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solar panels
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I've had a few companies ringing to ask whether id like solar panels fitted free on my roof through a government grant and im wondering whether anyone has gone through & actually had them fitted and what your thoughts are ?
am i correct in thinking you have to lease your roof to them for a period of time ?
would i have to ask their permission if i wanted to sell the house ?
is it just best to get a bank loan and buy them myself ?
any thoughts would be gratefully received
am i correct in thinking you have to lease your roof to them for a period of time ?
would i have to ask their permission if i wanted to sell the house ?
is it just best to get a bank loan and buy them myself ?
any thoughts would be gratefully received
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i'm waiting for the watchdog programme about it
It was on last week. They had the head of a company on to explain why 100's of people were still waiting for refunds or to receive their panels.
There are some explanations in there.
Basically, the co will fit the panels and pay the upfront cost, in return, they get an income stream for 25 years. You get a small income stream. They take the gamble that the income they get over 25 years will be better than the upfront cost.
if anyone asks you for money upfront for a survey, then best to avoid them.
My sums suggested that for £10- 12k the return over 25 years might just make sense - any more and it was a poor investment.
The firm I had round wanted £16-18k - just didn't make any sense even on their own projected income.
Then I thought what about letting the power company lay out the cost and I'll just have a bit of free electricity. Well me roof faced the right way but I didn't have enough roof space to qualify. So I thought 'If it's not a good investment for them, why would I think it was for me??'.
So it's no go for me. Anyway not many people can afford to lay out such a large amount if they buy the panels ..... and .... do be aware most of the companies are using high pressure sale techniques. Artificial special deals, phone calls to managers in front of you, sign on the spot.
There were people who'd paid several thousands for them some years ago and still loved them. Then there were listeners who had done one of these £50 offers where the firm supplies the panels and you get free daytime electricity. They were equally pleased.
In fact I don't think there were any negative callers.
I have solar lights in the garden and they're several years old and they work beautifully by the way.
I have had four Microgeneration Scheme and REAL registered installers round to give quotes (at my request, I am buying the system not renting the roof out) one of the them explained that the REAL scheme limited the kind of sales techniques that where allowed. e.g. visits to prospective customers had to be timed and could not exceed two hours. None of them did stay that long although I was in no hurry during any of them. I don't think they are allowed to make on the spot 'special offers' either.
I told them all I would contact them and none of them even subsequently rang me again, three of them sent a follow up email after quoting asking if I had made a decision, that was it. Least high pressure selling I have ever seen to be honest.
My experience has been good so far and my impression is that the whole thing is being tightly controlled. Obviously still a few rogues out there of course, the REAL site above mentions the Watchdog cases BTW.
Do you want to explain why?
That was a dodgy company installing them, I'm sure there are plenty of reputable companies if you want it done.
On some you do lease out your roof and you would need to get a solicitor before going into a contract because selling your house within 25 years could be a problem.
From the REAL site:
I got all that from the MCS registered company that visited me.I shall definitely make sure all my family know to look for REAL accreditation in future.
I think the techniques are fairly transparent and as soon as I see the first one I know I'm never going to buy from them. But you still need to be quite hard with them (e.g 'I will not be buying from you today no matter what price you offer') and that doesn't come easy to many people.
I'd never heard of REAL before so thanks for the info.
I cannot see how it can be economically viable
It all works on the feed in tariff being paid for 25 years
I cant see this happening, 25 years is at least 5 governments
they will try to fiddle with it and in say 10 years time change it to a much lower rate
also who pays for any maintainence? what if 25% of the panels fails who pays for that? and you cant provide the agreed amount of electric who pays for any short fall?
say the company you signed up with goes bust?
what happens then if you want to sell your property? who would buy a house with a debt attached to it?
25 years is a LONG TIME
Well for starters if they are not your panels you do not get the feed in tariff anyway (as I understand it) the installing company get that. So no loss to you.
many thanks for all the replies
WHY DO PEOPLE DUPLICATE THREADS OVER DIFFERENT FORUMS?
It is guaranteed by the current Governement. I imagine it's pretty watertight in law that it can't be changed.
I wonder what happened to that scheme?
In order to make money out of the solar panels then it is definitely better to purchase them as after 10 years you will have paid back your initial investment and will then be making money from the feed-in-tariff.
Engensa is a company that installs both free and investment solar panels. They have some really useful information about them on their website: http://www.engensa.com/faqs-sunroof.html