Do you have or would you invest in Solar Panels on your property.

Cambia

We have had them over ten years and although expensive at the time, they were worth the investment. We get a cheque every quarter and use a lot of the solar provided to charge our car etc. We are just having a battery fitted to conserve the energy and be able to use it later in the evening.
Quite comforting to think that we can store our own electric and still have power if the supply goes off as we are in a rural area and don’t have gas.

I was under the impression than unless one is completely off-grid then power cuts will be just the same.

If the bye-laws allowed us to install them on our fairly flat garage roof, I certainly would look into whether it would pay to do so.

DH is more dubious, but I feel solar energy would allow us to heat the garage that he uses as a workshop and the passage leading to it (both without any form of heating right now). This would be better for the property as a whole and make the adjacent rooms (bathroom and wash-kitchen) cheaper to heat. We could presumably also use solar generated electricity to re-charge our bikes, and perhaps power the washing-machine and tumble dryer.

Whether we would get our money back or not I don't know, but having partial green energy would be a selling-point if we decide to sell later on, and if we don't, I doubt it will concern me on my death-bed if I haven't recouped the investment.

We had them installed in our last house, and we had them installed when we moved into this house (about 6 years ago). We have had no problems with them.

we only have 2 panels which just heat the hot water BUT we don't need any gas to heat the water during april to October . They are not even south facing . If you can afford it then get a battery for your solar panels .

We have had them over ten years and although expensive at the time, they were worth the investment. We get a cheque every quarter and use a lot of the solar provided to charge our car etc. We are just having a battery fitted to conserve the energy and be able to use it later in the evening.
Quite comforting to think that we can store our own electric and still have power if the supply goes off as we are in a rural area and don’t have gas.

We have 16 panels and 3 batteries. The panels are excellent but the batteries x3 were £6,000.00 down the drain.
They didn't work from day one. The installer has refused to assist and the bank won't refund the the money as I have been unable in 2 years to find any one to give me a survey [ have wasted even more money on this - as no one ever turned up]

We have the ideal roofline to put them on but at 72 and 70, I'm not sure the DH and I would be around long enough to benefit financially.

I had 14 panels and one battery installed in April. This is the second property I’ve had that I’ve had them installed. It cost me £8000. The battery is expensive bit. Every time the sun shines I do my washing, use the tumble dryer and dishwasher and it doesn’t cost a penny! My last quarterly bill had £7 in actual usage. My next will be higher as it’s not been as sunny but definitely a lot lower than if I didn’t have them. At the prices we’re paying for electricity at the moment I think they’ll pay for themselves in just a few years rather than the ‘ten’ that’s usually quoted.

only if I were staying in this house for > 12 years, which is an estimated payback time. I had solar panels for 9 years, previous house was fully eco. In my opinion, solar thermal is far more efficient. Just 2 panels will keep a tank hot for most of the year but you need a solar cylinder, which occupies quite a bit of space

Previous FIT tariff was very good and we were quids in, in spite of higher house cost. It took me a while. after moving, to stop restricting my electricity use to sunny days

Our bungalow is at the top of a valley, which is a wind tunnel, and we put panels up 8 years ago. We've never had any issues, and receive somewhere around £1500-2000 per year in Devon

We had ours fitted years ago when they were free; we don't own them and don't get paid for the electricity we feed into the grid, but we do use the electricity when they are generating. I can't really help you with the economic aspects, but I would say that we live on high ground with strong winds and have never had any problems.

Have a detached house with roof having several angles. Would need panels on different areas of roof so even more costly. Kind of feel like electric cars having road tax applied the feedback allowance for energy will be withdrawn. Already applied since 2018/19 in Scotland. DS who lives in Scotland bought new house with all the bells and bows for energy saving and he missed the deadline by a few months.

We had 16 solar panels fitted in 2014 on a south facing roof. New build. They weren't cheap - it cost us about £7,000, but they have more than paid for themselves in the savings on electricity bills and payments given 4 times a year. My main complaint is that the electricity companies don't buy surplus units from you at the same rate as they charge you for them. We will be looking into battery storage - though this can be very expensive - but it would have been great to have been able to store all that excess power generated during those hot, sunny months we had this year.

I had mine free about 10 months ago. Happy so far. Getting FIT from Octopus who I believe pay the best rate. You don’t need to have your main supply from them.
But can’t get any response from EDF so no idea about my bills.

Witzend

I wish we could, but we’ve been told that the pitch of our roof is too shallow. 🙁

Witzend there are flat roof places here that have panels on. A frame has been built and the panels attached to that.

I wish we could, but we’ve been told that the pitch of our roof is too shallow. 🙁

Should have added..... it is estimated that we will save approximately $1800 a year.

We had solar panels fitted in July (winter here) this year. Our first electricity bill came about 8 weeks after they had been connected and it was $150 less than the previous one for the same time last year. We have a 10.2Kw system and there are 26 panels on the roof.
Even during our winter there were very few days when we were not generating enough power to fulfill our needs during the day.

It is estimated that it will take 4 years to get our outlay back but we believe it will also add value to the property when it is sold.

We do not have a battery as at this time they are not economical but will probably add one at some stage.

i would if I could, the back of our house is south facing, but it is Listed, so we would need full planning permission and would not get it.

Well with the current weather, we have a cheap night time tariff of 7.5p per kw between 12.30 and 4.30am which manages to charge up both batteries, charge my sons EV vehicle and do the washing, drying and dishwasher all set on delay start. We then use the energy stored in the batteries for watching T.V and vacuuming plus lights etc. We are charged 40p or thereabouts at all other times but having the batteries means that hasn't happened yet. We rarely if ever have the heating on and are finding alternative ways of cooking. So according to the smart meter we are paying about £2-£3 a day for gas and the same for electricity and apart from getting used to having the solar panels have done nothing to cut down on usage. Hope that helps.

Thank you all for your replies, we're now trying to make a final decision.

We bought them when my husband retired 7 years ago and they have more than paid for themselves. We are still earning from them even with all this foul weather. We use our washing machine, dish washer and tumble dryer when the panels are generating electricity so save on the bills and any left over goes towards heating the hot water. They are great.

We were talking about this yesterday.
They are a lot cheaper now and you can have batteries to store the electricity for own use so would not feed it into the national grid.
Our house is ideal as the back faces south and the pitch of the roof is perfect
Apparently they are getting cheaper all the time so we may consider it as although we may not live long it may increase the house price,

A 10 year payback is not attractive to those of us in our 70s given the likelihood of dying in an ambulance waiting to discharge into A&E! We live in a conservation area so that means a tussle with a dilatory district council over planning consent. Government should remove the planning restriction for conservation areas and listed properties.

We’ve got them but they are not much chop because we have too many trees. We are not allowed to cut trees down but we wouldn’t anyway because I really like them. Daft, aren’t we ?