Mums and Dads Nans and gramps all know what its like to have children to look after for years and as the child becomes the adult, we have learnt a few things. Now its time to give back and secure your grandparents future.
The energy crisis and cost of living has grown to be fairly common words these days and the cost is only rising. For those of us who have lived a few decades, we know that while a crisis maybe short lived the price rises are always here to stay.
As children of parents it is time to add stability to your elders, a return for what they have done for you. Energy costs can be mostly made up of the standing charge, but as winter comes and heating needs to be on, or as summer comes and AC needs to be on. You can guard against the costs and here is how.
ENERGY SECURITY
As the cost of power drops in the summer it also rises in the winter, so we should all take some time to save money over the year when it comes to our electric bill. Saving £10 per month in summer (6 months) is £60 of power in winter. but when you save £60 per month then it adds up.
What about power outages if you have essential health systems at home, if the grid goes down are you prepared?
Some Math.
For many, we may see power use of around 7kWh of daily power use. Todays market value per kWh is £0.215 This is around £1.50 plus the £0.65 standing charge per day. This may rise to £3.31 per day over winter when the power use will also increase where we are lightly to see prices around £6.33 per day.
HOW COULD SOLAR HELP?
RenewSolar is a family business and has a lot of tied with what you would consider as family value, but in the legal and commercial world, this is because RenewSolar is not just a solar company.. Our aim is to help and we are also a charity.
This means that we are not here to profit, so your solar is not going to cost you a lot and we are also not locked or limited to what we provide.
Solar produces power from sun light, the inverter, converts DC solar power to AC mains power. There is a wide range of hardware that can be used from big systems to smaller ones and with or without batteries.
There is grid tied, these work with a grid connection, this also means when the grid down they also go off line. Then there are hybrid systems, off grid and combined.
Are slogan was “making solar work for you” and solar prices have dropped making it a little more cost effective, but there is no point in having solar that costs more than it returns, or take s a lifetime to pay off.
Solar does not have to cure all your power needs and often it will not, but once you get your head around how it works or helps then it starts to make a little more sense.
This is a micro inverter, a small cost effective inverter at around £140, you can buy a kit with two solar panels from the shop and for the purpose of this post I shall say it costs £350 as a kit. to covert this to power cost, that’s 1,666kWh cost or around 4.5kWh a day.
England’s weather is what it is and I need say nothing else, but you would make the daily power requirement for around 275 days of the year. this means that it would take just over a year to make the money back on this hardware.
Solar hardware should last around 10-15 years, while it could last longer (25 years) we tend to use 10 years as a good rule of thumb, well within risk margins, and it makes easy math…
Lets say this unit will save you around £267.66 per year (275 days) that means over the ten years you will save around £2,762.55. I wont mention the price of electricity rising and I used the rate of £0.22kWh. If I use the high rates we saw recently, then over the next ten years you could save £4,331.25
INSTALLATION
This can be a major cost for solar as the rates charged for installation, you are better off looking at local electrical installers or a DIY installation.
Putting the panels on the roof. not many people would want to do this, but you do not need to install them on a roof. its not too difficult with a bungalow, but you can use a garage or shed to install the panels.
installation of the electrical system can be achieved at a low price by having a new circuit installed to an isolator from the Henley box with a breaker. if you DIY you will need this signed off by building control and there is a charge for this ( about the same as some installers charge).
The cable would run to the inverter via an isolator (big switch) where the “bus” cable that feeds the inverter is attached. Its called a bus cable as it can have a number of inverters attached to it, this means you have a upgrade path should you wish to do so..
Micro inverters go on the back of the panel, or the rails used to fix the panels. but they can be mounted else where close to the solar panels. Mounting the solar panels varies, both in how and costs depending on where you are mounting them. Just ensure that you read our post about solar panel angles and tilts.
For example a shed roof could have panels mounted with Z brackets, you would need a set, which is around £15. some coach bolts and mount bolts as well as sealant. you could bolt the brackets to the panels, and put them on the roof, put sealant on the base plate and then bolt/screw this to the roof.
You may have a flat roof, in our shop you will find mounting system with rubber feet that are weighted. as well as rails and clamps, its more costs around the same as a hook mount which is used for tiled roofs.
You could make a ground mount or solar pergola.
if you are in doubt or want something more larger, then have a look at the various systems and posts we have made, we don’t list all the hardware as prices change too fast, we also offer installations Solar Installations and project management if you just want the job done.
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