We’ve now had our solar panels for two years, so it’s probably time to review how much money they have saved us, and how close we are to getting a return on investment.
We have a SolaX system, which includes twelve 400 Watt solar panels, an inverter and battery. I’m using SolaX’s app to estimate how much money this saves us, based on the electricity unit prices from the grid, and also the amount that we get paid for exporting surplus electricity under the Smart Export Guarantee.
I’ve included a screenshot taken a couple of weeks ago. We only saved around five pence that day, as the solar panels spent most of the day under a thick blanket of snow. But you can see that, in total, we’ve saved around £1600 in two years.
I should note, however, that whilst this averages out at £800 per year, last year we actually saved closer to £900. Alas, 2024 was a less sunny year, on the whole, and so our solar panels couldn’t work as hard.
The total cost of the system was around £11,000, so after two years, we’ve recouped 14% of our outlay. Had 2024 been as sunny as 2023, then this would have been closed to 16%. Assuming that we have more years like 2023, then we should break even in around 10 years time. That’s a long way away, but we’ll still be paying the mortgage on the house then, and we have no plans to move.
Since we had our solar panels fitted, prices have dropped significantly, and so a comparable system to ours would probably cost closer to £9000. You could argue that we should have waited a little longer to get our system installed, but back in 2023, energy prices were at an all-time high. Still, it does mean that the economics of getting solar panels fitted now is even better than it was.
Most of the money that we used to pay for the solar panels was either savings, or money gifted to us by my parents. However, we did borrow around £4000 to cover the rest of the cost, and still have some of that to pay off. Provided that we don’t have any more major expenses (I’m glaring at our car as I write this), we should have this paid off this coming spring.