Photovoltaic Solar Panels for Your Home Heating
With the cost of solar panels continuing to fall and lasting up to 40 years, it might be time to consider installing them in your home.
Certainly, technology has improved immensely in recent years. The panels you use for your home heating requirements or electricity are far superior to the small lights that people sell for your garden.
You can get cheap DIY photovoltaic solar panels or have a professional install them for you. These are the large black-looking panels on houses’ roofs pointing directly to the sun. There are still some grants available from the government for you to have them installed. Additionally, the National Grid can buy back any energy you produce and don’t actually use under the Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) scheme.
The benefits of photovoltaic solar panels
The best part of installing a solar panel in your home is that you are generating completely free energy from your home from a free source, the sun. There is no burning of coal or the need to build a nuclear power station, and you’ll be 100% self-sufficient. Once installed, there are usually no maintenance costs involved, and there are no moving parts, so there is no noise produced.
You are also not required to obtain planning permission in England to add them to your home (although there are restrictions in Wales and Northern Ireland). The average home consumes 3,300 kWh of electricity per year, and a 1 kWh photovoltaic (PV) solar panel produces around 750 kWh per year, while a 5 kWh panel produces 4,500 kWh per year, which would be ample for most homes.
How solar panels work
Although solar panels work best in direct sunlight they still generate electricity even on a cloudy day. However, these products are not light, and your roof must be of a sturdy quality to take the weight of a panel or several panels if required.
There are some types of installation that don’t need to be on a roof and can be at the end of your garden so long as they have a direct, uninterrupted line of sight of the sun during the day. These connect via cables to your home. The panels can also be fitted to generate electricity for a heat pump to produce hot water for central heating or just for water.
The panels are made up of cells, usually of silicon, a semiconducting material. When sunlight shines upon them, it produces an electric field across the cells. The stronger the sunlight, the more electricity is produced.
Cost of installation
While the cost of producing and installing solar panels is likely to reduce over time, you need to be careful where you purchase the panels and who you get to install them. If you can get a recommendation from someone, then this is best. There are cheap alternatives on the market, but these may not last the 30+ years that the higher-quality ones do.
The general cost of installation appears to be around £10,000, although there are grants currently available, but these may not last forever.
Government grants for solar panel installation
Various schemes still exist to assist with purchasing, as follows:
- Home Upgrade Grant is made available from 45 local authorities and can provide up to £10,000. It’s for those homes that are not connected to the main gas network and is mainly not means-tested.
- All solar panels are 0% VAT until 2027.
- Recipients of a range of benefits can get solar panels installed under The Energy Company Obligation (ECO 4) scheme.
Some DIY stores also sell them, but you’ll need to install them yourself or hire a qualified electrician to do this. If you choose the DIY route, the cost of purchasing a 1 kWh panel is around £ 1,800.
Earnings from excess generation
Since 2010, various government-funded schemes have been in place to entice homeowners to host their own solar generation. The first scheme, Feed-in Tariffs, was generous, but as the cost of PV reduced, so did the subsidies.
The Feed-in Tariff stopped accepting new applicants in 2019, but existing accredited owners continue to receive RPI-linked payments.
Energy companies now run a new scheme called the Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) scheme. Two of the largest suppliers, Octopus Energy and E.ON Business Energy, can install PV and set up your SEG for you.