Wow, that's really interesting! So many questions, but primarily I'm concerned that solar is unfeasible for me due to general cost of the purchase / installation.
Were you one of the lucky few that was able to get your installation back when there were all kinds of grants / at a better feed-in rate? Or did you fund and install it yourself? Just trying to get a feel for general cost at the moment - it's something I'd love to try out.
Batteries sound like they'd make the world of difference, though I imagine efficient and safe energy storage is an issue that's still yet to be solved within the confines of 'reasonable cost'?
Thank you for the detailed post!
I had my system installed in Nov 2014, It was £7,900 then but we went for a more expensive system because we have a roof that has multiple angles and we needed 'micro-inverters' to maximise the yeald. I dont know the market but I should expect with a single 'string-inverter' you would get a similar size system for half the cost today.
Feed-in-Tarriffs wer drastically cut here, but I expect with reduced costs it still pays back on a similar timescale, mine is around 8 years.
Thanks for taking the time to reply @scalextrix, really appreciate it. I'll take another look at the possibility of getting a system installed - that's actually cheaper than I expected for a reasonable system. I'm sure I remember looking at it some years ago and the price was astronomical!
If you do get a system, dont forget to claim your free SolarCoin www.solarcoin.org