Solar PV

knowloads

has anyone here actually thought about the amount of sun we get in the UK??? 2-3 days a month for 3 months a year. make me wonder if the calculations and returns figues are great if you live on the med coast.

macman

knowloads wrote: »

has anyone here actually thought about the amount of sun we get in the UK??? 2-3 days a month for 3 months a year. make me wonder if the calculations and returns figues are great if you live on the med coast.

Bright hot sun is not required, the panels require light (solar energy) to produce power. Some of my highest reported outputs have been on cold but clear winter days. The only restriction in the UK is obviously that as you go further north the daylight hours are shorter.

luap2411

From April this year the FIT for solar pays about 41p/kwhr if you generate using solar PV, this is index linked. But the amount you get declines year on year depending on when you install, i.e. install this year and its 41p, next year I think is 39p etc. So the incentive is designed to get early adopters on board. However, I went to the recent Intersolar exhibition in Munich, and its very clear that the development/performance is rapidly evolving and also the prices for the panels are declining. The panels are a considerable part of the total installed cost, and despite claims, 15-25 year warranties are difficult to test in the real world.

If you are looking for an installation make sure it is G83/1 compliant i.e. meter and inverter, and installed by a respected company, and you have a cast iron warranty. One of the pains to consider today is how to get the meter read. I work in the industry and am keen to adopt, but personally I'm waiting a couple of years because I expect the system prices to drop quite a bit, and the performance to increase, the gamble of course is that the FIT will have declined a little. Also the introduction of smart meters will resolve the reading issue. But this is only my view, certainly looking at Europe, AUS, and US, we will see a lot more houses with PV or wind turbines over the next few years.

bondy01

As much as the idea of solar panels on every house is a great one (except for the power generators) could someone please explain why although income is talked about , no one talks about the original capital involved. What is it worth after 10-20 years , if you invest the money instead the capital is still there (usually). I think pv is a superb idea but too expensive for most people at the moment.

luap2411

Agree it's not cheap today. But in any market you get the early adopters who want the technology first, cars, mobile phones, ipods etc.

The problem with the cost benefit analysis today is that there are some variables that are difficult to forecast over the life of the product. For example electricity is probably costing you about 10p/kwhr, lets suppose at peak demand in 10 years time that is 50p/kwhr, and 15p/kwhr at low demand. Certainly energy will not be getting any cheaper in the medium to long term.

The other issue is that to build new at carbon zero is realistically near impossible, but to use a renewable element to offset the carbon used in construction means we could be seeing quite a few housing estates with PV or wind turbines.

This kind of thing could be a possibility, and it will be the financials rather than the green element that will be the main driver. Kind of makes you think eh ?

jake4343

Hi everyone ref solar calculators i have used a few with no joy can anyone suggest a user friendly one? i have seen solar guide which is ok but it dosent show how much co2 we are going to save.

Gizmosmum_2

There are already a lot of social housing providers jumping on the bandwagon putting solar pv on their properties and a lot of large companies offering free solar pv to social landlords because it's a secure investment for the pension funds. Of course that will take some years to filter down to the private sector because social housing provides a lot more opportunities to achieve economies of scale.

My dilema is to pay some money off my mortgage or install pv. Saving rates are hardly worth bothering about and I'm lucky enough to have a tracker mortgage that is 1% above base rate.

NW19

Hello Everyone,

Yes we do get less sun than the Med but even east/west facing roofs in the UK are viable as long as your PV supplier makes you aware of what you actually generate. Every PV company has to use a SAP calculation to determine how much power you will generate (this is generally a conservative estimate if you live anywhere further south than the midlands). This calculation is: kWp (of solar PV installed) x 0.8 x shading factor (1 if NO shade) x Irradiance. The Irradiance is 1042 for a south facing roof at 30 degrees to the horizontal. This figure is an average value published by the Government for the UK. The figure for an east/west facing roof is 85% of this. So it is still viable. Also if you speak to people that have had PV installed, most have beaten their predictions if the prediction was given to them correctly in the first place.

The best thing to do is to get the right system for you at the right cost. Hybrid panels are generally better as they are 3% more efficient than standard monocrystalline sharp panels. This means that they will generate around 10% more power than sharp. But is this really worth it for 40% more cost? It is not worth putting panels onto roof that is shaded because any shaded panel will drag down all the other panels it is connected to, so the largest system isnt always the best.

All companies should install G83 complaint inverters- Kaco, SMA, Fronius, Mastervolt.

Most companies will carry out site surveys to assess to roof, the shade and to answer any questions you have. But it isnt always necessary. Companies like EvoEnergy installa round 50 small scale systems a month and are happy to assess the situation using photographs- for a £150 discount!

I hope this helps.

NW

lynneinjapan

macman wrote: »

Bright hot sun is not required, the panels require light (solar energy) to produce power. Some of my highest reported outputs have been on cold but clear winter days. The only restriction in the UK is obviously that as you go further north the daylight hours are shorter.

Only in winter - in the north of Scotland in June it hardly gets dark!

Thanks for all the very helpful advice on this thread. We've just had a quote from Solar Smart and I want to get a couple more to compare it with. The guy made a big thing of the fact that the panels are made by BP but I'll need to look at the spec to see whether they're hybrid or "sharp".
ETA: They're monocrystalline.

daytona600_2

made by bp - no
branded modules from chinese & indian suppliers
and recent big warranty failures - search online
photon magazine also test reports on pv modules
recent warranty claims for bp , rec , kyocera , first solar
2nd time for bp , they also had big failures a couple of years ago
with the junction boxes on the back letting in water
they did replace under warranty
but quality should be built in and tested before any product leaves
the factory , when module fails you lose your feed in tarriffs

best modules for scotland polycrystalline high output
best in low light / cloudy conditions or cis thin film

hybrid only made by sanyo hit/hip combination of mono/thin film
highest module effciency of any mcs certified module
and very compact for high KWp per m2
but bp/sharp bog standard average pricing and effciency
sanyo as premium module will cost 10-20% more

MCS highest yields ( KWh produced )
sanyo , solarworld , siliken , coenergy etc ,other premium modules
get best module warranty & positive power tolerance

standard modules plus/minus good modules plus
eg 200wp will produce at least 200wp or linear power warranty

please consider inverter effciency as well
very important
best ones sma HF/TL aurora PVI or fronius TL
or steca or kaco
avoid at all costs cheap asian inverters or low effciency inverters

and if in north of scotland - good roof mounting system
specified for local wind & snow loadings

and get good mcs contractor with electrical experience
not ex double glazing company or a god forbid supermarket

don,t except a google earth quotation , but full site survey
with warranty , back up , equipment used , references
ideally same system as the mcs installer has himself

you get want you pay for
chinese cheap installation , german more expensive but better warranty and performance

lynneinjapan wrote: »

Only in winter - in the north of Scotland in June it hardly gets dark!

Thanks for all the very helpful advice on this thread. We've just had a quote from Solar Smart and I want to get a couple more to compare it with. The guy made a big thing of the fact that the panels are made by BP but I'll need to look at the spec to see whether they're hybrid or "sharp".
ETA: They're monocrystalline.