# Solar Electric recommendation.



## Davenfabs (Jun 18, 2014)

Hi, can anyone help us with a recommendation of a good Solar Electrical installer. We are looking for a full house system with generator back up. I hear prices have come down but need some cost certainty before agreeing a price for a house located between Gandia and Xativa.

Thanks very much.


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

Davenfabs said:


> Hi, can anyone help us with a recommendation of a good Solar Electrical installer. We are looking for a full house system with generator back up. I hear prices have come down but need some cost certainty before agreeing a price for a house located between Gandia and Xativa.
> 
> Thanks very much.


I think we need a little more info. For example, how many Kilowatts will you require or what sized property? Will you use gas to cook with and for heating?

For a 6kW system, I costed it at around 30k euros with a payback of 30ish years!!!


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## Davenfabs (Jun 18, 2014)

Thanks
More detail I can think of.
I am thinking 6kW should be ok. Only two people in the house.
All electric cooking, hob, oven, microwave.
Water heating by a solar tank on roof but boosted by the solar elec ?
Heating / cooling by a couple of air conditioning units.
Generator back up.

Hope that helps get a better picture.


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

Davenfabs said:


> Thanks
> More detail I can think of.
> I am thinking 6kW should be ok. Only two people in the house.
> All electric cooking, hob, oven, microwave.
> ...


If you don't have all that on at the same time (including washing machine, kettle etc.) then 6kW might just be enough.

I think my price still stands - there are no grants available and I don't think you can re-feed the grid any more (unlike Australia, UK etc.).

There's a company that does a lot of solar installations around here (and Xativa etc.) called INEL


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## Davenfabs (Jun 18, 2014)

Thanks, 

I heard there may be grants if it is totally stand alone.

Do you know definitely otherwise ?


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

Davenfabs said:


> Thanks,
> 
> I heard there may be grants if it is totally stand alone.
> 
> Do you know definitely otherwise ?


Things change all the time and I may be wrong but our electrician friend says that there are no grants to be had.


We put in solar heating for our pool. At the time, I was told that grants were available. We applied. We were then told that they have a pot which gets allocated - once that's gone, then you have to reapply next time. We did this for about 3 years after the installation was complete and got nothing. I suspect it was really just a con to get us to sign up!


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## Davenfabs (Jun 18, 2014)

Thanks. Snikpoh, really usefull to share in your first hand experience. 

I have gathered some good information today from a company who installs solar systems in the area. I will try and feed this back as surely others must be trying to untangle the situation.


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## zenkarma (Feb 15, 2013)

Would it be correct to assume that you are considering a solar system because you cannot connect to the electric grid? If you can connect to the electric grid but are considering going solar to potentially save money-beware! The spanish government has recently introduced taxes on Solar generated electricity and may demand that you connect it to the grid so they can measure how much electricity you're producing and tax you on it. There are quite punitive penalties if they catch you running a solar system (not connected to the grid) and not paying the tax.

The only properties that are exempt from this (solar power) tax are those that are genuinely too far away from the electric grid that solar power is the only option. If that applies to you, you don't have to worry. If it doesn't, you might want to investigate this.


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## zenkarma (Feb 15, 2013)

These people advertise in the Costa de Almeria Euro Weekly. I know nothing about them apart from their advert and include them for information and reference only.

They advertise complete installed systems:

3kw 9k
5kw 11k
8kw 13k
10kw 14k

All in euros. 

Home - EcoCorp Solar & Energy Saving Solutions

The prices seem very cheap to me for the sizes they're quoting. Bear in mind that probably the greatest cost in any solar system is the storage of the electricity produced—the batteries in other words. Not much point in having solar panels producing lots of kw if you can't store any of the electricity for use when needed. In my limited experience of researching solar systems the batteries alone can account for almost half the entire cost of a solar system—depending on size.


