What is the Green Deal for solar panels?

What is the Green Deal for solar panels?

The Green Deal for solar panels is a government run financing scheme that has been set up to help you make energy saving improvements to your home or work place. It enables you to make these energy saving improvements without having to pay for it all upfront. You still have to pay back the full amount over time; the Green Deal is a loan not a grant. However, the idea is that the savings you make on your energy bills will cover the costs of the loan repayments whilst lowering your carbon footprint. You can also choose to pay for the improvements in advance using the Green Deal providers and certified installers. The Green Deal is available for a variety of install types and technologies including, insulation (cavity, loft or solid wall), heating, draught proofing, double glazing and renewable energy generation methods like solar panels and heat pumps. By taking a Green Deal you could well be protecting yourself from future energy price rises.

Full Guide of How To Make Your Own Solar Panels here>>> 
How to go about benefiting from the Green Deal.

1: Check if your home or business is likely to benefit from the Green Deal below.
Your building is applicable for the Green Deal if one or more of the following applies;

    Your building wasn’t built in the last three years.
    The walls and or loft are not insulated.
    You have an old boiler and no heating controls.
    You are interested in renewable heating or generating your own electricity through renewable means.

2: You can get a Green Deal assessment of your home or business to see what improvements you can make and how much you could save through these improvements.
You can contact us to find out more about getting your property assessed by a Green Deal assessor.
You can use this assessment tool to see if your building is applicable for the Green Deal loan scheme. There is usually a charge of between £95 and £150 for an assessment so it is highly recommended that you do this before asking an assessor to come and check your building.

Full Guide of How To Make Your Own Solar Panels here>>> 

3: You will then need to decide how you are going to pay for the improvements. There are two main ways to pay.

    You can have a loan to fully cover the costs of the improvements so you don’t have to pay them in advance. You will have to pay the loan off in instalments that are added to your electricity bill. These instalments are based on what a typical household is expected to save once the work has been carried out. These costs will be shown on your Green Deal finance plan, which will include interest rates. This is the contract that will exist between you and your energy provider. Although this is generally worked out by how much you are saving so that your overall bills do not increase, the actual increase or decrease of your energy bills will still depend on factors such as energy price increase and the manner in which you use it. The Green Deal stays with the property so you won’t have to continue paying the loan if you move. You can pay back the Green Deal loan early although some energy providers may charge a fee for this service.

    Alternatively you can pay for the loan upfront as long as a Green Deal assessor has organised it and the work is done through a Green Deal provider. By doing this can you avoid the interest costs but are still eligible for the governments ‘cashback’ scheme featured below. This means that even if you are paying in advance, you will need to contact an energy provider not an installer to be eligible for the cash back after the work is done.

Full Guide of How To Make Your Own Solar Panels here>>> 



These are rates for England and Wales. They're guaranteed for the first £40m of cashback, but the rest of the promised £125m could be at lower rates.

The bullet points below are designed to give answers to frequently asked questions and to give some more tips on getting a Green Deal loan.
If you need any further information at all then don’t hesitate to contact one of our team through the ‘contact Us’ tab on the right.

    As a landlord you must get your tenants permission before you go ahead with any improvements. Likewise, if you are a tenant you must get your landlords permission before making any improvements. (this also applies to social housing)
     Be mindful that if the energy demands of your property drop there is a possibility that your bills could work out more expensive. Although this is very unlikely due to the conservative nature of the initial assessment.
    Shop around for a cheaper assessor fee as this charge could vary dramatically.
    Make sure you do a home assessment check before paying for an assessor to come out to your property.
    Check if your local authority is offering cash for assessments. The Government put up a £20 million fund for local authorities to apply for funding and promote the Green Deal in their area.
    Check if the company offers the initial assessment fee back if you go ahead with the work as we have found that some do.
    In Scotland you can get a maximum of £1200 through the cashback scheme. However, for a limited period you can claim your assessment fees back. For more information on the Scottish Cashback scheme click the text.
    If you live in a cold house and worry about turning up the heat this scheme should help you turn up the heat at less cost.
    The loan is attached to your home, not you, so if you move the next owner pays the bill. As this is a fairly new scheme we have yet to figure out how it affects property prices.
    You can still benefit from the Cashback scheme even if you pay the loan off straight away.
    The loan is ‘unsecured’ which means that the loan provider can’t take your property if you can’t repay the loan.
    The interest on the loan is variable depending on its amount and length so check how much a range of providers will charge.

