Took the plunge innit

RenewableCandy · Post by **RenewableCandy** » 05 Sep 2010, 22:46

Performance update on the roof: 1.67 kWp system and it has now been going for exactly a month. System seems to kick in w-a-y after sunrise, and finish at about 6.30 pm.
Weekly energy output, kWh, goes thuswise:
15.90 (week ending 9/8/10, power-up on 5/8/10)
38.16
42.28
37.54
43.49 (week ending today)

Our weekly electricity "import" is down by about 35 kWh, as I try to use things like the dishwasher during the day. Apparently this means it's free, because until we're given a smart-meter there's no way anyone can tell how much of the 40-ish kWh we generate each week is used by us and how much is exported. It is "deemed" to be 1/2-and-1/2.

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 06 Sep 2010, 09:47

That looks pretty good considering that August was not very nice.

RenewableCandy · Post by **RenewableCandy** » 06 Sep 2010, 17:19

It turns out (says the Met-office monthly summary) to have been the 4th-darkest August ever.

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 10 Sep 2010, 17:42

Three big men from Grimsby came. Watch this space next week.

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 14 Sep 2010, 20:18

Da-daa...

katie · Post by **katie** » 14 Sep 2010, 20:33

Wow - I'm impressed!! You've got six more panels than me

I hope you're as happy with your system as I am with mine.

Katie

JohnB · Post by **JohnB** » 14 Sep 2010, 20:38

I'd have thought you'd have had special ones with oak frames

.

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 15 Sep 2010, 09:46

Where do you have your solar hot water panel(s), Biff?

(BTW, I'm impressed; fair play to you).

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 15 Sep 2010, 12:53

Solar water panel is on an outhouse - facing west and shaded in the morning! It still gives us three very deep very hot baths on a sunny afternoon.

Of course we don't save any energy but we spend more time lying in the bath

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 15 Sep 2010, 14:14

biffvernon wrote:Solar water panel is on an outhouse - facing west and shaded in the morning! It still gives us three very deep very hot baths on a sunny afternoon.

Of course we don't save any energy but we spend more time lying in the bath

That's good.

I think a combination of solar DHW and PV makes far more sense than PV on its own.

RenewableCandy · Post by **RenewableCandy** » 15 Sep 2010, 14:49

Oooh well if everyone else is showing orf their silicon, here's a shot of our final panel being put in place...

and the Inverter doing its stuff (a bit blurry I'm afraid):

a gratuitously arty close-up of the roof...

an ordinary close-up shot:

and of course the lino we bought to match the pattern:

katie · Post by **katie** » 15 Sep 2010, 15:11

emordnilap wrote:
biffvernon wrote:Solar water panel is on an outhouse - facing west and shaded in the morning! It still gives us three very deep very hot baths on a sunny afternoon.

Of course we don't save any energy but we spend more time lying in the bath
That's good.

I think a combination of solar DHW and PV makes far more sense than PV on its own.

In our house our washer & dishwasher are cold fill, showers are electric and we don't use the bathtub so hot water is only needed for a wash on the mornings when we don't shower and the occasional hand wash during the day. The electricity we produce is much more use in our house - just for the two of us.

Remewablecandy - lovely pics. Thanks for sharing.

Katie

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 15 Sep 2010, 15:22

Yes but with a DHW solar panel you could shower and fill the washer and the dishwasher with solar-heated water without wasting your precious electric.

Dishwashers are ideal for solar DHW as they never actually use cold water at all - every drop has to be heated.

There's an illogicality in shunning solar DHW but then using electricity to heat water.

katie · Post by **katie** » 15 Sep 2010, 15:43

The thing is though, my dishwasher and washing machine only has one hose which connects to the hot tap (as do most UK appliances these days). I can see that the dishwasher might run OK if we attach it to the hot water supply, but the washing machine needs to have the water at a certain pressure to work properly and I don't think the hot water supply pressure would be high enough. There is also the problem that filling the washing machine with ho water only would destroy some fabrics. Maybe there is a way round this which I cannot work out.
I know that when we're on holiday in the states, the villa we hire has a washing machine which uses both hot and cold supplies to regulate the temperature of the water.
When our showers need to be replaced we can convert them to use the hot water supply but as the hot water cylinder is on the same floor as the showers, we'd need an electric pump to use them as the pressure would be too low. I haven't researched how much power a pump would use compared with the electric shower we use at present.

Katie

Post by **adam2** » 15 Sep 2010, 16:44

A pump for a shower will use much less electricity than an electricly heated shower.
Shower pumps use from 150 watts to 400 watts typicly.
Electricly heated showers use from 7,000 watts to 12,000, if on full and about half or two/thirds of that on low.

An electric pump to use a low pressure hot water supply can be very worthwhile, especialy if you can install it yourself.

Electricly heated showers dont normally have a pump, but a pumped version is available.
These are sometimes used with low pressure solar hot water systems, but are not ideal for this purpose.