Reducing energy costs with solar panels

June 16, 2011

Whether you’re a non-resident parent or a parent with care, one thing is certain of your involvement with the Child Support Agency; you’ll be all the poorer for it. Therefore, when the CSA gets involved in your life and your finances, one thing you’ll inevitably have to do is cut back on your expenditure.

Cutting back on nights out, trips to the cinema and alcohol is one thing, but it’s often much harder to cut back on necessary expenses such as gas and electric. These are the things you need to survive and, when there are children involved, they become even more vital.

However, with the advent of solar panel technology and the wave of support for renewable energies, solar panels are one option that can see you actually reduce your energy costs without compromising on your usage. Solar panel installation can be expensive, costing a few thousand pounds at least to install, but due to the benefits that solar panels have many energy companies, including Eon for instance, are offering to install solar panels for you, so all you have to pay is the application fee.

Now, what does this mean in real terms, as saving money is what’s important here? If you pay for solar panel installation yourself you would end up spending a few thousand pounds to have the solar panels installed. However, this would leave you with enough electricity to power the average house, and with a surplus to sell back to the grid. The savings, it has been estimated, are around £950 per year (in energy bill savings and money earned by selling the electricity). It has also been estimated that, during the 25 year lifespan of the solar panels, you should see a return on your investment of between 2-3 times.

The money you make from selling the electricity is also tax free, but we’re not sure if the CSA will class that as earnings for any non-resident parents. The chances are they haven’t even thought of it though, so you should be OK.

If however you can’t afford to pay for the installation yourself, you can take up the offer from the energy companies to install the solar panels for you. They will, however, take a lot of the money that the solar panels earn, meaning you will only save around £150 per year on your energy bills. This is still a substantial saving that will pay for itself in the first year, and then the rest is pure profit for the next 24 years. Savings such as this are important when the Child Support Agency is involved, and maybe this is an option you could consider?

Comments

  • Karl Garrett says:

    need a home to put them on first…the CSA took any opportunity of owning one away from me. so the only green I’ll be is dead..then I’ll be free of these arse**les.

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