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

Being ancient, we haven’t had them installed as I assume that we will never see the return, but this is getting more and more unlikely, so may give it a thought sometime.

DD is getting her act together over having them installed😄

Both my DS and DGS have installed solar panels.

In my sons case on his extensive roof as well as his very large garden shed in his garden. 24’ long (houses his gym stuff) The roof he had done by installers but his shed he has done himself. He runs his all electric car as well as household appliances, computers etc throughout the summer, and stores excess in a battery. I assume he gets less in the winter.

Grandson has built computers in his fathers shed and uses the solar panels on the roof to run them. He leases out space to people on the computers.

In this area some new homes have Solar some don’t, a newbuild has to reach an energy rating of B or above, energy source is taken into account in the calculation, increasing insulation levels is more beneficial than solar panels.
With the prospect of higher energy prices in the future Solar is going to be more important.

When we were considering them about 10 years ago my chief concern was the fact we live at the top of a hill and at some times in the year we get very strong westerly winds. We have never had any problem with them other than pigeons who moved in after 7 years. A roll of stainless steel mesh and an hour of a roofers time solved that problem for about £50 so not a major problem.
They paid for themselves in about 7years, I choose to do my laundry and gardening with electrical appliances when the sun shines so have low electric bills and the FIT payments come in handy.
We are thinking of installing batteries but may hold off to see what subsidies are offered. Currently we charge our car at free chargers but that won’t last forever so batteries will make more economic sense at that point.
I do like knowing we are doing our bit to keep Scotland clean and green.

I'm getting them for free - from the 'Mayor of London's Warmer Homes' scheme - so definitely worth it for me! Gillycats, yes, new homes should have them as standard.

We'vehad ours about7 years the FIT tarrif wasn't great and the weather here can be difficult.We dont find a great benefit from them.Maybe £400 a year cheque and the same in free power.Our electricity bill was very high with family staying most of the year,electric showers for some twice a day and the washing machine on 2 loads every day.Our elecricity is 32 pence a KWhour and 32 p per KWH

We’re so glad we had them fitted, our electric bills are low and we get cheques 4 times a year for the FIT. I think it should be written in law that all new builds have them.

MzOops has had them installed, her cottage is South facing, but she also has batteries installed to store the power. It’s been costly, but her OH is technically minded and knows what to do when things go wrong.

We don’t have a large enough roof span facing South (we have Dormer windows and an awkward roof line) our best expanse of roof faces North. I don’t think we could recoup the costs, but I feel that we should really go for it. Save the planet.

Like Auntieflo we had them fitted many years ago and it has proved a good investment. I don't think you get as good a deal nowadays.
It needs to be viewed in the long term as it took us more than 8 years to get our money (initial investment) back.
Many of the folk around me had panels fitted as standard on new build houses and have suffered a lot from pigeons nesting underneath the panels - this needs to be addressed at the installation phase as it can be very annoying.

Mine were installed in September, they weren't cheap at 17.5 k and I'm not wealthy or sitting on a huge pot of savings. I have 2 batteries which I believe are essential, the panels would be pretty useless in the winter with no batteries. Some of the quotes I had were in the 30k range as the demand is huge at the minute and some are happy to charge the earth. As Katie59 said there are delays with equipment and workforce, they are currently in huge demand. TBH I've been pleasantly surprised by how little sunshine is necessary to activate the panels. Anti bird mesh is essential too. I've always invested any spare funds into my house but never quite had enough previously to be able to have panels installed. I have as many as I have space for. I live on the border of London/Essex and I guess we have average winds. Yes I would do it again and as yet we haven't really felt the benefit as we got them quite late in the year.

In 2009 my local council was paying for part of the installation but it was for hot water only, not PV. It is the best investment I have ever made because I have had hot water for 10 months each year for free.

The council was offering to pay for some of the installation of PV this year but I am 79 and doubt if I would get my money back. I will stay with my free hot water which cost me £800 in 2009, a fortune then. I own my house.

