[bucketman]

Morning
Got some guy coming round next Thur's 5th to do a survey to see if or roof is the right spec to put panels on. This is brought on because of the buy back scheme. Just wondering have any of the people on this site got them or know any thing about them. We will be buying these, its not a rent a roof thing. So the outlay is quite large 12 to 15k. The firm reckon I will get back about £100 a month, so it will take about 10 yrs to pay for themselves
rob

[bazzais]

Yes I have signed up for something similar am just waiting for permission from the parks to say I dont need permission, if you get what I mean - normally takes around six months they think.

My only concern is whether my roof will last as long as the panels

All in all it sounds like a great investment as long as the roof doesnt go wrong or the panels fail in any way.

The company I am using uses an insurance backed deposit scheme as they do want the money up front.

Ta

Barry

[ambriel]

Yeah, I'd like to put PV panels on the roof, too, but can't afford the outlay.

Our house runs east-west so one whole roof is south facing - ought to be ideal.

[Fleecewife]

We looked into the various options including wind turbine (they're popping up all over the place round here) but decided in the end that we won't live long enough to get back the outlay and that it will be cheaper and as effective to improve the insulation in our house.  We both hate double glazing but have decided to go for it on the north side of the house.  For a pv array we would have to get our lovely slate roof completely rebuilt before it could take the weight, and we wouln't be able to see it afterwards for the ugly big panels.

[doganjo]

I've had one quote, awaiting two more - £12K so far, but the firm I bought my log burner from want to get into this market so I have given them the quote so they can possibly come up with a better one.  They might well outlive me too, but £1000 income a year ain't bad, and the value of the house should improve.

[Rosemary]

We have a 4kW PV array on our barn. Got an interest free loan over 8 years to cover cost of installation plus income form every kW generated. Can recommend SolarTechnologies, Tom Morley, in Edinburgh. Sun keep shining 

[bucketman]

I know the out lay is big will either hit are rainy day fund or get a loan on the house (luckily no mortgage on house at the moment ) So it seems good plus its GREEN. So the plan get a mortgage over 10 years pay it of with money we would put aside to retire then for 15 more years after that get £100+ a month pension. If all that makes sense
rob

[bazzais]

I am not sure its 'green' if you look at how they are produced, from what and where - but it is an attractive investment with the subsidy if you have the initial money to outlay.

Ta

Baz

[goosepimple]

If you've got an old property they may open cans of worms of things wrong with your roof you didn't know about - lots of roofs are just not strong enough structurally to cope with the loading - but then they've probably been tested by snow this past couple of winters so I would imagine any signs of stress would show up now.  Make sure the survey is sound and not borderline.

[Anke]

Yes - but snow AND solar panels may just prove too much!

[bucketman]

The people i spoke to said "if the panels added more than 15% to the weight of the roof they would sell me them. The guy coming round will only do survey. Then pass info on to sales team and we will take it from there. Will ring them and ask if they think we will need planning. the bungalow we live doesn't have any shadows on the roof and was built in the 60s all the tiles look sound to me. So fingers crossed should be OK. the quote we got says it will cost about £14k and we should get back about £1400 per year
rob

[doganjo]

The people i spoke to said "if the panels added more than 15% to the weight of the roof they would sell me them. The guy coming round will only do survey. Then pass info on to sales team and we will take it from there. Will ring them and ask if they think we will need planning. the bungalow we live doesn't have any shadows on the roof and was built in the 60s all the tiles look sound to me. So fingers crossed should be OK. the quote we got says it will cost about £14k and we should get back about £1400 per year
rob

Don't just get one quote - there are loads of people doing these.  My quote(and only one so far as I'm waiting for the others to come) was £12k and £1k annual return, so they vary a great deal - mine is a fully south facing 4 bedroom bungalow.

[suziequeue]

We are rebuilding our house in order to make it more energy efficient (it would be impossible - based on it's current design and build - to make any effective changes to improve efficiency in the long term and the house is ugly and too small anyway!!).

We will have a ground source heat pump to supply underfloor heating, very efficient glazing and insulation, solar panels on the roof of the house and 8kW of PVs on the roof of the workshop.

We will NEVER get our money back but that's not why I'm doing it.

I want peace of mind with regard to energy and heating and I expect - when we come to sell our house in 20 - 30 years time (when we're too old and arthritic to run it to its full potential), properties that are self-sufficient in energy production may well fetch a premium.

However, just in case I am increasing my collection of cute little oil lamps 

[ambriel]

However, just in case I am increasing my collection of cute little oil lamps 

Glad it's not just me, then. Not oil lamps but other non-electric alternatives to what we use now, like hand-cranked mincers.

I was reading-up about PV panels recently and they do use some pretty exotic elements to make them work. Can't remember the specifics but I do recall the article said that if people went in to it in a large scale way then pretty soon the planet's reserves of some of these elements would be exhausted.

[shearling]

We have photvoltaic tiles on our roof. They are in a sheet but meld in extremely well with the slates. AS well as being attractively belended in they are also not as heavy as solas panels