Full Guide of How To Make Your Own Solar Panels here>>> 
    If you decide to pay a loan back early, especially on a 15 year loan, your provider could charge you for compensation. Check your provider’s policy on this before entering a contract.
    If you are on benefits or if you are looking for insulation you may be entitled to free cash. Contact us using the ‘Contact Us’ form for further info on this.
    You only need one assessment so get at least three quotes for the work. You can haggle the price on install with the installers; often you will be able to get a better price by offering less than the quoted price!
    Combining improvements can make Green Deal loans more affordable. As the amount you pay back is directly related to the amount you are saving, combining improvements such as insulation and solar panels can lower your energy needs and end up costing you no more than you are currently paying on your energy bills. You will still be able to benefit from both improvements.
    You can still switch energy provider. All the big six energy providers are offering the Green so you can switch between them and continue to pay your Green Deal loan off as you were doing. Check everything with both providers first to ensure that there are no further costs.
    If your Solar panels (as an example) break after the warranty has run out and before the Green Deal loan is paid off you may still have to pay for the panels.
    The Green Deal has very strong consumer protection rules. Make sure you go to the Ombudsman if you are given any bad advice. You can either visit the Green Deal Ombudsman site or call 0800 023 4567.

The Green Deal certainly seems to be a good move for those looking for Solar panels who can’t afford to pay for them upfront. Your home or business will generally benefit from the improvements covered by the Green Deal initiative. This said, always look into the details as much as possible before making up your mind and always ensure you are with the cheapest provider.
</div>

Use Free Solar Panels - How you can Get them?

If you don’t want, or are unable, to pay the upfront costs of installing solar panels, many companies are now offering it free as long as they can benefit from your precious Feed in Tariff (FiT). These are often called Rent a Roof or Free Solar schemes and are attractive options to home and business owners who want panels installed and to benefit from cheaper bills, without the burden of the initial outlay cost.

You might believe that you get nothing for free in this world, so it’s worth taking a closer look at Rent a Roof Schemes.

How to Make Your own solar panel free full guide here>>>>

How to Make Your own solar panel free full guide here>>>>
How do free solar panel installations work?

Solar panels benefit from the Feed in Tariff which means any energy they produce is bought by the grid and the profits returned to the owner. For most people looking to install solar panels it is one of the attractive features – earning a steady, often tax free, income and offsetting the initial cost of putting it in. With free installations, this Feed in Tariff benefit goes to the company.

Free Solar Panels

The pros of free installation:

    Benefit from lower energy bills.
    Reduce your carbon footprint.
    No outlay. It’s free.

The cons of free installation:

    You don’t get the Feed in Tariff.
    You can be tied into a long contract.
    You have no protection if the company goes out of business.
    Questions will be asked by mortgage companies should you should want to sell or remortgage your home.

Paying up front for your solar panels system is still the most cost effective and better long term investment if you want to make the most of an installation, but, if you want to just reduce your bills and be more carbon friendly, it is a good option if you don’t have the money. One thing to keep in mind is that energy bills are set to soar in the next few years and having a free installation may go some way to negating this.

According to a Which? survey a little while ago, the potential profit for a 4 kW system over 25 years, if you have made the initial payment up front, could be as much as £23,000. The possible savings on electricity from the panels would also provide an approximate saving of £5,000. If you had a Rent a Roof contract, you wouldn’t see that £23,000.
Check the Contract Carefully

We all know that contracts need to be read properly, but few of us bother to do it.

With something as long term as a free solar contract you need to make the effort. Some contracts have stipulated that home owners need to ask permission if they want to sell their property. If you want to remove the panels for a period of time to do repairs, you might have to compensate the company for loss of income. And, of course, if you want to sell your house you have to find someone who is willing to take on the contract.

