Solar Panels

i'm curious if anyone has solar panels or solar type products on their houses.  i'm not quite in a position to buy a house, let alone solar panels, but i want to find out some feedback from people who do have them. 

specifically i would like to know if they are cost effective (more specifically in the winter months).  i realize that this country doesn't get as much sun as others, nor are there as many "warm" months.  i'm also interested in knowing how much money you might be saving a month by having/using them.  my water/electricity/gas is all included in the rent for our flat...so i have no idea how much these bills would possibly for us (just DH and I) if we actually had to pay them.  plus, i see all these adverts on TV saying that gas has gone up X%, as well as electricity, etc.   

ideally i would like to get dual purpose solar panels for both heating water and the lights....granted, i won't be relying on them 100% for everything.  i would like to know from those that do have them, or have experience with them, if it's worth forking a large chunk of money to get them. 

We put photovoltaic solar panels on our house here in a very foggy area near San Francisco about 1.5 years ago. They are really great! On sunny days, we generate almost 14 KWH, which is pretty significant. On foggy/cloudy days, we generate between 5-6 KWH. Even though the sun isn't out, the panels only require "light" to function. But they need to be free from any shadows falling on them (i.e., chimneys, tree branches, etc.) or they work less efficiently.

We are only billed once a year for electricity now, since we installed the panels. The local utility charges us a certain price during weekday peak hours (I think it's 10am to 6pm) and a lower price for the other hours and on weekends. It's called "net" metering. Our annual bill is a net figure based on the amount of energy we generated against the amount we used. Last year, we had a $14 credit, meaning we generated $14 more than we used. The goal is to either have a credit or be at 0. It's just two of us and our house is only ~1000 sq ft, so for larger places things will be different. We're also very conscious of how much we use, when we run our major appliances, etc.

Our system cost around $7500, and we got some tax credits and rebates. Many people ask us how long it will take for the panels to pay for themselves (about 9-11 years), but we installed them because we had the $$ and felt it was the right thing to do. We are still hooked into the local utility, so we're not completely "off the grid", but we really feel good about helping out where we can.  The upfront cost is the kicker, but if you can do it, it's really great.

At some point in the future, probably after we return from our overseas UK venture, we are thinking of installing solar hot water panels also to pre-heat our water and help reduce our energy bills further.

wow....a $14 credit!!!  that's great!!  i wonder if over a period of years having a credit with the utility company, if they would actually send you a check!?!?  wouldn't that be great...to have them paying you.  and tax rebates sound good to me!!  i highly doubt there would be a tax break for this type of thing in the UK tho. 

thanks for your input (i was beginning to think no one was going to post a response).  in doing just a bit of research, i found both professional installers for solar panels, and some DIY panels.  i didn't look much further into it tho, but wondered how much more benificial it would be having them professional installed.  but at this point, i'm not in a position to spend too much time reseraching it since being a home owner is a few years down the line.

the next person to move into your house is going to be lucky...having them already installed for them and avoiding the initial costs....well....assuming you aren't going to take them with you  .  i suppose that would be one way to avoid the initial cost....hmm....i'll have to keep that in mind when i start house hunting, tho i'm sure it will seriously limit the amount of houses available with that criteria....at least in my area. 

thanks again!!

Hi,
The UK gov't used to go through Clear Skies grant scheme but now they seem to have a new one.  I haven't had a chance to read through this but I think they used to give out grants of around £500-1000 for these things depending on what you got.  I think the solar to heat water was the cheapest at a few thousand pounds whereas you got the full whack to do water, heating and everything could be multiple times more.
I haven't looked into this in a while and wasn't aware of the new website but here it is
http://www.est.org.uk/housingbuildings/funding/lowcarbonbuildings/

Hiya

I've considered this excellent idea as well to reduce bills and stop paying ever higher rising costs for everything! Much as Kjoe said is what pretty much happens here. You get rebates if installed, and it's a period of like 10 years or so before the system has paid for itself etc etc. Also, like Matt says, it's been a while since I've checked into it and so there may be different schemes, discounts etc etc, however I do remember reading about a £3500 rebate on a system if installed!

In the meantime, I did a bit of moozyin around the house and did some electrical spring cleaning - I 'found' a VCR in the kitchen that was swtiched to standby and we never used it - it went out into the garage!, Changed Kitchen, Utility room, 2 of 3 bedrooms to dimmer switches, changed lighting in the garage for the doggie to energy saver bulbs, pulled out a Freeview receiver and bought a PC TV card instead (so it uses the power already within the PC) changed some extension leads to switched versions so phone chargers and the multitude of other chargers could all be switched off in a single shot rather than leaving them on 24/7. A few other little bits too. It probably wont amount to 'much' on the overall leccy bill, but hey even if it's 2-3 quid a month it's something!

I wonder if there's any deal on home Wind Turbine generators - sure as hell been very very breezy over the last few weeks!

Cheers! Dennis! West London & Slough UK!!

I wonder if there's any deal on home Wind Turbine generators - sure as hell been very very breezy over the last few weeks!

Cheers! Dennis! West London & Slough UK!!

haha...i wonder what the local council would have to say about mounting one of those to your roof?!?!

Some chap last year was starting production of small wind turbines you nailed to the side of your house estimated cost about £2000,but price would drop once demand increased.


Dave

A combination of photovoltaic panels and a wind turbine can make a more balanced system, in the sense that during the winter months the turbine tends to make up for lower output from the solar panels.   

The cost effectiveness of solar power has gradually been improving over the years, as panels become more efficient and cheaper.  It's still a substantial investment to do the job properly though, and I think it's really worth emphasizing that you need to do the job properly for it to be of any benefit.  Too many people have made half-hearted attempts to go solar by throwing up a single panel, lashed up batteries and inverters without really doing any planning or load calculations, and then been disappointed with the results.

A neighbor's son owns some land from which he runs a lumber operation and has a mobile home there.  The cost for getting mains power laid on was prohibitive (try £20,000  ), so he'd acquired a small wind turbine and associated equipment, but was having to run a generator for hours each day to get the power he was using. 

Last year I planned out a new system for him, installed solar panels, raised the wind turbine which has improved its output considerably, and fitted decent charging equipment.  He's now down to running the generator only a couple of hours a week.    More PV panels are going up in a few weeks' time, which should eliminate the generator altogether for most of the year. 

It's still a substantial investment to do the job properly though, and I think it's really worth emphasizing that you need to do the job properly for it to be of any benefit.  Too many people have made half-hearted attempts to go solar by throwing up a single panel, lashed up batteries and inverters without really doing any planning or load calculations, and then been disappointed with the results.

I second that! It is absolutely imperative that you have your system professionally installed. DH is an electrician, so he installed ours, but only after taking several classes regarding PV installation to make sure he had all the details. This is electricity we're talking about, after all--very dangerous. Not to mention the potential for hooking up something wrong and blowing your PV system or inverter.

I'm so glad there is the interest out there! Yay!