The Green Deal

Discussion on living for a better and more responsible future
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Stig
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The Green Deal

Post by Stig »

I was at an industry meeting with DECC on Wednesday to discuss the Feed-in Tariff and there was some discussion about the "Green Deal". I'd not come across this before - it's a new government initiative to provide cheap finance to homeowners wishing to make their homes more energy efficient. A link to the DECC leaflet is below:

http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/w ... _deal.aspx

On the subject of feed-in tariffs, has anyone opted to have solar PV fitted under one of the new schemes springing up at the moment? I'd be interested to hear about your experience if so.

There is a scheduled review of the feed-in tariff in 2013 where tariff levels (for new installations from 2013 onwards) will be reviewed. As a consequence of the CSR, this review may be brought forward if uptake exceeds expectations. I'd advise anyone considering a PV installation under the FiT scheme to act sooner rather than later!
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gromit
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Re: The Green Deal

Post by gromit »

Just caught up with this, very interesting stuff, my initial take is that you pay for the energy efficiency improvement with the reduction in the fuel bill if that makes sense.......very interesting.

We had the loft insulation done by warmfront in may this year and are scheduled for central heating in may next year by the same people, now if we can get double glazing and floor insulation done on the green deal thats us olduns sorted.

We are also down for a potential PV roof fit as we have a large south facing roof that fits all the criteria.

Ongoing saga of what can be done for the over sixties in this day and age, I shall keep you posted
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Stig
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Re: The Green Deal

Post by Stig »

Hi Gromit!

There are schemes with some of the energy companies where they fit and own PV but the homeowner benefits from free electricity when generating. Low risk for individuals, but there's more benefit to be had for those who can afford to own the panels outright. Not a cheap investment though...

At the moment it's probably worth prioritising PV for installation sooner rather than later if it is a definate on your shopping list. The tariff level is generous (£413/MWh for the smallest installations) but will only go down in future. There is already programmed-in derogation for the PV tariff from April 2012.

But remember - it is still a gamble, as the cost of the panels is predicted to fall rapidly as demand for them increases. It is not yet a mature technology.

But, as things stand today, those who install before April 2012 are guaranteed to receive the current tariff, index-linked and tax-free, for the next 25 years.
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gromit
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Re: The Green Deal

Post by gromit »

Thanks for that, my enquiry is with "A shade greener" the deal being I get the free electric and they get the subsidy, being retired and not able to afford the installation from scratch, this seems like a pretty good idea especially as it is such a long term arrangement when installed, any idea realistically what a roof full of PV's will chuck out wattage wise, I hesitate to use the term kWh seems a bit ambitious but I would be pleasantly surprised if not
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gromit
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Re: The Green Deal

Post by gromit »

Forgot to mention available roof space is south facing and close to 30m2
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Stig
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Re: The Green Deal

Post by Stig »

I should warn you I'm not a PV expert - my area's hydro, and the interest in PV is purely because it's gobbling up the feed-in tariff budget at an alarming rate.

However we have looked at installing panels on our building here in North Wales. It was for 215W Schuco panels, which measure about 1.6m2 each - so I guess there may be room for 18 of them on your roof. Installed capacity would therefore be 3.87kW. The survey of our site suggested a load factor of 9.4% (...and people grumble about the inefficiency of wind farms!). Chances are your roof will be better than ours, North Wales is not known for it's sunshine! You should generate at least 3,186 kWh a year.

