The solar panel industry is booming. A significant fall in the cost of installing solar panels coupled with rising energy bills has resulted in high demand for solar from both homeowners and businesses.
Despite the boom, there still remains low awareness across the country of solar power’s financial benefits and how the installation process works.
To combat this we invited Sesh Diu from Aniron Renewable, an MCS accredited solar installation company, to answer some common questions about installing solar panels.
Aniron specialize in rooftop residential and industrial solar panel installations and work on around 200 projects every year in the UK.
Q. What are the common reasons why your customers want to install solar panels?
A. First and foremost people want to reduce their energy costs.
Not only do the panels reduce your daytime electricity consumption, but also the feed in tariff pays on everything you generate from solar, whether you use it in your home or if it’s exported back to the grid.
It’s a common misconception that people think they only get the feed in tariff for solar power they feed back in to the grid. When in fact it is on the total amount generated.
Q. What advice would you have for someone installing solar panels?
A. Don’t be pressured into making any quick decisions, get a number of quotations, so you can make a balanced and informed decision.
Q. In your experience, what is the biggest concern property owners have about installing solar panels?
A. The biggest concern is normally the look of solar panels; this is why we prefer to install solar modules that are all black, since aesthetically they do look significantly better than the traditional panels people are perhaps used to seeing.
Q. How long does it take to install solar panels on average?
A. Installation for a typical home will normally take one day to complete.
Q. Are you able to work out what the likely savings and earnings will be at a property within the first visit?
A. Yes. Once we have surveyed a property, which we do upon the first visit. We accurately know the direction from south and inclination of the roof. Combined with the location in the country we can accurately calculate the annual yield for a system and therefore their earnings.
Q. How can the government do more to encourage the uptake of solar panel installation?
A. The government can help by raising awareness; many people don’t actually realize how much sense it makes to invest in a solar panel system for their home. They believe it’s too good to be true, but what they should know is that over half a million homes now have them installed and typically homeowners are benefitting from a return on investment in excess of 12%.
Some examples of Aniron Renewable’s work:
