Solar Panels / Heat Pump Discussion

[Luckypants]

All the threads on this subject are pretty old, so I'm starting a new one.

The government incentives to have solar and heat pump installed are pretty good at the moment if you qualify for a full system 'for free'. I would urge anyone currently on means tested benefits to look into getting one of these.

The means tested benefits that qualify are:

Child Tax Credit (income below £16,105 a year)
Council Tax Reduction (exemption and discount do not qualify on their own)
Housing Benefit
Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
Income Support
Pension Credit
Universal Credit
Working Tax Credit (income below £16,105 a year)

Two people in my village have benefitted from the scheme and are well happy with the results. Someone else in receipt of child tax credits is thinking about it. One chap is disabled, the other on JSA after being made redundant. The whole thing was done in a month as insulation was OK.

Think about it folks, a new heating system and free leccy (whatever the solar generates) courtesy of the government seems like a good deal.

[Kenzie]

We have solar panels on the roof and recently added some batteries to the system to charge during the day and to run the house at night. Our electricity bill has dropped quite a bit. We didn't qualify for any of the above, but we're part of a tender run by the local council.

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[Luckypants]

My solar and battery system has seen our consumption from the grid drop almost to zero. My step-son has solar panels but no battery on his housing association home, his bills are very low too at the moment.

[garynortheast]

Wish I could persuade the council to fit panels and a heat pump on this bungalow. There's a massive roof on it, and it faces south. As a council tenant, I don't have the option of making that decision unfortunately.

[Luckypants]

Sounds like a no brainer to help the council meet it's Net Zero target. Maybe they are waiting for a big ole grant from WAG? I know there is money available under Barnett formula consequential from the UK Government "Social housing Decarbonisation fund" Keep at it Gary, it is worth it.

[garynortheast]

I think I shall have a few discussions with the council to that end Mike. It's such a waste of so much roof space otherwise.

*Edit* Just emailed the council. We'll see what the response is.

[Luckypants]

There are other councils in Wales doing this, so I hope you have some success. (e.g. Denbighshire and Wrexham)

[garynortheast]

I know that Powys CC have built a number of new properties with solar panels. My (ex) FiL and MiL live in one in Sarn. The panels they've used though, don't appear to be very good quality as they pretty much stopped generating after August last year and didn't really start again until the spring. I have friends in Llandysul, near Trefaldyn, who have had good quality panels fitted on their own properties, and these have worked pretty much all winter, admittedly not at the same level as the summer, but they have generated power right through nonetheless.

[Luckypants]

You are probably right re the quality, but also it will depend on the inverter and measurement devices. What I've found so far with my set up is that the software does not measure anything less than 200W, yet the physical display on the inverter can show less and that does get fed in to the system. So even though my system 'thinks' there is no solar, the inverter may be providing up to 199W. As house baseload is 300W, its a decent chunk of my usage. Obviously I've no experience of winter, but its been pretty gloomy this week and this is what I've observed.

[garynortheast]

That's interesting Mike. I shall pass that little bit of info on to them.