if your are between a rock and a hard place with energy bills rising and you thought that solar was the answer and you got quotes over more than £7,000 for a installation, then you may find the cost isn’t something that is going to work for you.
At RenewSolar we have not gone to town of frills and are slogan is “Make solar work for you” one of the first parts of making solar work for you is the ability to afford the stuff in the first place, not taking out loans and adding debt to your already growing costs. Solar should not be a burden and paying the way for others, is probably not your idea view of what is an essential service.
The solar porch is one of the ways that solar can be more affordable and we do like to promote DIY to the extent that if you can do it safely and legally, as one of the larger costs in solar is the solar installation. We do cheat a bit here in that we have a very reasonable day rate, but we cannot control the external costs which can often double the installation costs of solar.
The solar porch, isn’t the lowest price option for solar mainly due to the cost of the materials on top, solar panels are very low cost for what you get from them and they will pay themselves back in a few months. as you may understand this type of installation is a boost to other solar systems that may be installed, or it can be a small grid tied system.
The Solar pergola is fairly costly and actually would cost less than a roof installation and adds to the cover in the garden making a great garden space. Due to the larger size the power from the solar panels is going to meet a lot more of your total house needs as it is the same ( or can be) as a full roof installation of solar that your seeing. The issue here is that the array direction is usually flatter, and this means that winter performance will be less.
On the flip side, The Solar pergola makes sense to have a hybrid inverter with battery storage as it will charge a battery and run a house all at the same time. it does represent good value and of course the covered garden space, maybe seating or a pool, it will work for most people.
As you can see here, we have a Full solar kit for “£650” which is a smaller solar array, it would have the hardware needed to carry out the installation, As we do sell to trade, you have to keep in mind that this system is a grid tied solar installation that will reduce your bills and being 2kW would peak at a large dent in the cost of power; but not totally. Think of is as producing 1.6kw of power while you have a washing machine on drawing 2.2kw of power. The grid will make up the short fall, but the cost drops by more than 65%
The garage, this is a popular choice for the solar as the roof is much lower and accessible, its still dangerous if you fall off, but for the most part, its very much affordable, Here the cost of a tower makes this a lot more cost effective and more manageable. We have a lot of questions about fitting solar in garages and how and the electrical side of things.
Most homes have power to the garage, older homes may have something, but it is essential that the cable and connection can handle the loads. This can be a cost effective solution and this array I think was 1.3kw or there about, as you can see hey are large panels.
For the most part, small solar installations will be with something like this affordable Growatt inverter. it can be inside or outside and actually look smart. it is the better looking inverter on the market. The other choice is Micro inverters, they tend to be installed under the solar panels themselves, meaning that you just have a wire coming down – like an extension lead, or one pv cable in size, ( or a bit bigger as it may be SWA cable)
The cost between the two types of inverters are around the same, however there is a bit of a big difference.
Micro inverters have independent trackers for the solar power which is per panel, the String inverter is the all the panels at once. Therefore your array, roof and panel layout should play a part in the inverter you select.
For the most part your inverter will have a 10 year warranty so you should look maybe at its value over a 10 year period, lets say they are £270, then that’s £27.00 per year, They should last longer, and the solar panels are good for around 30 years, I will math this per kw, and they are around £120 per kw. so that’s £0.66 per year.
This is a bit of a estimated average, but for 1KW over 10 years will produce £2,323.20 of power at £0.264 kWh
You are likely to have twice as much solar (4 panels) so we can double this money and that’s £37.71 per month you will save. ( keep reading it does get better)
How long would the £650 solar kit cost to pay back? 17 months and one week. If you have a bill based on monthly costs of power then it is a good idea to work out how much of a dent £37.71 per month will make on your bill.
If your monthly bill is £175, then this would represent 18.12% off your bill monthly*.
Another important consideration ( corrections)
The figure is averaged, which is not a good way to work out what you could save over the year, and thats a pro and a con. Solar power that is grid tied, is only ” a saving for what you use”. if your not using the power then your not saving. However if you are then that may require planning and learning how to use timers or have a home automation system to do the work for you.
The other point is that I have average. The actual savings can be doubled fairly easily.
*What I have done is carried out the math based on 4 sun hours which is a good average over the year, however in winter we have 2 sun hours and in summer 8 sun hours. I have reduced the power and reduced the days of the year. So the figure is more than adjusted.
Real world I save around £87.71 per month for 8 months of the year. I save around £20 for 2 months and pennies the rest of the time. i also have a smaller system and I have more evening shading.
Upgrade path….
Upgrading will depend on what your limits may be. you could add a battery which takes all that lost power and keeps it for you – A good idea.
You can add more micro inverters, but due to the cost, they can be more than a hybrid fairly quickly, our Hybrid inverters allow you to plug in micro inverters (some anyway).
If you buy a string inverter, they often have to be replaced with a “larger inverter”. some inverters require a minimum voltage, therefore you to consider adding more panels ( they will start with our 2kw arrays or two array stacks (3kw)
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