free solar panels ?

[cyberknight]

Are they free including installation ?

I am looking into this as we all like to save money but i would like some information from anyone who has got them along with any benefits or pitfalls ?
I dont mind earning feed in as long as im reducing my electric bills and can anyone recommend any companies please?

 

[biggs682]

We had some fitted by A shade Greener .com Any ' a shade greener ' customers and we have saved quite a bit of our elecy bill over the 3.5 years , no complaints at all .

Feel free to ask questions , the guy that came out to us all those years ago was really good and not pushy at all

let us know how you get on or what you decide

 

[stephec]

I'm glad you asked this as I was thinking of doing it as well.

From memory doesn't @Drago have some?

 

[bikingdad90]

There is a scheme where you rent your roof space to an installer. They come along and fit the panels, you get rental income and they get the tarriff from it. You also get free electricity during the day. You do not have to pay out for the panels and the contract is written as such that they come and take the panels away if you sell the property.

This could work out better for you?

 

[Drago]

I'm glad you asked this as I was thinking of doing it as well.

From memory doesn't @Drago have some?

I do indeed, though I bought mine so I get the free electricity when it's daylight, and also the feed-in tarriff, perhaps £300-£350 a quarter on our 5kW set up. IIRC correctly I paid £7000 for mine, so with the FIT money and they savings in electricity (I deliberately use energy hungry stuff during the day now) it will take about 4 years to break even.

I've had one fault 18 months in, and the company were incredibly efficient, round my house before 8am the next day fixing it. Later in the week would have been more convenient, but they were insistent that they fix it as close to immediately as they could.

There are many deals, but typically with the 'free' ones they slap the installation in so you can use the electricity, but they pocket the FIT, which is where the real money is. Of course, last year the FIT payments were reduced, so the financial incentive isn't what it once was for new punters. Fortunately I got my foot in the door just before the gravy train stopped rolling.