>Last year the 69-year-old, who lives in the village of Ickleford in Hertfordshire, spent £9,500 on installing 14 solar panels on his east-west roof and two 8.2 kilowatt hour (kWh) solar batteries in his garage. Nine months on, he estimates he has cut his annual electricity bill in half, and is on course to save about £1,600 this year.
>Parker, who runs his own digital signage business, is relatively unusual in that he and his son run electric cars, meaning his electricity consumption is significantly higher than most households. However, with careful management of the system – which sometimes leads to him dialling in to set the home batteries to charge up at night using super-cheap electricity – he says he has slashed his outgoings, as well as his home’s carbon emissions.
Solar schemes would really help accelerate this.
This person is in the perfect situation to save money. He has a high energy using household and he got a vary good deal there. This article is showing the gold standard of solar which is a bit misleading
I had a system which was 16 panels, a 5kw batter and and the inverter for 11.6k which is still cheap by most standards. I’ll be paying that off in roughly 11 years and that’s mostly due to being able to sell back to the grid for 15p per kwh. We saved about a pound a day during winter (that’s as long as I’ve had it), hopefully we’ll be saving more and selling a load during the summer.
This combined with my low energy appliances means I’ve only used 2KwH per day through winter (gas cooker and heating) so its worked out for me, but it really isn’t worth it for some people, so be a bit cautious when reading headlines like this
I priced solar for my house at the end of last year. £10k ish (with battery storage). It would take around 11 years to break even. Then you need to factor in the cost of cleaning & servicing the panels every year + replacing the batteries every 10 ish years or so (half the cost). It’s a big outlay, and you’d want to be absolutely certain you’re in your forever home.
9.5k for the panels/batteries, 1.6k savings, at that rate it would take 6 years to break even.
I’d be interested to know how long it takes for the carbon cost of the panels and batteries etc to be offset compared to that from coal/nuclear/wind etc.
Part of the challenge with solar is that standing charges are so high that even if your usage drops to next to nothing you will still have a hefty bill.
The government are funding installations, apparently noone is aware though. Eg, Sustainable Warmth Cumbria (in Cumbria obviously but I assume Nationwide as it’s funded from Government).
“The funding aims to boost the local economy to retrofit a minimum of 1,310 owner occupied and privately tenanted homes with energy efficiency installations and low carbon heating. ”
“Eligible owner-occupied households can receive grant funding between £10,000 to £25,000 depending on your property and your heating type.”
If you have a household income below £30k, find your local scheme and apply
I stand by the fact that Cameron adding VAT back onto Home Solar was one of the biggest errors of Gov in the post-crash era
Kneecapped an industry in its early years, and hampered domestic power generation at a time where we’re dependent on barbarians for our oil.
Imagine if say, 1% of home owners got them installed… what that’d do to reduce demand for power. Would have helped maintain a middle class too.
Meanwhile I face an extortionate energy bill because my landlord won’t install doubleglazing to replace my draughty sash windows.
We gad a 4 kW system installed 11 years ago as as government pulled the plug on tarriff rates a lot of companies who were involved at the time just disappeared leaving folk with no back up so forgive me if I sound sceptical
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>Last year the 69-year-old, who lives in the village of Ickleford in Hertfordshire, spent £9,500 on installing 14 solar panels on his east-west roof and two 8.2 kilowatt hour (kWh) solar batteries in his garage. Nine months on, he estimates he has cut his annual electricity bill in half, and is on course to save about £1,600 this year.
>Parker, who runs his own digital signage business, is relatively unusual in that he and his son run electric cars, meaning his electricity consumption is significantly higher than most households. However, with careful management of the system – which sometimes leads to him dialling in to set the home batteries to charge up at night using super-cheap electricity – he says he has slashed his outgoings, as well as his home’s carbon emissions.
Solar schemes would really help accelerate this.
This person is in the perfect situation to save money. He has a high energy using household and he got a vary good deal there. This article is showing the gold standard of solar which is a bit misleading
I had a system which was 16 panels, a 5kw batter and and the inverter for 11.6k which is still cheap by most standards. I’ll be paying that off in roughly 11 years and that’s mostly due to being able to sell back to the grid for 15p per kwh. We saved about a pound a day during winter (that’s as long as I’ve had it), hopefully we’ll be saving more and selling a load during the summer.
This combined with my low energy appliances means I’ve only used 2KwH per day through winter (gas cooker and heating) so its worked out for me, but it really isn’t worth it for some people, so be a bit cautious when reading headlines like this
I priced solar for my house at the end of last year. £10k ish (with battery storage). It would take around 11 years to break even. Then you need to factor in the cost of cleaning & servicing the panels every year + replacing the batteries every 10 ish years or so (half the cost). It’s a big outlay, and you’d want to be absolutely certain you’re in your forever home.
9.5k for the panels/batteries, 1.6k savings, at that rate it would take 6 years to break even.
I’d be interested to know how long it takes for the carbon cost of the panels and batteries etc to be offset compared to that from coal/nuclear/wind etc.
Part of the challenge with solar is that standing charges are so high that even if your usage drops to next to nothing you will still have a hefty bill.
The government are funding installations, apparently noone is aware though. Eg, Sustainable Warmth Cumbria (in Cumbria obviously but I assume Nationwide as it’s funded from Government).
“The funding aims to boost the local economy to retrofit a minimum of 1,310 owner occupied and privately tenanted homes with energy efficiency installations and low carbon heating. ”
“Eligible owner-occupied households can receive grant funding between £10,000 to £25,000 depending on your property and your heating type.”
If you have a household income below £30k, find your local scheme and apply
I stand by the fact that Cameron adding VAT back onto Home Solar was one of the biggest errors of Gov in the post-crash era
Kneecapped an industry in its early years, and hampered domestic power generation at a time where we’re dependent on barbarians for our oil.
Imagine if say, 1% of home owners got them installed… what that’d do to reduce demand for power. Would have helped maintain a middle class too.
Meanwhile I face an extortionate energy bill because my landlord won’t install doubleglazing to replace my draughty sash windows.
We gad a 4 kW system installed 11 years ago as as government pulled the plug on tarriff rates a lot of companies who were involved at the time just disappeared leaving folk with no back up so forgive me if I sound sceptical