Why Installing Solar Panel Kits is a Bad Idea!
In the UK like many countries around the world people can get a government backed financial incentive for installing solar panels on their homes, this is commonly known as the feed in tariff. For the UK this was first introduced at the start of 2010 and was extremely lucrative for the home owner, this lucky few are still receiving approx. £2,000 per year in feed in tariff payments which is paid for 25 years. This means that if it had cost them £12,000 to have the system installed, they would have their money back in 6 years and then go on to make a further £38,000 profit! This was a hugely successful government scheme, in fact too successful and by 2011 they had cut the payments by half and have continued to make a series of cuts ever since.
Back in the glory days of 2010 tradesman were eager to become MCS accredited solar installers so that they could get make some easy money, but when the feed in tariff was cut there was a huge drop in demand which meant the installers had to undercut the competition in order to attract customers.
Installing Solar Today
Today the cost of installing a 4kW solar panel kit to a home has dropped from £12,000 to around £6,000 and left little to no profit margin for installers.
The World Wide Web is filled with opportunity and many people attempt to purchase and install their own DIY solar panel kits but forget that the feed in tariff is not yet dead and buried.
Firstly what you need to know if you are considering having solar panels installed is that if they are not installed and then registered by an MCS accredited installer then you will NEVER be able to claim the feed in tariff for the system!
The feed in tariff along with the savings on the electric bill for a property would typically pay back in the region of £19,000 for a £6,000 solar panel kit.
What do you get in the kit and what are the margins? People often find cheap Chinese panels on sites like eBay and think to themselves that they could save a bundle by sourcing their own solar panels, however they do not realise that it is not just the cost of the solar panels that they need to be concerned about. An inverter will be needed and is always the most expensive bit of kit to buy, without this you generate nothing so it pays to get a good reliable brand some cheap tat off eBay. Also they need to source the correct panel rails and roof tile/slate brackets, there are many different types and people often make the mistake of just buying cheap and then having to re-order the correct fittings later on. Another expense which is often overlooked is the amount of cable required to connect each of the panels to the inverter, the cost of cables and cables connectors is often for greater than people imagine, and then there is the cost of scaffolding!
I am a web developer who has been working with this green energy company over the past couple of months helping them with their website, I have seen the invoices and costs of the materials and trade prices and have seen them try and give the most competitive prices possible just to secure a job. To be honest, after paying for parts and labour there is little more profit left over for the business than say £150-300, it has become a super competitive market and they really only continue installing solar just to keep the employees in work and provide customers with what they want.
Biggest Mistake Installing Solar
I see many people on the internet making YouTube videos of their budget home solar kits that have completely missed out on the fortunes of the feed in tariff and gave themselves a lot of hard work for minimum returns, this is why I strongly suggest that installing a DIY solar panel kit is going to be a huge mistake, at the end of the day you get what you pay for ;-)
I would love to hear some opinions/comments from people that have had solar panels installed either DIY of professionally and hear a little about your experience and what you would do differently next time?