My energy bills are just £1.50 a day after I made key changes to home – how you can do it too
SOARING energy costs have crippled households recently but thanks to changes to his home, Derek Sayer’s bills work out at as little as £1.50 a day during summer months.
The retired IT worker, 74, and his wife from Berkshire invested in measures that have helped save £1,300 on annual energy bills.
This includes loft insulation, installing a smart meter, as well as switching to an air fryer and using the oven far less.
Derek also saves £10 a month by using Ovo’s Power Move scheme, which rewards customers for shifting electricity use our of peak times between 4-7pm to 12.5% or less of your daily total.
But, the biggest payoff by far has been through having solar panels installed in 2011.
The initial outlay was £12,000 but through selling excess electricity back to the grid Derek has made £17,000 – giving him an overall profit of £5,000.
Read more on energy bills
However, Derek estimates that savings on their electricity bill have made the panels worth far more – he estimates in excess of £20,000.
He says: “It’s been a remarkable journey.
“I generated more money that I expected... and along the way have found other ways to reduce electricity [bills].”
How do solar panels work?
Panels are usually fitted on to the roof of a home in a position that helps them absorb the most sunlight, which is then transferred into solar powered energy.
Most read in Money
The electricity generated by Derek's solar panels power his home at that time – any additional power is then sold back to the national grid because he has no capacity to store it.
To make the most of the energy coming from the panels he had a diverter fitted on his boiler which uses electricity rather than gas to heat water, helping to further bring down energy bills.
Due to changes in daylight and the weather, there is a big difference in what the solar panels generate between summer and winter.
Derek estimates they generate 25kwh hours a day in summer and in winter 1-2 a day.
He is on an older government scheme that ended in 2019 and guarantees to buy his electricity for 25 years from when he first had the solar panels installed – meaning he has another 12 years or so left on this contract. He makes around 50p a unit from the power he sells.
Anyone selling electricity back now will have to do it to their energy company instead.
However, the cost of installing panels is a lot less than it was 10 years ago – most homeowners can expect to pay around £5,000 to get the technology fitted helping to make it faster to break even.
Ovo, for example, offers a smart export guarantee (SEG) rate for solar customers of 20p per kWh. And it's Solar Package starts from just over £5,000 for four panels.
Derek said his panels have required no upkeep except for clearing off snow during the winter.
Getting panels he says is a “no brainer” and that it will make sense for more people to get them in the face of sky-high energy costs.
Derek adds: "My next door neighbour decided to do the same and get panels installed after seeing my calculations...
"He and I now compare notes on how much we have generated."
Derek is now looking at buying batteries to store the excess energy – the initial outlay is in the region of around £5,000.
But he reckons he will soon make the money back from knocking down his bills further.
He is also considering switching to an electric car so he can take further advantage of the energy generated by the solar panels.
It's important to consider how long you plan to stay in your property before deciding whether to get solar panels.
For example, if Derek decided to move home, the solar panels and the contract for generating electricity would stay with his current property.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
You want to make sure you stay long enough to make back enough in savings on energy bills to cover the cost of getting them fitted in the first place.
Some homeowners have also had problems after leasing their roofs to solar power companies, which can create problems for obtaining a mortgage.