[Technology] Solar Together Sussex

Daddies_Sauce · Sep 22, 2021

Following on from the https://www.northstandchat.com/showthread.php?390300-The-Energy-crisis thread, I've been looking into solar panels and battery storage etc. for some time, but been hesitant to do anything more than "looking into" due to the years it will take to recoup the investment (and not knowing how many years I might have left). With fuel prices only likely to go one way maybe its time to reconsider.

I noted Councils have again joined together and are offering a second round of "Solar Together Sussex", a group buying scheme https://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/news/2021/second-opportunity-get-savings-solar-panels

I've been trying to find some numbers in terms of numbers of households who signed up the scheme, the average size of an installation and the average installation costs. Did anybody here take advantage of this scheme first time around, if so would you be willing to give an indication of the size of system that you had installed and did you go for battery storage? I've assumed that you would have researched the costs offered, if so was there much of a saving going for this scheme against a market install cost?

With the climate agenda getting more focus, and fuel costs spiralling, I just wonder if Chancellor Sunak, might try to reincarnate one of the scrapped green schemes to offer some form of grant towards installation costs, thoughts?

Nobby Cybergoat · Sep 22, 2021

Daddies_Sauce said:
Following on from the https://www.northstandchat.com/showthread.php?390300-The-Energy-crisis thread, I've been looking into solar panels and battery storage etc. for some time, but been hesitant to do anything more than "looking into" due to the years it will take to recoup the investment (and not knowing how many years I might have left). With fuel prices only likely to go one way maybe its time to reconsider.

I noted Councils have again joined together and are offering a second round of "Solar Together Sussex", a group buying scheme https://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/news/2021/second-opportunity-get-savings-solar-panels

I've been trying to find some numbers in terms of numbers of households who signed up the scheme, the average size of an installation and the average installation costs. Did anybody here take advantage of this scheme first time around, if so would you be willing to give an indication of the size of system that you had installed and did you go for battery storage? I've assumed that you would have researched the costs offered, if so was there much of a saving going for this scheme against a market install cost?

With the climate agenda getting more focus, and fuel costs spiralling, I just wonder if Chancellor Sunak, might try to reincarnate one of the scrapped green schemes to offer some form of grant towards installation costs, thoughts?

The previous one shouldn't have been scrapped. With post covid pressures on finance i'd be surprised, but happily surprised to see it reinstated.

Just as important is to look at getting some money payable on the feed in tariffs, which is a key part of making the scheme viable for households

I looked into it the other day and money saving expert were saying about a 15 to 25 year payback time on getting these panels fitted. Too long for most i'd suggest

portslade seagull · Sep 22, 2021

I looked at the council assisted ones and for the price and savings I would make it wasn't worth it. It was 25yrs just to get even

Psychobilly freakout · Sep 22, 2021

portslade seagull said:
I looked at the council assisted ones and for the price and savings I would make it wasn't worth it. It was 25yrs just to get even

Did you take into account global warming, it could half that...

CheeseRolls · Sep 22, 2021

I am not convinced this is the way to go.

Currently we are on a green tariff for electricity and gas, with the offset being something of a compromise. When it is time, I will look to replace both my car with an electric vehicle and my gas boiler with an air source pump. There will almost certainly be a extreme weather gap here and I expect I will have to look very carefully at how I fill this nearer the time.

Machiavelli · Sep 22, 2021

Daddies_Sauce said:
Following on from the https://www.northstandchat.com/showthread.php?390300-The-Energy-crisis thread, I've been looking into solar panels and battery storage etc. for some time, but been hesitant to do anything more than "looking into" due to the years it will take to recoup the investment (and not knowing how many years I might have left). With fuel prices only likely to go one way maybe its time to reconsider.

I noted Councils have again joined together and are offering a second round of "Solar Together Sussex", a group buying scheme https://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/news/2021/second-opportunity-get-savings-solar-panels

I've been trying to find some numbers in terms of numbers of households who signed up the scheme, the average size of an installation and the average installation costs. Did anybody here take advantage of this scheme first time around, if so would you be willing to give an indication of the size of system that you had installed and did you go for battery storage? I've assumed that you would have researched the costs offered, if so was there much of a saving going for this scheme against a market install cost?

