Man shares the honest breakdown of costs from installing solar panels three years ago to show if it's worth it
Published on Jan 21, 2026 at 5:48 AM (UTC+4)
by Claire Reid
Last updated on Jan 21, 2026 at 5:48 AM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Claire Reid
A man who installed solar panels at his business three years ago has broken down the costs and savings to see if it was all worth it.
Many home and business owners are considering switching to solar power.
Not only is it the ‘greener’ and more sustainable option, but it also comes with the promise of lower energy bills.
One business owner who took the plunge is electric car specialist R Symons who owns RSEV – and three years on, here’s how those all-important numbers stacked up.
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The solar panels allow the business to run off-grid for most of the year
The British EV expert, who runs the RSymons RSEV YouTube channel, regularly puts EVs through their paces.
He’s previously tested a bunch of electric cars based on their comfort levels, and checked out how a Tesla Model Y and Hyundai Ioniq 5 N fared in sub-zero tempretures.
But in a recent upload, he shared a different sort of challenge.
After fitting out his business with 62 solar panels and two Tesla Powerwall battery storage systems three years ago, he decided to crunch the numbers to see if it was all worthwhile.
The full installation cost £54,000, around $72,550, but after adding on some tax breaks, this figure dropped to £33,750, about $45,340.
He went on to stress that he doesn’t see solar panels as something he just wants to pay off as quickly as possible, but instead thinks of it as an investment that adds value to his business.
He then broke down how much of his energy he gets off-grid and, as you might imagine, it varies quite a bit depending on the time of year.
During the sunnier months, the business ran up to 95 percent off-grid, but in the winter, with less daylight, that dropped to as low as 24 percent.
Overall, he worked out for the whole of 2023, RSEV was 64.3 percent off-grid and 64.5 percent off-grid in 2024.
The average rose slightly last year, to 69.5 percent.
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After three years, here’s how much it’s saved versus that initial cost
At the start of the video, the EV expert explained that working out how much he’d save in energy hadn’t been easy due to the recent volatility surrounding electricity prices in the UK.
So to make a fair comparison, he worked out an estimate based on five years of energy bills before having the panels fitted and found that he had spent an average of £10,520 (around $14,140) per year on electricity.
But this dropped drastically after the panels were installed, averaging £2,198 per year – about $2,950.
This equals an average annual saving of £8,320 ($11,180), an impressive figure, right?
At that rate, the YouTuber says he’ll have paid off the original purchase within four to five years.
“With that result, I’m very happy,” he said.
“Do I recommend having solar? Yes, absolutely.”
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With a background in both local and national press in the UK, Claire moved to New Zealand before joining the editorial team at Supercar Blondie in May 2024. As a Senior Content Writer working on New Zealand Standard Time (NZST), Claire was the first writer on the team to make the site’s output a slick 24/7 operation covering the latest in automotive news.
