Hi,
This could have gone into the DIY or FIT sections but as it's my first post I thought I'd intro myself here, hope that's OK.
I've just bought at auction a 1/2 acre plot in a small town in North Shropshire and over the next few years will be building a relatively low-impact home, exact materials TBC but probably roundwood for the main frame, for my family of 5. After 4 years of searching for the right plot at a price that we can afford mortgage-free I'm relieved to finally be at this stage and am now allowing myself to think about the actual build, not that we've got much money for that bit!
We don't have residential planning permission yet so I may be slightly previous here, but it's in a town within an area specifically allocated for housing so I'm hoping that's a formality, off-piste build notwithstanding.
Through some work contacts I'm in the position to be able to purchase a 3.6KW PV array inc all cabling, roof mounts, inverters etc for less than £5k (ex VAT) and this seems too good an opportunity to miss. For the record this is all above board, I'll be getting the kit at cost plus a tiny margin. They normally supply much larger installations measured in the MW and are doing me a favour supplying such a small job.
I've resigned myself that I'll not make the new FIT cut-off and will likely 'only' be getting 20 odd pence per KWh but I still would like to start clawing back the capital outlay ASAP.
So my questions.
What I'm unsure about is how I can get the array installed and signed off prior to having a house built. Could I - say - ground mount, or build a temporary structure to house it during the period of static caravan living?
What about if we're initially off-grid? Obviously we won't be exporting so how will our consumption figures on our local meter get passed back to prove the income we're due?
The phrase I've read is 'material change' so if we got the array installed temporarily and then shifted it to the roof at a later stage does this represent such a change?
Anyway that's me
