Solar panel offer

Some one I know has been offered a solar panel deal

The information I have been given is that the panel installation would normally cost 10k

At that rate it would pay for itself in ten years due to a combination of electricity not paid for and inconme from the excess going into the grid they say

They are offering the panels for 250ukp and say that they make their money by taking the money from the excess going into the grid

My current electric bill is about 80ukp per month

How big would the panels need to be to generate in excess of this usage?

I cannot see how this could ever work so can some one please explain

Regards

Reply to
TMC
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It's been done to death on here in the past. To work out how much you could generate, assume an average output over a year of about 2 Watts per square metre of panel. Peak is higher, and comes in the Summer, when your energy use is at its lowest, but that's a reasonable average over

24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

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at a brochure which explains it, but the profitability comes from the enhanced rate they pay you for the power you feed into the grid.

Reply to
John Williamson

Its green witch magic.

Basically, it wont.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

That depends upon your viewpoint.

If you mean it won't work environmentally, you are probably right.

But if you mean it won't work financially based upon the bribe that the government are offering to domestic customers to have PVs installed, then you are wrong. Just closing your eyes and pretending that the bribe isn't there doesn't make it go away

tim

Reply to
tim....

The whole scheme is based on the government continuing to pay way over the odds to get people to install the panels on a promise that they will continue the scheme for 25 years

I think we are lucky if the govenment keeps a give away promise for 25 months

The maths suggest that if the scheme really takes off the government will pull the plug as they will not be able to afford it

Reply to
TMC

Are you sure about the 2W per square meter? That would generate about 17kWh over a year, just over £2' worth of electricity, hardly worth the trouble I would have thought. And if this includes low off-peak currents, how can those possibly augment a house's 240V supply, even combined over several panels?

Reply to
BartC

Is it the government paying or the electricity company?

Reply to
Clive George

I seem to have been reading old material, based on less efficient cells. half a KW hour per day per square metre on a sunny day is quoted now. It still doesn't make economic sense without the bribe, though. So, 10 square meters will produce about a fiver a day income at the published rates in the Summer.

Figures from the Centre for Alternative Technology PV roof panel display put the cost for PV from their installation at about £1/ KWh a while ago, though cheaper cells now available should have reduced this.

Reply to
John Williamson

Someone is confused.. there are companies that will install the panels free. they get FITs payment, you get the free electricity they are effectively renting the roof space.

After 25 years when the FITs stop the panels are yours.

Reply to
dennis

It is the electricity company, actually us because we are paying an increased price for our electricity so that the company can pay a totally uneconomic price for "green" electricity. The government have "Guaranteed" that the electricity companies will continue to pay this price, increasing by inflation (CPI I presume), for 25 years and we all know what weight to attach to that after Dave's "cast iron guarantee" on an EU referendum.

Reply to
Old Codger

The power companies via the levies the goverment force them to put onto our bills to pay for "green" ini-shi-tives.

It would be far better use of our money if they ensuring that all the UK housing stock had good to high levels of insulation. Not the easy and cheap things like throwing a few rolls of glass fibre into a loft or blowing fluff into a cavity.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

Don't solar panels generate DC?

How is this fed back into the N grid?

Dave

Reply to
Dave

Which electricity company is that? Is it those who actually generate the electricity or those to whom we pay our money to buy energy? :-)

Of course it _could_ be a gas company.

Do these PV panels actually supply AC (synchronised at 50 c/s) to the grid, or DC? Pardon my ignorance regarding this.

Reply to
Frank Erskine

I believe the installation includes an inverter fitted that does the conversion

Reply to
OG

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help

Reply to
Tony Bryer

Yes.

Using a grid tie inverter that converts DC->AC and synchronises the frequency and phase of the AC to the grid supply.

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Reply to
Steve Firth

Reply to
Frank Erskine

Cast iron that's the problem, it's brittle, very easy to break. A kevlar gurantee might be better, though with most governments I think even graphene would struggle. B-)

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

Doesn't this make it one of those "Solar Farms" that have specifically been sidelined by this year's budget? Only individuals are supposed to get the full FIT from now - yes?

Nick

Reply to
Nick Odell

They feed a ~£1k DC-AC converter that synchronises to the grid.

It also cuts the feed if there is a power cut, they don't want their works getting a shock if they are fixing cables and have turned the feed off, i.e. you can't use the panels to provide power in a power cut with the standard installation.

Reply to
dennis

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