Has anyone had these fitted? What's the downside?
The actual fitting went really smoothly and they did a good job with the wiring etc., but getting the snagging done and the certificate signing off the job sent off etc was time consuming and my wife found it really frustrating. She works from home some of the time, but other days she is in the office or working away so she needed people to come when she was at home and they didn't turn up when it had been agreed they would. All in all it took about a month after the panels were fitted before we started to get the FiT, despite the fact that we had notified everyone etc up front.Key thing to mention is that the FIT requires your contractor and panel to be MCS-Accredited (microgeneration certification scheme). Like the company Darrel chose.
I did look into this, and the current panels definitely should last the 25 years with only a small loss of efficiency.the panels have a life expectancy of about 10yrs. We were told they would pay for themselves in about 15yrs (rather than the 25 Darrel is expecting). So we'd never even break even on them.
1) because of the age of our roof, were were going to have to get it completely retiled, costing something like another £5k or £6k. (We'll have to do that at some point anyway, but it's not an immediate need.)
2) the panels have a life expectancy of about 10yrs. We were told they would pay for themselves in about 15yrs (rather than the 25 Darrel is expecting). So we'd never even break even on them.
3) as I understand it, the production of the raw materials for PV cells, and possibly the actual manufacturing process itself, are really un-environmentally friendly. So whilst we would have been reducing the amount of fossil fuels burnt on our behalf, we would have been "damaging the planet" in other ways. (Andyh, please feel free to correct me on this.)
We also looked at water heating panels, and again the cost of installation out weighed the benefits for our utility bills.
Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have solar energy. I love the idea of micro-generation, and low environmental impact. But from what I've seen, with the technology and costs as they are at the moment, it just doesn't work for us
Has anyone had these fitted? What's the downside?
Dave Spencer said:Has anyone had these fitted? What's the downside?
George, the downside for me is the FIT. This is a cost that is passed on to consumers that can`t afford solar PV, thus plunging ever more hard pressed people in to fuel poverty.
Brenmuk said:You can actually get free solar panels.
Energy costs are due to carry on their meteoric rise, so now is the time for those considering solar PV.
Probably the first stop is to insulate their house properly, turn things off and change halogen and filament bulbs for LED's or CFL's etc.And/or reducing your usage.