Solar Panels

[John Morrison]

Just wondering, do the addition of solar panels And

allied batteries in the loft increase house buildings and contents insurance by much?

John

[TR Rob]

Do you know what, I have had solar panels on my garage roof for over 12 years and never thought of insurance ! 
Thinking about it I think they would be included in my rebuild / contents insurance, like if you fitted an expensive kitchen or bathroom upgrade ??

[John Morrison]

Just so Rob, and if your insurance company don't know about them, you ain't covered!

John.

[Trev Good]

Any home improvement will affect your house insurance unless you had been paying over the value previously!

[StuartG]

I had solar panels fitted a year ago and told my insurance company, my house insurance did not increase as a result.

[PaulAnderson]

John,

Don't install solar storage batteries in the loft, put them outside instead.  There’s lots of information on that including this  YouTube video by eFixx.

Paul

[PodOne]

There was recent TV program looking at the cost benefit of fitting such a set up and the conclusion was it took around 20 years to pay for itself. That presumes the batteries and hard ware last that long, which is unlikely and you don't need any roof repairs. More cost effective if you have a spare plot of land to panel over.

Until the panel efficiencies improve I personally wouldn't bother.

Andy

[PaulAnderson]

I suspect that is either very out of date ( efficiency improves every year) or anti solar rhetoric.  Is it not like the lies told about EV’s e.g. here .  A friend recently had a heat pump installed along with solar PV and battery storage to power it.  He’s almost electricity bill free and while it’s quite new he still sometimes even gets an income from selling electricity to the grid.  His system also charges his electric car which gives him free mileage.   It’s just a standard system on a 80’s three bedroom semi.   The heat pump was largely paid for by a government grant, installed by Octopus Energy but he had to pay for all of his solar installation himself. 

[Motorsport Mickey]

Not hard to understand..".80’s three bedroom house" means the house could be as little as 30s old (if 1989 build) and they'd discovered internal insulation by then, so rooms are likely insulated between rooms and exterior walls internally, and floors also and of course loft floor and even roof are sometimes insulated. My sons house is similar and trying to cool it down is his major problem. Probably about 5 times better at heat retention as against 1930s or older semi the majority of the rest of the UK lives in. Hence a heat pump coupled to large radiators will work well in it.

Mick Richards

[Motorsport Mickey]

1 minute ago, Motorsport Mickey said:

Not hard to understand..".80’s three bedroom house" means the house could be as little as 30s old (if 1989 build) and they'd discovered internal insulation by then, so rooms are likely insulated between rooms and exterior walls internally, and floors also and of course loft floor and even roof are sometimes insulated. My sons house is similar and trying to cool it down is his major problem. Probably about 5 times better at heat retention as against 1930s or older semi the majority of the rest of the UK lives in. Hence a heat pump coupled to large radiators will work well in it.

Mick Richards

Oh...and the Grantham Research group as referenced in your above thread posting,,is a discredited entity and should very well remember it's own failings when making claims which subsequently are found untrue.

[ntc]

You do know that you will need a building control certificate and approval or you will never be able to sell your home 

[iain]

On 4/30/2024 at 3:56 PM, ntc said:

You do know that you will need a building control certificate and approval or you will never be able to sell your home 

Hi Neil… is this for PV panels?

Iain

[PodOne]

The program I referred to was made this year and if I remember correctly on Channel 5 so a modern efficient set up.

Unless folks homes are built to Scandinavian standards of insulation it's a pipe dream to expect everyone to go down this route. If heat pumps were the answer they wouldn't need supplementary electric heaters to work when the ambient temperatures are too low. We have a perfectly good gas supply system suitable for Hydrogen with boilers ready to burn it. Finding a cheap way of producing it is the answer we should be chasing to supply our poorly built housing stock.

I know of folk who have been sucked into this route and wished they hadn't who have then installed a gas fire or log burner to keep warm in the winter months.

The testing mules (houses) are from what I've seen bear no resemblance to the real world being situated in warehouses where everything internal/external can be optimised.

 Andy