ESB 30% Increase - Solar Panels

In light of ESB's 30% proposed price increase, I've been doing a bit of research on how to make my house more energy efficient.

One option I was looking into were Solar Panels, would they be a realistic option for me?

My house is a 2 bed mid terrace in Dublin 8, its facing east west.

I also see that there is a grant available from sustainable energy ireland which would help with the cost.

I had hoped that with the greens in government the VAT on energy saving products would be reduced.
Best to look at your previous bills, add 30% and compare to the installation costs, however AFAIK solar really only heats the water and even then only for 6 months a year, but I’m open to correction.

you can get Photovoltaic solar panels to create electricity but then the SEI will not give a grant for these type of solar panels as that would potentilly take you off the grid and at the moment the government dont want people to do that...

Also since the greens have come in the grants from the sei have been reduced, go figure!!

So the government don't want to encourage people to be energy independent. Gives me so much faith in them.

So the only panels I can get are ones that will heat my water but not to create electricity. How frustrating is that.

And God help you if you want to supply electricity back into the grid. I remember the day a spokesman from the EBS/Eirgrid was on the radio calling all the new companies who wanted to supply electricity 'Incompetent'. While in many other countries anyone (joe soap) can feed their excess power back into the system.

fkells said:

In light of ESB's 30% proposed price increase, I've been doing a bit of research on how to make my house more energy efficient.

One option I was looking into were Solar Panels, would they be a realistic option for me?

My house is a 2 bed mid terrace in Dublin 8, its facing east west.

I also see that there is a grant available from sustainable energy ireland which would help with the cost.

Click to expand...

If you want to make your house more energy efficient, getting Solar panels will help, but there are more important things that you should deal with first.

Extra insulation, airtightness, dealing with Thermal Bridges, double or triple glazing will save you far more money than solar panels.

The payback time for an investment in Solar Panels is quite long, more so with you because your house is east and west facing. There is a lot of information on the web about the payback time for Solar panels.

The main advantage in Solar panels as far as I can see is that you cut your carbon emissions.

This idea of supplying back to the grid is called net metering.

Basically - if you have a means of generating electricity then you can feed what you are not using back into the grid with your meter essentially running in reverse and reducing your bill. Not available in Irealnd for normal punters yet -

Hopefully net metering is coming soon but don't hold your breath without doctor's advice LOL.

( Fianna Fail and the CER are not responsible for brain damage due to punters holding their breath waiting for them to get their fingers out - past performance is probably a good indicator for further incompetence in the future - terms and conditions apply etc.)