I'm due to have a new roof in the next month or so, and the roofer has told me he can install some solar panels 'while he's up there'. I'd imagine there'd be an installation cost, but it'd likely be considerably less than a heat pump installer has quoted (about £14,000 including a 6kW battery).
My question is - would it be worth me buying the 8 panels (about £1000
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and getting the connection sorted out later?
Part of my reason for asking is I'd much prefer a roofer installing the panels than one of these heat pump companies - having witnessed the partial destruction of a friend's roof.
Well, it might be reasonably cheap - I'm thinking <£5000 for 8 reasonably located panels and storage. Based very loosely on
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- but unless it's not obvious, I'm fairly clueless about the whole thing.
The financial return isn't a huge consideration if I can get it installed for that sort of figure.
I could certainly use the power (when less is available, of course) in the winter. But not so much in the summer. So I'd need to look into a FiT for a decent financial return. An electric car is on my horizon, but not for a while.
I suggest that it depends on the quality of the panels and the company doing the work. the company I used had good people working on the roof.
Also, if you had a complete installation done you wouldn't pay VAT, butif your roofing man just puts up panels then you could end up paying VAT on them. His price for panels seems quite cheap. I had a system installed 4 months ago, and 8 panels would have worked out at £6700. Mind you that price probably includes installation and wiring.
Just looking at the spec for my panels, they are wired up from the back, so they'd need to be taken off to wire them up.
I would but have you an electrician to connect the lot up? The DNO must be notified prior to connection to the grid but they will require a qualified electrician (not necessarily MCS certified) and they are bound to allow you 3.68kW connected. More than that and you have to get agreement in advance of connection but it is worth having more than 4kW of panels if they can fit and faces anywhere from East to Wet facing.
Unless you use less than 3MWh of electricity a year that battery is probably too small. Last March we fitted 6kW PV, a 5kW inverter, a car charger and 10kWh of storage to my daughter's roof, she has not needed to buy electricity other than off peak at 11p/kWh since and then only November to now. Since then panel prices have dropped.
As scaffolding is a fair chunk of the installation cost it will probably be worth absorbing the VAT on the panels but your roofer could do this bit as a sub contract to the electrician then the electrician would not charge VAT on the whole installation.
If the DNO is happy with the installation then at least one energy company will pay you for the excess power you export, the rate is high currently (8-15p/kWh) but I don't think that will last as wholesale electricity prices fall over the coming months.
In theory, they are just mounted on brackets that go through to the main roof construction underneath. I'd have thought if they were that bad there would have been a lot of complaints by now. Brian
You need to decide on your end use for the power. If you want fits (equivalent), you'll need a whole approved system, which this won't fit. If you're heating hot water, 2 panels is enough for most folk. If you're charging a car, it might make sense if you're home most of the day & don't get storage & can use the power the panels produce. But the popularity of EVs is likely to evaporate due to people realising how problematic they are.
how? Low voltage heating? If so, what type of eating do you have now.
might be optimistic.
2 panels feeding a HW cylinder is an easy win if the price is right, 5k is way too much for that.
If being done as part of a new roof, consider in-roof panels where the panels are the roof, rather than mounting them on top of the roof. That will save buying the tiles to go under them, bird-proofing around them, cutting brackets through the tiles, etc.
It's not just economic return. It's also about reducing waste and consumption, and comfort. Personally, I wouldn't be relaxed using an oil burner at full tilt just to save a few quid.
At this stage, I'm thinking of insulating as much as possible (my home is already pretty good for a 1920s semi), abandoning the ASHP and factoring in a new gas boiler in the next 5 years, and solar as a reasonable cost/return option while I'm having the roof done (and I can afford it).
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