I saw the evidence of the grant and the new April 2010 tariffs and realised that this is a wonderful opportunity. So I now will get totally free energy, all year round, including my heating and hotwater.
The Solar Roof is made of 22 Sharp 180W panels facing East-South-East, so gets most of its power in the morning, and should generate 2800kWhr over the entire year. If I had the same number of panels facing due south, I could expect 3300kWhr. Either of those figures are more than the average annual power requirements of a typical British house and family - but it can generate enough revenue to pay the entire heating costs too!
The result of the power generation plus a record of daily and monthly power and temperatures are published to the internet, and you can see it at Sunnyportal.com
The black panels you see with the scaffolding are Thermal Panels: this is a self build project, for me to put solar heat 48metres deep under the house, for my heatpump to retrieve later. The purpose of this is research into ways to improve the Coefficient of Performance of the heatpump. You can read more about this in the house blog: http://chargingtheearth.blogspot.com/
Neither of those figures are more than the average UK electricity consumption of between 3300 and 4000kWh (depending on who you believe).
ReplyDeleteBut congratulations on being able to afford, what £20,000 to demonstrate your eco-bling credentials. Yes, you are right, you will get some obscene subsidy; the remainder of the British population will be forced to subsidise your self-indulgence, but it still will not pay for itself...ever!