Solar Power

[arpoet]

I am thinking of investing in solar power on the house roof and I am wondering if any members have installed it on their houses and what they think about it.
Any comments welcome
Roger (in Snowy Sheffield)

[Aberdeenplotter]

I'll be watching this thread with interest as we have been thinking about it. We have a south facing roof which would be ideal.

[Hilary B]

Not in the UK, but we have solar power for our Spanish venture (only option, no mains anything there).
An acquaintance near here has a significant solar power set-up. I'll try to get some info from him. He did say recently something about geting paid for all the electricity his system produces (some silly amount like 43p/kWh) as well as 3p/kWh for all he puts back into the Grid (based on an estimate of half what the system makes) but I didn't understand the details very well.
If you want to know about the Spanish set-up, let me know!

[Capsid]

What type? Photovoltaic cells for electricity or just to hot water?

The former is still expensive and you need a battery bank to store that energy at night when there's no sun. Plus you need to convert from DC to AC which all adds to the cost. Last time I investigated, you don't start seeing a return on your investment for at least 10 years.

If I was going to do it and if it was cheaper then I'd definitely go solar heating of water. Just think, free showers! Again though it is still very expensive to install and you may need a new hot water tank depending on which system you go for.

If the government are serious about green energy then they should be providing large grants to house holders to do the install. The only concession is to charge 5% VAT. So even then they want to take money off you for being green.

[Florence Fennel]

Hi from across the city in the snow Roger. There is a company in Barnsley that was advertising free fitting of solar panels, I think it was BM put us all on to it. Can't for the life of me remember the name. A few of us had the survey, but my roof was not suitable because of the aspect. I think it's brilliant, no bills and yoiu sell them the extra power, so it's a win win situation as far as I'm concerned. Was gutted when not suitable.

[green thing]

one of my customer had solar panels and solar water heating fitted when it first came out
by a German firm

the solar panels constantly produce about 1000watts
which is fed into an old meter which has a disk which spins around
when no electric is being used the meter spins backwards
this causes problems in the summer as the meter reading is often lower than the previous one

The meter reader have difficulty entering the reading into the hand held computerised system
and it often triggers a inspection of the meter by the utility company

they keep threatening to change the meter , take one look at it and walk away

gefahr des todes the warning and instruction sticker are all in German

the water heating is useless in the winter she top up the heat with the (free electric) immersion heater
and in the summer it's too hot almost boiling

she pays very little for her electricity and water heating and see said it's paid for it self now

[arpoet]

Thanks for the replies.. keep em coming.
I dont think the hot water is much of a starter up north, but generation of power seems worthwhile. i have 3 out of 4 roofs that are pointing east, south and west and get sun from dawn til dusk.
Yes its a long payback period but it seems a fair investment if you have the money to invest.
The other scheme where they put it in for free does not seem right for i think you just get the power and they get the perks from the tax man.
One guy down the lotties who has a big house close by has had 18 panels on his south west facing roof (its a huge house) and he says its worth it so far, but he aint had any money yet. so we will see.
Thanks agin
Roger

[Hilary B]

Our set-up in Spain cost us about £5,000. The panels are rated at 80W apiece and we have 6. The inverter (the most expensive part of the system) is rated to 2300W, but will run higher for short periods (eg fridge start-up), and we found some excellent batteries on e-bay, but you don't use batteries unless it is a stand-alone system (ie no mains connection). I believe that 'inter-tie' inverters (ie to work alongside the mains) are considerably less expensive than 'sinewave' freestanding types (we decided on the sinewave type because we were unsure whether a squarewave would work with low energy lighting. Squarewave is a LOT cheaper) although the cost has gone down since we bought ours.

[vegnut]

I quite fancy the Geothermal Heating system myself. Just to throw a spanner in the works.
But seriously it does seem to be more effective.

[snohare]

My father has just installed PV (electricity generating) solar panels on his roof, and hard nosed though he is, seems pleased with the way it is generating money for him. As he is up at the same latitude as Aberdeen (i.e. in Braemar), that certainly puts paid to the old myth that they don't work in Scotland !
Most deals seem win/win at present, if you simply allow a company to put panels on your roof and then get cheap green electricity or are paid well to generate units.
What strikes me however is that in the scientific press, for the past couple of years, there has been a debate raging about how to fill the energy generation gap that is due to appear in the UK sometime between 2017 and 2018. In essence, old power stations are about to fall apart and be taken out of service - how many is a hot topic, some of the nuclear sites have real technical problems which seem insurmountable - and no matter how many we start building now, of whatever sort, there will not be enough of them ready when the old ones switch off. At which point...
I would guess the price of electricity will go sky high (pardon the pun) and anyone being paid to generate from PV panels will earn a small fortune. More to the point, when brownouts occur - and they must be likely, the grid infrastructure is already creaking as it tries to cope with the current number of small generators versus huge demand - anyone with solar panels will have the enormous luxury of having electricity...
Throwing money at the problem simply cannot solve it. Lack of skills (for welding in new nuclear power plants, which is their Achilles heel), lack of total economic resources where improving the National Grid and creating investment in renewables is concerned - best not to drain too much money from the workforce and local government - not to mention lack of storage capacity (how do you store wind or solar power?) and vested interests who want to block major changes in the status quo, all seem unsolveable in the time frame.
If only I owned the house I live in, I would jump at the chance to put PV panels on it ! (Particularly as their lifespan may be considerably longer than the stated norm, which is a conservative estimate.)