It may seem a bit run of the mill for someone to say, get solar, when its a solar business saying so, but really you can save money. We are a family business and not for profit and you may buy else where so we are not trying to upsell.
Solar system come in a range of sizes and budgets and if your wanting to cut your bills its really simple. Solar can be used to off set and that is what will happen in winter for sure, but when it comes to saving money, its all about what you can or do put in. Our target Return is 1 year or 4 years. so that means unlike many other business flogging solar, you’re not stuck paying the system back for 10+ years, as it is NO value until its paid back.
An affordable solar kit
For less than £450 ( kind of) You can step into solar with a 2kw system, it wont blow the socks off your bills, but it would be the most easy option and it looks nice.
What’s with the kit?
DC Isolator,
DC cable.
2kw inverter (grid tied string)
2 500w solar panels.
You can add two more 500w solar panels, this brings the total to £605. We also didn’t include mounting things for the panels, so you may want to work out what or where you want to put those panels.
Just because the inverter is 2kw you do not need to power it with 2kw. And you may find it a bit of a waste of effort and here is why. Grid tied systems will export the power that they produce and you do not use, therefore you’re giving away power, just look at the meter current power use and see what you’re using.
The Catch.
Due to the law, which some may say is just another way to get money out of people. you cannot install your own circuit in your home. – AKA you cant wire it in. Well you can and get building control to come and inspect it for a fee. Or you have a registered electrician install the new circuit which will consist of a cable, an isolator and breaker (RCBO) in your fuse box. You may want to check the prices.
What sort of money will I be saving with solar?
Saving with grid tied solar is only based on what you can use rather than what you produce. for example you produce 1000w of power but only use 500w, then you are only saving 500w, which is about 22 pence per hour.
A 1kw solar array will make around 5.5kwh of power per day, maybe up to 8kwh. the panels we put with this are bi facial, so will have higher power than the sticker. With the price of power being 26.5pence per kwh, you could save £2.12 per day
The return in this solar kit would be 450/2.12 = 212 days or 339 days on the lower end of the power, We would class a solar year as 275 days, so you would be looking over a year on the lower end of the power production.
Therefore this kit means that it hits our target of paying for itself in 1 year, it will be 1 year 4 months in real life. Of course this depends on you using the power it makes.
When we and the extra panels, bringing the solar array power to 2kw+, we make around £4 per day, making the return 151 days
What will I be missing out on, and is there an upgrade path?
Grid tied solar tends to over produce power during the day and its not saved for you to use later in a battery. The type of inverters like this ( grid tied) do not support batteries, so you cannot store the extra power that it makes.
To step up, you would need an additional £627 for a decent hybrid inverter, and you would also need to think about batteries. We have 15kwh batteries for £1650, so as you can see it is a jump. and you would be looking at the 4 year return. You could upgrade the inverter one year, and add the battery another time with the money that you would be saving.
I hope thats helped someone grasp a really easy and cost effective way to have solar installed.
Our more advanced Solar 2kw kit in the shop
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