Took the plunge innit

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 01 Jun 2011, 11:59

Indeed. The price rises need to be much greater if we are to make a safe transition to a low carbon future, mitigating the effects of global warming as we descend the oil production curve.

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 15 Sep 2011, 08:08

On the 14th September 2010 I wrote:Da-daa...

So it's now celebrating its birthday. It has generated 3750kWhrs and returned over 11% on the investment.

Result!

hardworkinghippy · Post by **hardworkinghippy** » 15 Sep 2011, 09:33

Excellent !

Well done on taking the plunge Biff !

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 15 Sep 2011, 10:33

biffvernon wrote:
On the 14th September 2010 I wrote:Da-daa...

So it's now celebrating its birthday. It has generated 3750kWhrs and returned over 11% on the investment.

Result!

Shame to spoil the look of a beautiful old house like that. Oh for something more sympathetic! I suppose you could take them with you if you move but seriously, every appropriately-angled roof should have solar tiles that look the part. There needs to be some development in the aesthetics area.

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 15 Sep 2011, 11:31

emordnilap wrote:
Shame to spoil the look of a beautiful old house like that. Oh for something more sympathetic! I suppose you could take them with you if you move but seriously, every appropriately-angled roof should have solar tiles that look the part. There needs to be some development in the aesthetics area.

It's a good point and we did take it very seriously. Actually that roof has concrete tiles, c.1960, and is not a particularly well seen roof. We did have the option of putting the panels on our outbuildings but they have much prettier roofs of hand-made pan tiles and are very much in visible positions so we were keen to conserve them.

An Inspector Calls · Post by **An Inspector Calls** » 15 Sep 2011, 11:39

biffvernon wrote:
On the 14th September 2010 I wrote:So it's now celebrating its birthday. It has generated 3750kWhrs and returned over 11% on the investment.
Even better, it's 11 % return on capital you no longer have in the bank, so it's fabulous (as in 'things told in fables)!

Let me guess:
You calculate the income as £(3,750*.437) FITs plus £(3,750*.1) domestic consumption, which comes to ~£2,000 pa income.
And you divide that by the capital cost (which must be £18,000!) and you get a return of 11 %.

Or do you drop the domestic consumption bit and take it all as export (earning 3.1 p/kWh) for an annual income of £1,755, from a capital cost of £16,000.

I'd make both about 3.6 % return, provided the panels last for 25 years. And you'll actually start to make money (i.e. you'll have recovered your capital and lost interest) after about 12 years.

Enjoy!

I won't be putting an eyesore like that on my slate roof.

Post by **adam2** » 16 Sep 2011, 09:38

I dont consider PV modules to be an eyesore.
They are an increasing part of the landscape.
I have no doubt that slate roofs were considered an eyesore when they replaced thatch.
The cost of electricity is liable to increase substantialy in years to come, but a PV installation will produce electricity for decades to come at a substantialy fixed cost.
There is no reason to doubt that the modules will last at least 25 years.

In the event of TEOTWAKI then the PV modules could be very valuable for other purposes.

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 16 Sep 2011, 10:00

biffvernon wrote:
emordnilap wrote:
Shame to spoil the look of a beautiful old house like that. Oh for something more sympathetic! I suppose you could take them with you if you move but seriously, every appropriately-angled roof should have solar tiles that look the part. There needs to be some development in the aesthetics area.
It's a good point and we did take it very seriously. Actually that roof has concrete tiles, c.1960, and is not a particularly well seen roof. We did have the option of putting the panels on our outbuildings but they have much prettier roofs of hand-made pan tiles and are very much in visible positions so we were keen to conserve them.

I knew you'd have considered it.

We have crappy tiles on our roof - a dream is to replace the north side with reclaimed local slate and the south (unseen from the road) with solar pv tiles.

adam2 wrote:I dont consider PV modules to be an eyesore.

Fair enough, but there's a long way to go to get them to 'fit in' nicely and, who knows, better-looking solar pv tiles could bring a lot more people on board.