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

zenkarma said:


> The prices seem very cheap to me for the sizes they're quoting. Bear in mind that probably the greatest cost in any solar system is the storage of the electricity produced—the batteries in other words. Not much point in having solar panels producing lots of kw if you can't store any of the electricity for use when needed. In my limited experience of researching solar systems the batteries alone can account for almost half the entire cost of a solar system—depending on size.


... and they need replacing every few years.


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## Davenfabs (Jun 18, 2014)

Thanks, yes we are in a frustrating situation where we have power infrastructure available up to the boundary of a newly built house, but the electricity company is refusing to connect one property until all the properties on the street pay their share of the new infrastructure charge. Even though We have paid our share. I was hoping to go fully solar however I wasn't aware of this tax on new off grid systems. Thanks for the info.


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## zenkarma (Feb 15, 2013)

snikpoh said:


> ... and they need replacing every few years.


I'm not sure what the lifespan is for solar batteries as I think it depends an awful lot on how they're used, whether they're the correct size for the system installed and how they're maintained but you're absolutely right in the view that they will require replacement at some point in their lifespan. And that lifespan is likely to be a lot shorter than many people think.

Correctly sized batteries in a well maintained system should last between 5-10 years but a lot depends on how they're used. If they are consistently drained right down and recharged (in other words the system is operating at maximum capacity) they will need replacing a lot sooner then if they are only partly drained and recharged. 

As a general rule of thumb people should specify a system of twice the kw capacity of the daily kw usage. In other words if you think you'll be using 5kw a day, you should specify a 10kw system. That would help maximise the battery life.

I'm not an expert in this by any means—I'm just an enthusiastic amateur but batteries do play a very important role in any solar system.


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## zenkarma (Feb 15, 2013)

Davenfabs said:


> I was hoping to go fully solar however I wasn't aware of this tax on new off grid systems. Thanks for the info.


If that's your situation then you really do need to investigate this new solar tax the government introduced as it could have serious financial implications on any solar system you install.

It might not apply if the electricity company refuses to connect you to the grid, but you need to find out all the necessary information in order to make an informed decision on what to do. Forearmed is forewarned so to speak.


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## Davenfabs (Jun 18, 2014)

Thanks very much for the information.
I have recieved some good information from a company below who sells and installs solar systems.
I think it might be very useful to others and I have no connection with them and I will not mention the company. There seems to be lots of hearsay about taxes and this company seems to have first hand experience.


"There was a lot of publicity in the news about 12 months ago about a tax on solar electricity panels that were connected to the grid. A draft law was presented to parliament and it cause a lot of confusion and as a result reported incorrectly by the press. But it was only a draft law and was never taken any further. Basically, it was to do with grid connected systems and not off grid system, but this draft law has fallen by the way side as it was against EU regulations and there was huge opposition here in Spain. 

There is no tax for either grid or off grid systems electricity systems, we have a lot of off grid installations and none of our clients pay any tax on the electricity that they generate. The grid connected systems have no tax either but you do need to have permission from both Iberdrola and Department of Industria to put the panels on the roof whilst connected to the grid. If you don’t have permission you will receive a fine. We do all the paperwork to ensure our systems are legalised, not every company is able to do this . We have many grid connected systems installed and our customers don’t pay any tax on the solar electricity that they consume. Each system is fitted with a bi-directional meter which records the energy that you consume from the grid and the solar energy that you produce but don’t use. Iberdrola have no way of recording the solar energy that you produce and consume. Our system has its own monitor where you can monitor the amount of solar electricity that you produce.

In summary....there are no taxes but you do need permissions. The government cannot demand that you connect to the grid, if you don’t want to. In order to apply for the occupation certificate from the town hall your builder will need to present a certificate to say that you have power in the property, this can be grid connected or solar, the choice is yours. 

I hope this clarify the situation."


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## fevmor (Jan 10, 2014)

Thanks for that info ,we had spent a worrying evening trying to get to the bottom of this tax and were struggling to find any concrete details. We are over a mile away from the mains and were beginning to feel that to tax us on our very old solar panels that we have inherited would have been hugely unjust !


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