Solar panels worth it?

My 3.92kwh solar array was fitted 9 years ago at a cost of £9200. I get approx £1000 in FIT & Deeming payments per year. In with this package I had a SOLIC 200 fitted which sends any spare generated electric that the house is not using straight to immersion heater for free hotwater which saves about £250 p/y in gas (Teenage daughter, NO, hundreds of showers per week). Any spare generated electric after water has been heated (which is usually up to temp by 10am on a sunny day) then goes to my ZAPPI electric charger which again works out how much to send to the car so it costs me nothing and is saving about £50/£60 quid a week in petrol atm.
So I probably got outlay paid back in about 6 years, but that was before electric car arrived and gas and electric prices went through the roof.
 


Epping said:
That's pricey.. you should be able to get 4kw for 4k
£500 per panel so 8 panels plus fitting
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The inverter is the most expensive part not the panels. Panel prices are much lower than £500 now.

SolarEdge 10kWh Home Battery 400V

High voltage, DC-coupled storage solution for 1ph systems. Optimised to integrate with existing and new installations using the Home Hub 1ph or Home-Wave 1ph Inverters.
midsummerwholesale.co.uk midsummerwholesale.co.uk

Hi fir a solaredge hd wave inverter and one of these if your want storage:

SolarEdge 10kWh Home Battery 400V

High voltage, DC-coupled storage solution for 1ph systems. Optimised to integrate with existing and new installations using the Home Hub 1ph or Home-Wave 1ph Inverters.
midsummerwholesale.co.uk midsummerwholesale.co.uk
 
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Joe Public said:
The inverter is the most expensive part not the panels. Panel prices are much lower than £500 now.

SolarEdge 10kWh Home Battery 400V

High voltage, DC-coupled storage solution for 1ph systems. Optimised to integrate with existing and new installations using the Home Hub 1ph or Home-Wave 1ph Inverters.
midsummerwholesale.co.uk midsummerwholesale.co.uk

Hi fir a solaredge hd wave inverter and one of these if your want storage:

SolarEdge 10kWh Home Battery 400V

High voltage, DC-coupled storage solution for 1ph systems. Optimised to integrate with existing and new installations using the Home Hub 1ph or Home-Wave 1ph Inverters.
midsummerwholesale.co.uk midsummerwholesale.co.uk
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What I meant all in with inverter etc 8 panels. 4 grand
 
Joe Public said:
The inverter is the most expensive part not the panels. Panel prices are much lower than £500 now.

SolarEdge 10kWh Home Battery 400V

High voltage, DC-coupled storage solution for 1ph systems. Optimised to integrate with existing and new installations using the Home Hub 1ph or Home-Wave 1ph Inverters.
midsummerwholesale.co.uk midsummerwholesale.co.uk

Hi fir a solaredge hd wave inverter and one of these if your want storage:

SolarEdge 10kWh Home Battery 400V

High voltage, DC-coupled storage solution for 1ph systems. Optimised to integrate with existing and new installations using the Home Hub 1ph or Home-Wave 1ph Inverters.
midsummerwholesale.co.uk midsummerwholesale.co.uk
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What would be the total cost for panels, battery and fitting of you were starting from scratch
 
Quench said:
What would be the total cost for panels, battery and fitting of you were starting from scratch
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panels are cheap - £120-£250 depending on where you get them from, wattage, new/used, etc

delivery for panels is'nt cheap - order 1 panel pay £100 delivery, order 10 panels pay £100 delivery - so factor that in

inverters are'nt cheap (well good ones are'nt) - i live off grid so my needs are different but my Sunny Island 6.0 was about £2500 when fitted, and it'll be about the same for the Victron equivalent

batteries are'nt cheap - i have 8 deep cycle AGM (cos thats what was available at the time - about £350 a pop - and if one goes they all go)

Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries are the go to now - someone will know better but figure about £1-2k for a decent rack battery

all the gubbins that are needed - MPPT's wiring, connectors, BMS, battery rack / box - will all add up (proba paid about £700 total for my 2 MPPT's)

mountings and labour to fit the panels themselves (and scaffolding, etc if going on the roof) - will also not be cheap

i'm sure i've probably missed something obvious off as well

(oh, and dont forget the necessary permissions as well - if not from the LA then from your DNO)
 
Scotty said:
panels are cheap - £120-£250 depending on where you get them from, wattage, new/used, etc

delivery for panels is'nt cheap - order 1 panel pay £100 delivery, order 10 panels pay £100 delivery - so factor that in

inverters are'nt cheap (well good ones are'nt) - i live off grid so my needs are different but my Sunny Island 6.0 was about £2500 when fitted, and it'll be about the same for the Victron equivalent

batteries are'nt cheap - i have 8 deep cycle AGM (cos thats what was available at the time - about £350 a pop - and if one goes they all go)

Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries are the go to now - someone will know better but figure about £1-2k for a decent rack battery

all the gubbins that are needed - MPPT's wiring, connectors, BMS, battery rack / box - will all add up (proba paid about £700 total for my 2 MPPT's)

mountings and labour to fit the panels themselves (and scaffolding, etc if going on the roof) - will also not be cheap

i'm sure i've probably missed something obvious off as well

(oh, and dont forget the necessary permissions as well - if not from the LA then from your DNO)
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The lads who fitted panels onto the opposite house only used ladders and didn’t bother with scaffolding.

