u/DoughnutCareless583

I'm technically overweight according to BMI (29), but I do lift so I probably wouldn't take this purely for weight alone even if I could stand to lose 5 or 10 Kg. I do have a genetic condition which means I'm prone to cardiac issues and I've seen the NICE recommendations in the UK change for heart patients and was wondering if the cardiac benefits alone would be worth taking it. If anyone else has done this, what's your experience???

A few people were asking for an analysis/breakdown in some of the recent posts asking about solar so I thought I'd put it in a post for reference. This is my experience with a new Sigenergy system that's been in place for a year in Co. Armagh on a fairly S facing roof with no shade with 16 panels (the max without planning) and a 10KW battery.

I now have the data to estimate I will probably get around 5MWh of electricity per year.

So that's £1600 worth of electricity per year at the current ShareEnergy price of just over 30p/kWh exVAT (at 5% for domestic users or just under 32p total), or approximately £133/month assuming you use it all and don't export. We export quite a bit in summer (about 20% of the total generation).

I used a £10,000 loan at 6% interest (what I got, rates will be a bit higher now - maybe 6.8% or so for best on MSE), the loan payment is about £200/month. A loan <£10K may attract a higher interest rate, so you're probably better taking £10k vs £9K and I used the money for some "extras" which may or may not be good value.

So in that respect, the net cost to you would be about £66.6 per month to have a 5 year loan to pay for the system. You'll have a net increase in your costs of £4,000 at year 5 (of which about £1500 is interest).

At year 5 with no loan to pay back, the system will then "pay you back" at a rate of £120/month so the total system will then come to cost neutrality at about year 7.8 but keep in mind that the only amount YOU had to pay out of YOUR pocket over your normal energy cost was the £4,000 at £66.60/month on average (mostly in the winter), the rest (the £7,500 balance of the loan)was paid back by the sun and you just allocated money that you are not paying NIE, ShareEnergy or Airtricity to the bank.

My bills are standing charge only in summer, and £100-£140 in mid winter.

Without a loan, the system would pay back your £9K investment (as you wouldn't take £10K) in 6.5years.

From that point on you can consider that the system will generate you the full £1600/year in savings.

A few assumptions:

Price of electricity remaining constant.

A huge one.... You are able to use all of your generated electricity. I only use about 80% of what I generate and what you get back from the grid is a pittiance, so I use about 85% return which means I probably won't see cost neutrality until Y9 or so. You can capture more if you have a bigger battery system (which probably doesn't make financial sense as they're £2500 each) or an electric car you can charge.

Loan rate at 6% (may be slightly more now)

Fairly optimal orientation.

So for me, the big consideration is: How long do you plan on owning your home. If it's a family home, and your children will fight over who gets it when they put you in the nearest fold, then it's probably worth it. If it's your 2U/2D terrace starter home and you plan to move on in a few years, probably not.

One last consideration... how do you plan to use the savings? Once paid, you have removed an obligate expense from your balance sheet. That's a expense you don't have a choice about that you pay from your TAXED income. If you are a saver, and can put that extra money into a tax efficient vehicle like an ISA to save, then your £1600/yr can actually be more like >£2000.

Another consideration for us is that we plan to retire as soon as is practicable, and for me the bigger thing is that this cost offset is like getting £120/month extra on our retirement income.

Edited: For typos, emphasis and bad grammar