Solar Panels

yop

Lads
anyone got solar panels installed??
What sort of cost would you be talking and what sort of electricity amounts would they give you??

Thanks

Borzoi

yop wrote:

Lads
anyone got solar panels installed??
What sort of cost would you be talking and what sort of electricity amounts would they give you??

Thanks

Haven't done it myself, because the payback seemed so long, and I don't intend to saty where I am.

More info: http://www.becosolar.com/

Pataman

Am just looking into this at the mo. The panels seem to be best suited for water heating.

qazxsw

maybe some time in the future...

http://www.solarcentury.co.uk/

Solar Slates as opposed to solar panels - specifically for generating power not heating water

Johnny_the_fox

yop wrote:

Lads
anyone got solar panels installed??
What sort of cost would you be talking and what sort of electricity amounts would they give you??

Thanks

i think you maybe able to get a grant for installing them.


info from the UK

Cost and maintenance

Prices for PV systems vary, depending on the size of the system to be installed, type of PV cell used and the nature of the actual building on which the PV is mounted. The size of the system is dictated by the amount of electricity required to be supplied.

For the average domestic system, costs can be around £4,000- £9,000 per kwp installed with most domestic systems usually between 1.5 and 2 kwp. Solar tiles cost more than conventional panels and panels that are integrated into a roof are more expensive than those that sit on top. If you intend to have major roof repairs carried out it may be worth exploring PV tiles as they can offset the cost of roof tiles.

Grid connected systems require very little maintenance, generally limited to ensuring that the panels are kept relatively clean and that shade from trees has not become a problem. The wiring and components of the system should however be checked regularly by a qualified technician.

For stand-alone systems, i.e. those not connected to the grid, further maintenance is required on other system components, such as batteries.

yop

grants only in the UK, for geothermal and solar

down here the *****rs give us nothing

Even up North they do not even have to pay VAT on the GEO

Capt'n Midnight

For typical systems and guideline prices..
http://www.pet.ie/generating_electricity/elecsamplesyspricelist.htm

The bottom system will give Max 1300W
lets be optimistic and call it 1Kw (on still winter nights it would be 0w) - that's the equilivant of 1 Unit per hour.
Call a unit 10c so it would generate €876 per year so would take over 11 years to pay for savings - before you start with VAT / maintainance etc.

Water heating on the other hand seems much better by comprision photovoltic cells are only ~ 10% efficient.

yop

So reading from above really there is feck all benefit from solar panels as they take so long to actually pay themselves back??

Thanks for the info lads, think I will scratch the solar.

FX Meister

I think a lot of people use solar power because it's better for the enviornment and not just because it's cheaper in the long run.

siralan

Is it possible for to purchase a solar panel which would power the wastewater treatment system at my house. It has an 85watt air compressor which runs 24/7 and also a pump which kicks in for 8 minutes at a time about 3 times a week ??

Capt'n Midnight

Lets say it's winter 6 hours sunlight and 18 hours without
You don't want the battery going below 80%

85 Watts x 18 Hours = 1530 Watt hours

So you are looking at something like a 160Ah 12V battery

To charge this in 6 hours you are looking at in or around 400W of solar panels , getting direct sunlight.


Here we don't get direct sunlight. So you are going to need even more panels.






Look at wind instead.

Not sure if you could even get a compressor that works off wind , like the old windmills in the wild west were used to pump water.


Or if it's an air compressor, figure out how big a tank would enable you to go for a day without power. This saves you the cost of battery / charging etc.

It's a very rough rule of thumb that if you are planning to go off grid spend as much money reducing your demand as you do providing the electricity. Unlikely to get more efficient pumps though, so look at other parts of the system.


TBH if it's at your house mains electricity will be way cheaper than solar if you need 24/7 power.

siralan

Thanks for your advice, I don't have very much technical expertise when it comes to solar or wind power, I just wondered how cost effective it might be to install a solar panel large enough and capable of powering a compressor 85watts. I could reduce the time by up to 40% that the compressor is running for without compromising the efficiency of its performance.

Would you have any idea of the cost of this in either solar or wind ?

Capt'n Midnight

work out the current costs, that's your budget

then see what you can get for that

I would be truly shocked if it was economic for a wastewater system unless you can survive extended outages.


The main savings on something like this are
- the ESB standing charge
- the ESB connection fee

and in most cases the hardware cost can be justified only because it saves thousands on the connection fee and you can slash large chunks off the install if you diy/homebrew it.

If you are hiring someone then not only are you paying them , you are also paying a premium because if they are honest will overspec the system so that it will be so reliable they won't have to come back and fix it.


unless you have a handy stream renewables are intermittant
so you need storage
this could be compressed air
this could be only needing to run the system 40% of the time (a timer plug would save most of your existing costs !)
this could be batteries , charger and inverters and they are very expensive
this could be overspecing the wind / solar by a N times so you still get a decent amount of power when it's calm/overcast