PV installation -affecting benefits

[monkey5]

am after a little advice for my father in law (he watched dragon den the other night). basically he has quite a bit of money in the bank/trust but wont be earning much on it and asked me about solar panels and if its worth getting. i said yes defo due to the free electric and also the FIT for 25years (i think).

the trouble is hes disabled in a wheel chair so gets some credits/benefits etc for this. does anyone know if these are affected at all if hes getting an income from the FIT?

on average how much does it cost (bungalow quite large roof area)only roughly? and what is the average amount of time it takes to payback?

do you still pay for the electricity you use from supplier and all you make through panels goes into grid or do you get free electric then the excess goes to grid?

and is the FIT tax free?

if anyone can answer that would be great or link to some relevent info would be much appriciated.

Also anyone in/near lincoln that does install, if he goes for it and uses you id love to give a hand to see how it works etc.

cheers wayne

 

[NozSpark]

From what I know you get a payment for every unit you generate, a FIT payment for every unit you feed into the grid and you get to use what you generate (if you're home at the time) so you're then not paying for electric.

They recon that you can get about

 

[steptoe]

a good 4kW system on a good roof will put about 2K of cold hard cash in your hand each year, plus the bit you save on your bill,,

cost depends on a lot of things,

but 15K would be a good starting point,

give me a bell,

I do Lincoln, and the help would be much appreciated,

 

[steptoe]

you get paid for everything you generate, and a percentage(50%?) is assumed unused so you get FITs on that, AFAIAA that is how it is calculated.

Im pretty sure its on their website somewhere.

EDIT,:-

reword that,

AFAIAA , you get generation on 50% and a generation minus FIT on the other 50%

I think,

the more Im typing this the more unsure I am,

but there is deffo something based on 50% somewhere....... :|

 

[NozSpark]

Is this "assumed" percentage because they aren't installing white meters yet?

 

[steptoe]

you dont have a FIT meter, simply a generation meter (NOZs white meter)

nobody knows how much you are feeding back, your normal meter is just a lower reading, but by how much? :C

perhaps SMART meters will have this capability?

 

[steptoe]

I still dont understand ? Do you have to read the FIT meter (as it were) and send it to your leccy supplier ?

ATM it seems different areas are doing it in different ways,

some are taking the readings by phone!

some are radio/cellphone transmitted,- most of the social housing roofs.

I think the way it is going to go is the meter man reading both meters when he visits.

 

[steptoe]

see the meter here above the trunking?

generation meter BEFORE it goes to normal CU and starts to be used!

 

[steptoe]

A typical schematic, note the generation meter just after the CU,

diagram shows,

Array

DC disconnector

inverter

AC isolator

CU (I always like to fit a stand alone one for the pv)

generation meter

back to normal cu, or iscos or whatever,

 

[Apache]

a good 4kW system on a good roof will put about 2K of cold hard cash in your hand each year,

Is that then taxed as income?

 

[steptoe]

I dont know,

but I dont think it is,

something about the ECO thing

 

[NozSpark]

you dont have a FIT meter, simply a generation meter (NOZs white meter)nobody knows how much you are feeding back, your normal meter is just a lower reading, but by how much? :C

perhaps SMART meters will have this capability?

not quite what I wad meaning steps,,,

From what I have seen is that you'll have a generation meter and as your normal useage meter won't show (deduct) feed in that your supplier should be installing a white meter that essentially goes backwards when your generation exceeds your useage

Could easily be wrong though??

 

[steptoe]

AH, yes Noz,

some meters have been locking out as they wont allow a back feed, they 'see' it as stealing , so they lock out and cut off the supply!!!!!!

I think this is one of the reasons you have to notify so quickly.

I think these new smart meters have the capability to register, on different screens so to speak, how many units have travelled in or out.

 

[steptoe]

you get paid for all you generate, whether you use it or not,

now, I have always been under the impression you get 100% at the generation tariff, then another 50% at the FIT rate, as at this time they have no means to record how much you are putting back into the grid.

BUT,

now Im not so sure,

dont you have google on your computer? :slap

 

[tom1]

i think you get paid half of what you generate and the new smart meters will work out what you use so you get paid for what you put in to the grid.

least thats what i was told.

 

[steptoe]

Yep and its not that clear to be honest so i thought from an expert who does it i may find out the answer

that statement is just flawed in so many ways,

its gonna have to wait til tomorrow and

A you will realise how stoopid that really is

B I might have found something out

C someone else can tell us what is going on,

:|

 

[roys]

43.3p on every unit you generate.

3.1p on every unit you export.

Currently as there is not much in the way of smart meters out there they persume you use 50% of your generated leccy and export 50% of your leccy. So basically just 1/2 the 3.1p = 1.6p and add that to your 43.3p.

So you get 44.9p for every single kWh you generate.

Also if the panels are generating and you are consuming less than what they are generating then it your leccy usage is free.

I have also been told (not 100% sure) that FIT income is tax free.

 

[SparkyMarky]

You get 41.3p for every unit you generate whether you use it or not, this is the reading from your new export meter which you send to your electricity supplier. You get 3p for every unit you export to the grid. However, with current equipment it is not possible to determine how much you use and how much you export so most suppliers assume it's 50:50. So the maths is 41.3p per unit generated plus half of 3p for each unit generated which is 42.8p. With a full sized (3.68kW) array you can expect about

 

[binky]

some real world numbers for you:-

My first install a small 1.3kWp array, has generated

 

[monkey5]

thanks for the info guys, im slowly selling it to him. hes got roofs facing east and west so would it still produce as much?