With the climate agenda getting more focus, and fuel costs spiralling, I just wonder if Chancellor Sunak, might try to reincarnate one of the scrapped green schemes to offer some form of grant towards installation costs, thoughts?

We looked into it, but it was for a limited time period, during which we've moved home.
We are soon to receive the planning decision on an extension to our kitchen, and one option is to go with a heat pump. We're also looking at installing solar panels.
The COP conference is in November. The government will have to get off the fence and decide whether they have a green strategy, or not. It's likely to disappoint, but we'll have to wait and see.
You can PM if you want to share experiences, knowledge, process, etc on this.

McTavish · Sep 22, 2021

I have just signed up to the current scheme - will be interested to see what happens now.

vegster · Sep 22, 2021

Nobby Cybergoat said:
The previous one shouldn't have been scrapped. With post covid pressures on finance i'd be surprised, but happily surprised to see it reinstated.

Just as important is to look at getting some money payable on the feed in tariffs, which is a key part of making the scheme viable for households

I looked into it the other day and money saving expert were saying about a 15 to 25 year payback time on getting these panels fitted. Too long for most i'd suggest

Just goes to show why the planet is in such a mess if it takes that long to pay off fitting solar panels.

beorhthelm · Sep 22, 2021

vegster said:
Just goes to show why the planet is in such a mess if it takes that long to pay off fitting solar panels.

and thats subsidised.

Grizz · Sep 22, 2021

We signed up to the one in London earlier in the year and tbh I don't think it matters how many sign up to it, you'll get a bog standard third off from whichever company wins the contract. They give you a rough estimate of what a couple of systems will cost you and then you have to pay £100 deposit before they'll come and do a survey to give you a final report on how many panels you can have. I did a bit of research and comparison with a few other independent installers and the panels the ST scheme were offering were a fair bit less powerful than the latest ones out there, as if they'd got a load of old panels they were trying to get rid of. So in the end went with an independent. Cost maybe £500 more, but got the latest tech and panels available on the market.

I ended up with a 10 panels system (6 South facing, 4 west facing), inverter, installation including scaffolding for about £4500. I decided against a battery, as wanted to see how much our system would benefit from it, so running the system for a year to see what happens/savings we make. Battery prices are coming down all the time and tech is improving them, so no harm in waiting, most are pretty much plug and play these days. So far since June we've cut our electric bill in half at least, by two thirds in June and July. Exporting we've got back about £60 in 3 months so far. I'm happy I have to say, feels good not being beholden to the Grid so much, just need a slight change in mindset to set things like the dishwasher and washing machine away during the day, rather than over night.

Daddies_Sauce · Sep 22, 2021

Thanks for the replies (especially [MENTION=85]Grizz[/MENTION] - I've noted the comment on 'old-stock'). I have an idea of the type of system and controllers that I think I'd like and a rough idea of the cost that I'm willing to pay. I'll register our interest.

Tim Over Whelmed · Sep 23, 2021

Grizz said:
We signed up to the one in London earlier in the year and tbh I don't think it matters how many sign up to it, you'll get a bog standard third off from whichever company wins the contract. They give you a rough estimate of what a couple of systems will cost you and then you have to pay £100 deposit before they'll come and do a survey to give you a final report on how many panels you can have. I did a bit of research and comparison with a few other independent installers and the panels the ST scheme were offering were a fair bit less powerful than the latest ones out there, as if they'd got a load of old panels they were trying to get rid of. So in the end went with an independent. Cost maybe £500 more, but got the latest tech and panels available on the market.

I ended up with a 10 panels system (6 South facing, 4 west facing), inverter, installation including scaffolding for about £4500. I decided against a battery, as wanted to see how much our system would benefit from it, so running the system for a year to see what happens/savings we make. Battery prices are coming down all the time and tech is improving them, so no harm in waiting, most are pretty much plug and play these days. So far since June we've cut our electric bill in half at least, by two thirds in June and July. Exporting we've got back about £60 in 3 months so far. I'm happy I have to say, feels good not being beholden to the Grid so much, just need a slight change in mindset to set things like the dishwasher and washing machine away during the day, rather than over night.

That's odd, when I looked at this we went with a very reputable business and they advised us against panels due to the position of our roof, and one of their concerns was West Facing?

Grizz · Sep 23, 2021

Tim Over Whelmed said:
That's odd, when I looked at this we went with a very reputable business and they advised us against panels due to the position of our roof, and one of their concerns was West Facing?