It didn’t take them very long to install, quite a bit of cutting the metal support thingies.

They aren’t aesthetically pleasing. But those inbedded ones aren’t as efficient? And solar roof tiles are expensive?
 
Stevie Freestein II said:
The lads who fitted panels onto the opposite house only used ladders and didn’t bother with scaffolding.

It didn’t take them very long to install, quite a bit of cutting the metal support thingies.

They aren’t aesthetically pleasing. But those inbedded ones aren’t as efficient? And solar roof tiles are expensive?
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yeah, not sure about the whole scaffold thing - watched a video from Artisan Electrics on youtube who was going through the (hidden) costs of solar - and they mentioned 'dont forget scaffolding'

then watched a video of someone else and it was a bloke going up a ladder with a solar panel perched on his shoulder

:)

my roof is full (6 panels), as is my shed (3 panels) - so now i'm looking at ground mounts, fence mounts, side of shed, etc

nothing is ideal really - best place for me would be a ground mount in the garden but i'd need listed building consent for a ground mount there

side of the shed would increase my morning/lunchtime generation and then be blocked out later on by the house

fence mounts would be better early morning/late afternoon and be blocked out by the house the rest of the time

on the upside - can deffo see the pickup of solar as time moves on - made it over 4kwh production on Tuesday for the first time this year

:)
 
cowan86 said:
what’s the advantage of having a battery?
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All the power you generate through the day that you don't use is stored, and you use it later in the day. For many people, they use very little power during the day and lots at night. the current rates you get for selling back to the grid are shit, so there's an incentive to use it or lose it at the moment

I'm waiting for some really serious grants to come back, like the FITs payments, and then I'm jumping back in. Took a 3yr loan last time around for about £200 a month iirc.

It'd be class for things like hot tubs, which you can programme to come on between 11am-3pm every day so they are always hot.
I work from home, so I'd get some benefit - plus I could do things like push the on button on the washer and drier at 11am - so that'd be free too.
 
PTR said:
All the power you generate through the day that you don't use is stored, and you use it later in the day. For many people, they use very little power during the day and lots at night. the current rates you get for selling back to the grid are shit, so there's an incentive to use it or lose it at the moment

I'm waiting for some really serious grants to come back, like the FITs payments, and then I'm jumping back in. Took a 3yr loan last time around for about £200 a month iirc.

It'd be class for things like hot tubs, which you can programme to come on between 11am-3pm every day so they are always hot.
I work from home, so I'd get some benefit - plus I could do things like push the on button on the washer and drier at 11am - so that'd be free too.
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Don’t forget it depends on the size of your system. Mine is old and small (2.8kw I think) so there’s not a lot of spare capacity to store in a battery (our car pulls 7kw). Newer systems can do twice that I think.

The upside is I’m on summat like 48p per kWh for FIT.
 
HellsBells said:
Don’t forget it depends on the size of your system. Mine is old and small (2.8kw I think) so there’s not a lot of spare capacity to store in a battery (our car pulls 7kw). Newer systems can do twice that I think.

The upside is I’m on summat like 48p per kWh for FIT.
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Mine is 3KW too, and I'm well over 50p for FIT, I think I'm in year 11.

But still a 3KW system for say 4 hours in the middle of the day can push 12KWH into a battery to feed the car later in the day.
 
HellsBells said:
Don’t forget it depends on the size of your system. Mine is old and small (2.8kw I think) so there’s not a lot of spare capacity to store in a battery (our car pulls 7kw). Newer systems can do twice that I think.

The upside is I’m on summat like 48p per kWh for FIT.
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Nice. You must have been an early adaptor.
 
HellsBells said:
Don’t forget it depends on the size of your system. Mine is old and small (2.8kw I think) so there’s not a lot of spare capacity to store in a battery (our car pulls 7kw). Newer systems can do twice that I think.

The upside is I’m on summat like 48p per kWh for FIT.
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There was a limit on how much capacity you could install on your house at the time - about 4-5 kw I think. Not sure if it has increased since they fucked everyone over with the FIT's
 
spitfire said:
There was a limit on how much capacity you could install on your house at the time - about 4-5 kw I think. Not sure if it has increased since they fucked everyone over with the FIT's
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i think the limit was that above a certain level of capacity / production you needed extra permissions from you DNO - G99 instead of G98
 
spitfire said:
There was a limit on how much capacity you could install on your house at the time - about 4-5 kw I think. Not sure if it has increased since they fucked everyone over with the FIT's
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The FIT scheme was limited to 4KW of production, above that I believe it was a lower rate.
cowan86 said:
does the 0% vat start from
April?
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Bear in mind, it was only 5% VAT in the first place, so you'll barely notice any difference.
 
PTR said:
The FIT scheme was limited to 4KW of production, above that I believe it was a lower rate.

Bear in mind, it was only 5% VAT in the first place, so you'll barely notice any difference.
Click to expand...
That rings a bell on the FIT's. I recall the larger more "commercial" installations had a much lower FIT at the time. I wonder how that stacks up now.
 

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