Battery Vehicle Society

Well having a good look around now at this 41p feed in tarrif thing.

OMG its a nightmere, who on earth do you believe, who do you get to do the install

I've looked a several companies now and none of them give me confidence to actually give them a pile of cash or even call them.....they all seem to be claiming loads of tosh and conflicting info
Either that or they dont say anything and want you to call them so they can "send a salesman round"

Any clues ??

ChrisB

Yup - its a minefield alright.

So what are the claims.

Claim 1) For every KwH of installed Solar PV you will get paid a "generation" payment of 41.3p for a guaranteed 25 year period if you install between now and April next year. After then it goes down to 36p for 24 yrs etc...

Claim 2) You do not have to use the power yourself, once it has been through the "Units Generated meter" you can use it or dump it into the ground (not my words but the salesrep)

Claim 3) If you do use the energy you are generating you will be saving the amount you would normally pay for those units supplied by your regular supplier.

Claim 4) For units that you dont use you will be paid around 3p per unit sent back into the grid. At the moment this is assumed to be 50% of what you generate, until you have an export meter fitted.

Claim 5) 11m2 of PV panels will produce 1200 KWh per year of useable power.

Claim 6) The cost per installed KwH is about £5k


So I guess the questions are:-

a. Where is the official Guvmint paperwork that says you will get 41.3p for 25 yrs

b. Where are the stats for the amount of useable pv power than can be generated on a sth facing roof at 51 degrees latitude per annum.

c. Will 11m2 produce the claimed power.


If you accept all the claims, it looks like that for an investment of £10k you will be earning/saving about £900 P.A. Now that is better than an ISA (at the moment) if you have £10k sitting in a bank.

Apparently you have to have a certified installer do the work, so no DY installs.

Looks open to abuse.

Whats to stop you floodlighting the panels at night with 4p a unit electricity and getting 41.3p per unit back !.
All these unanswered questions.....

Yep thats pretty much what I found.

Welcome to the world of the PV eh

So do we have any idea where we start so we dont get ripped off

ChrisB

I guess its about doing the homework and checking with official sources that the FIT is as the salesman says. Then buy from large reputable company.

What price have you seen per installed Kwp. Seems its about £5000 !.

Another question is the "ugliness" of the panels. Even if the Finaces and the greeness stacks up, they do look a bit of an eye sore.


John

Not too worried about the "ugly" factor if I'm making/saving a decent amount of money

Yep similar sorts of prices I'm getting here, I'd love to go for a good 3kw system as I could charge the blingo off it and they would pay me to do it

Well it looks like this is a start for a certified installer I suppose
http://www.microgenerationcertification ... Installers

But how the heck do you choose a good one ???

ChrisB

Chris, when combined with the PAYS scheme http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/Home-improvements-and-products/Pay-As-You-Save-Pilots/British-Gas-Pay-As-You-Save-Pilot PV starts to look really attractive. There are pilots for the PAYs being run around the country and British Gas are running the pilot for West Sussex, I have made inquiries and a consultant from BG is coming round next week.
The gist of the scheme is that you get to borrow the money to pay for the PV installation at 0%, you then pay back the loan from your FITs cheques.
The major downside that I can see is that all the regulations (MCS etc.) are going to bump up the cost and when you factor in an outfit like BG it's going to cost a fortune. While it is attractive 0% is no reason to pay over the odds so I am skeptical but I will feed back after the guy has been.


MarkTime

...........and the fact non of these schemes appear to be in Hampshire, so no use for me, and are all pretty low numbers so I suspect it will be pretty hard if not impossible to get onto them

As with all these so called "certificated" installers they all seem to bang a good deal on the price over and above what I personally would classify as reasonable profit level.
It bugs me that you cant DIY and then have it inspected and certified for the feed in, then again I suspect the certifiers would charge a stupid amount and thus you'd lose on that front.

For now I'm going to start trawling through my local "certified" installers and see which one knows their stuff and arnt just jumping on the solar bandwagon

ChrisB

None here in North Kent either Chris.

Let me know if you find one that will do the inspection and the sealing of the meter for generated output.

Some Company called "Affordable Solar" made an appointment to see me last Fri at 3pm. They phoned to say could I make it 11AM, I said yes, they never turned up. Bloke phones yesterday and remade the appointment for 3pm today, guess what no-one came.

RUBBISH....

If there on this list http://www.microgenerationcertification ... Installers I would wind a complaint into the MGC as these are the companies that need to get binned, this sort of thing is what makes me wonder how you get on the "certified" list......is it just a case you pay these MGC folks some money and you become "certified" mmmmmmmmmmm

ChrisB

As I suspected British Gas use their position as sole player in the pilot to bump up the price.

£14K for 2.5Kw on an East / West split installation! I had £7 -£8K in mind for a good MCS certified job. It's hardly a 0% loan when you have to pay that far over the top.

The guy said that the pilot scheme was nearly full (may be a ploy to get sign up). Once the pilot is complete and assesed it should be opened up country wide and hopefully a choice of installers added.

MarkTime