Type of Houses

[Highlander]

(13 June 2013, 20:36)MaryN Wrote:

(13 June 2013, 20:19)Highlander Wrote: Multi-fueled stove with wrap around boiler for the hot water and the central heating system linked into the oil for emergencies, 16 solar panels on the roof that ensures we have free electric to heat water in the summer when the fire is off... 2200 litres of rain water at any one time

Sorry to be nosy, Highlander, but did the solar panels cost a lot of money, and are they actually efficient and cost effective?

Mary,.... We thought about it a lot before we purchased them, but I was lucky to still have a lot of my Army payout left, and wanted to put it to good use, the 16 panels we have cost us just over £8000.

They are very efficient, people tend to think that you need sun light to produce power, but that's not the case, they will produce power on any kind of day except really dull misty days, but of course that power will vary, the darker days clearly produce less than on bright sunny days

We got in early, so our tariff is 43 pence a unit, meaning that we sell every unit we make to the National grid for 43 pence, and get to use the free electric

We get an electric bill just like everyone else, so we pay the quarterly bill, then we send in our solar meter readings, then they pay us, last year our electric bill was just over £600 for the year, we got nearly £1200 back from what we sold, so making just over £400 profit

Having said that we got in early, the tariff we get paid is 43 pence for each unit and that guaranteed for 25 years, but now I think that tariff is only 18 pence a unit, but of course the panels are still as good as mine