solar panels and their direction

[kitchenman]

Hi, this is mainly for Rick, Solarman.
I keep getting calls from companies after my roof to install their solar panels which I quote 'will earn you money'
I say 'but my roof faces the wrong way' the standard reply is 'it does not matter new panels work the same does not matter which way they face'
I have seen some locally, in Prittlewell that face east, my roof faces east and west
What is your opinion on this folks

dave

[bobhope]

we had ours installed last aug 2012 by a company called a shade green , i was skeptical at first with all the marketing at the time but 12 months on and our electric bill has gone down by 35% over the year , they didn't cost us anything and they are maintained over the 20 year period not that anything goes wrong with them.

we had a survey before having them install and yes the roof has to south facing or very near to, also the pitch of the roof also a certain angle .

so far really please with the saving .

[makeitfit]

Well if you're buy9ing then defo south facing for optimum pay back time.
That said we did one for a friend of mine 2 years back on a north facing roof. Very low pitch, but it had to be done in time for the Nov FIT dead line. They'll be moved soon when the new roof is built . However it has returned almost 60% of an equivalent south facer we did
Did one last year on a flat roof and made alu frames for optimum angle and that looks like a 5 year pay back on last years FIT
If you have the space just stick 'em in the garden. You can even put a telescop tracking motor on the rack for ultimate sun following pay back goodness
But Rick's your man

[exosteve]

is there anything you don't make fit makitfit?

[makeitfit]

Originally Posted by exosteve

is there anything you don't make fit makitfit?

Yes , my bank account

[solarman216]

Originally Posted by kitchenman

Hi, this is mainly for Rick, Solarman.
I keep getting calls from companies after my roof to install their solar panels which I quote 'will earn you money'
I say 'but my roof faces the wrong way' the standard reply is 'it does not matter new panels work the same does not matter which way they face'
I have seen some locally, in Prittlewell that face east, my roof faces east and west
What is your opinion on this folks
dave

do not be confused,most people are, it is simply a question of fact, the question is are solar PV panels going to pay for them selves, the simple answer is without any kind of enhanced pay back grant from the government (you) then no they will not ever within there life time, there are circumstances that make them worth while, but if you are on grid and without the high fit that has long gone then total waste of space, Rick

[makeitfit]

Rick I disagree. There is still govt subsidie
Did one last summer it was a 3.6 kw job on a gentle pitched roof. I made up some alu frames to get better angle and also dead south.
Installation cost was just over £5k all in with MCS cert etc. To the client.
Client reported 660 quid last year and so far this year she's ahead.
Pay back time just over 7 years at the mo.
So she'll have another 14 years at least at say 650 a year. That's a very high return I think.
Although the FIT is down again, so is the hardware cost. I'll be doing mine next spring . Just about £2000 for 4.0kw in components. About 400 quid for MCS cert then FIT for me please

[Lazy-Ferret]

For those of us (me) that have no idea what FIT is?

Also, is this the panels that pre-heat the hot water, or electric ones?

[AD Ent]

FIT = feed in tariff

[makeitfit]

Originally Posted by Lazy-Ferret

For those of us (me) that have no idea what FIT is?

Also, is this the panels that pre-heat the hot water, or electric ones?

Feed In Tarriff = what you get paid for each unit produced.
In this case by photo voltaic panels or Solar PV
Until the end of Sept that's 15p a unit but will go down after that by a small amount. but it's index linked for 20 years

[solarman216]

What I meant to imply Pete, was that without the FIT they will not pay for themselves, although the panels are very reliable and long lasting the inverters are not, average that I can tell is around 4 to 5 years, so once you take into account maintenance, it does not look so good, Rick