Solar panels?

[anto1208]

Im looking into putting solar panels and maybe a wind turbine on my house , i was wondering if anyone else has done this allready and are they any use .

Now that there is a grant available and the chance to get free hot water for 7 months of the year ( i need about 1 or 2 showers a day thats it ) its a super warm house so i rarely need any heating on all year . Im think of adding the solar panel defo and maybe a turbine ( depending on noise as its in an estate )

[dahamsta]

I'd be interested in the answer to this too, there's a load of information and vendors for thermal collectors, but very little for photovoltaics. I'm more interested in the latter, particuarly on where the cutoff point is for efficiency with AC/DC conversions and storage.

I'd say you're wasting your time with wind turbines. Small turbines might be more efficient, but large turbines are very expensive and have a long break-even cycle that stretches nearly to the end of their lifespan.

adam

[anto1208]

Id be going for the small turbine that sticks to the side of the house , its ment to reduce the ESB bill by 30% and with the grants available they work out quite cheap only thing is if they make noise i dont think my neighbour would be happy with a whuring noise all night out side his window !! .

[paul_oshea]

what have AC/DC got to do with this? are they using solar panels to power their equipment on tour?!

[soccerc]

Im looking into putting solar panels and maybe a wind turbine on my house , i was wondering if anyone else has done this allready and are they any use .

Now that there is a grant available and the chance to get free hot water for 7 months of the year ( i need about 1 or 2 showers a day thats it ) its a super warm house so i rarely need any heating on all year . Im think of adding the solar panel defo and maybe a turbine ( depending on noise as its in an estate )

We looked at this last October and were given the following advice from an installer at survey stage.

Forget the wind turbine if you live in a housing estate or in the lea of a large building as the efficiency of the generator will be reduced with virtually no pay back over it's expected lifetime. Added to that planning permission is required and an objection from one neighbour is all it takes apparently to scupper it in terms of noise and visual/residential amenity

In our case the solar panels would have been ideal as thermal collectors for domestic hot water only and not for our heating system considering our roofs orientation (S SW facing). The problem arose at the survey stage as we have three velux windows already in the roof following an attic conversion.

To install the panels would have required moving two of these windows and also strenghtening the roof trusses making it an expensive project to continue with.

The supplier gave us a full refund.

[noby]

Something I plan on doing in the next year or two.
I came across a website of a small operation based in Cork, who are linked to a guy in the UK. He's a kind of 'more in it for ethical reasons than huge profits' guy. At the time they were not on the approved list for the grant, and had no inteintion of trying to get onto the list. They were about half the price of the going rate.
I'll see can I dig out the details.

[anto1208]

Something I plan on doing in the next year or two.
I came across a website of a small operation based in Cork, who are linked to a guy in the UK. He's a kind of 'more in it for ethical reasons than huge profits' guy. At the time they were not on the approved list for the grant, and had no inteintion of trying to get onto the list. They were about half the price of the going rate.
I'll see can I dig out the details.

Im fearing now with the grant a load of places will jack up there price , I seem to have 380 per sq metre in my head and the grant is 300 per sq m.

i found one place online but with no prices they ll come survey the gaff , help you fill out the grant forms and install it for you .

[noby]

It was last year, but for two panels, tank pump and bits'n'bobs was about €2000. If you have the tank already you could save about €700. A bit of a DIY job, or a plumber for a day.