Hard times

[Loops]

[quote author=lunalupi link=1311872932/4#4 date=1311884239]My mum is having solar electricity panels put onto her house - costs a fair whack! But you do avoid being hit so badly by price hikes

We looked at it for mine but I'd need to settle and be here for a good few years to get the full benefit

It doesn't have to cost anything thanks to new government [s]ass kissing[/s] initiatives to reduce carbon footprints http://www.ecovisionenergy.com/?gcli...FYpA4QodvUffVg
[/quote]

Right we've looked into this, so for anyone else thinking about it:

• You have to effectively rent your roof to the solar company for 25 years - so if you have a mortgage your bank has to agree to it, and for all future mortgages.
• As WB has said, you have to be able to fit enough panels to your roof, and it has to face in certain directions.
• The solar company gets all the money made from selling the excess power generated (the feed-in tariff). This is what makes the profits if you fit it yourself.
• While you get to use as much free electricity as you make, be aware this will not happen at night - so you have to buy electricity in when not generating. So it doesn't work very well if you are out all day and use most of your power after dark (like most people who are out at work!). If you got the feed-in tariff you could offset some of the cost of buying in by using your profits from selling during the day, but you don't get that if you go for the free panels.
• However if you use lots of daytime electricity (maybe you work from home) then it's more useful as you get lots of free electricity to use all day long

[redken1]

There are clauses. My parents didn't qualify because their roof was too small. They live in a 4 bed detached house. There are lots of companies doing it as it's big money.

Big money (tax payers dosh) – solar panels – a win win for the environment and all concerned on the face of it. Take the rose tinted glasses off when the sun goes down and things look very different. What a floral tribute to modern England – Scrap the heating allowance for the poor pensioners and watch them die in their thousands. That’s a separate issue; say the utility roof solar clad pensioners and EDF EON, NPower etc.

I’m on to your scam and along with high-viz vests, you can stick your solar panels where the sun doesn’t shine.

[wiggy]

[quote author=dan_geoghegan link=1311872932/9#9 date=1311957464]There are clauses. My parents didn't qualify because their roof was too small. They live in a 4 bed detached house. There are lots of companies doing it as it's big money.

Big money (tax payers dosh) – solar panels – a win win for the environment and all concerned on the face of it. Take the rose tinted glasses off when the sun goes down and things look very different. What a floral tribute to modern England – Scrap the heating allowance for the poor pensioners and watch them die in their thousands. That’s a separate issue; say the utility roof solar clad pensioners and EDF EON, NPower etc.

I’m on to your scam and along with high-viz vests, you can stick your solar panels where the sun doesn’t shine.
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ITHink your onto something there Ken , but i want solar ,just to make it affordable ,or ill be back to heating 1 room and haveing naff all on that uses electricity again.

[jj]

if u cant afford to buy it dont have it , when these companies fit it for free the difference to your bill will be very small as they use the feeding tariff of approx 43p per kw produced by the panels and any rhi grant as proffit.all the householder will sava is approx 12p per kw provided they use it when it is produced.there are other problems in these contracts, if u would like more info pm me a number before u go ahead ?

[wiltshire builders]

Back to good old Nuclear for me.

[Nooj]

Hopefully our wood burner will start paying for itself this winter. We still have to buy £190 worth or wood each year, but it's cheaper than heating our draughty dump with gas and electric.

We really want to go solar and have had a quote done, but there's no way we can afford it. Even with a loan it'd take us 20 years to pay it off using the feed-in tariff to cover it.

Once again these savings are only available to people that can already afford to buy into the schemes, the people who would really benefit from cheaper power can't find the initial fee and so remain poor. >