay back from energy companies is not as generous as it used to be. CHAP system seem to be the new thing, although they have been around a few years. Expensive at the moment though. Basically a gas boiler and gas turbine to produce your electricity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Al Posted November 15, 2014 Report Share Posted November 15, 2014 I bought 18 panels last January. They were brilliant during the summer and my electric bill more than halved. Last week I just got £100 for what I exported to the grid but have not yet received my ROCS subsidy payment. It is expected to be £800 to 1k annually. If you add those numbers up, it will have paid for itself in 4.5 years in my case. They have a life expectancy of 20 years. If you have some spare cash, it's alot better than putting it in the bank. The government is reducing the subsidies but it just will take slightly longer to pay for itself. I worked it all out on a spreadsheet. Like you, I use most power in the evening - so they are pretty useless this time of year though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingo15 Posted November 15, 2014 Report Share Posted November 15, 2014 Check the optimal operating temperature thou. As a customer of ours had some fitted they were hardly producing any power when we had the warm spell as it was too hot. go figure Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andypaint Posted November 15, 2014 Report Share Posted November 15, 2014 Get a small wind turbine instead it's cheaper and makes electric day and night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GazzerG Posted November 15, 2014 Report Share Posted November 15, 2014 I sacrificed our annual holiday this year to get some, and had them installed in June. The fitting company 'should' be able to give you some idea of of how long the payback will take. They use your houses location and average sunlight hours over the last several years, you can do this yourself... Here 'up north' mine was estimated at 5 years. This is based on the energy you generate and get paid for and the money saved on using your own. To give you some idea of money..... June - Aug I had a payment of £256 from the energy company and Sept - Nov £150. During these periods I have generated 2,392 kwh, which I have almost certainly used and not exported to the grid, this equates to £289 if used from the energy company. So from June - November, I have had a payback of £695 in 6 months. Next bill I submit will probably be £100 ish and the the last bill for the 12 month period should reach around £200... After the payback, each year should see you pulling in £700 cash and saving probably a lot more due to increasing energy prices. Your feed in tariff stays fixed by the way, they cant drop it, well after 2034 they can Find out more on it HERE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FalconFN Posted November 15, 2014 Report Share Posted November 15, 2014 Looking at spending £5500 on a 4KW 16 panel system. I own my house outright and the rear of the property faces due south with no shaded areas or trees to block the light. Anyone out there know of any pitfalls or disadvantages? my property seems to be ideal? Sounds a good price. Is that including installation, vat and scaffolding etc? As I've said on other solar threads, my mum had some installed and they are paying back much more than the estimated amount so she'll pay them off much quicker and get a very good return. Certainly worth doing on the right roof, which yours seems to be Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruno22rf Posted November 15, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 15, 2014 Price includes everything-installation, energy rating certificate and micro licence but time is getting short as the FIT is likely to be reduced in January. Seems like a good month for us-this is set to payback in 4-5 years and yesterday we managed to increase the interest on our savings from .1% to 4% in one foul swoop-happy days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lexikia Posted November 15, 2014 Report Share Posted November 15, 2014 I bought 18 panels last January. They were brilliant during the summer and my electric bill more than halved. Last week I just got £100 for what I exported to the grid but have not yet received my ROCS subsidy payment. It is expected to be £800 to 1k annually. If you add those numbers up, it will have paid for itself in 4.5 years in my case. They have a life expectancy of 20 years. If you have some spare cash, it's alot better than putting it in the bank. The government is reducing the subsidies but it just will take slightly longer to pay for itself. I worked it all out on a spreadsheet. Like you, I use most power in the evening - so they are pretty useless this time of year though. Sounds good. How does it connect to your property? Is it a spare MCB on your Consumer unit? Is there a meter to monitor output? Cheers Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bullet1747 Posted November 15, 2014 Report Share Posted November 15, 2014 (edited) Sounds good. How does it connect to your property? Is it a spare MCB on your Consumer unit? Is there a meter to monitor output? Cheers Edited November 15, 2014 by bullet1747 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Al Posted November 15, 2014 Report Share Posted November 15, 2014 Sounds good. How does it connect to your property? Is it a spare MCB on your Consumer unit? Is there a meter to monitor output? Cheers Mark There is an output display on the Sunny Boy inverter that records output. A small display shows you output for that day. Meters on the inverter also record total daily output and total output ( Im up to 4 megawatts since last Jan) There is also a PV meter for the electricity board readings. My panels are on the garage - from there it goes down the existing armoured cable into my mains meter box. The electricity board changed my mains meter from the old spinning wheel type to a digital input / output meter. There are two readings on it - one records what I put onto the grod, the other records what I take off it. By subtracting the export reading from the total produced reading in the garage theu work out the ROCS payment based on what I make AND use (ie what I don't take from thr grid. It's a complex wee ****** but it works! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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