Solar panels on my roof - so where do the savings go?

[NoXion]

At some point after I moved into my current home, the housing association installed some solar panels on the roof of the building. The release of the latest IPCC report has reminded me that this has made apparently no difference whatsoever to my electricity bills. So what on Earth are those panels doing up there? The only electrical consumption that I know of within the building, that residents do not pay for directly, are the lights in the communal hallway and some outside lights, and somehow I doubt that they need a massive rooftop solar panel to keep them going. Either that, or the solar panels are a lot less efficient than I thought they were.

So what might be going here? It feels like a scam or greenwashing or something like that, but then again maybe there's some strange economics or perverse incentives going on, that I'm unaware of due to my ignorance of the details of rooftop solar. Can anyone offer any insight?

 

[two sheds]

Sounds like they've taken the profits from the install - no doubt getting a grant along the way.

 

[cybershot]

If anything like my OH, you have to fill in a form of some sort, something the ex never got round to doing, so she wasn't seeing savings either when she became the sole bill payer.

 

[platinumsage]

Yeah, lots of freeholders putting solar panels on communal blocks, feeding it all back to the grid and trousering the profits. The residents see no benefits.

 

[NoXion]

If anything like my OH, you have to fill in a form of some sort, something the ex never got round to doing, so she wasn't seeing savings either when she became the sole bill payer.

I don't recall such a form even being mentioned. The feeling that I'm being swindled has grown, though.

 

[two sheds]

Doubtless in your contract but it does seem a bit iffy that they're billing you (or you pay straight to energy company?) for energy that's not actually costing them anything during sunny periods

 

[platinumsage]

No doubt a different meter so the way they see it, if they added an extra storey you wouldn’t get a share of the rental income.

 

[A380]

They are probably claiming Feed In Tariff (FIT) payments on a quarterly basis. Untill about 18 months ago these were massively generous ( three times wholesale price) and fixed for years . We get FIT payments of about £800 a year off a small kitchen roof.

Payments for new installations are down now as, given the energy mix and inability to store electricity in any meaningful quantity the UK probably has ‘too much’ solar at the moment. A sunny windy weekend afternoon can be quite difficult for National Grid to manage. During lock down they had to introduce a product to pay renewables to turn off. Which in some cases was a bloke on a motorcycle going out to sites to throw the switch…

 

[clicker]

I don't recall such a form even being mentioned. The feeling that I'm being swindled has grown, though.

It's a micro generation form...we're currently banging our heads against a brick wall re solar panels.

Relative bought house with pv panels, builder went bust couple of years ago. They're now unable to prove they own the panels and seemingly unable to fill out the feed in tariff form without it.

I think they work in real time, so they'll benefit from what they use when sunny, but don't know where the excess goes?

 

[two sheds]

Have said before but I had a controller fitted that uses excess power from the panels to heat my immersion, also do my cooking when the sun's shinging. Works nicely and means I'm not exporting energy to the grid (at 3p/unit)

 

[two sheds]

I think they work in real time, so they'll benefit from what they use when sunny, but don't know where the excess goes?

If like mine back to the grid with payment of 3p/unit.

 

[bimble]

Have said before but I had a controller fitted that uses excess power from the panels to heat my immersion, also do my cooking when the sun's shinging. Works nicely and means I'm not exporting energy to the grid (at 3p/unit)

You’re in the sticks like me I think (remember you saying you had a septic tank?). Are you saying here that the solar panels heat your central heating & hot water? Or are they both run on electric with solar as top up ? Confused sorry.

 

[two sheds]

Yep in sticks. The panels heat the hot water but not the central heating radiators. I only have 4 kW panels but even that is usually enough during winter to keep immersion hot most of time (occasionally have to use the override switch to heat it up if there's not been much sun to avoid legionnaire's ).

The radiators are heated by the rayburn, although they don't get all that hot because I only burn wood and only really use rayburn a couple of hours a night during winter for cooking - hopefully less this winter.

 

[WouldBe]

Local council have done that round here. It gives them an extra revenue stream.

 

[Smangus]

We are looking to get panels plus batteries to store the excess so we can use it. Batteries are quite expensive.

 

[newme]

We just had the council try to force air source heat pumps on us. Yes it's better environmentally, keeping the subsidiary payments for themselves leaves us far worse off without an air source hot water heater hitting 55c however. Paying £100 a month extra is not feasible.

 

[Saunders]

You’re in the sticks like me I think (remember you saying you had a septic tank?). Are you saying here that the solar panels heat your central heating & hot water? Or are they both run on electric with solar as top up ? Confused sorry.

If you have solar PV panels you can get a thingy installed that diverts your unused solar generated electricity to eg your immersion tank, instead of just exporting it.