Getting FITS II

- experiences of fitting household solar energy – Getting FITS II is part of a series of blog posts by Limu on the attempt to install solar power at home with the help of the UK Feed in Tariff.

We have a good sized area of south-facing roof, largely shade free (which is important obviously) except for a chimney from one of the old fire-places. This chimney is symbolic, it represents the old technologies – burning solid fuels – that we can now replace, so I’m inclined to get the top meter of chimney pot taken down for that reason alone. Shouldn’t be too difficult for the roofers once they are up there.

Roofers are the key people. While there are plenty of new companies offering to organise solar energy installations for homeowners (and the ones I’ve contacted seem professional and genuine) its apparently the roofers that do the important work. Getting up on the scaffolding and fixing the things to your roof. The scaffolding represents a big part of the cost, plus the panels and labour. The services of the energy companies seem more of a sales front-end, plus installing some clever bits of electrical kit downstairs.

I’ve been in touch with a few solar energy companies to get quotes. They recommend some different approaches – some suggest I can get 2.5kw of PV panels on the roof, others 4kw. I’m going to look into both solar thermal and solar PV. Part III will update with my experiences of getting quotes for this work.