UK help for households generating alternative energy

While the feed in tarriffs are a positive move from the government, you will be able to gain more by using what you generate instead of shipping it into the grid.

That always used to be the case, but not strictly true any more. I've just been reading about this and the feed-in tariffs are a lot more generous than I first thought. I saw the 3p/kWh figure but that is for existing schemes (who benefited from capital grants).... New ones can actually get 30-40p/kWh depending on technology..... So it actually makes more sense to export as much as possible as you can buy in normal electricity at around 10p/kWh.... (Although from an environmental point of view you should use as much as possible at the point it is generated to avoid transportation losses... )

You achieve the feed in tariff rate of up to 41.3p/unit (domestic rate) whether you use the electricity yourself or export it to the grid. Where you make the return on your costs is using the electricity yourself saves you the 10p/unit that you would normally pay to an energy supplier while they would only pay you 3p/unit if you export. So export at 3p but spend 10p or avoid spending 10p (net saving of 7p for every unit you can generate yourself) plus 41.3p from the government via the supplier. It's a bit bizarre and I find it difficult myself but the point I was trying to make was every little you can take off your bill is hugely beneficial, especially as the cost of energy is only going up!

While the feed in tarriffs are a positive move from the government, you will be able to gain more by using what you generate instead of shipping it into the grid.

That always used to be the case, but not strictly true any more. I've just been reading about this and the feed-in tariffs are a lot more generous than I first thought. I saw the 3p/kWh figure but that is for existing schemes (who benefited from capital grants).... New ones can actually get 30-40p/kWh depending on technology..... So it actually makes more sense to export as much as possible as you can buy in normal electricity at around 10p/kWh.... (Although from an environmental point of view you should use as much as possible at the point it is generated to avoid transportation losses... )

You achieve the feed in tariff rate of up to 41.3p/unit (domestic rate) whether you use the electricity yourself or export it to the grid. Where you make the return on your costs is using the electricity yourself saves you the 10p/unit that you would normally pay to an energy supplier while they would only pay you 3p/unit if you export. So export at 3p but spend 10p or avoid spending 10p (net saving of 7p for every unit you can generate yourself) plus 41.3p from the government via the supplier. It's a bit bizarre and I find it difficult myself but the point I was trying to make was every little you can take off your bill is hugely beneficial, especially as the cost of energy is only going up!

Ah, ok, I haven't actually read the details of the scheme - it's not strictly a feed-in tariff then, more like an extension of the ROCs... Yep, makes sense if they are paying out on generation rather than export.

Hmm... just reading a bit more about this, the feed-in tariff is actually the 3p bit, the rest is just re-packaging the existing ROC scheme by the looks of it - although it is more generous (particularly for PV).

Helen - your DH should look at the work by BEAMA for his calculations - they did a load of surveys and found an average of about 50% of energy generated is exported from domestic installations (varies for diff techs - I'm sure PV was around 50% mark though) - because of daily patterns of generation and consumption (Note these were installations without local battery storage facilities). They published it on their website a couple of years ago (give me a shout if you can't find it and I can send you a contact).

(Sorry, I'll stop being an energy geek now.... )

.....

(Sorry, I'll stop being an energy geek now.... )

I feel a little as if I'm turning into one too now!

Thanks for that info link - I'll pass it on and give you a shout if he wants a contact (he may have them on his "list" already)

[clothmama]

I couldn't' believe it - look what happened at my neighbors house the morning after I last posted on this thread:



I spoke to the guys and they installed a 2kw system that will feed back into the grid and they should get around $400 back a year (more if they go off caravaning for 3 weeks at a time which they do) they also have a solar hot water heater on the end which will feed to a 400l tank and apparently will be enough for all their needs. Total cost for the system was $20,000 which I calculated with the not electric bills and the money back would be paid off in about 6 years.

Thought it was so funny with the timing