Buying solar panel system advice please

[wr_uk]

Hi Need a bit of advice.
Been looking into Solar panels over the last week trying to see if its worthwhile or not. had 3 people out already offering different systems & spec and different prices and although I’ve learnt a bit more about the systems. I perhaps more confused about if I’m getting a good deal or not.

Our Estimated annual consumption is 3950kWh
Rear of the house SE direction 60 deg from south

Quotes I received are below.

First quote was from Project solar, It all sounded great and I did actually put £100 deposit down. But thinking about its that evening and not really knowing too much about solar I decided to cancel the very next morning as I wanted to look into it more and get some other quotes. Project solar Head office rang shortly after i cancelled to ask why I had done so. First of all I though the price was expensive and I wanted to see what other deals were around. Within another 20mins the called back with another offer (Quote 2) better spec but cheaper price which immediately made me suspicious. I said I would think about and see what other had to offer. He said he would call back in a weeks time (which will be tomorrow)

Second guy was from EEC (Quote 3) Said he could 20 black mono panels 10 from and 10 back @ 5kw He said the more energy we make the more we can sell back.

Third guy was from Ideal Solar (Quote 4) Added extra is a battery Which he said usually is used to power the lighting circuit on an evening


Quote 1
Project Solar
Multi 12 Evolution Life 250 Solar Panels (Life time Performance & build Warranty) Limited) (Fitted to rear roof)
3kW
Solax Single Tracker Inverter (Lifetime)
Volt Doctor Unit (Lifetime (limited)
Boiler Doctor Unit (2 Years)

£9300


Quote 2
Project Solar
Mono 12 Evolution Max Life 285 Solar Panels (Life time Performance & build Warranty) Limited) (Fitted to rear roof)
3.43kW
Solax Single Tracker Inverter (Lifetime)
Volt Doctor Unit (Lifetime (limited)
Boiler Doctor Unit (2 Years)

£7658



Quote 3
EEC Home Improvements
20 Seraphim Mono Black Solar 25o Panels to front & back of house (Fitted to 10 to rear & 10 to front roof)
5kW
Cant make out exactly what the Inverter is called (bad hand writing)

£6995


Quote 3
Ideal Solar
14 Mono Seraphim 250 Solar Panels (Fitted to rear roof)
3.5kW
Solis Inverter
Volt Doctor Unit
Boiler Unit
Battery

£9902
But said he could do a special offer if I bought today at
£8999

As the salesmen were shooting holes in each others claims I’m not sure what the best way forward might be.

And just to stir thing up I have another company coming tomorrow CTS Renewables. I made the appointment through filling out details on a solar comparison site an independent guy from the site called me back to gain a few details. I was expelling to him the quotes I have had and he says the are was too much for what I would need. He said for a 12 panel system all in couple be from £3500 up. He said what I should be looking to do is try to generate enough just for our home usage as selling back to the grid isn’t cost effect when you offset the cost of the extra panels agains what you get back for selling the energy.

I want to believe this guy but based on the other figures I have £3500 seem a really low figure… too good to be true.

Am I better off going for as many panels as I can fit on my roof generating more energy?
Can I generate more energy by having panels on back and front as the sum moves around the front of the house casting the rear in shade after around 2pm in summer?
Should I be looking just to generate enough just to cover our house hold consumption?

What sort of system spec and price should I be looking at for a decent system?

Sorry for the long post but its starting to get really confusing


Thanks

Wayne

[solar pete]

Hello Wayne and welcome to Solar Panel Talk. Looks like your somewhere in the UK, most of the folks here are from USA ( well not me, OZ) , so we dont know much about how it works in the UK regarding pricing and feed in tarif etc. I suggest you do some homework, see if they have a site like www.solarreviews.com in the UK (do some googleing) and find out how the feed in tarif or net metering works and how much they pay per kWh.

[cebury]

Yeah most of us are in or from the US so whether the price is competitive in your area will be difficult to say.
Here is the states, all states but a small handful either limit by rules or reduce the financial payback by either not paying or paying negligible amounts for any over production. The few states where buying an oversized system are worth it, are because they are early in solar adoption so the state or local utility will give extra rebates on top of our federal 30% and they have things called SRecs or feed in tariffs where the govt steps in a forces clean energy purchases by companies so they buy from individuals who generate "clean energy". The rebates plus SRecs have worked for early breakeven points, at least so far.

All this is a long way of saying unless you have those two options above or something similar in your area, it is almost a given you should only buy a system that is sized to cover your current and possibly future electrical needs (e.g. bigger system for a new electric vehicle next year).

Yes you can put panels on more than one roof face to capture the moving sun. But again that goes back to cost vs payback.
You can use a tool, Google PVWatts, and see if it covers your area. I've no idea whether it does, but if so you can put in various nmbers of panels for each roof face and see how much it is expected to generate.

You really should take time to understand how you are billed for electricity and how your local utility deals with paying for electricity you generate, but do not use (aka excess, overproduction, exporting power).

[J.P.M.]

OP: As is usual and common, your best path is to educate yourself to learn how you use electricity, how much electricity you use, how you pay for it, and how and to what extent, if any, solar energy can be used to your economic or other benefits with respect to reducing how much you pay for electricity, or how using solar energy may improve your lot in life with an eye to the long term, however you define your needs and length of time.

Solar utilization can be beneficial, but it's a bit more involved than throwing equipment at an electric bill and expecting your financial or other facets of your wellbeing to improve.

Self education as to the realistic possibilities as well as the real limits of the technology, and then defining goals within those possibilities and limits are the keys to a start.