Reply to: Solar panels

[pacharan]

Like up the road is married to one of these lefty hairy armpit types. Got a wind turbine a.d, get this, earth closet in the garden. She won't let anyone use the indoor big at all.

[MrRobin]

I think I am just confused with the naming conventions...

You are paid about 40p for every KWh that the solar cells generate. Doesn't matter if you use them or not!

[EternalOptimist]

but I would make about £900 a year from the feed in tarrif, from about a £15k outlay.

one of us is seriously misinformed

I have it as about £30 - 50 for the feed in tariff (what you sell to the grid)

and about £1500 generation tariff (subsidy dependant upon the size of the rig)


per year

[minestrone]

We have a large, unobstructed, south-facting roof so I looked into this and did considerable research on the topic about a year ago. We didn;t go ahead at the time as we used the capital for something else.

The feed in tarrif only applies to Photovoltaic cells installed since about 2008. There is no grant (at least not in England, don't know about you scots) as the feed in tarrif replaced this. The 15% efficiency is a combination of the solar radiation to electricity conversion, the non-perpendicular angle of incidence of the panel in relation to the sun's position. It is unlikely that this will get much higher in the near future, unless there is a major breakthrough in technology.

I calculated that I would save about £300 in bills (afterall, most elec is used at night when I'm at home and the sun is down) but I would make about £900 a year from the feed in tarrif, from about a £15k outlay. The feed in tarrif runs for 25 years. I worked that out to be an internal rate of return of 6.2%, or 7.8% if you assume elec prices will rise 5% a year. That's better than any savings account could give currently.

I don't know why it would make my house harder to sell and push the price down. I would expect the feed in tarrif would switch owners as part of the conveyancing process. I would expect the value of the house to increase marginally.

There is a small grant for a wind turbine (when I checked a few years ago) but the councils will not let you put one up in urban areas. A solar panel up here would be like trying to cook a steak with a hairdryer.

[MrRobin]

We have a large, unobstructed, south-facting roof so I looked into this and did considerable research on the topic about a year ago. We didn;t go ahead at the time as we used the capital for something else.

The feed in tarrif only applies to Photovoltaic cells installed since about 2008. There is no grant (at least not in England, don't know about you scots) as the feed in tarrif replaced this. The 15% efficiency is a combination of the solar radiation to electricity conversion, the non-perpendicular angle of incidence of the panel in relation to the sun's position. It is unlikely that this will get much higher in the near future, unless there is a major breakthrough in technology.

I calculated that I would save about £300 in bills (afterall, most elec is used at night when I'm at home and the sun is down) but I would make about £900 a year from the feed in tarrif, from about a £15k outlay. The feed in tarrif runs for 25 years. I worked that out to be an internal rate of return of 6.2%, or 7.8% if you assume elec prices will rise 5% a year. That's better than any savings account could give currently.

I don't know why it would make my house harder to sell and push the price down. I would expect the feed in tarrif would switch owners as part of the conveyancing process. I would expect the value of the house to increase marginally.

[Addanc]

I heard of someone who tried it before water privatisation and the water board wanted to charge them for using the water! That made it economically inviable.

They're not consuming water, they should have told the lazy parasitic bastards to feck-off.

[PAH]

I had hydro turbines fitted into my drainpipes.

I did have that on my list of 'free energy ideas' but figured as my place is not yet on a water meter it's easier and more profitable to just have the micro-hydro-tubine in the cold tap, which happens to be on 24/7.

Keeps the rats from climbing up my drainpipe too.

[Sysman]

We have a small stream at the bottom of our garden. Is there any subsidy for a small water turbine?

I heard of someone who tried it before water privatisation and the water board wanted to charge them for using the water! That made it economically inviable.

[EternalOptimist]

If the eleccy companies pay a flat rate for a micro generation feed in, couldn't you just get a hampster on a wheel and claim it?

to get the generation tarrif, plus the ffed-in tarrif, you have to register and get a certificate,

I hadnt considered the house resale aspect. So that means house values in the area are going down

so not only am I subsidising this madness, its putting the value of my house down as well ?

[shaunbhoy]

You'd love one of these, really, which bloke wouldn't?:

Garden Studios | Sustainable Buildings | Garden Rooms/Offices/Housing - Ecospace Studios

Another of your wifie's brainwaves I expect. Get you banished off out to your shed so that she, and the Polish beefcake gardener Janek, can play "Hide the Kielbasa" in peace whilst you potnoodle yourself to a frenzy in the toolshed/ecoshed.

[OwlHoot]

If the eleccy companies pay a flat rate for a micro generation feed in, couldn't you just get a hampster on a wheel and claim it?

[EternalOptimist]

I had hydro turbines fitted into my drainpipes. Its is the cleanest, most efficient and safest way to produce energy.
Every time it rains, my three drainpipes produce 450 gigawatts each, which I feed into the Chinese grid which saves them burning dirty coal. Models have proven that my single house alone has saved 5 polar bears and 150 frogs and tadpoles.
Unfortunately the sceptics, or should I say 'deniers' dont believe me and accuse me of having an agenda. When we have spread socialism across the globe, they will be first up against the wall I can tell you
-PJclarke

[Fred Bloggs]

We have a small stream at the bottom of our garden. Is there any subsidy for a small water turbine?

Can't answer your question but I am very envious, I'd love a micro hydro power generator in my garden. Best thing about micro hydro is it runs 24x7 too, unlike solar.

[xoggoth]

We have a small stream at the bottom of our garden. Is there any subsidy for a small water turbine?

[xoggoth]

Very suspicious in my view. Obviously nobody would buy these things if they made no commercial sense so what is the real motive? I note that they always point to the sky so they are probably signalling devices to faciiltate an alien invasion.