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[Pitchfork]

Doing my bit for the planet & there's not a lot of point in saving cash at the moment is there with such low interest rates

[Debs.]

Doing my bit for the planet & there's not a lot of point in saving cash at the moment is there with such low interest rates

  Doubtless, 2009 will now be the most overcast and dull year on record!

[Proz]

Doing my bit for the planet & there's not a lot of point in saving cash at the moment is there with such low interest rates

  Doubtless, 2009 will now be the most overcast and dull year on record!

   

[Pitchfork]

Doing my bit for the planet & there's not a lot of point in saving cash at the moment is there with such low interest rates

  Doubtless, 2009 will now be the most overcast and dull year on record!

It might be out there in the colonies, but here in the sunny south remote from you Celts it wil be gloriously warm dur to the depleted ozone caused by flatulant sheep, highland cattle & lager drinkers!!


   

[Marks DTM Calib]

Lol, you might get better results being a bit further south, when I calculated it out for me, I would need 3 rather huge panels and even then it was touch and go on the benefits

[Pitchfork]

I'm having the evacuated tube type collectors & the roof on which they are going faces due south with only a grave-yard opposite
These are more efficient than the conventional recirculating water type
They will be sufficient to heat water comfortably in the summer months, the rest of the year they will act to pre-heat the water so that less gas is used
No solar system will run a heating system, it's for water only

[Marks DTM Calib]

The systems I looked at were very similar, evacuted tube setups using heat pipe technology to transfer the heat into the water which only ran through the top section.

Keep us informed on how well it works as it will be interesting to hear the results  

[Kevin Wood]

My parents had 2 panels fitted about a year ago.  They live in Mortimer West End so a similar climate to Tadley(!) actually, next to the graveyard too but I digress.

My Dad and I both being geeks, we built a system to measure the energy delivered into the hot water cylinder. (Measure temperature difference across the heating coil and combined with the flow rate you know what's going on).

I will check on the latest stats but IIRC it delivers between 3 and 5 KWh on a bright summer's day. It rarely generates enough heat that you can rely on it for 100% of the hot water, purely because it can't heat the whole tank hot enough. Possibly, it is trying to heat too large a tank but once the tank is around 50 degrees the heat input rate drops off because there is not enough temperature difference between panel and tank.

They certainly contribute (and my parents have a choice of leccy or oil heating so every little helps) but they will have shuffled off this mortal coil long before it pays for itself, I suspect.

Certainly the marketing claims that these panels provide anything useful "even on dull days or during the winter" are rubbish. They need bright sunlight before they start to work. They do start working very rapidly once they have sun, though. They do their best work between 5 and 8 in the morning in the summer, after dawn and before the cloud sets in for the day.

Kevin

[Kevin Wood]

I actually quite fancy building myself a CHP system usign an old Lister engine running on WVO providing leccy and hot water. It will have to wait until we've got more space and less neighbours though.

Kevin

[Varche]

When we came out to Spain we fancied solar water but the Spanish unlike the Greeks aren't into it. I guess they just prefer the low capital outlay of a gas heater and gas bottles that were traditionally dirt cheap. New houses have to have it fitted as standard.

We do have a long length of black one inch water pipe on the ground outside that gives buckets of hot water for washing car etc for six months of the year.  

varche