Solar Heating - grant aid and advice?

Cardew

callansdad wrote:

Hiya,

i have a quick question to throw into the discussion. I'm not looking for a huge long winded technical answer (as informative as they are) and i dont mean that in a derogatory manner.

we are replacing our roof and i am acutely aware of a product called a solar slate which can be used in place of a real slate. Does anyone have any experience of these? Would they be worth CONSIDERING in place of real slates (more cost effective than just lumping solar panels on your roof)?

I do know that they are considerably more expensive than real slates.
We are replacing roof anyway, any thoughts?

Bearing in mind you don't want it too technical!

Solar panels are just about the most expensive way to produce electricity available,but not quite. Solar slates(tiles) are even more expensive.

callansdad

Well having been an avid reader of your many well informed posts on this subject, thats good enough for me!

Thanks

nrmacg

By the way are Simply Solar and Simplee Solar one and the same? I saw a board up for the former last week but should have written down their number to check it out.

Cardew

Does the merest mention of anything with environmental credentials mean that it should be exempt from financial scrutiny?

Firstly if you look at Martin's introduction to this 'Green and Ethical MoneySaving' forum he states:

How do you live life the MoneySaving way, but protect our planet too?

As environmental issues impact right across our lives, the issue is of course duplicated elsewhere, such as organic food buying in MoneySaving Old Style. Yet my aim is this is a forum that will cover cost cutting and environmentally friendly(my bold text)

If you look through this money saving website, you will find it stressed time and again that there is absolutely no criticism of anyone who wishes to spend their money in any way they wish.

The sole objection most of us have, is that the savings from solar hot water are exaggerated beyond belief by unscrupulous salesmen. Even worse are those on this forum who, having bought systems, make completely unsupportable claims of savings which IMO can only be in an attempt to save face.

It seems to me laudable that these dishonest claims should be refuted and prospective purchasers of these systems should at least have some objective advice, on potential money saving, on which to base their decision.

As said above, if someone is prepared to spend £thousands to save £tens, that is their prerogative, but they should not be misled into thinking they are going to save £hundreds.

moonrakerz

Nice one Cardew !

Annie_Fanny

Burn the panels!!

Burn the panels!!

Ooh I feel lovely and warm now...

moonrakerz

mark_alan wrote: »

This sounds interesting as its clearly the way forward for anyone looking at heating water using a solar water heating system as opposed to Oil in the Future..

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm - really !

Cardew

mark_alan wrote: »

This sounds interesting as its clearly the way forward for anyone looking at heating water using a solar water heating system as opposed to Oil in the Future..

This is just spam.

The link in the post he quotes(from Simonm) has been changed to another site peddling the same rubbish.

Reported

After Note. Spam removed - thank you Moderators!

yakky58

Some actual figures for all who read this debate.

Solar Water heating a 2.05 Kwh PV panels installed.

Bills one year prior to installation:

Gas £523.44 Electric £646.04

Bills one year post the installation:

Gas £411.26 Electric £365.52

Savings:
Gas £112.18
Electric £280.52

Total £392.70

I have registered with Ofgem and they have agreed to far I have 3x ROC to be claimed.

I export all my excess to the grid via an export meter supplied by Southern Electric. That was easy to set up and Southern supplied and installed for free. I have a contract with them under which quarterly i inform them of exported units and they credit my bill. All done via email. All very easy.

Generated to date 3172 Kwh
Exported to date 1720 Kwh

As far as water heating is concerned the savings can be seen above. I suppose i could install a hour meter and record the time the pump is on. Probably pointless.

Maintenance has been zero so far, apart from a 2 hour scramble on the roof to clean tha panels.

No arguement on the installation costs i am sure Cardew has articulated these very well. Its how you choose to spend the money you have.

For the green people I have a calculation on the carbon saved. Just electric so far its 1798kg ... i don't work out the Gas side of things.

Would I add to the system, maybe in the future, another 1kwh of PV panels then the roof is full, they are easy to install and you can buy quite cheaply on the web.

If you want to know more send me a mail, will be happy to answer.

moonrakerz

yakky58 wrote: »

Some actual figures for all who read this debate.

Thanks for those, very interesting. It is encouraging to see a post which does ring true, ie: an export meter - unlike a post that claimed his meter "ran backwards" when he was exporting.

I am a little confused, however, with your set up. You only mention solar water heating panels, then mention exporting 1720Kwh of electricity, I presume that you have some kind of generating capability as well ?