Advice Please

mrs_motivated

My dad is selling up and moving in with me, Oh and the kids. We are extending our current house to incorporate a kitchen / dining / family room, a 'granny flat' etc.
Current house has 4 bed, 1 bathroom and downstairs loo (we have one gas fire, one wood burner and a combi condensing boiler)

Extended house will have 5 beds, 3 bathrooms one gas fire, one wood burner plus one woodburner with a boiler that will heat approx 4 radiators. total number of radiators 13 (as we will need a new boiler with a bigger capacity and technically more of us showering etc. it seems the perfect opportunity to look at green options)

We would like to have solar hot water system (we have a south facing roof) and possibly a biomass boiler installed at the same time. We contacted EST who sent my details to a couple of contractors. One got in touch and we explained what we wanted and asked if he could do a site survey to explain what we need - what is feasible and advise of costs etc. but he did not seem interested at all! Basically although we have plans and planning permission, we are not ready to start building yet (the build will be funded by the sale of Dad's home) - but want to get some idea of what we can do and at what cost, so we can budget this into the scheme.

Any help whatsoever appreciated, my green attempts so far are energy saving appliances, growing my own, keeping chickens and recycling but I know nothing about solar hot water, electric etc or how they work.

Does anyone know of a company fairly local (West midlands) who would come and advise us?

thanks

Mcfi5dhc

Solar Hot Water will not save you any money - lots of threads about this on here if you search around

However, this may change if/when the RHI tariff comes in soon - this is basically a cash bonus for every unit you'll generate on top of the savings from your heating bill.

At the very least, research this before committing to solar hot water.

Solar hot water uses the sun to heat water in a tank, which you then use. It can keep it hot for quite a while (24 hours or so). Unfortunantly, without investing a massive amount, it can't keep it hot until winter which is when you'll want more of it. By that time the sun won't be strong enough to make much.

Solar electricity (called PV) generates electicity directly from the sun. There is a feed in tariff already in place for this, which pays fairly generous amounts. Plenty of threads on this as well. If you are thinking of staying in the house for ten years or more, this could be a good option.

Like with solar hot water, you'll make loads in summer and less in winter, but storage isn't an issue. When you generate more than you need, it'll go back into the national grid and you'll get paid a little bit extra. Even if you use the power yourself, you'll get the tariff (41.3p for every unit generated).

Hope this is of some use.

Another guy/girl is seraching for a solar PV installer in the midlands on this forum, might be worth keeping an eye on that thread.

Thanks

Cardew

Post above is spot on, particularly about solar hot water which currently is a joke in Money Saving terms.

Frankly the last thing I would do is go to an installer for advice about solar hot water. They are renowned for exaggerating the expected savings(ask any trading standards office). However there should be an announcement about the Renewable Heat Initiative(RHI) proposals this Autumn and that might change things.

Again as stated above, solar electricity subsidies are already in place and that could well be a long term investment. The present level of subsidy will be retained until April 2012 when it will reduce slightly. That said there has been conjecture that the subsidy for future installations might be reduced - as in some European countries.

You will of course need a large South facing roof that is not shaded for any solar system.

Mankysteve

Solar heating is not worth it and I don't see the RHI scheme being any good especially with the current government we may never see it. Solar PV is completly different kettle of fish. there plenty of post on here about it have a search.

Poosmate

Check out the Solar PV thread on the Utilities Board too (Sub Board - Gas & Electric).

Poo

mrs_motivated

Many thanks to you all. Our concern is reducing our carbon footprint, saving money and also trying to diversify for example one mixer shower, one electric shower - only gas heating as a backup.

I can see this is going to require serious research! Thank you for your advice, will look into the FITs scheme.

Cardew

mrs_motivated wrote: »

Many thanks to you all. Our concern is reducing our carbon footprint, saving money and also trying to diversify for example one mixer shower, one electric shower - only gas heating as a backup.

I can see this is going to require serious research! Thank you for your advice, will look into the FITs scheme.

Not sure what you mean by "only gas heating as a backup."

Neither solar hot water or solar PV will provide any heating for the house.

A large, and hence expensive, solar thermal system will provide lots of hot water in the summer - possibly enough for all your needs; but precious little in the winter.

There is also a valid argument that it hardly reduces your carbon footprint to have manufactured a new hot water cylinder, pump, electronics, panels etc and use electricity to power the pump and electronics - all for relatively little output.

Frankly the best way to look at solar PV is as an 'ethical' long term investment.

mrs_motivated

Hi cardew,

Sorry if i am not making myself very clear. There will be two woodburners one with a boiler which will supply some of the radiators.

I was told (as i said I know little about this) that if you had solar hot water and the water was not used for showering etc. that if you had twin tanks that pre heated wated passed through the second tank and into the gas boiler (coil things in tank), therefore water preheated going into combi and less gass used. With emersion for back up. Sorry i know i am rambling, this was explained to me but I am not technical at all.

I do take your point about a new boilder and carbon footprint etc, but will need a new one regardless due to increased capacity by extending house to accomodate dad.

Cardew

mrs_motivated wrote: »

Hi cardew,

Sorry if i am not making myself very clear. There will be two woodburners one with a boiler which will supply some of the radiators.

I was told (as i said I know little about this) that if you had solar hot water and the water was not used for showering etc. that if you had twin tanks that pre heated wated passed through the second tank and into the gas boiler (coil things in tank), therefore water preheated going into combi and less gass used. With emersion for back up. Sorry i know i am rambling, this was explained to me but I am not technical at all.

I do take your point about a new boilder and carbon footprint etc, but will need a new one regardless due to increased capacity by extending house to accomodate dad.

I think you need to appreciate just how little 'energy' solar hot water produces before you start installing complicated systems with twin hot water tanks.

If you look in this section of MSE there are loads of threads about solar thermal.

The Government commissioned tests of 8 solar hot water systems. The average annual output was around 1,000kWh. Now if you have gas that is a saving of around £30 a year. Even worse most of that is in the summer months.

You can of course have bigger systems that will produce more hot water - so you will have loads of hot water in the summer - but still little in the winter.

As said above - RHI if adopted will make a difference.

Just one piece of very firm advice - do not listen to solar hot water salesmen about output of their systems - or get it in writing and ignore any figures that are prefaced 'up to'.

P.S.
Be very careful about connecting woodburners into CH systems. By that I mean combining a woodburner into a gas CH system.

mrs_motivated

Thanks Cardew, I do really appreciate the advice. I will read up on here before i commit to anything, was hoping EST would be agood place to get advice from, but when i phoned the chap was next to useless