I hadn’t heard about Octopus Energy until recently when another blogger pointed me in their direction and when I checked out their prices, we found they were very competitive. Our current energy fixed contract comes to an end shortly and prices have gone up across the board, so we will be paying more for our energy and would do whoever we switched to, but when we did our comparison they came out cheaper than the big 6 suppliers and were one of the most competitive renewable suppliers.

The renewable energy they supply mainly comes from solar farms (electricity) and anaerobic digestion of plant waste (gas) as well as wind (electricity). They have a variety of tariffs to choose from with differing percentages of renewable energy and some are fixed and some are not. The most competitive tariff has 50% renewable energy and for a bit more their super green tariff includes fully renewable electricity and carbon offsets for gas. We decided to go for the super green tariff, which as I said earlier when we price checked for our home was still cheaper than the big six energy providers non green tariffs.

I’m not a big fan of filling out forms, but making the switch was actually really easy – it only took me a couple of minutes to do. You don’t even have to tell your old supplier you are leaving them, you just sign up to the new one to start when your old contract finishes/ the date you want to leave your previous supplier. After you have signed up the new supplier will want a meter reading to pass on to your old supplier on the date the switch occurs, but that isn’t too tricky.

It feels good to finally be able to say from an energy use perspective our home and this blog is carbon neutral! You can Sign up to Octopus Energy here* and you and I will both earn £50 credit off our energy bills!  It is well worth taking a look at them as going green with your energy isn’t as expensive as you might think it is!

Disclaimer – this is a sponsored post and contains an affiliate link highlighted by an asterisk, opinions are all my own though.

So what is all the fuss about?  In 2010 FIT’s came into existence.  FIT’s mean that electricity companies now have to make regular payments to homeowners and communities generating electricity via solar electricity panels or via wind turbines.  Investors in these technologies will receive a generation tariff (i.e. payments for any electricity generated), an export tariff (these are payments for any electricity pumped back into the grid) and energy bill savings (especially if appliances are used more during daylight hours).  These FIT’s have been guaranteed by the government to apply for 25 years for each investor and to be linked to inflation.  For more information on FIT’s see: http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/Generate-your-own-energy/Sell-your-own-energy/Feed-in-Tariff-scheme). 

Make a profit on solar electricity panels:

Solar Panel packages cost approximately between £10,000 to £15,000 for a 4kw system and it is roughly estimated that investors with the right roofs in the right locations, making full use of the FIT’s scheme can make/ save over £1000 a year. The idea is that by the end of the 25 year period they will have seen a significant return on their investment.  This however is largely due to the fact that currently the rates for the generation tariff are very generous.  These rates are due to decrease by 8.5% on a yearly basis (see: http://www.tescohomeefficiency.com/solar-electricity/) from April 2012 and anyone considering investing or applying for free solar panels will benefit most from the scheme under the current rates.

We live on the South Coast and have two south facing roofs.  We heard and saw all the adverts and decided to invite a company round to see if they would be interested in providing us with free solar panels.  They spent some time outside taking various roof measurements, had a look at our fuse box and went up into our loft.  After a couple of weeks, we were informed that our roof was too small and that they wouldn’t be progressing any further with us. 

In a way it was a bit of a relief.  We weren’t sure if it was the right decision for us and were aware that there were some pitfalls to the scheme.  We were wary of what exactly we would have been agreeing to with the company and whether it would have affected our house price should we want to sell in the future.

See this article in the Daily Mail about some of the downsides to  free solar panels:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/property/article-1309252/MARKET-WATCH-Solar-panels-fit-prince-beware-free-offers.html

Investing in solar electricity panels – things to consider regarding installation:

My husband suggested that if we couldn’t get free solar panels we should think about investing in them ourselves and he shopped around for quotes. 

One of the places we asked to quote was a local company, which has been in business for 9 years.  The company was around long before the FIT’s and specialises in the purchasing and installation of solar panels.  The manager came round to gather information in order to quote and stayed to answer a number of questions we had about solar panels and their installation.  He pointed out the following pitfalls of having solar panels installed by a company which has just recently started installing solar electricity panel systems in the light of FIT’s.

