Solar Panel Guide Discussion

Barter

17 50kWh here in N Cheshire today; not the best so far this year though - 5th March was better...

Cardew

KevinG wrote: »

Did anybody see this yesterday:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2115837/Elderly-couple-told-tear-13-000-solar-panels-dazzling-neighbour.html

Unbelievable! Pure spite and jealousy I think. Mine are on a bungalow and, if anything, even lower down.

Why unbelievable?

Do you think they look good?

Many people don't like the appearance of PV panels and most councils will not allow them to be fitted in conservation areas if visible from the road.

ronlizpatsimon

Barter wrote: »

17 50kWh here in N Cheshire today; not the best so far this year though - 5th March was better...

It just shows you what a big difference location makes. Today the sun did not appear until 3 pm.
On the 5th I only got 3.6 kwh - with no sun at all!

Barter

ronlizpatsimon wrote: »

It just shows you what a big difference location makes. Today the sun did not appear until 3 pm.
On the 5th I only got 3.6 kwh - with no sun at all!

Ah-ha; I did wonder where you were; thanks for adding location.

KevinG

Cardew wrote: »

Why unbelievable?

Do you think they look good?

I think they look absolutely fine.

Cardew wrote: »

Many people don't like the appearance of PV panels and most councils will not allow them to be fitted in conservation areas if visible from the road.

There is no suggestion that this is in a conservation area.

John_Pierpoint

KevinG wrote: »

Did anybody see this yesterday:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2115837/Elderly-couple-told-tear-13-000-solar-panels-dazzling-neighbour.html

Unbelievable! Pure spite and jealousy I think. Mine are on a bungalow and, if anything, even lower down.

Careful Kevin, it only needs two ball bearings and one catapult to turn off your panels?

That pensioners roof is a lot less offensive to me, than one of these parked in the front drive.



I think it is time that the local authority auditor called for redundancies in the Bury department that has nothing better to do with its time - Get a real job.
[ Or perhaps you could give a helping hand to this "can't cope" council
http://www.theenquirer.co.uk/read.aspx?id=6481 ]

They have even paid over the odds and probably not got the full 4kWp potential by trying to fit a "tasteful" rather than purely functional array; and while we are at it, I wonder if there is a TPO on the beech tree - have that down to boost the yield of the panels and keep the home fires burning for a season or two. I know someone who burns 15 tonnes of timber a year.

The shadows are at funny angles - do you think that is a late afternoon picture, with the panels facing somewhat East of South?

Someone go and find it on street view, then we can evaluate the neighbours too;)

Martyn1981

Those panels look too shallow to reflect into neighbouring properties, but you never know I suppose.

Got to say though, this is typical 'British'. Anything new - complain about it, spend an inordinate amount of time trying to think of problems, issues, concerns, rather than just getting on with it. We do like to moan and complain, easier I guess than being constructive or looking for solutions?

People used to say that Velux's were ugly, especially on the front of houses, but does anyone really care now that they are common? Or a better question, does anyone even notice now when another roof window goes in?

Can anyone imagine our kids giving such things a moments thought in 5 years time? Or even now - kid looks up, notices new PV array, 5 secs later goes back to spinning around, or picking nose!

I often meet a lovely 'old boy' at a nearby lake. Last year he was telling me how the 120m wind turbine that had just been built 1.25 miles away, had 'totally spoiled the view'.

We were standing on a railway bridge for the main S Wales to London lines, underneath a pylon part of one row stretching past the turbine, with another row of pylons on the other side of the lake running across the main Cardiff landfill, with a concrete flyover at the other end of the lake taking HGV's to the Cardiff Docks. At 1.25miles the turbine was at the far end of the 5 (yes 5!!!) industrial estates that were visible in-between from the lake. But it COMPLETELY spoiled the view!

IMO - it's big, clever, green, modern engineering and it 'spins', what more could a big kid ask for?

I admit that I'm lucky as my panels totally cover my roof, so it looks proportional, and instead of small gray/black rectangles, I now have large black rectangles, with silver diamond patterns. A bit like putting interesting wallpaper over a boring magnolia wall (apologies to anyone with boring magnolia walls).

Mart.

Cardew

KevinG wrote: »

There is no suggestion that this is in a conservation area.

The point was that they are banned/discouraged in conservation areas if visible from the road, because some people think they are not aesthetically pleasing.

The fact that the property is not in a conservation area doesn't alter that fact.

EricMears

Cardew wrote: »

The point was that they are banned/discouraged in conservation areas if visible from the road, because some people think they are not aesthetically pleasing.

The fact that the property is not in a conservation area doesn't alter that fact.

The real point is that providing certain rules are observed they are a permitted development on any house not in conservation area or AONB, listed building etc. No idea whether the particular installation complies with that list of rules (which seem to have been posted here more times than I can count !) - the newspaper article offers no evidence either way.

In my own case, I was aware of rules but wrote to local council anyway asking for confirmation that it was indeed a permitted development and received the answer that it was - just as I'd done the previous year when I wanted to build a conservatory (also a 'PD'). I'd always advise anyone to do the same before making any changes that they think are 'PDs'.

KevinG

Cardew wrote: »

... because some people think they are not aesthetically pleasing.

No-one would ever be able to develop anything, anywhere if that were applied widely!