Solar Power Options

**northernladuk** · 8 October 2018, 10:57

Originally posted by amanwhoisquiet View Post

Has anyone had any solar installations on their roofs in the past year or two? I'm thinking about doing it, as we get what feels like a lot of sun (even though we're up at 53.6deg) and the entire back half of the roof is due south facing.

I'm reluctant to get on the phone to any of the firms that offer the gov incentives, as I probably don't qualify for anything, and they're unlikely to exist anymore.

I had a go with this (IKEA - Solar calculator) and it seems I should be able to get at least 4.5kW, which I'm happy enough with and all seems fine, but if anyone can plug in their own details to this and let me know if it matches up with what happens in real life I'd be much obliged.

Also, do the battery-wall things and immersion-heater store things make much sense to do at the same time?

Personally I'd investigate the impact on the sale price of the house first. I think they look horribly ugly even if you can't see it from the road and I thought I'd seen they are detrimental to the sale price of a house, not a benefit.
Have a look at that and factor that in to your calcs.

**amanwhoisquiet** · 8 October 2018, 11:09

Originally posted by northernladuk View Post

Personally I'd investigate the impact on the sale price of the house first ... Have a look at that and factor that in to your calcs.

I'm resigned to not making money on this current house. We were going to sell it this year, but everything we looked at we even nearly liked was about double what this one was worth, so we sacked it and decided to spend some on improvements. I'll have to wait until I've been contracting a bit longer before I can afford the chateau.

**b0redom** · 8 October 2018, 11:23

Originally posted by northernladuk View Post

Personally I'd investigate the impact on the sale price of the house first. I think they look horribly ugly even if you can't see it from the road and I thought I'd seen they are detrimental to the sale price of a house, not a benefit.
Have a look at that and factor that in to your calcs.

This may change your mind when it appears:

Tesla Solar Roof | Tesla UK

**northernladuk** · 8 October 2018, 11:31

Originally posted by b0redom View Post

This may change your mind when it appears:

Tesla Solar Roof | Tesla UK

**WTFH** · 8 October 2018, 11:35

This summer a local cricket club installed solar power. 7kW of panels along with batteries & controller. They are now totally off-grid. The batteries store 22kWh of electricity (they are rated at 50%, so the official figure is 11kWh)
Total cost was around £16,000. It works very well. (This compares with £5,000 for a generator or £100,000 to run main electric to the club)

If I were doing it on my house, I'd get batteries, but only as a back-up for if the mains electric failed. I'd not spend the money on enough batteries to run the house all the time.

**Hobosapien** · 8 October 2018, 12:07

My gran had solar panels put on her bungalow as part of some council sheltered housing initiative. Most of her close had them done. They had to come back a while later and reinforce her roof.

No idea if they just screwed up the original weight bearing calcs or if it was some scam to get more money out of the council. This was over 5 years ago so maybe the panel system is lighter these days.

Something to look into before signing up.

**vetran** · 9 October 2018, 19:13

Originally posted by WTFH View Post

This summer a local cricket club installed solar power. 7kW of panels along with batteries & controller. They are now totally off-grid. The batteries store 22kWh of electricity (they are rated at 50%, so the official figure is 11kWh)
Total cost was around £16,000. It works very well. (This compares with £5,000 for a generator or £100,000 to run main electric to the club)

If I were doing it on my house, I'd get batteries, but only as a back-up for if the mains electric failed. I'd not spend the money on enough batteries to run the house all the time.

not as easy to nick as a generator either!

**BR14** · 9 October 2018, 19:34

Originally posted by vetran View Post

not as easy to nick as a generator either!

**Fred Bloggs** · 10 October 2018, 01:51

Have to say, my own research a few months ago into solar PV on our house was negative. I used one of the on line calculators to estimate the kw potential generation, the cost and the return from panels installed on both East and West facing roofs. The upshot was that it was a better investment to put the money into National Grid shares and use the dividend which would more than cover the combined electric and gas bills. So, solar PV doesn't seem a great investment for us.

Solar Power Options