Financial meltdown, ergo solar panels?

[CynicalSurvival]

Hi all, not been on the site for a while, hope all well!

With the well-documented slow financial meltdown this year so far, there's nowhere safe to put your money (and for many of us this is not news!)

So essentially I was wondering if anyone would see, even despite the cuts in feed-in tariffs, that investing in things like solar power could be a pretty good investment after all.

Essentially I'm just thinking - I could put a few hundred quid a month into savings and pension as I have been doing, then see it all disappear if there is another major financial crash. Or I could spend it on solar panels, and even if the world economy goes down the toilet, I can still generate energy and have a comfortable home life, (besides other threats obviously).

Any thoughts..? Thanks

[Deeps]

As they come the panels cut off if the mains goes down, I believe there are ways round this but it might negate any subsidy arrangement although if that's minimal it might not matter. Where you are and which way they can face will also have an influence on if they're worth it for you, I just put my cheque for less than 35 quid into the bank for the last quarter but I'm in the Scottish central belt and my panels are west facing, brilliant in the long days. My mate 5 minutes away has south facing panels and he got 107 quid for the same quarter (a marginally better tariff though).

I'd do a bit of research on it before committing to anything. Good luck with it though.

[Yorkshire Andy]

Also the life of the panels is limited

[jansman]

To me, I think solar is a good idea if you use all the electric yourself. That would mean a battery system to store that power. As stated, if the grid goes down your panels are useless. That ( to me) is a contradiction in terms. Plus, political dictats may change feed- tariffs in a heartbeat.

[hobo]

The expected lifetime of solar panels is supposed to be 25 years, though they do degrade over time http://energyinformative.org/lifespan-solar-panels/

I understand batteries to have a much shorter life...

[ForgeCorvus]

It seems to me that setting up your own Off-grid system now makes better sense then it used to because feed-in has been slashed.

[Arzosah]

[quote="ForgeCorvus"]It seems to me that setting up your own Off-grid system now makes better sense then it used to because feed-in has been slashed.[/quote
I sort of agree - it always made sense in a prepping way, but now its a lot nearer to economic sense as well - partly bec ause the feed-in payments have been slashed, and partly because modern solar panels are so much more efficient.

There's also direct water heating - not just in the vacuum tubes, but also in a simple black hose - it might not get the water hot, but it would definitely lessen your use of mains electricity.

[grenfell]

Off grid gives you an advantage with regards to grid failures and power cuts. You could be completely off grid but most still retain a connection as after all if your panels fail you'd have no backup. The downside of an off grid system is of course the set up costs , not only the panels but the batteries and electronics that go with it. The batteries themselves will degrade over time and I've read that people who have gone down that route say to have many more than your initial estimate of numbers of batteries. Don't forget that batteries also take up space that could be used for something else. Grid tied gives you a little income and there are probably grants available though as has been said the tariffs are at the whims of politicians . In theory at least it is possible to have an off grid system without batteries providing the power produced by the panels is used as it is produced . The variable nature of the feed though means that it would only be suitable for less sensitive applications such as heating , I've read somewhere of someone rigging up such a device to heat a thermal mass of water . I've also read of a switching device that can divert power from the grid to a battery set up although it was essentially rigged up by its owner and has probably invalidated any warranty i don't know if any manufactures offer that option as a factory build.
Really it's up to you and how you want to play it , probably best to juggle a few numbers .

[HBP]

I have looked into this a lot over the last few years and came to the conclusion that solar for hot water heating was going to be the best option for my lifestyle.

Generally seems to be more efficient than photovoltaic and as we don't use a lot of electricity compared to a lot of households, it would see a
Lot quicker return on investment through savings on other bills.

A lot of people focus on photovoltaic but I think solar hot water is often ignored when it could be a very good option.

It's not as easy to install but might be worth looking at.

[poppypiesdad]

It is actually easier to install than pv , no the panels are absolutely identical but all you are doing is connecting to a immersion heater to heat a thermal store of water , the funky but is having a pump powered during the dark times to circulate the hot water through your system . And if in the winter the power output from the panels with the shorter day will heat the water enough or if you would be better charging a battery bank , etc etc etc back to square one