Our main roof faces slightly South South West and has a velux window in it, so they could fit 6 panels on there, but as the installer said, the panels are cheap (roughly £150 each), it's just installation and the inverter that cost the money. He said get as much as you can on the rooves, so having 4 panels facing west on our kitchen side return still made sense. They'd be generating power for about 7 hours a days and that's all money in the bank. It's working well, on a bright June day we're producing significant solar energy from about 6am til about 7pm.

carlzeiss · Sep 23, 2021

Thanks to [MENTION=12086]Daddies_Sauce[/MENTION] have now registered with the scheme and will wait to see the response from the council designated installer .

The max we can get on our roof is 8 panels but we do face south , located on the coast with no properties obstructing the sun .

We did have a quotation about 10 years ago for approx £11000 but decided not to go ahead . Since then though the price of electricity has doubled and although the feed in rate is now negligible , installation cost should have at least halved .

Audax · Sep 23, 2021

I signed up to the scheme last year, out of interest to see what adding a battery to our existing solar set up might cost. At the time, it looked like it wasn't going to break even quickly enough so we didn't take up the offer. As others have mentioned, however, the batteries are a) improving, and b) coming down in cost with every year that goes by. There will definitely come a time when we add a battery, especially as our solar system was installed under the old FIT scheme, and we're locked into that contractually for a while to come now. Under that scheme we get paid a nominal amount for every kW we generate, and then a larger amount on 50% of what we generate ... under the assumption (by the government) that we send 50% of what we generate to the grid. Our return to the grid is actually unmetered, however, so any power we can keep on-site to reduce our import when the panels aren't generating is a bonus - we still get paid for it regardless.

For those of you installing now, that scheme is well and truly defunct and I gather that the new scheme takes a lot longer to break even, despite the advances in the tech and associated reduction in costs of the panels. Obviously that may change with the current hike in gas prices, as I believe that plays into what you might get for your solar power when exported to the grid.

Nobby Cybergoat · Sep 23, 2021

At the moment, i'm looking into solar and i'm looking into heat pumps. But the astronomical up front costs, together with no ability to sell my excess back means that i'd be doing it purely to decarbonise. I won't get near breaking even for a long time.

With Cop 26 coming up and the energy crisis hitting hard, i'm hopeful that the government will be put under enough pressure to re-introduce decent incentives.

Tim Over Whelmed · Sep 23, 2021

Grizz said:
Our main roof faces slightly South South West and has a velux window in it, so they could fit 6 panels on there, but as the installer said, the panels are cheap (roughly £150 each), it's just installation and the inverter that cost the money. He said get as much as you can on the rooves, so having 4 panels facing west on our kitchen side return still made sense. They'd be generating power for about 7 hours a days and that's all money in the bank. It's working well, on a bright June day we're producing significant solar energy from about 6am til about 7pm.

In that case I may get a second opinion! Who did you use?

Grizz · Sep 23, 2021

Tim Over Whelmed said:
In that case I may get a second opinion! Who did you use?

A company called Skylar, based in Essex, but they install all over, they've done 3 houses in my street in W.London. Sure you could find a local independent as well though.

Daddies_Sauce · Sep 23, 2021

Nobby Cybergoat said:
At the moment, i'm looking into solar and i'm looking into heat pumps. But the astronomical up front costs, together with no ability to sell my excess back means that i'd be doing it purely to decarbonise. I won't get near breaking even for a long time.

With Cop 26 coming up and the energy crisis hitting hard, i'm hopeful that the government will be put under enough pressure to re-introduce decent incentives.

Its true the FIT payments ended, but there is SEG, not as generous but still a little back if you are generating excess, I'd like to think that with the pressure being applied, target's to be meet etc. then incentives may be provided, but I do not hold out much hope, with this lying 2-faced toe-rag in power.

Having researched on-line and found the cost for a 4 kW Solar PV System With Battery Package installed, I have an idea of what sort of costs to expect (though no 2 systems will be the same)

Brighton Rocker · Sep 23, 2021

Tim Over Whelmed said:
In that case I may get a second opinion! Who did you use?

I can recommend Ecohisolar who are based in Hove.
Installed our solar PV and solar thermal systems 10 years ago.
Very knowledgeable and great service.

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[Technology] Solar Together Sussex

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