Discussion
We have had solar panels for a few months now, and I still get joy from the idea that we are making use of energy which would otherwise just being going to waste.
As the price and complexity of PV systems (e.g. via balcony solar) decreases, hopefully this will be available to more and more people.
It is quite wonderful to me that, so far today, everything I have done has been powered by sunlight, with enough spare to pop some into our battery.
@neil it's a game changer! We've had solar for about 5 years. Habits change: washing machine on when the sun shines for example. We also installed AC last year after *much* deliberation, but that too seems to sit OK with me now, the sun in effect powers my cooling when it's needed.
@neil we moved into a house that already had it fitted, and I can’t imagine life without it now. Like you say it feels wrong if we’re not harvesting this abundant resource.
@neil Ours on one end of the house powers the aga. The other end just makes money.
(It’s three houses smashed together. So they have different isolated power supplies. We’ve got extension cables running back and forth so you can change to whatever electricity tariff is currently cheapest).
@neil we got ours installed July 2022. Smallish system, small battery, modest export in summer, but I hate to think what our bills would be if we didn't have it. Of course, the amount you receive in winter depends on location, angle of panels, orientation, and shading. Reduced bills, credit for export, and the ability to be 'off-grid' at times (but still with the ability to fall back on grid power), reduced impact on the environment, and able to take advantage of special tariffs/savings periods.
@neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk but that’s the problem - plugin solar is literally unaffordable! Now that it’s official I was expecting it to be something you could just go to Lidl and buy for about fifty quid, less than a hundred anyway (there’s no way I’d pay close to a hundred, that’s far too much, about fifty is what I expected to spend). Instead, we’re being price gouged, it’s about twenty times what it should be. It’s unaffordable, therefore pointless.
> I was expecting it to be something you could just go to Lidl and buy for about fifty quid, less than a hundred anyway
Wow. I was expecting it to be rather more than that.
@neil we got balcony solar and aircon this summer. Nowhere near our full usage, but still it works great! 👍
More panels would be amazing. It is a shame that we could fit so few on our roof.
As it stands, we are nowhere close to being able to meet our own home/office usage *and* charge our car.
And I imagine that, in the winter, we may well have days when we struggle to cover even our own home/office use entirely.
But still. Amazing stuff.
@neil I don't have much roof either, and, worse, the ridgeline runs north/south, so I'll only get power for half the day (or need to double up on panels).
I have no idea where batteries or ASHP units would go. There's little usable outside wall, either.
We are looking at an air source heat pump, for heating and hot water, and that would use even more electricity, so the deficit between what we generate and what we use will grow.
But still. This feels like the future, today.
Heatpumps also bend my head so do not trust me on this.[1]
As per @robtherunt ...
If you put 1kW of Solar[2] into your one bar electric fire you get 1kW of heat out.
If you put 1kW of Solar[2] into your Heatpump you get 3kW of heat out.
Me neither so E&OE.
[1]It's got something to do with differentials of temperature. The bigger the difference the more energy you can extract from your 'fuel' ... Something Something Something.
It's Proper Magic.
@neil
Importantly though, heat pump won't be directly using dinosaur juice
@neil
Our ASHP is very nice, tho we live in a modern well-insulated house and we have underfloor heating downstairs.
Four years ago we moved house from a Victorian terrace which had a combi gas boiler. After a period of living here I worked out that we use about one third of the energy of that house in our new home, which is amazing.
Sadly, the cost of energy nowadays has completely overwhelmed those savings 🙄
@neil you'll have days in winter with 0.0 production even. Although some panels have become better at low light conditions, but it still won't be much.
@neil Our annual electricity bill was coming in at around 0p (eg one year it was -£12), including standing charge.
Won't be like that any more, though, as we've replaced the gas heating and cooking with electricity. Which makes our not-that-old solar PV system look somewhat undersized.
(The electricity for hot water over the summer has cost less than the saving on the gas standing charge. But it ain't gonna be like that in winter.)
@neil The summer to winter ratio of generation is ~5:1 or higher depending on the details of your system, so even though we more than cover our use year round, we cover only a fraction in darkest mid-winter... But every kWh you generate is moving us towards Net Zero: thank you!
@neil the difference between summer and winter is huge - looks like 5 or 6 times (~250kWh in January vs 1400kWh in July)
On those dark December/January days I just have to remind myself that every watt is a watt I don't have to buy.
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@neil Walls are permitted development too for solar in most cases.