We also learnt that whichever company you decide to go with, the installers and solar panels must be MCS approved to enable you to benefit from the FIT’s.

What can go wrong with your investment in solar panels?

Buying solar panels does seem like a fairly safe bet at the moment, but it is a large amount of money to invest and if you are considering it, as we are you may want to take into account the followings risks and how to address them. 

Risk	Controls / Questions to ask prior to purchase
Installation and/or parts are of a poor quality. Damage to your roof occurs on installation.	Check the installers insurance policies to ensure that they can pay you in case of any damage/ problems.  You may want to take photocopies of any relevant documentation.
	Make sure that you have full contact details for your installers, including landline number and postal address and are able to get hold of them in the event of problems arising from installation.
	Ensure installers have appropriate qualifications and experience, ask to see any relevant certificates.
	Seek references/ reviews on the company prior to employment
	Ask the installers exactly how they plan to install your system, what the key risks are and what parts they plan to use and why. Do a little research on solar panel systems, their parts and their installation and test them against it.
	Notify home insurance providers of installation of solar panels and check what you are covered for.
Fault occurs in solar panel system in the next 25 year period.	Is yearly maintenance of your solar panel system needed/ provided/ offered by your installers?  How much would that cost if extra?
Panels get damaged at some point during the 25 year period	Do your panels come with a guarantee/ how long does it last and does it cover wear and tear over a 25 year period?
	Does your home insurance cover accidental and/or weather damage? Would the addition of solar panels to your home have any effect on premiums?
Panels stop working effectively	Are you being offered a 25 year efficiency guarantee?
	Can you/ do you want to take out insurance/ put savings aside to cover this?
Can you rely on a 25 year guarantee?	Some people may prefer to go with a well known established company as they feel they may be more likely to be around in 25 years time. However many well known and established companies such as MFI for example have closed recently and there are no guarantees.
	Some of the cheaper panels, may start to lose their efficiency quicker than some of the more expensive panels. It may be worth investing in a more expensive panel to help you get your money back in the quickest amount of time possible. This also helps if the government change their minds down the line about FIT’s, or may be a problem if they change their minds really quickly.
Is my roof appropriate for solar panels? Will I really benefit fully from the FIT’s?	It might be worth inviting someone round to see if they would give you free solar panels, prior to investing yourself. If they would, then you know you are in a good location for it, as they aren’t giving them away to just anyone.
	Ask your installer what checks they have made to ensure your roof is appropriate for this scheme and whether you will benefit sufficiently from the FIT’s. Double check this yourself as well, by doing some research online.
Inverter goes wrong (apparently they only last 10-15 years)	Could potentially take out an insurance policy or put some money aside to pay for this eventuality. Or you could potentially look for a second hand one later down the line.
Government changes their minds about FIT’s for existing customers	Hopefully this is unlikely.  This might be one where you have to take the risk if you choose to invest in solar panels.
We may want to sell our house before we have made our money back on our investment	This is a long term investment and is not really worth making if you don’t plan to be in your house for the long term. However if you do have to sell, you may be able to take account of it in the asking price.
Solar panels may put buyers off our house.	There are different coloured and sized panels available. Some may be viewed as more attractive than others.
	Given the generous FIT’s anyone purchasing the house would receive a source of income along with it, which is likely to be attractive.

DIY Solar panel systems?

If you can’t afford to invest and you aren’t able to get free solar panels, you could look into making them yourself.  You won’t however be able to qualify for FIT’s, as you have to use MCS registered installers and the panels have to be MCS approved.

There are various solar panel diy instruction packages being sold on-line, with the claim that anyone can make cheap solar panels themselves for a cost of around £100 – £200. See this blog for more details:
http://howtobuildownsolarpanels.blogspot.com/  Some of the sites that come up do look a little dodgy though, so be careful!

Further information about free solar panels/ investing in solar panels can be found on this website:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/free-solar-panels This gives an overview of free and bought solar panels with lots of good links.

What do you think about solar panels?  Would you consider getting them for free, investing in them yourself or even having a go at making them?  If anyone has any comments/ advice /contributions on this subject areas they would all be greatly appreciated.

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