The S&G blog
Energy price rises and true potential income from renewable electricity
After all the bad news about the increases in energy prices from the big six (e.g. British Gas will increase their tariffs for gas by 18% and for electricity by 16% after 18 August 2011), and especially after reading many badly documented news articles which either promote solar energy or talked really badly about it, we thought it was about time to show you some values and how these energy price hikes are set to affect us all. At the same time we wanted to show you what opportunities exist by 'going green' and installing a renewable energy system at your house.
The current energy prices as stated by British Gas on their website today, considering both types of Tier tariffs and the Standard tariff, are 12p/kWh for electricity and 4p/kWh for gas. The British Gas website considers an average household with an annual consumption of 16,500kWh of gas and 3,300kWh of electricity. From our experience, this is more in line with the consumption of a small household (1 to 2 bedroom) in an area like Greater London with lower consumption values than national averages which will be more in the order of 4,000kWh per year for electricity and 20,000kWh per year for gas (from DTI energy trends).
After 18 August 2011, the average cost that British Gas has already announced will be around 14p/kWh for electricity and 5p/kWh for gas. If considering the average household previously mentioned and considering a standard fixed value for a year, we could see the following bills:
| |
Before 18 August 2011 |
After 18 August 2011 |
| Gas |
£768 |
£906 |
| Electricity |
£468 |
£542 |
If considering a household like this installs a 2kWp solar PV system in the same region of Greater London, with an approximate total cost of £9,000 and even considering the inhabitants aren’t in the house most of the day and will only use 25% of the electricity generated by the PV system, this would be your income and savings:
| Income source |
From generation of 1700kWh per year of a 2kWp PV system |
| Feed in tariff generation (1,700kWh X £0.433) |
£736 |
| Export tariff (425kWh X £0.031) |
£13 |
| Savings of not using 25% of the generated Energy (425kWh X £0.14) |
£59 |
| Total Money and Savings: |
£808 |
If you get to consider that this household would be paying £542 per year after August 2011 for electricity alone, if investing in a PV system, the house would be receiving enough income to pay for the entire annual electricity bill and an extra income on top, all of this guaranteed for 25 years! We also need to keep in mind that the trend of energy prices is to increase, so all the savings you could make on your energy bills will be even greater in the future.
Yes all renewable energy systems represent a long term investment and you will probably see your money back after 10 or 11 years but you will be saving money for sure and doing your part in the battle against climate change and fossil fuels dependency of the UK.
Think about it! If this convinces you, just use the website or contact us, we can help you get the best option for your conversion to an eco friendly and smart house!
