Looking Into Getting Solar Panels......

[ToraToraTora]

what's the best way to achieve this? what dodgy deals are there to avoid? Any general advice?
do any of you have them? are they worth it? Is there government help? I have been researching but I cannot get much info without leaving details and I don' want to get pestered every 5 mins at this stage. Thanks.

[KARL]

TonyV, if you google "vacuum tube heat collector image" you will see what these look like. They only reach 15-20cm above the surface of whatever they are mounted onto, such as a roof - obviously much more if fitted onto a frame for their own slope. Ours is also a semi with a slate roof so in this case they are really quite unobtrusive. I should have said that we of course get heat through the panels all year round but for part of the year not enough to do away with supplementary heating (in our case a wood burning boiler, not a stove, for a conventional central heating system). With heat pumps you need electricity as a substantial energy input to run the system. With solar heat collectors all you need is perhaps 50W for a controller and standard central heating pump when running (negligible in stand-by).

[furrypusscat]

The feed in tariff has been stopped for 'new customers', we had our panels 4 or 5 years ago and it has been good for us, but I wouldn't purchase now as a new customer because of the tariff change.

[ToraToraTora]

thanks all, I don't think I'll bother!