Why We Chose To Get Solar Right Now

Way back before we even got our house the idea of solar power was a priority for us. Naively I thought it was something we’d be able to do from the off, but financially it wasn’t viable then as we had a whole house to renovate. You might be wondering why we chose to get solar, and why now. Although it’s probably pretty obvious why now seemed like the right time.

Financially we did have to borrow money in order to do this. I wish we had that amount of cash just sitting around, but the financial investment will be incredibly beneficial for us.

Why we chose to get solar: simply electricity prices!

I’m sure we’ve all felt the pain of electricity prices at the moment (unless you’re still on a fixed contract). And they’re only due to rise again come October. With prices going up so much we thought the quicker we get it done the less of a price increase we’d have to deal with.

It’s quicker to pay off than ever before

Previously people would say things like solar pays for itself in 15-20 years. Which is still good if you’re in the same house for a long time. But now with prices of electricity going up it’s even quicker to essentially make back what you spent on solar.

Our projected cost of electricity was due to go to an average of £200 a month. The cost of our solar (including the battery which we added on after) came to £19,000 which means in less than 8 years we’ll have essentially paid off the solar and be living with free power.

Why we chose to get solar: timing

When we first started looking into solar the companies were telling us that prices were going up. The increase was due to demand for product as more people looked into getting solar. So by getting our solar quote accepted in late March meant we got in before too many of the price increases happened on products and labour.

Another reason why we chose to get solar when we did was around the time of the year. In the summer and lighter months, you generate far more energy than during the winter so this was a big factor in our decision. It will be really interesting to compare what we are generating now and over the summer months to what we’ll generate in December/ January.

It’s our forever home

Solar is expensive so it’s an investment that probably won’t be right for you if you’re planning to move in the near future, or even in the next decade. But for us this is our forever (or almost forever) home. It has enough space should we want to have a family and everything that we need. And ultimately we’re very happy here. So investing in something like solar is a great decision for us.

Why we chose to get solar now: currently there’s 0% interest

In the Spring statement back at the end of March, I believe, the Chancellor announced that there would be 0% VAT on ‘energy-saving materials’ and this included solar power. Even though we’d accepted our solar quote before this the work hadn’t started so our company reissued an invoice and we saved a significant amount.

Moving from 5% to 0% VAT doesn’t sound like a lot, but on a high-value purchase like solar power, it makes a huge difference.

Pin It