Our Leap into Solar PV

By John Swindells 12 Nov 2011 | Comment
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After a lot of procrastinating and fretting over the initial costs, we decided to go for it and install solar electricity panels on the roof of our house. The prices of the solar panels had fallen considerably in the 18 months between quotes, and the 43p per unit feed-in tariff was still available, so we felt comfortable with the timescale for recovering our initial costs. If you want to see how we worked it out, check out our solar pv return on investment calculator!

We had already chosen Green Home Energy Solutions (Durrant Electrical Ltd) as the installers, being a local company and with a great reputation. What follows is a slide-show of their work, over the course of a day and a half, to give you an idea of what's involved.

System Specifications

  • Solar panels: 12 x Sanyo HIT-H250E01 photovoltaic module
  • Inverter: 1 x SMA SB3000

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3 Comments

by Steve Rogers on 25 December 2011
We had our 4kW installation on 30 November and, after lots of messing about because of the MCS website failures, emailed our FIT application to Good Energy on 2 December. I got them to confirm receipt by phoning them and a later email. I haven't heard anything else from them yet so I hope it's just a big backlog. I have to say they were incredibly helpful over the 'phone. We are switching suppliers (from npower) at the same time.

We've generated 42 kWh during December so far. I can confirm your observation elsewhere that sunshine is needed - we've had 8 days with zero or near zero production. We're in N Yorks with a S facing roof.

Steve

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by John Sterling on 06 March 2012
Hi Steve - I wondered how you have been getting on since your last post. I had 3.97K 15 panel Mitsubishi 255 array installed on the 9th Dec. I also face south but live in the "sunny" south in Aldenham, Herts. It will be interesting to compare. My readings are taken on the 9th of every month and are Dec = 95, Jan = 188 and up to today the 6th Mar = 211. I have no idea how this will stack up against estimated for the year as no idea how to break it down into monthly figures. Regards - John
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by Gordon Dobson on 25 November 2011
I am hoping to have my system fitted before the end of November.

Can you (or anyone else)tell me how long after posting off the FIT forms did you get confirmation from your electricity supplier that everything was O.K.

Obviously I am hoping to get the higher FIT rate,hence this information is very important to me.

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by John Swindells on 25 November 2011
Hi Gordon, I emailed the forms to my supplier (Good Energy) and they confirmed their arrival the same day. Make sure you get a confirmation, either by phoning them or getting a call or email from them!
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by Kathryn Zipfel on 13 November 2011
Looks good, great to hear see it in it's entirety. Will you be doing a follow up post in a few months advising on costs and return on your investment to date? My mum would like to know how it goes and is impressed with the tidy look, and said that you have probably done it at the best time cost wise (insider B&Q info you know).

Kathryn

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by John Swindells on 13 November 2011
Yes Kathryn, we'll publish lots of numbers on generation and earnings (provided the paperwork clears in time!) over the coming weeks and months.
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