For help, advice and discussion about stuff not related to aviation. Play nice: no religion, no politics and no axe grinding please.
#1848221
I would certainly recommend panels to anyone who thinks they will be in the same house in 8-10 years time, even if only for the Feel Good feeling. Your power consumption will go down if for no other reason than you become much more aware of using it, and that has to be a Good Thing. We love having ours, and have _never_ regretted installing them. And the sooner you do the sooner you will have paid them off :D

I have resisted ground/air source heat pumps due to not being able to install underfloor heating, and not really wanting to put in the larger radiators that would be required.

Installing a 13.5kWh battery just over a year ago has also been a bonus, albeit the payback period isn't great though.

All I now need to do is ditch the Aga ...
George, rikur_, Flyin'Dutch' and 1 others liked this
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By Morten
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1848222
Agree. When we looked at this it was much more for the feel good factor of independence (take back control!) and 'doing the right thing' than for the longer term financial potential benefits.
It would be interesting to know whether the impact on resale value of a property with such an installation is significant.
George, Colonel Panic liked this
#1848237
It so happens that I sent in my quarterly wind turbine (6Kw grid connect) meter readings today and it is still belting out power. It has paid itself off now and there is a slight breeze tonight and the house is roasting. Mrs McC says that if we ever move the wind turbine comes too ! The name escapes me but I had an irritating problem at the planning application stage due to them insisting that I had to have a red light fitted at the top as Wick airport is 7 miles away. This was going to cost an extra £3000. The forumite gave me a number at the CAA to ring. I rang, he asked how high is the turbine hub, 15 metres I said. He said that he was not concerned at anything less than 100 metres. Text the planning office I requested. I had an answer back within an hour from planning - no red light required. This also meant that I beat the graduated drop in FIT (feed in tariff) by two days -win win ! I am indebted to that forumite and I apologise for forgetting your name !
Flyin'Dutch', OCB, Flyingfemme and 1 others liked this
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By OCB
#1848247
There are fan assisted radiators designed for heat pump temperatures.

Last time I looked, they were about 30% smaller than what I currently have for the classic domestic hot water supply - and after having a quick google, there are more vendors on the market with "heat pump radiators" than when I looked a few years back.
Flyin'Dutch' liked this
#1848276
Miscellaneous wrote:It's a while since I looked at panels. I can't help but wonder how many actually make them 'work'.


Mine were installed in September 2011. In that time, they have generated over 36,000 kwh. And that is in Wales where it rains 364 days a year. :wink:

That is a lot of power that would have had to have been generated by other sources in their absence.

I'm with the Colonel on this one. It definitely has left me with a feel good factor that we are "doing our bit."
Colonel Panic liked this
#1848277
Paultheparaglider wrote:I'm with the Colonel on this one. It definitely has left me with a feel good factor that we are "doing our bit."

I am not questioning the feel good factor for one second. Nor do I suggest that every decision one makes has to make financial sense. What I am saying is that of those who did buy in to the hype of quick returns before spending life savings, or borrowing money, I doubt a large percentage achieved the projected returns in the time they believed.
Flyin'Dutch', T6Harvard liked this
#1848285
I can't speak for others, misc, but even though I was a relatively early adopter, the estimates of generation I was given have proven to be pretty accurate. As people knew up front the cost and the returns, then it wasn't that hard to work out the likely payback.

Perhaps some people were given unrealistic generation estimates, but my understanding is that by far the biggest problems have arisen from some of the dodgy rent a roof schemes.
#1848311
When we were quoted for our ground mounted 4kW / 16 panel system, the stated projections allowing for tilt, shading and azimuth was 4,536kWh a year.

We have actually achieved (according to the meter which suffers ~3% loss due to distance from the panels) has been
Yr 1 – 4,400
Yr 2 – 4,000
Yr 3 – 4,250
Yr 4 – 4,300
Yr 5 – 4,000
Yr 6 – 3,200 *** (50% of inverter was offline for several peak months before I realised it :twisted: )

So we are on average (excluding the duff year) 7.5% short on what we were advised – or probably 5% down at the panels end of the cable. Not too bad, and not sufficient for me to worry.

Our original inverter lost one half of its innards in Yr 6, just after the warranty ran out. They refused to replace it and the new (& much better) inverter cost ~£1,250 and set my payback expectations back around a year.

Before we installed a storage battery, we consumed 50% of what we generated, shoved 25% in to the HW tank and exported 25%. Since the battery was installed we consume ~85% of what we generate, put about 5% in to the HW tank, and export just 10%.
#1848316
What I find interesting about those numbers, @Colonel Panic , is that your annual generation has been remarkably consistent. I have experienced the same, and expected much greater annual variation. Indeed, variation by individual month (eg comparing June results year by year) has been considerable, but the annual totals have been very consistent even though some years feel as though they are much sunnier than others.
#1848352
You probably don't want to know then that May 2020 was my best ever month. :wink:

By the way, I checked my 2019 results. May was a fair bit higher than you, a bit over 500, but June was similar, as was July. So, your inverter may have been subject to an intermittent fault that resolved itself before finally failing later on.
#1848369
@Paultheparaglider - agreed; now that I look back at the figures it does look like the inverter started to misbehave in ~ March 2019. Had I picked that up before Nov 2019 I could probably have had it fixed under warranty. Bummer.