FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Once your solar system is installed, you can collect energy from the sun, completely free of charge.

Benefits include:

• No harmful CO₂ emissions
• The Sun's energy is assured for the next 5 billion years!
• Supplies much more energy than is needed to manufacture the solar system components
• Increase in property value
• Reduced dependency on gas and Russia / China who will control the supply of it in the future
• Less exposure to continuous rises in fuel bills

A very difficult question and not easy to answer. There are very many misleading reports on payback ranging from 7 years to 20+ years.

If you take your investment capital and divide by your anticipated savings on gas / electric, this will provide you with the crudest of formula for calculating payback.

But, how do you factor in fuel price increases, the future impact on prices when Russia / China hold all the oil reserves, what about inflation, increased longevity of your boiler due to its reduced workload?

If your house increases in value by £10,000, you have your money back on day1!

What is the payback on a new kitchen, a new car, loft insulation or double glazing? What if you buy an ISA instead of a solar system, will it give you £400 a year return, maybe?

SolaSave don’t have an answer for payback, we will leave you to make up your own mind.

We buy the best in the business when it comes to solar equipment. We do not buy cheap imports and we buy complete system components perfectly matched and quality tested.

Our suppliers are approved by the Micro Generation Scheme (MCS).

The UK’s irradiation map shows that we can collect more than 1kWh of solar energy every year. With a solar thermal system, you can convert this into saving around 60% to 70% of your water heating costs.

Depending on how many PV panels you can install, you may be generating 25% to 50% of your annual usage.

Either of these will reduce your fuel bills.

At present, thermal is more popular as it is cheaper and has a quicker ‘payback’ time. PV requires a much larger area of roof space for it to make an effective impact, a minimum of 8.5m² to deliver a 1kWp system.

PV may well become more attractive though now that the feed-in tariffs have been announced for the UK, effective from 1st April 2010. Under this scheme, electricity that you generate will be sold back to your electricity supplier at a greater price than that at which you buy it at, which is a great incentive to install PV.

A similar scheme is anticipated for Thermal but not until 2011.

Your roof will need to be structurally sound in order to take the load of the panels. For thermal, an area of 4m² to 6m² will be required for a typical system. Solar PV requires more panels to get a useful return, around 8.5m² per kWp.

The panels will work most effectively when south facing and without shading from nearby trees and other obstacles. If you have a roof facing East, South East, South West or West, the system can still work with a slightly reduced output.

For solar thermal, your existing hot water cylinder will need to be replaced with a twin coil cylinder.

For solar thermal, you will need to have a hot water storage cylinder. If you do not have one, we will provide one as part of the system.

Combi-boiler and other arrangements can usually be accommodated but some additional components may be required. Our surveyor will be able to advise you.

The value of your home will increase and by a greater margin than the initial investment.

A MORI survey reported that homes with environmental features will be valued by up to £10K more by local estate agents compared to similar properties that don’t.

It will also improve the energy assessment results that now forms part of the HIPS report.

Manufacturers guarantee that solar panels will still deliver 80% of today’s performance in 20 years or more.

Planning permission is not normally required unless you live in a listed building. Even then, you may still be able to have solar but not mounted directly on the roof of your home.

Maybe, but there are no indicators that prices will fall.

Solar is fairly new to the UK but has been around for many years in other countries including much of Europe.

There will no doubt be an increase in demand in the UK, especially now the feed-in tariffs have been confirmed, however, the increased UK demand will have little impact in the volume of production in Europe or the rest of the world.

We therefore believe that prices are fairly well established now so there’s no reason to delay.

This is a personal choice and probably the aesthetics will be the deciding factor. In terms of technical differences, consider the following: -

Flat plate benefits:

• More pleasing to the eye
• Can be mounted on roof or in roof
• More robust against impact, vandalism, hailstones, etc
• Not dependant on a vacuum, individual tubes may fail after a while

Tube benefits:

• Generally, they are slightly more efficient than flat plates, especially if fitted with parabolic reflectors
• More effective in cloud cover, good for the winter
• Modular assembly, easier handling and installation
• Adjustments required to point to the sun for optimum results
• Individual tube replacement, cheaper repairs

The main reason is that your hot water cylinder probably has a single coil heat exchange connected to your boiler. For solar, we must add an additional coil from the solar panel to preheat the water and reduce the workload of your boiler.

Secondly, solar hot water cylinders are the most efficient cylinders in terms of stratification and insulation. It makes little sense to produce efficient energy then lose it though a poorly insulated cylinder.

Solar thermal is to be considered as a pre-heating process.

Typically, your solar system will heat incoming mains water (around 6°C) to temperatures of 35°C to 45°C. Your boiler will do the rest and get the water to the desired 60°C to 65°C.

This is far more efficient than your boiler heating the water from 6°C to 65°C.

Even on overcast days, solar energy will still pre-heat your water. Your boiler will do the rest and get the water to the desired 60°C which is still better than your boiler heating the water from cold.

An ‘A’ frame mount can be used and is adjustable enabling optimum elevation angle to collect the suns energy.

Not really, the system is kept naturally clean by weathering.

A periodic check every year is recommended to check the system health. For Solar thermal, the quality of the glycol fluid needs to be checked to ensure that it has not broken down.

Glycol is likely to need replacing every 5 years or so and must be done by a competent solar engineer but this is an inexpensive process.

Very unlikely but you will generate a percentage of your needs when you are at home and probably generate a surplus when you are not.

When you are at work, you will be producing for others and earning feed in credits at the same time.

Basically this means that your PV system is connected to the national electricity grid rather than being a stand alone system which is more popular in other (hotter) countries.

When PV is producing electricity in excess of your needs it is automatically fed back to the National Grid and you will be credited for your contribution.

Varies considerably but a 1kWp system will generate approximately 750kWh (units) per year, around 25% of a typical household’s needs.

MCS approved and audited by independent UKAS accredited awarding body. Choosing MCS accredited suppliers and installers is a pre-requisite to the government incentive schemes such as feed-in tariffs.

Other benefits:

• Quality products installed by time served tradesmen
• Free, no obligation survey and quote – we do not use salesmen to do site visits. When you call us you will be speaking to a trained solar expert with no “hard sell” tactics
• Assistance with Planning Approval if required
• Free professional advice – even if you are just beginning to investigate solar, give our professionals a call and they will be happy to offer advice and guidance
• Friendly local company – you get the benefit of dealing with a local company which is part of a national group
• Timed appointments – to fit around your busy schedule, we will attend evenings or weekends if required