After a referral from EDF, a company called Effective Homes has made a telephone consultation and subject to onsite survey are offering a 10 panel 4kw system with a 5.2 battery and matched inverter. They suggest a saving of £460 a year fro this system, given there are only two of us in the house. The complete quote is £10,120. 

Questions: Does this quote seem reasonable? And does it suit the needs to reduce of my domestic utility [currently gas & Elec £170 monthly]

I am 66 and solar tech new to me, so will i see a return at my age or is it optimistic? Any help appreciated.

Hi @drummer, unfortunately most of us on the forum are from SA so it is difficult for us to judge your situation and prices in the UK.

In SA we have constant outages due to load shedding and we have a lot of sun, so solar makes a lot of sense, but as i understand it most people in the UK use batteries and inverters to game the tariff structure and save money.

What is your situation, why are you wanting to install solar? Do you have many outages or is it just to try to save on bills?

I'm also not sure how profitable panels are in the UK due to the lack of sun in Winter and the short days, but maybe it is made up in Summer when the days are super long.

Are you able to sell electricity back to the grid? That may affect the returns quite a lot because most panels sit idle for most of the day once batteries are charged.

29 minutes ago, Superfly said:

Even as an outsider, nope - not reasonable.

Edit: They are selling a 22 year ROI...? mindboggling!

I totally agree....... 

On 2023/07/22 at 8:53 AM, Scorp007 said:

I totally agree....... 

If it was my call I would not use a battery system due to the huge cost of batteries. I would not try and trade between off peak and peak power pricing. 

I would use a grid tied(string inverter) system and use all the power the sun can provide. No need to provide back up power due to grid available at all/most times. 

If you can export back to the grid at a good rate that will be a bonus. 

Equipment used:

Solis 3.6-4.6kW 4G mini or similar £700

Panels 10 x £2200

Mounting of panels £500

Sundries and installation £500

Total for system £3900

In summer you should have excess of "free" power and in the low sun winter period you just draw from the grid any shortfall. 

Thanks to everyone for taking the time and for the thoughtful advice. I think I have enough information to not proceed and spend the money on a holiday {South Africa maybe]

cheers everyone!

At R23/£, it will be a great holiday 😅

1 hour ago, drummer said:

Thanks to everyone for taking the time and for the thoughtful advice. I think I have enough information to not proceed and spend the money on a holiday {South Africa maybe]

cheers everyone!