Anyone know about this ? Someone wants to install solar panels on my house and it is all FREE ! I make pots of money from the government also.
But you don't make any money on the electricity that is put back into the system. My mates just put it in, paid for it himself, makes about £550 every six months on the feedback tariff and obviously doesn't pay for his electricity. He reckons that it will pay for itself in 10-12 years. If you rent your roof out which your basically doing you don't get any of the feed in tariff (that's how the company who put the panels in make their money). You could also limit your resale audience as some people will not want to be tied into a contract they I'd not start. you need to look very closely at it, remember the saying "if it looks to goo to be true it probably is".
The government doesn't have any money, they take it of us, with menaces. Feed in tariffs, more green bollox totally missing the bigger picture.
And what happens when you want to sell your house? I can see lots of legal problems with roof ownership.
As chairman of our local carbon footprint group , I'm all in favour of green energy, and I'm looking forward to our next fundraising event on Saturday, when we're having a mega-firework display......
I carry out work at a very big business ctr that had 1000 solar power units put on their flat roof, they where told it would cover all there electric needs and sell electric back into the grid, after 1 year it has only covered 5 per cent of their electric bill according to site manager. also a friend of a friend had roofing problems , they had to pay for someone to remove solar panels, get there roof repaired then reinstate solar panels that where on their roof. might well be good for some, I decided to give it a miss
I wonder how the solar panels will look when they have been subjected to snow, ice, frost, hailstones, gales, lightning, etc for a few winters.
It's not just how they look but whether they are still operating at the same levels of inefficiency. They are just another way of harvesting subsidies. We have too many PPE graduates running the country who know nothing of science or engineering.
Massive in Germany, they are all over the place. I have taken the plunge after a " free" company carried out a survey. At the time the feed in tariff was 43.8 p per Kwh, but because I couldn't make the 12 panel array which was their standard install in order to generate a minimum profit, they weren't interested. In the meantime I forged ahead with better spec panels and created an 11 panel array rated at 2.89 Kw which i funded myself. The government then dropped the feed in tariff amount to 23.7p per kwh, all of a sudden I was bombarded with messages from said company asking for a convenient installation date before the tariff drops. At one point they claimed i had signed an agreement to install just by having the initial survey. I had signed nothing. The system has now been running for coming up to 2 years, (installed Oct 2011) Last year I was paid in total £1178.47 My total electricity bill for the year was £1124.78. so i'm technically in profit. The system was purchased using my mortgage so no issues around renting my roof, panel condition or deterioration (despite last years bad winter / spring) or transfer to a third party if I ever move and the difference to my mortgage payments is minimal. I have to say a cheque through the door every 3 months is great as it allows the odd weekend away or covers the bike service costs! Taking into account I would be paying my electric bills come what may, im glad i invested when I did. my recommendation however would be if at all possible, purchase the system outright yourself. That way you dont give anyone other than yourself the benefits .
Well when I said how will they "look", obviously I was not referring to cosmetics. The issue is, will they still work? Will they get cracked, corroded or obscured? Will there be loss of electrical output? Will they need expensive maintenance? Published figures seem to assume the panels will work like brand new for many years, with no additional costs.
Had a system for 3 years still look as ugly but no signs of degradation, the system will degrade over time as the panels age and there will be a slow drop in output but the returns (subsidised but every body) are better than any returns on investment and are tax free.
