Small scale wind power

Sounds like a great idea

Someone in the village powers his fish pond pump and fountain with some mini solar panels.

I'm about to have some solar panels fitted to the roof. I'll keep a record of costings - power output, feed in tarrif (what I get paid for producing the electricity), how much of the power produced I actually use (therefore saving money on my bill) and how much I get paid for feeding the rest back into the national grid.

All new builds should be forced to install panels (similar to the way they have to make it insulation efficient) and it will reduce the load on the grid and, possibly, stave off the impending crisis. The cost of doing it on new builds would be a tiny part of the sale price (I was talking to a large builder and he said that, in bulk, he could easily install a full standard system, 4Kwh, at £2,000 per house).

 

I've done quite a bit of research and spoken to a lot of people that have them installed. The older panels have been reasonably stable and a lot have had no problems at all, and the more modern ones have had virtually no trouble. The current standard guarantees are 10 years which, actuarially, means that they should last quite a bit longer than that. The inverters tend to only have five year warranties (so should last a good 7-10 years) and are very easy to replace.

 

There's no doubt that it would make life a lot more difficult if your roof needed repair but that's an unlikely proposition. If you use an MCS (Microgeneration Certification Scheme) registered person/business (can't get the Feed In Tariff without it) they have to do a roof survey first. That should find any potential trouble. Once the panels are in situ there is even less likelyhood of a roofing problem because the panels are now protecting your roof.

As Dave says, the technology has improved considerably - the reason I have waited until now.

There are a number of factors that affect the calculations of the return on capital.

In my opinion, you should not install them if you need to borrow the money for it. The cost of borrowing negates most of the benefits.

If you have the savings available then it's a different matter. Currently, and for the forseeable future, you're lucky if you're getting 2% return on savings. So the calculations stack up quite well.

You also need an EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) before you can get the FIT. The solar panel company gets an EPC surveyor to check your house.

The generating capacity that a normal domestic property can handle is 4kWh. This is because it requires 16 panels to generate close to this amount and that is likely to be the amount you can fit on your roof. The rate of Feed In Tariff (FIT) is calculated on this generation.
The efficiency of the panels depends on which direction your roof faces, the angle of the roof and whether there is any shade that falls on your roof (e.g. big trees nearby, other buildings etc). This is all worked out for you by the prospective installer. Actually, nowadays, the installer doesn't do any calculations but has a computer that does it all for you. Some even have hand held light meters with the software in them.

Installing 16 panels, and the accompanying equipment should cost around £6,000 (the quotes I received were between £5,700 and £6,700).

The equipment is fitted with a meter that measures the amount of electricity you generate and pays you 14.9p per kWh.
You also get paid 4.64p per kWh for any electricity you export to the national grid. The peculiar thing with this is that they don't have a meter to measure what you export! So they assume you will export 50% of what you produce and pay you, automatically, on that amount .
So, if you use all the electricity you produce they still pay you for half of it although they don't get it!

You are, of course, saving the usual cost on all the electricity that you're producing and using.

So, you need to make yourself more efficient. As the system doesn't generate anything at might you want to make sure that you use your washing machine, tumble dryer, dishwasher etc during the middle of the day when the panels are at optimum.

If you don't use much electricity then you won't be saving much on your normal costs but you will still get paid for what you produce and feed back into the grid.

I have calculated that I will get back/save between £900 and £1,100 per year (the installers also have a piece of software that does the calculations for you but I did my own). The FIT is guaranteed for 20 years and guaranteed to rise with inflation. You will also be saving more money on what power you use from the panels because the power companies will be putting up their rates each year.

You can protect yourself a bit from having a cowboy installer by doing some checks first. Check that they re registered with MCS, check with Trading Standards whether there have been any complaints against them, check through 'Which? Local' for recommended businesses and do a Google on them.
Then get at least six people to come in and quote. You should be able to get a feel for whather they are going to be OK or not. Remember, even if you don't feel confident in assessing them, you will be able to compare how they stack up against each other. Before you sign a contract make sure you see a copy of their Public Liability Insurance and get a warranty (insurance) certificate that protects you against them going bust. All of them should have this.

There are also a few other minor plus factors.

 

Tell us more @intel , like how much electric they have produced and are they making you money?

 

John, the scheme that intel has used is the practical way of doing it if you don't have the capital to pay for it yourself.

What happens is that the installation is done by the power company/finance company and they get the Feed in Tariff (14.9p per kWh on all power generated) and the Export Tariff (4.64p per kWh on 50% of the power generated). The householders can use as much of the power generated as they like - but they have the contract/licence to use your roof for the 25 year period. It's usually binding on the new owners of you sell your house.

They won't fit it if your EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) is lower than a D rating as the FIT drops (can be quite a large drop).

I don't know what the FIT will be from Jan 1st but it is said to be lower - but if you start before that date you continue to get the rate you started with (plus the RPI indexing).

The energy companies/finance companies running this scheme is another piece of evidence that the Feed in Tariff (FIT) scheme pays for itself - but it's not a short term return. Given optimum conditions (south facing roof that receives no shade from obstructions and approx 30 degree pitch on roof) you should get your capital back in about six years. After that it's clear profit. The efficiency of the panels is caclculated to drop by 1% per year.

Some info:-
http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/Generating-energy/Getting-money-back/Feed-In-Tariffs-scheme-FITs

http://www.fitariffs.co.uk/