Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Solar Panel installation
We are looking to do the solar panel thing before the government pulls the scheme, as I've heard it's doing imminently.
Who here has installed panels on the roof and did you find any good local firms to help with any aspect of the installation?
Anything you'd have done differently?
Any other things we should consider before we jump in?
Many thanks
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by michaelw on
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We got ours done in July by JoJu solar, who were very good & are a local firm (if you connect with me then we can message for more detail).
Key points:
- Cheaper installations have one inverter for all the panels, but this means that if one panel is shaded (which is often going to happen), then all the others will generate less too. If you have an inverter for every panel (or a Solaredge system, which is what we have), then each panel will generate as much as possible.
- We went for the most efficient panels (22% rather than the normal 18% or so) - on a small roof you may as well try to get as much out as possible.
- We were able to fit 5 panels on the front section of the roof (south facing) & 5 mounted on the flat roof of our loft conversion - the whole system is rated as 3.6 kWp. More panels means more power & means all the fixed costs of the system are better covered by the earnings.
The Solaredge system gives us on-line information about generation (down to how much each panel is producing), so I can tell you the system generated 12.09 kWh today (Saturday 20th October). The maximum it managed in July was 23.5 kWh, though I suspect it will manage a little more next June.
Note that we also had a quote from a national supplier who tried to sell us a much inferior system (with only one inverter), and also tried to push a voltage reducer, a rather controversial piece of equipment which claims to reduce your energy consumption & was used to improve the economics of their system. They also tried to sell us finance, which was another attempt to build their margins I suspect.
NB one problem now will probably be a rush on all suppliers, as from April 2019 the government is really trying to kill the sector off, as for new installations the Government is proposing that there will be no payment for power generated at all (i.e. power will be supplied to the grid for free!). I'd advise you to move fast to get a fitting booked in, as it will need to be complete and in-service before the end of March.
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Permalink Reply by Abi on
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Many thanks for this - the reason we wanted to do something about this now was we had heard that some of the subsidies were being removed (that's the 'export tariff' right?) and wanted to get in while we still had a chance of benefiting from it.
My main other concern is selling - there seems to be no real consensus on whether panels are considered an asset or a liability at sale, and we share our freehold so would need the other party to agree. So I'm trying to do as much research as possible. What were your thoughts on this? We are looking to potential buy and not lease panels, which I think makes this less of an issue but not sure.
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I would be suspicious of leasing approaches & I would suspect they would add complexity to any sale.
An installation should have good guarantees & you could check if they will be transferable to future purchasers of the property?
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