UK Warns People About Solar for Free Offers

UK experts are now telling homeowners to watch out for companies that are offering to fit their homes with solar panels for free. The experts go on to point out that it is very possible that the homeowners would actually end up paying more this way than if they choose to pay for it themselves.

Homeowners are being temped by a very new kind of scheme called, solar for free. However, experts say that they could double their financial savings if they just went out and paid for the panels themselves.

This advice comes as installations of solar photovoltaic panels have exploded all over the UK. The number of installations in four months in 2010 doubled the whole year of 2009. This is, of course, mostly due to a government financial incentive that was launched back in April.

This new fad, which is being spurred on by the new feed in tariff, has homeowners looking into building small scale generators for green power. Companies are offering to fit thousands of home with solar planeloads for free. So this brings up the question, what’s the catch?

Under this new, rent your roof system, the companies earn the tariff worth approximately £835 a year. Homeowners benefit from an annual savings of around £110 off their electricity bill. However, it seems that homeowners would almost always be better off paying for the solar panels themselves - even if they had to take into account the interest that they would have to pay for the upfront cost of buying the panels and having them installed, which would cost around £10,000 total for a typical home.