Borothruandthru
Well-known member
OK I here what you are saying.You have to factor it into your calcs though for a return on investment. It's not a what if, it's a 10% risk or whatever so you add in the expected cost (total cost by 10%). If it's a 10% risk then chances are you are being over-prudent but you have to include it in the calc still.
People seem to look for excuses because all of these things are very expensive. I want a guarantee if I'm paying up front for something. If my boiler breaks and there is a choice between a heat pump or a new boiler then I might opt for the heat pump for environmental reasons if the lifetime costs are similar but if the costs are double then I'm getting a new boiler and waiting for prices to come down when my boiler needs replacing. I'm definitely not replacing my perfectly functioning boiler for a heat pump.
For solar panels the environmental choice is probably solar (just guessing but I have no idea on the environmental impact of producing solar panels) but the alternative is keeping the cash and spending the cash on something else that will give me a return. I'm not spending a significant portion of my own cash to make a minuscule difference to the environment. Recycling, driving an EV, not wasting stuff etc is environmental things I can do without costing me more.
I don't think you can stack those things. If I'm reducing electricity usage by that much it's because I've not got any left to feed in to the grid. When I've done the calcs it works out as best case scenario, using 100% of electricty generated, a saving of about £500 per year. I use about 7,200 KwH. I could generate about 2,800 KwH per year. Current tariff is 18.47p per KwH. That's £517.
Look at it this way then.
You are happy to buy a fund paying 7 % return and give that profit to the greedy energy firms.
Don't think so