The Solar Panel industry has had bad press of late, in particular with articles warning people against the growing risk of being ripped off by fringe solar water heating installers. In particular those who have a sales or money making rather than an environmental focus, I would liken it to the double glazing industry back in the 1980's. However, overplaying the risk of getting ripped off can distract from the potential savings that can be gained through using properly installed solar water heating. I would also express concern at the stated overall saving of 5.5% for all heating costs, bearing in mind that this is a percentage rather than a value, it applies equally to gas as electric or my own oil fired central and hot water heating.
I have solar water heating and am very happy with it. Looking at my own experience, I pay a standing order of £95 per month for oil over the course of a year putting my heating costs for a detached house at about £1,200, plus £60 for a load of logs each year. Most of this expense is of course incurred during the winter months.
During the summer period, my heating system is switched off, so from the end of May through to the end of September I use no heating fuel apart from exceptions where the weather fails us. Since installing my solar water heating system this has equated to one less oil delivery per year or about 1,000 litres. As the 1,000 litres equates to about £400 this is about 1/4th (25%) of our previous total heating fuel bill rather than the 5.5% savings stated in the recent article.
However, in defence of statements that true overall savings are more likely to be lower than my own experience, I should also say that our house is not kept toasty warm, we tend to put on an extra layer rather than turn up the thermostat. Also we aim to keep individual rooms warm rather than have the whole house equally heated, plus there is the extra insulation - our house is the last to lose its snow, so the amount of heat associated with water heating rather than space heating is possibly higher than normal, thus the relative savings are greater. However, even if we had the thermostat turned up, the savings as a discrete value - £400 would remain the same, though represent a lower percentage of the higher total heating cost.
In a very well "Super" insulated house, the marginal percentage savings on the heating fuel bill, by installing a solar hot water system will be far higher than with a poorly insulated house, more energy in the efficient house going as a proportion to heat water than living space.
Going back to the subject of dodgy dealers. Without naming names, one of the recent articles mentions the installation company that I first approached when investigating the possibility of solar heating. My initial call, asking for ball park figure, resulted in a visit by a smart salesman in a smart car. The salesman came out with all sorts of dubious facts and figures, many of which I disagreed with, in particular when he was telling me what my fuel bills were! One of the main selling points seemed to be the fact that I would get a placard at the front of the house promoting the company.
The other statement that I found irritating was the insistence that the system being promoted - evacuated tubes - really justified a higher price as it was an extra 10% more efficient than flat panels, however as roof space is not in short supply, why not just have more cheaper flat panels. (This is what I did in the end). I have since read that in Germany they now rarely sell evacuated tube systems due to the failure rate, the excess stock is now being shipped to the UK.
The big thing that was missing throughout the visit was a statement of the cost which was my constant question. Eventually I told the salesman that the visit would be at an end unless he told me how much the system would cost. He did, £7,500 (this was back in 2001) and I asked him to leave as staying was wasting both our time.
Eventually I got in contact with a manufacturer of solar panels who also act as a wholesaler / distributor. They in turn put me in contact with their local installer who installed the system that I now have. The price, allowing for a £400 grant came to £3,600 for a 3 panel system, that is about 6 square metres of flat plate solar collector.
Following that, I interested my then employer, a utility, in promoting the same solar panels, this was back in 2005, a year before Green became the new black! Though we had significant interest leading to many hundreds of visits and surveys by the installer we were subcontracting to, we only made two sales! This was despite a very low stated price of between £2,500 and £3,500 before grant depending on the installation.
I investigated this further and spoke to a company selling exactly the same systems. While we used a softly softly approach, sending a technician to talk to the potential customer, they used a salesman on commission and charged at least £2,000 more per installation. Their sales rate approached 35%, ours was less than 1%!
Certainly I cannot fault the technology of the higher priced company as it is the same as my installation, also I would hesitate to knock the statements that were being made by the salesman, I was able to sit through his pitch and could not fault the claims, I doubt that the journalist who wrote the critical "Green con trick" article would be able to fault them either. But what does it say when people will pay over £6,000 for an installation that is 'sold' when they turn their noses up at exactly the same system at half the price when the salesman is absent.
From the green point of view, perhaps the most important thing is getting these system installed. They do pay back the environmental cost or carbon footprint of manufacture within a couple of years, so on the larger scale it does not matter what people pay for them financially.
What advice would I give? Certainly do lots of research, understand the subject - its actually quite interesting. Do seriously consider installing solar water heating ahead of most other green initiatives; make sure you have a number of quotes - all at the £3,000 sort of price and make your decision in you own time; and if the salesman tries to get you to sign there and then, you know that is not the company to use!
Simon is currently working with http://www.billscutter.com to advise on renewable energy and its best use in lowering and controlling household bills
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Simon_Mallett
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