If you don’t have the money or don’t want to take out a loan, then a free solar offer may be the right choice for you. You must make sure, though, that you both take legal advice and explore fully the type of contract you are getting into.
Not Everyone Gets Free Solar Panels

Just because free solar panels are available doesn’t mean that you’ll get them. Most installers who offer the scheme will need to check your property. If the roof size is too small, or they don’t think they will get a sufficient return on their investment, then they may well turn your property down.
Checklist Before Getting Free Solar Panels

It’s not simply a question of signing on the dotted line, you still need to do some work before accepting a Rent a Roof or Free Solar deal. This includes:

    Check with your mortgage provider first – they may not agree to the installation and might have concerns about the nature of the contract.
    Ask the right questions from the installer/company – in other words, do all your research and make sure you know what you are talking about.

Check your contract carefully and get the right legal advice. You are signing a 20-25 year contract so be aware of what you are getting into.

    What if the free solar company goes bust?
    Check who is responsible for repairs to the roof and/or solar equipment.

Other Options to Think About

If you can manage it, find the resources to pay up front for your installation. It gives you a better long term investment and more control over the future of your solar panels.

Find out more about eco finance for your solar panels.

If you think that you won’t be able to get finance to cover your solar panels project, then you might like to consider the government’s Green Deal loan scheme that can help fund renewable energy projects.

How Do Solar Panels Work?

Light from the sun travels 93 million miles, lands on your roof and is magically transformed into the electricity that works your TV, heats water, and lights your way at night. The key to this modern miracle is the photovoltaic cell that takes that clean and endless supply of energy and turns it into electrical current. Of course, there’s more to it than that. Let’s start with the basic components of your average solar panel array, the sort you see on the roof of a house or out in the country as part of a solar farm. The main constituent of an effective solar panel system is the photovoltaic cell.

How To Make Your Own Solar Panels ? Full Technology here>>>
Photovoltaic Cells Photovoltaics has been around for a good few years now. Back in the late 1950s PV cells were almost exclusively used to power things like satellites. And many of us remember having calculators at school that didn’t need a battery because they were powered by the sun. The desire to harness that energy has been the Holy Grail of renewables for the last 30 to 40 years. The great thing about photovoltaic cells is that they don’t need bright sunshine to work. They just require light, and can produce electricity even on a cloudy day – which is great news here in the UK. There are several types of photovoltaic cell used in solar panels, made from silicon, an excellent semi-conductor. These different cells vary in the efficiency of their electricity production, their purity and also their cost. Put simply, the cells absorb the light from the sun and convert it to electricity. By placing a connection either end of the cell you can then collect that current and use it to power all your energy needs.
 How To Make Your Own Solar Panels ? Full Technology here>>>
Types of Solar Panel We are all familiar with the glass style solar panels we see on roofs around town, but there are a number of different varieties now available, including ones that look like normal tiles. Find out more about the different types of solar panels. Converting the Electricity The current created in the solar panels by the excitation of electrons is called direct current or DC, which is not suitable for running our household appliances or feeding into the National Grid. To be of any use at all, it needs to be converted in to AC or alternating current and for this you need a box called an inverter.

This usually sits outside your panel array, somewhere like the attic. The DC current enters it and emerges as AC and can be fed into your house. More on inverters here. Efficiency of Solar Panels If you are thinking of having solar panels installed then there are a number of considerations to make that will have an effect on the efficiency of electricity production including the location and type of array. Efficiency of the photovoltaic cells: There are different types of cell that produce more or less energy depending on their size, thickness and purity.
 How To Make Your Own Solar Panels ? Full Technology here>>>
 The purer kind tend to be more efficient and hence more expensive. A South facing roof: To get the optimum energy production you need a South facing roof that will catch more of the direct sunshine. Potential shade: If you have trees surrounding your roof then you need to consider how much it will be in shade over the summer months. An oak tree may seem fine in winter when the branches are bare, but when it is in full bloom that may have an adverse effect on the amount of electricity you can produce. Roof angle: Most installers of solar panels recommend an inclination of between 22 and 75 degrees to get the most out of the sunlight. The ideal angle will also depend where in the UK your house located. For a house in London the ideal roof or solar panel array angle is 51 degrees while in Aberdeen that is 57. There are also changes throughout the seasons and you may want to consider a solar panel installation that can be adjusted to get the optimum amount of sunshine. Size and number of panels: Of course you will need to have enough room on your roof to cope with the right number of panels that can provide all your energy needs and produce a surplus for selling onto the National Grid. As a rule, higher purity, more expensive photovoltaic cells need less space than cheaper alternatives. It’s a question of getting the right balance between cost and efficiency and the space you have to devote to the installation.