solar panels?

[Gazwag]

What about the cost of insurance, surely it must put your building insurance up ?

People probably don't bother to tell their insurance company. Might get a surprise which their roof gets damaged in high winds and the insurance company says f.o.

I personally think they look awful and certainly wouldn't purchase a house with them on.

 

[drew]

People probably don't bother to tell their insurance company. Might get a surprise which their roof gets damaged in high winds and the insurance company says f.o.

I personally think they look awful and certainly wouldn't purchase a house with them on.

You don't need to tell your insurers other than the fact that you must ensure your sums insured are adequate.

 

[Falkor]

My Dad has them he says it will be paid of for in 6 years then they will start making a profit, seems like a good move to me

 

[Papak]

There's a green eyed yellow monster etc etc. Yes, I've got solar panels and would agree that it is a scam. Except of course it's a scam in my favour because the whole point of the scheme is to encourage renewable energy and that wouldn't work if there was no incentive. As for your absurd comment regarding efficiency, what energy efficient measures have you taken? I would also suggest that most people who have solar panels become more energy conscious and conserve because of that.

I live in a very large detached period property (therefore no jealousy I can assure you, the aesthetics of my property are paramount to me) so my expected consumption is probably greater than any quoted average. However in all aspects, gas (for DHW and cooking, not for CH), water, electricity etc. our household comsumption is below or significantly below stated averages.

I work in a technical role for a manufacturer of construction materials including roofing solutions so I am fairly knowledgeable about the pros and cons etc. as I expect are my colleagues. Only 1 of our employees has Solar / PV on their roof. I assume these products are available with the standard staff discounts.

Personally, I am fitting LED lighting solutions where it makes sense. I have the following thermostat:

Digital Thermostat with Night Set Back - 3 Amp

I have TRVs in all rooms.

I am installing a wood burning stove to further reduce my gas consumption by burning waste currently going to landfill.

Your last point is I believe also true, folks become energy conscious after the installation of these products and might well be above average consumers before.

There are further issues, particularly when the householder "sells" their roofspace to a 3rd party to install panels etc. I wonder what the saleability of these houses will be in years to come. I can see they might become a liability.

I would also be interested to know what %age of people borrow money to do this versus those who do it out of savings.

 

[Brixtaan]

There are a lot of unanswered questions out there. Would I be mistaken in guessing that most people are just keen to know whether the electricity they generate during the day will be enough to cover what they use at night. I know I am. Once I have the data then I'll go ahead and research which manufacturer has the best sunlight-electricity conversion.
Is electricity storage technology coming any time soon because that will remove the need for utility completely when the sun shines?

 

[beorhthelm]

Is electricity storage technology coming any time soon because that will remove the need for utility completely when the sun shines?

havent gone into it depth but reading a couple of articles/papers its apparent there is a large void of technological improvements in energy storage. Lead acid batteries remain about the only viable option for small home installations. commercially there are some others, one good one is using excess power to pump water for use in hydro plants when the sun isnt shining. hopefully one day there will be a break through techology that will revolutionise energy, making small scale distributed power generation and storage viable.

 

[drew]

I live in a very large detached period property (therefore no jealousy I can assure you, the aesthetics of my property are paramount to me) so my expected consumption is probably greater than any quoted average. However in all aspects, gas (for DHW and cooking, not for CH), water, electricity etc. our household comsumption is below or significantly below stated averages.

I work in a technical role for a manufacturer of construction materials including roofing solutions so I am fairly knowledgeable about the pros and cons etc. as I expect are my colleagues. Only 1 of our employees has Solar / PV on their roof. I assume these products are available with the standard staff discounts.

Personally, I am fitting LED lighting solutions where it makes sense. I have the following thermostat:

Digital Thermostat with Night Set Back - 3 Amp

I have TRVs in all rooms.

I am installing a wood burning stove to further reduce my gas consumption by burning waste currently going to landfill.

Your last point is I believe also true, folks become energy conscious after the installation of these products and might well be above average consumers before.

There are further issues, particularly when the householder "sells" their roofspace to a 3rd party to install panels etc. I wonder what the saleability of these houses will be in years to come. I can see they might become a liability.

I would also be interested to know what %age of people borrow money to do this versus those who do it out of savings.

Well humble pie being eaten with regard to your energy efficiency. It could be said that people become more energy efficient after installation but whose to know without the full statistics of their consumption pre and post installation. I know we were previously energy conscious, for example, overnight, the only t hings consuming electricitty were the timer for the boiler, two landline phone stands/chargers, fridge/freezer and the fish tank filter. Everything else was turned off at the mains. We have some LED lighting but most of the rest are low energy bulbs.

I agree with your comments regarding those that rent out their roof space and as for borrowing money, all those that I know that have gone through the purchase route have done so without loans.

 

[Nottseagull]

...but the key is feeding the batteries efficiently and then holding it.

Please don't even suggest that storing electricity in batteries is in any way efficient. The battery that costs less than the value of all the electricity it can store over its entire lifetime has yet to be invented,

 

[brunswick]

Please don't even suggest that storing electricity in batteries is in any way efficient. The battery that costs less than the value of all the electricity it can store over its entire lifetime has yet to be invented,

not suggesting that at all - batteries are a slow evolving tech. hence the key is feeding it efficiency like i said.