Is it worth our while?

It might seem like that to you, but that is because you yourself, and your fellow entusiasts are knowledgeable. Analysing performance, planning upgrades, tracking output on smartphone apps. Ye are therefore biased.

But the average, non-enthusiast won't have a fraction of that knowledge or even the interest it these matters. For the average person walking the street, it is likely that the they probably don't even understand the fundamental principles of electricity, and neither do they have the inclination to educate themselves about it or the finer points of solar PV systems. They are not going to have the time, interest nor perhaps even the capability of looking at and interpreting information on a smartphone app.

My sister and her husband have a solar thermal system on their house, installed when the house was built. It has ceased to work for some years and they were absolutely oblivious to that fact. I offered to arrange for it to be repaired and they just shrugged their shoulders at the notion. They now just press a button for heat and hot water, having had their complicated heating controls replaced with a basic as could be flash programmer and boost button.

And they are not idiots either, both are smart people, work professional jobs. They are average people. But like most, renewable energy is just not something they are particularly interested in. I doubt they know the difference between AC and DC and I'would put money on them understanding the fundamental concept of an electrical circuit.

If I tried to explain to them how to track the performance of their solar system remotely via an app, they would glaze over - it would be like speaking Hindi to them.

For the average person, it just isn't important enough to them for them to bother their time learning about it.

@Girl Geraldine - "For the average person, it just isn't important enough to them for them to bother their time learning about it."

In your example you are talking about people with inherited systems though that didn't cost them anything in terms of time or money, not people who actively go out and have a system costing thousands installed.

But yeah I broadly agree with your point about people who have no interest in any of these systems. That's where a global existential problem like climate change comes in though, helped with a bit of an energy crisis. People like your sister and her husband, now still seemingly ignorant of what's happening in the world, will get a rude awakening when a kWh hits €1 and then they will get the finger out. I see it all around me already and PV installers are all out the door and materials are near impossible to get.

I dont think this forum is an "echo chamber". There are plenty of discussions around DIY versus COTS batteries for example - plus the ongoing debates on FIT veruss battery etc.

I dont really get why a "single person living alone" is even in this forum giving advice on NOT installing solar etc. If we took a poll of people who have success with saving money on electricity bills - your cohort would not be represented... you need to have a fairly healthy demand for exlectricity - and big bills to even look at solar.

Watch the video in the FAQ - the very first part of it is "do not install solar untill you try these things, reduce, change habits, switch provider annually etc etc)

A few months may be a bit optimistic. My system cost a bit under 2k and if prices don't skyrocket too much more it will still take 3-4 years to pay for itself.

+1 (good post btw)

We asked that exact Q and our installer said roughly 2k to move and put back up (was a very loose cost months ago over a coffee and before they all got mad busy). For 2k I'd likely move it as our kit is new and no learned curve for me (as I know that kit) IF I wasn't getting a price bump from having it

So if / when we do sell, we can

1) Sell 'as is' with the extra cost of the solar included. I reckon it would bump our house price. As @graememk says which gaff would you buy. I'd give estate agent the blurb on having the lowest energy bills in the area, and EV ready with the Zappi. Would be the truth, not spoof numbers (hate that marketing crap of zero bills). 10-15k is small beans in terms of house prices in Dublin anyways, so I'd expect we'd sell 'with the house'

2) Or we'll remove it if buyers won't pay for it and remove the few screw holes in the walls so it's back as was. And sale price doesn't include solar.

But it's deffo a good 'challenge' to have when selling

I got some very cheap 380W panels a few months ago that are 1.76m*1.04m. Those 560W panels at 2.30m*1.1m are just 7% more efficient per m2 panel, but I bet they are charging 100% more for them than what I paid.

Beware. Don't let those mighty high wattage panels fool you.

@cnocbui - "this site says 2kw of panels will cost €5,500"

LOL I put up 4.5kwp on my shed DIY for about €2k spring of last year. At the time I calculated the pay back period with my usage at about 2.5 years, but before any of these electricity price increases. Now the pay back period is more like 1.6-1.8 years. In other words, it will have almost fully paid for itself in electricity savings by now. And I could take the whole system down tomorrow and sell for more than I paid. Have your cake and eat it. All tax free too.

BTW where do you get that 5.29% guaranteed return on a zero risk investment after taxes?

woah, who are offering the 5.29% interest rate? genuinely interested

Don't forget Irish price bonds. They also pay about 0.5-1% and tax free too. But it's luck of the draw, I have some and I think I have averaged about 0.2% return 😂 (or basically a loss of several percent of my capital in real terms because of inflation)

I think that ESB calculator hasn't been updated since they brought in all those price increases.

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