| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| Cathryn |
Solar panelsJust supposing we have to have the roof replaced. (We do, but lets not dwell on it!) Would solar panels be a part of the roof or do they have to be put on on top of the new slates? How well do they work if they are continuously covered with salt from the sea? Would they rot away as quickly as everything else does around here? Apart from you lot, who should we be talking to about this? |
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| Gervase |
You'd be best off looking at solar heating rather than photovoltaic panels. The new generation of heat collectors can be mounted flush with the roof (saving on slates) and are remarkably efficient. Effective 'payback' times of less than seven years are certainly feasible. For a decent system expect to pay upwards of £4k. | ||
| welshboy454 |
You might want to read this
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/SpaceHeating/Thomason/Solar_Heat.pdf |
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| RichardW |
You can get solar PV tiles that replace the actual roof tile BUT they cost more per m2 & kwp than roof slates & normal panels added together BUT some councils dont like you to use normal panels. However Wales has now added solar panels (PV & thermal) to PD (Permitted Development) unless its been removed from your area / property & or you are listed.
I suggest you pop over to http://www.navitron.org.uk/forum/ & do some searching & question asking. Do you know how many kwh you use per day? Have you insulated as much as is possible (not just to Building regs standards)? Also consider solar thermal. With the new FIT's (Feed In Tariffs) that are coming in n ow is the time to be sorting this out. Plus as Gervas said thermal is slightly better at the min but the FITs should change that (hard to say cos numbers are not sorted yet & thermal is also going to be paid for) |
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| Cathryn |
Unfortunately you lost me straight away at this point.  However I will wander around the forum Richard suggested and come back to this.
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| vegplot |
Do you want to produce hot water or electricity? | ||
| tahir |
I've been having discussions about PV, PVT and solar thermal with our energy consultant this week, he thinks we'd be insane to consider anything but solar thermal. He doesn't like any "micro" generation unless you're genuinely off grid. | ||
| vegplot |
He's generally right unless pricing drops dramatically or you aren't doing it for financial reasons. |
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| Cathryn |
Thermal, that sounds like warm. I want warm in the house. 
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| vegplot |
You have a two main options, flat panel and evacuated tube. The flat panels are essentially black metal plates with tubing to carry away heat encased in a box with a transparent lid. These are cheap. Evacuated tubes are special glass tubes with a central heat conductor. These are more expensive (but not a lot more) but more efficient than flat panels. Tubes don't look as nice (depending on your view point) and don't blend into the roof as well as flat panels but they are becoming more popular due to the high efficiency and they're getting cheaper. Personally, I'd opt for the evacuated tubes as they're better in poor light conditions and you don't need such a large area to get the same heat output. |
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| Chez |
Are you listed? Are there still implications with that? I know there used to be. | ||
| RichardW |
Vegplot is slightly out of date.
You will find now that flat plate (FP) & Evacuated tubes (EV) are now more even in prices (FP have gone high tech & EV have dropped in price). Under good conditions they are about even but during marginal conditions the EV will out perform the FP (FP can produce slightly more over the full year but as in summer you will be over producing more with the FP but in winter you get more with the EV). OH & FORGET using it to HEAT your house unless you have a HAUF House. It will do your hot water for around 8-10 months of the year IF its sized large enough but you will need a dump for summer. OH & you need a LARGER physical area (but smaller collector area) of EV tubes as they have gaps in them. I too would go for EV tubes in this country. In fact I have 20 x 58mm tubes & 20 x 47mm tubes. |
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| Cathryn |
It's not listed. Thank you all, we can start looking into this with some more knowledge. I'll have a look at the other threads on this as well. | ||
| Cathryn |
Some of us have energy consultants, some of us have downsizer. How do we find a good energy consultant, just in case we need one?
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| RichardW |
First check how deep your pockets are for his fees & then they need to be deeper still to buy the kit they will recommend from the suppliers they choose.
But I might be a cynic. |
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| Cathryn |
It was my first cynical thought and kind of what I meant by a good one.
We'll do the research. |
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| tahir |
I think you're being too cynical, his whole brief is to make sure we only do really useful stuff and don't just get kit. He's not selling us anything, not even recommending suppliers except for the MVHR which he says is too key a bit of kit to leave to the builders. He's a friend of Nicks (AECB) and they share a philosophy of "eco minimalism", i.e. reduce demand, not bolt on bits of kit. I know he'll say no to any kind of PV in Cathryn's case, but he might say yes to solar thermal. |
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| Cathryn |
Thanks Tahir. We will consider this once we have discussed what exactly we want to do. | ||
| tahir |
OK, Alan's a nice guy and was involved in a lot of decisions on the structure/engineering of the house, from foundations up, to ensure that we'd meet the kind of efficiency that Jon (architect) had in mind. Most of his work was modelling solar gain/overheating/daylighting, that sort of stuff. | ||
| JohnB |
A few years ago, I owned half of a company that installed solar hot water systems. We worked with another company to put in PV and solar thermal on a house that was being re-roofed.
It was in a conservation area, but on the back of the house. Everyone, including councillors, neighbours and planners supported it, except the conservation officer, but he lost in the end. The PV and flat plate solar collector were mounted direct on the roof timbers, and the slates from that side of the roof were reused on the other side, so I don't think we had to buy in any slates. With the grants available at that time, that I think were more generous than now, and a grid connection without feed in tariffs (I think), I calculated that the house owner's return on his investment was about the same as putting the money in a building society account. If the roof hadn't needed doing I don't think it would have been financially worthwhile, and although I've lost track of the current grants available, I suspect the numbers wouldn't work out so well now. |
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| RichardW |
Sounds like you have one of the few good ones Tahir.
Plenty of horror stories about them on other forums. Speccing systems that are far to small, far to big, totally unsuitable, ect ect. If you have money to spend i think in most case this order is about right. reduce usage, turn off, no standby etc Fit LED & CFL lights fit time switches where needed insulate & draft proof fit new controls to heating double glazing consider some new white goods solar thermal Water power if you have the site for it super insulate new heating system (but not GSHP or ASHP unless on elec only heating) Triple glazing Other "green" power sources like PV & wind |
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| tahir |
The first one we had came equipped with brochures for everything imaginable, after listening to their drivel for 20 mins or so I told them where they could stick all this kit. I was very specific on the approach that we wanted from the next one. |
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| VSS |
You might want to try these people
www.ecocentre.org.uk - charitable organisation, independent of any loyalties to particular manufacturers. |