Free solar panel discussion

Henbest

PK49 wrote: »

What is the elephant-in-the-room-wrong with this scheme?
Nobody seems to have a convincing 'No' to this.
Further questions:- solar panels - when PV technology improves, would the panels be updated during the life of the system?
Also, same applies to inverter - would it be upgraded if improved?
House selling - if a person was not interested in the pv installation when house viewing, why show them the house? You don't rip out double glazing, or gas boilers if you don't like them - or do you? Hmmmm....

I have a house in Dorset which I fitted with solar thermal and solar PV panels and a micro wind turbine.
I placed this up for sale 2 years ago to see if my house of 10 years old out of 50 other homes with a clean tidy roof would earn me more money.
I would say at the time 10 years ago the total cost converting a 100% gas fired system to part thermal, solar PV and rain water cost around £8,000
The 5 visiters looking to buy the house were not even interested in the energy water savings.
Either side of my house, both houses were sold, I still have mine having taken it off the market.

Perry525

Henbest wrote: »

I sugest if you have no mains gas and its important to secure supplies of heating and hot water to invest in a high quality solar water heating system, much more efficient of up to 92% for tube collectors than PV panels at 16%, hence why you need a large roof area.
Sit tight and wait to hear about the RHI Scheme which should be known before the end of the year.
I have produced over 35,000kWh of solar heated water over 3.8 year always in winter dumped into my central heating system during the day.
The RHI if its rolled out pays out a deemed price of £0.18p per kWh, so using 3 times the number of tubes compared to a tank of domestic water only will deliver during peak hour times 7,000 watts an hr.

==============================
I wonder about that!
I ascertained that is costs me 7.5p to take a shower using natural gas plus a very small amount of electricity to run the central heating pump.
that's a minimum of 365 x £0.075 = £27.37
two people = £54.75 throw in twice as much to cover washing, washing up, whatever, that's a total of £109.50 a year for hot water.
How can solar hot water possibly pay for itself?
(unless perhaps using a diy setup, comprising odds and ends.)

clairehi

Homesun website states they require 30m2 roof space - that sounds huge to me.
our south facing 4 bed detached house has a roof approx 7m long, I am guessing maybe 4m high - but we have a gable in the way, so I think we may be out of luck?

magyar

ralph_wilson wrote: »

Why don't they just line them up in a big field, feed the electricity into the grid and get the money without getting involved with peoples houses?

Because then solar PV would be revealed to be the idiocy that it is. Think about it. Solar energy. Britain. Solar. Energy. There's a very good reason why it's taken off in Southern Spain. Not in Britain.

Cardew

Perry525 wrote: »

==============================
I wonder about that!
I ascertained that is costs me 7.5p to take a shower using natural gas plus a very small amount of electricity to run the central heating pump.
that's a minimum of 365 x £0.075 = £27.37
two people = £54.75 throw in twice as much to cover washing, washing up, whatever, that's a total of £109.50 a year for hot water.
How can solar hot water possibly pay for itself?
(unless perhaps using a diy setup, comprising odds and ends.)

You are absolutely correct - albeit RHI will improve matters if the proposals of the last Government are adopted(announcement this Autumn)

This is not the thread to discuss solar hot water, but for most people it is a joke in money saving terms. The government carried out tests on 8 systems incuding evacuated tube and the average output for a system was 1,000kWh per year and most of that in summer.

The best Navitron evacuated tube panel produces a couple of kWh in, say January.

I assume that Henbest has some sort of thermal store(basically a big tank of water) tied into his CH, but to produce 35,000kWh in 3.8 years in winter you would need more panels than could be fitted on a football field!

For most people Solar hot water will only provide savings of £30 to £80 a year - read Which/EST or any responsible publication.

Unfortunately we get these post like Henbest's that are, shall we say, misleading!!

Jon_Tiffany

Cardew wrote: »

You are absolutely correct - albeit RHI will improve matters if the proposals of the last Government are adopted(announcement this Autumn)

This is not the thread to discuss solar hot water, but for most people it is a joke in money saving terms. The government carried out tests on 8 systems incuding evacuated tube and the average output for a system was 1,000kWh per year and most of that in summer.

The best Navitron evacuated tube panel produces a couple of kWh in, say January.

I assume that Henbest has some sort of thermal store(basically a big tank of water) tied into his CH, but to produce 35,000kWh in 3.8 years in winter you would need more panels than could be fitted on a football field!

For most people Solar hot water will only provide savings of £30 to £80 a year - read Which/EST or any responsible publication.

Unfortunately we get these post loke Henbest's that are, shall we say, misleading!!

I'll second everything that Cardew said - spot on.

Solar hot water stacks up if you go for a very cheap diy option. Plenty of examples on the web where people have made their own systems at very low prices and acheive performance not too far off the professional systems. In fact in the summer months I reckon a DIY system would come very close to the performance of evac tube system - its a time where you have surplus regardless of the system. The evac tube systems will perform much better in the colder months though - and thats when you need the hot water most.

Cardew

If I am not much mistaken, Henbest is a solar 'salesman' who has posted before under another name.

Correct me if wrong please.

digitaltoast

Henbest wrote: »

I have a house in Dorset which I fitted with solar thermal and solar PV panels and a micro wind turbine.
The 5 visiters looking to buy the house were not even interested in the energy water savings.
Either side of my house, both houses were sold, I still have mine having taken it off the market.

Cardew wrote: »

If I am not much mistaken, Henbest is a solar 'salesman' who has posted before under another name.

Correct me if wrong please.

If he's a solar salesman, he's doing an extremely good job of not selling solar!

olgrizzly

I can't find anyone who has an instalation saying what area (or no. of panels x size) you need to make the projected savings. Any contributions?

jellyhead

Jon_Tiffany wrote: »

The 'poorer' can benefit from the scheme with the free PV offers.

Must they be home owners? Can these be fitted onto council houses?