The deal with A Shade Greener is the kind of thing that's becoming industry standard. You can't lose really, unless you have a particularly good looking roof or something! You may be tied in to a very long-term electricity supply contract - check what costs you may be liable for and by what mechanism they might increase in the future.
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Re: The Green Deal

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Thankyou for the input on that, more than i would have anticipated, lets hope all goes according to plan, I have just been doing a lot of my own calculations on electrical tarrifs since my current supplier tried to up my direct debit through the roof and found with our fairly average electrical only consumption of 12.5k kWh there was only about £15 to £20 per quarter difference between the lot of them, which surprised me. Much better now they all have to put their tarriffs up front. Makes welcome bonuses and cash backs much more worth looking into. Anyway with the possible out put of the PV's I think I shall push shade greener along a bit as we are ideally situated.
Sorry to be after your hydro part of the budget but we are very flat and a lot drier than average, not as good as semi desert Essex/ Sussex but good non the less. All the water round here needs all it's energy to get to the sea, witness the floods in Hull in 2007!
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Stig
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Re: The Green Deal

Post by Stig »

Best of luck with the project Gromit. Be interested to hear more about it, please let me know how it goes!
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Re: The Green Deal

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I replied by email to a company called Isis who were offering solar panels fitted free to your house if you had a suitable south facing roof.

Didnt think we would hear anymore, but we did. Got all the info through the post including a contract which was a legal binding document to sign.

Read through it roughly and decided not to proceed. There were soooo many areas that all ended up with us paying the company for the panels. They ranged from if there was any damage to the panels, whether accidental or not, whether our fault or not right through to if we wanted to end the agreement prior to the 25 yr contract and IMHO with the amount of areas for us to pay for the panels it was a sure fired bet that we would end up worse off. There was no guarantee of a minimum amount of electricity that we would get free either, not that I could see anyway. Everything as far as I read was a win, win sitution wih the company, but not the house owner. They did suggest you get a solicitor to glance through it though, which obviously would have not been cheap.

A couple of weeks after we received the contract a female rang up to ask why we hadnt signed up. After telling her the above she suggested that we could if we wanted buy the panels from her company and they would install at an extortionate fee. I declined that offer too!

I do think they are a good idea and have seen and used them when we were in Australia years ago, so not against them at all, just this particular
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Re: The Green Deal

Post by bluebell »

Some of the houses at bottom of the street are south facing, two of the properties have taken advantage of having some free solar panels fitted one the south facing side of roof. Two of the people on that bit of the street haven't been able to have the solar panels fitted due to having huge extensions on that side of the house so the guys cannot fit the scaffolding up to fit the panels.
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Re: The Green Deal

Post by gromit »

Well despite a pushing e mail to "A shade greener" just before christmas, not a peep from them, perhaps we are to far out in the sticks.
I have however had a visit from the Warm front installation surveyor today and as soon as I can get a gas meter installed there are ready to install the basic central heating system, boiler and five radiators, I can soon stick some more radiators onto that :-D
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Re: The Green Deal

Post by Steve the Gas »

Gromit - please don't have an Ideal boiler- demand a different one.....I have warned you!! )w(
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Re: The Green Deal

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They have just discussed the solar panel deal on Money Box
Someon from a bank said they would not give a mortgage if the house had it's roof leased (i.e. a solar panel paid for by the installers)
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gromit
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Re: The Green Deal

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You sneeze the wrong way and they won't give you a mortgage these days, I wouldn't consider it if I wasn't looking at living here long term, I see the solar panels if it ever happens as a personal benefit not an increase in the houses value, the kids will get the house I expect, they can sort the selling or whatever out.

when dealing with mortgage companies these days you are dealing with a negative outlook, how not to lend you money, the knotweed fusileers scouring the land to find another infestation that will pull your house down from 50 meters away........knot +pinn+
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Stig
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Re: The Green Deal

Post by Stig »

That's an interesting point Mo, thanks for posting.

Dodgy creatures bankers may be (and apols to any of them reading this - nothing personal but, hey, my local library is under threat because of your failure, chaps..) the ability to raise a mortgage on a house is nevertheless highly important to most people. Typical of financiers to stand in the way of self-sufficiency!

I hadn't realised that the arrangement with PV suppliers constituted a "lease" though. And they tend to be retro-fit panels so they are above an existing roof rather than actually being part of it. Maybe "lease" is a legal term that can be applied to any commercial arrangement with certain characteristics.
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