Something for the weekend?

[Ed]

Over the past few months I've been experimenting with solar panels in my spare time - solar thermal rather than photovoltaic. Even in British weather conditions it's possible to satisfy all your daily hot water needs during the summer months, and a good percentage during the winter. It's really quite simple to do as well. Just spraying a radiator black and putting it under glass/polycarb in a box will produce usefully hot water.

My experimentation has persuaded me to buy a professional system (and install it myself), but it's definitely possible to make your own. Anybody interested in the science can get ideas for over 500 projects on this site - http://www.builditsolar.com/

[canadian]

Now that's what I call ambitious, Ed! Good on ya. Let us know how the installation goes.

[Ed]

It might take me a while to get around to it - first I've got to get planning permission for the panels to go on the roof. Plus it's going to mean lots of extra pipework and I have to replace our existing hot water cylinder with a different one. The latter is not necessary with every type of system, but I'm looking to install a woodburner with a back boiler, too, so I might as well get the best gear for the job. The cylinder I'm getting (an ACV multi fuel) will recover from cold to a full tank of hot in under ten minutes. Plus it's so efficiently insulated that it'll only lose 3C in heat loss over a 24 hour period. It won't be cheap, but my bunker mentality is telling me to make myself less reliant on fossil fuels before they either run out, or become even more ridiculously expensive

[SharonBell]

Good luck! My contribution to the GREEN effort was to buy a Toyota Hybrid. I LOVE IT!!

[Geoff_N]

Good for you, Ed 

I helped to establish the Centre for Alternative Energy in mid Wales at Machynlech way back in the mid 70s and we had to construct simple radiator under glass solar heating panels cos there were no commercial ones available until 1976. Even then I couldn't understand why new houses weren't designed with built in solar panels in the roofs. Then when oil prices shot up in the 80s a council estate in London was built with solar panels - hooray. Then oil went cheaper so the idea lost impetus.

I can imagine in a century's time everyone will look back on our houses and think how stupid we were for not having solar panels and revolving ridge turbines. And they'll laugh their electronic socks off at the notion of sticking printed paper patterns on our internal walls!

Geoff

[Ed]

Yeah - I reckon you're right, Geoff. Mind you, there are a lot of conmen out there making solar stuff more expensive than it has to be. I went on the Grant Engineering solar course a few weeks ago, which teaches yo how to install their panels. Well, they say their panels, but they're actually made in Germany and rebadged after bumping the price up. Come the end of the course they were saying about average prices including fitting being around six grand. Let's face it, that's a lot of dosh, and you can buy an awful lot of gas and oil for that sort of money - and that's part of the reason why not many people bother.

There are cheaper ways, though. If it wasn't for me buying a new hot water cylinder, my system would cost just five hundred quid - less than a tenth of the RRP of the Grant system.

[Ed]

Good luck! My contribution to the GREEN effort was to buy a Toyota Hybrid. I LOVE IT!!

Good for you, Sharon - I think they're a great idea