Would solar panels put you off buying?

[Riche]

That may be the case with you, but I've never considered this to be an issue.

 

Free mins on a phone may be FREE but like an addict they get you hooked on using your phone more. With free elec. people think why do I have to be carfull its free and you get used to not careing about that light left on or TV on stanby. When man finds a short cut or cure man gets sloppy.

[Rupert_Baehr]

People in Germany don't use more electricity because they've got PV panels. - The scheme doesn't work like that. There are two meters. One measures the power you draw from the supply and the other measures the power you feed in. You get paid for power fed in and charged for power drawn. It's not a case of 'use it or lose it'.

[Riche]

People in Germany don't use more electricity because they've got PV panels. - The scheme doesn't work like that. There are two meters. One measures the power you draw from the supply and the other measures the power you feed in. You get paid for power fed in and charged for power drawn. It's not a case of 'use it or lose it'.

 

May be, but with money for FREE comin in you get sloppy with that that you pay for. Some panels are hot water panels also. Maintaining them is a real H & S issue and costly.

[JFKvsNixon]

May be, but with money for FREE comin in you get sloppy with that that you pay for. Some panels are hot water panels also. Maintaining them is a real H & S issue and costly.

 

Why would you get sloppy? The more disciplined you are the more money you have to spend on yourself on the nicer things in life.

[Rupert_Baehr]

I'm considering fitting glycol-filled solar heating panels on a house in Florida. - They should provide ALL my hot water needs year round. They're a sealed system (with a heat-exchanger to the water tank) and (apparently) require very little maintenance.

[spineless]

PV energy is NOT new. It might be new in the UK but in CH there were already houses and cottages powered by PV panels back in 1991 when I lived there.

 

It is possible to manage your own electricity according to your needs and not run out of energy being connected to the grid.

 

The requirement to have anything and everything fit by an approved installer is to stop people getting electrocuted by their messy installations.

 

Glycol filled solar heating panels are a great idea.

 

And going to the thread, when I move house again, one of my priorities will be looking for a house that can have PV panesl fitted (mine doesn't fit the bill at the moment) because no matter what some posters have said in this thread, it is worthy.

[Cyclone]

In 1991 it probably wasn't worth it, the efficiency and longevity of panels has increased massively since then.

[Newgirl04]

Interesting results as I've got free solar from A Shade Greener and I was a bit concerned that it might put people off but before I agreed to an install I asked loads of people if it would put them off and they all, bar one, said no. So this poll kind of backs up what I thought anyway. There are some people on some other forums who are really 'anti' solar of any kind and they're spreading a lot of nonsense about free solar, saying that it would put people off buying but the more people I speak to the more I'm convinced it's a good thing.

 

My electric bills are literally half what they used to be so I'm very happy. It does take some managing (i.e. making sure you put your stuff on timer start etc) but it's worth it. Someone also said a bit further up the thread that the panels don't produce much in the winter. That's quite wrong. They need bright light not heat. I have an Owl monitor and some days in the winter were brilliant - a whopping 16kw hours one day! Also, it's a huge myth that you use tons more electric in the winter, unless you have electric heating (which I don't) you only use more by way of light bulbs and I've got those low energy ones as most people have these days so it's hardly much difference.

[Rupert_Baehr]

... Someone also said a bit further up the thread that the panels don't produce much in the winter. That's quite wrong. They need bright light not heat. ...

 

At and around the summer solstice in Sheffield there are 16 or more hours of daylight per day.

 

At and around the winter solstice in Sheffield there are less than 8 hours of daylight per day.

 

I agree with you that solar panels need bright light, but - given that there are less than half as many hours of daylight in winter - I don't undertand why you feel that solar panels produce the same amount in winter as they do in summer.

[Cyclone]

I suppose if you've got 'free' panels and aren't receiving the SIT yourself then you won't be concerned with periods when you don't use very much power, so in the summer from 0400 until 0700 are likely to be of little relevance to most people.

 

I guess other times will depend on your lifestyle, pensioners might use power evenly throughout the day. I'm working from home, so I've got a PC and two monitors running and the tumble dryer (as it just started raining). A couple who both go out to work would probably have practically nothing running at this time (just things on standby, fridge/freezer...)

 

The point I was trying to get at was that the apparently large difference between summer/winter might turn out to make little difference depending on your lifestyle (on the other hand, some people might find that they get no free power over the winter because they go to work before it's light and get home after it's dark).

 

What are the primary uses of power in the home anyway? Fridge/Freezer, computer, TV, washing machine and tumble dryer, lighting? (probably quite small if using energy saving bulbs), kettle? (only on for minutes at a time)...