Solar power on roofs - more viable with energy price hikes?

[fizzy]

Our free charges cost nothing , an all mains off peak full charge is about 19 p for 32 miles . A day rate charge about 60p for a full rehcharge using the domestic plug in charger and similar for the Podpoint

Alison has just plugged her PHEV in ready for the 01, 00 hrs to 04.45 hrs low tarriff night rate .


We are currently using 138 to 283 watts & have enough PV generation for it to be FOC .

I was on about if you were buying an array to charge your electric car - not if you already have one installed.

 

[fizzy]

Buying & using untaxed fuel might soon be a thing of the past in any case.

You'd need to work out the complete running costs of your genny , you may have a false picture . You may soon also have to have a pollution related licence to run generators & other plant .

. I did a bit of research in making my own BIO fuel to supplement the diesel in my car . IIRC , I found I was only allowed so many litres before it was taxable & all fuel used had to be recorded.

The Red Diesel ban is coming in April.
The construction industry along with many others will be foobarred!
Fortunately domestic users are exempt

 

[ukracer]

In fact rather than spending a fortune buying solar panels to charge your car get a diesel genny running on red. Perfectly legal. Less efficient than putting red in your tank but still legal

Won't be soon. Red is being phased out. Its already 88 p per litre. Of road machinery is becoming expensive to run. Hence price rises on everyone....

 

[fizzy]

Won't be soon. Red is being phased out. Its already 88 p per litre. Of road machinery is becoming expensive to run. Hence price rises on everyone....

Not for domestic users
Boats
Agriculture
Forestry
Fairgrounds

Still a joke though - what are you going to run a site genny on or a big komatsu?

 

[8ob]

The Red Diesel ban is coming in April.
The construction industry along with many others will be foobarred!
Fortunately domestic users are exempt

It will be mainly fuel theft that they need to worry about, little to no way of stopping it either. Not much in it cost wise with the current price of red minus the 5% vat and white minus the 20% vat, both are 100% tax-deductible anyway and now revenue have no way of apportioning company fuel use vs personal. Personally I think they have just shot themselves in the foot.

Bob

 

[fizzy]

It will be mainly fuel theft that they need to worry about, little to no way of stopping it either. Not much in it cost wise with the current price of red minus the 5% vat and white minus the 20% vat, both are 100% tax-deductible anyway and now revenue have no way of apportioning company fuel use vs personal. Personally I think they have just shot themselves in the foot.

Bob

Definitely.
Site tanks will become a magnet for thieves now it will be yellow diesel not red.
Have you seen the advice given to plant hire companies?
If you rent a machine to someone in the forestry/agriculture sector you will have to drain the fuel system and purge the lines etc before the next hire
Proof the civil service have no clue about anything

 

[sako243]

It's worse that that - fuel filters need (are expected) to be changed as well.

Mate of mine runs heavy plant and a bit of that is "agriculture" but mostly falls under construction despite being on farms. He's expected to do all of this on his diggers whenever he changes jobs. Usually the farm provides the diesel so they're not going to be happy bunnies because the only way I see him being able to operate is providing the diesel and charging them. It's then up to them to claim the VAT back. Then he's got to have quite a lot of fuel bowsers for each job site he's at.

 

[fizzy]

It's worse that that - fuel filters need (are expected) to be changed as well.

Mate of mine runs heavy plant and a bit of that is "agriculture" but mostly falls under construction despite being on farms. He's expected to do all of this on his diggers whenever he changes jobs. Usually the farm provides the diesel so they're not going to be happy bunnies because the only way I see him being able to operate is providing the diesel and charging them. It's then up to them to claim the VAT back. Then he's got to have quite a lot of fuel bowsers for each job site he's at.

All this so called Green nonsense is doing terrible harm to our economy - it needs to stop

 

[addjunkie]

All this so called Green nonsense is doing terrible harm to our economy - it needs to stop

Red changes are just another thing driving the end user price up! Always the end user that pays for any changes.

 

[minimutly]

Solar panels do degrade with time though somewhere between 1% and 3% per year. So a ten year old panel may not be a bargain unless you have room for lots....

No way that much - mine are 11 years old, they may be down 5%, no more. It's easy to track on the inverter, you just check the highest output year on year. Less than a Couple of hundred watts.

 

[DAPPH]

IIRC, it was 2250l/annum?

Edit: I wad wrong. It was 2500litres per annum. It would be better if people provide facts, not just wishy, washy suggestions without any definitive facts on the subject.

I didn't put the quantity in my post for I've been to sleep since then ( 2008 ???? ), but at least it gives people a clue to follow & Google.

 

[fizzy]

No way that much - mine are 11 years old, they may be down 5%, no more. It's easy to track on the inverter, you just check the highest output year on year. Less than a Couple of hundred watts.

Do you ever clean them? I suspect it helps a lot.
Seagulls love to splatter stuff

 

[DAPPH]

Won't be soon. Red is being phased out. Its already 88 p per litre. Of road machinery is becoming expensive to run. Hence price rises on everyone....