We have a long bungalow and back in 2012? took advantage of the Government’s scheme for high payment and had 32 solar panels installed followed by a further 8 at a lower payment rate a few years later. Our money was sat in the bank earning no interest so it seemed like a no brainer. It’s certainly paid well over the years, less in winter than summer obviously.

I wouldn’t just go for solar panels though. It’s worth having a look at thermal ones which you can use for heating. Also worth getting battery storage which is much more compact now. Otherwise you are feeding the National grid for less than it costs to use electricity at night.

I remember many years ago (about 16?) when returns were excellent some traders used to rent roof space from householders, give them some of the profit and pocket the rest. This loophole got shut down I recall. Where there’s money to be made you’ll always find a ‘wide boy’ in it somewhere.

OH is working on it currently, having solar panels and battery storage is economic at current high energy prices, for many properties. ( without batteries forget it)
A typical system with batteries is going to cost close to £15k this is not an estimate it the quotations he is getting for a 3 bedroom house using 10kwh per day.
Currently supply of equipment is a problem, companies are quoting 3 months plus delivery time.

By coincidence, we have just been through this process. Had a full survey, have a south facing roof, no tree shade, room for battery storage etc. Three quotes for varying numbers of panels, with or without battery. Between £6.5 and £11k. Sat and did a evaluation and read it through carefully, and it worked out at between 8 and 10 years payback. We have decided to postpone the idea, and spend more money on further loft insulation, and other measures to cut our heat consumption instead. I suspect (hope?) that there may be more help coming with a Labour government green energy initiatives so we will hang on and see.

We would, but 2 companies have said we don’t have sufficient roof!

Our house roof was south facing & would have been ideal. But to ‘speculate to accumulate’ you need spare capital to invest in the first place.

We’ve had ours for 7 years now. They will have paid for themselves in another couple of years I think. But the money was earning nothing in the bank account, and the quarterly payments far outweigh any interest we would have earned.

Our roof was south facing, a good pitch to it and not shaded by trees or any buildings. Think many people don’t realise that certain properties would just not be suitable for solar panels though.

I had them put in about 9 years ago, and never regretted it. At the moment I'm thinking of having a battery put in too so that I can use more of the energy I produce. I too got a very good Feed In Tariff deal, but as Auntieflo said, they are cheaper to install now, so still worth it.

Hearing the damage that Russia has done to Ukraine and its people by attacking power stations I would feel more secure producing most of my own energy in the future, especially if the price is going to be so unstable. My main reason for installing them was the environment, but it has been a very good financial investment too.

Forty years younger and not surrounded by mature trees and in a house with a suitable roof, then probably, yes.

We have had ours for 11 years, from when we were in our mid 70s. The contract will end when DH will be 100, but even now he says it's the best investment he's ever made. Of course prices and terms are not the same now.

I’m in an apartment but couldn’t afford them when we had a house.

Grammaretto

I'm mid battle with the Scottish Government over a loan for home energy improvements.
I would like solar panels but it's taken over a year since applying to be anything like having the money released so I have come to the conclusion that you have to be rich to be green

BTW friends who have SPs say that they help but don't produce enough power on their own and birds nest beneath them

We had ours bird proofed last year once the babies had fledged. It was not expensive, should have had it done at time if installation.

I was not worried about them being up there it was the proliferation of bird poo down the side of the house and on the decking that I didn’t want,

I'm mid battle with the Scottish Government over a loan for home energy improvements.
I would like solar panels but it's taken over a year since applying to be anything like having the money released so I have come to the conclusion that you have to be rich to be green

BTW friends who have SPs say that they help but don't produce enough power on their own and birds nest beneath them

We moved in March and one of the houses had solar. It kind of our us off. Not the main reason. Partly because we didn't know how it all worked.
Don't think I'd do it from scratch now in my 70s. Again, I don't know what I'm talking about but would I ever get my money back at my age.