But surely if it is a business running cost it can be claimed back ( quarterly ???? ) & you can get your vat back ( quarterly?) as well if you are vat registered ?

 

[MattF]

Do you ever clean them? I suspect it helps a lot.
Seagulls love to splatter stuff

Pigeons don't do bad in that dept. either.

 

[DAPPH]

Do you ever clean them? I suspect it helps a lot.
Seagulls love to splatter stuff

For the last coupe of years I've been giving my bungalow panels a killer spraying of 1/4 cup of green fairy to three litres of warm water on a well damp day .
Left it on for a few min then agitated it with a 6 mtr long pole lightweight soft bush by he time I've done the lot it's time to use a hose pipe on a slight spray jet to wash most but not all ff The fairy will leave a fine detergent film on the glass . It lets the light in well and also acts as a muck remover detergent when birds crap on the panel & it next rains .


In October ( ?) last year I changed things as the weight of hose pipe & 8x 12 inch shampooing brush on the end of the 2x3 mtr alu poles were getting too much for me so I change things .

Putting 10 mrt x 8mm reinforced hose onto a made up car shampoo stick soap chamber that goes on the end of my hose pipe using standard Hozelock connectors on both ends . The reinforced hose runs to the top end of a very very light smaller rectangular car shampoo brush on a super lightweight lance .

I can reach the top of the panels from the ground with ease , give them two quick washes on a well damp day and walk away . It will sort itself out to leave a thin car shampoo film on the panels .. So far the panels haven't developed any algae or moss like they used to . Alison reckons she noticed the difference on the panel's generation info screen almost immediately as the whole day was pretty much the same level of being overcast.


Prior to me doing them myself our friendly window cleaner did them every February using de ionised water and his long lance brush . He usually had to go over them twice to get all the green algae off

Charging me £50 each time for several years & £30 for all the roof line plastic .

 

[fizzy]

But surely if it is a business running cost it can be claimed back ( quarterly ???? ) & you can get your vat back ( quarterly?) as well if you are vat registered ?

NOPE
VAT can be reclaimed but not fuel duty except in some exceptional cases.
Commercial fishermen and other commercial boat users can claim back fuel duty from petrol used at sea - they buy at normal pump rate and can reclaim the VAT and Fuel duty - so they are buying petrol for about 50p per litre

 

[fizzy]

For the last coupe of years I've been giving my bungalow panels a killer spraying of 1/4 cup of green fairy to three litres of warm water on a well damp day .
Left it on for a few min then agitated it with a 6 mtr long pole lightweight soft bush by he time I've done the lot it's time to use a hose pipe on a slight spray jet to wash most but not all ff The fairy will leave a fine detergent film on the glass . It lets the light in well and also acts as a muck remover detergent when birds crap on the panel & it next rains .


In October ( ?) last year I changed things as the weight of hose pipe & 8x 12 inch shampooing brush on the end of the 2x3 mtr alu poles were getting too much for me so I change things .

Putting 10 mrt x 8mm reinforced hose onto a made up car shampoo stick soap chamber that goes on the end of my hose pipe using standard Hozelock connectors on both ends . The reinforced hose runs to the top end of a very very light smaller rectangular car shampoo brush on a super lightweight lance .

I can reach the top of the panels from the ground with ease , give them two quick washes on a well damp day and walk away . It will sort itself out to leave a thin car shampoo film on the panels .. So far the panels haven't developed any algae or moss like they used to . Alison reckons she noticed the difference on the panel's generation info screen almost immediately as the whole day was pretty much the same level of being overcast.


Prior to me doing them myself our friendly window cleaner did them every February using de ionised water and his long lance brush . He usually had to go over them twice to get all the green algae off

Charging me £50 each time for several years & £30 for all the roof line plastic .

De ionised water in Wales?
Total waste of money. I saved a local transport company a fortune by telling them to stick tap water in their forklift batteries.

 

[rtcosic]

De ionised water in Wales?
Total waste of money. I saved a local transport company a fortune by telling them to stick tap water in their forklift batteries.

I'm not sure I would do that - I used to use the frost from the freezer for that.
But I can confirm that in Pembrokeshire at least the TDS of the raw water is good enough for low-pressure boilers. We had a water treatment plant anyway - because one always does - but it did hardly any work.

But the TDS varies with each local source.

 

[fizzy]

I'm not sure I would do that - I used to use the frost from the freezer for that.
But I can confirm that in Pembrokeshire at least the TDS of the raw water is good enough for low-pressure boilers. We had a water treatment plant anyway - because one always does - but it did hardly any work.

But the TDS varies with each local source.

Swansea water can be used in anything. Drawback not much taste.

 

[Blobber]

NOPE
VAT can be reclaimed but not fuel duty except in some exceptional cases.
Commercial fishermen and other commercial boat users can claim back fuel duty from petrol used at sea - they buy at normal pump rate and can reclaim the VAT and Fuel duty - so they are buying petrol for about 50p per litre

Fuel is just another business expense so will come off the bottom line of the accounts, doesnt matter if its red or white you can still claim all the cost back from the tax man