Solar Panels viable in Ireland

BrokenArrows

I was just thing how viable would solar panels be in Ireland.

Ive spent some time in Australia and a large amount of domestic homes have solar panels on their roofs.

Would it be viable in Ireland with our crappy weather.

probe

BrokenArrows wrote: »

I was just thing how viable would solar panels be in Ireland.

Ive spent some time in Australia and a large amount of domestic homes have solar panels on their roofs.

Would it be viable in Ireland with our crappy weather.

Solar water heating is viable at current costs.

Solar electricity is getting there as costs come down - it is all down to price and energy efficiency.

Pls see:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=54874653&postcount=1

.probe

BoatMad

as yes nanosolar, dont expect to see those in your local shops anytime soon

BoatMad

Solar water heating is viable at current costs.

where do you get that info. everthing I've read and teh people I;ve talked to have put it in on eco-grounds, not financial ones

the return on capital invested seems to be about 10 years against the savings on oil or gas. and in practice you still need some additional form of heating ( usually electric immersion) which further reduces the ROI.

It can only be justified on "the nice to have" argument.

astrofool

Well, really from a global perspective, it's best to put all solar into the equator regions first and spread out from there, the theory being that a solar panel installed in Ireland is one less installed in California.

junglebeanie

Ive been noticing more and more solar panels on houses on ireland. Hopefully now with the new energy rating we'll be seeing even more. We have one on our house for our hot water for about a year now and i love it!

The solar panel works even if the weather is dull, the water might not be hot enough for showers but the cold edge is taken off the water in the first place and this is the part of heating water which takes the most energy. So even if you have to use the imersion you need less energy. But generally unless the day have been completely black clouds and a short winters day the water will be hot enough for at least one shower.During the summer the tank crys out for us to shower on
The hot water tank which we got with is is much larger than a normal tank and really well insulated.

junglebeanie

and on a ROI terms i think ours will take about 40 yrs to pay for itself on current oil prices, but i dont really think the finance should be the issue, it is an investment it lowers our electricity use and reduces our impact

homer911

I'd be interested to share stats on performance of Solar Hot Water systems in Ireland. Last week we actually got 48C on the collector (yes, in January) - a cold day out, but once you get a clear sky, the performance is quite impressive.

newbusiness

junglebeanie wrote: »

The solar panel works even if the weather is dull, the water might not be hot enough for showers but the cold edge is taken off the water in the first place and this is the part of heating water which takes the most energy.

Just to point out that this one assertion is incorrect.

To heat water from 10 up to 11 degrees C requires the same amount of energy as from 80 to 81 degrees C.

It is linear.

see: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/thermo/phase.html

Cuauhtemoc

Just to point out that this one assertion is incorrect.

To heat water from 10 up to 11 degrees C requires the same amount of energy as from 80 to 81 degrees C.

It is linear.

I assume what junglebeanie means is that the solar panels would heat the water from say 15 degrees 40 degrees and the immersion would do the rest.
Thus saving you the electricity that would have otherwise been required to heat it from 15 to 40.

C.

Mothman

homer911 wrote: »

I'd be interested to share stats on performance of Solar Hot Water systems in Ireland. Last week we actually got 48C on the collector (yes, in January) - a cold day out, but once you get a clear sky, the performance is quite impressive.

Sunny day last week heated 200l from 9C to 50C. 6sqm flat plate installed 10 years ago. The panels installed on a less than ideal 30 degree roof pitch.

My calculations 10 years ago worked out about 30-35 year payback (replacing night rate electricity), not including interest, but neither including energy cost inflation.

Cost of installations have not risen much since I installed mine.

Mothman

newbusiness wrote: »

Just to point out that this one assertion is incorrect.

To heat water from 10 up to 11 degrees C requires the same amount of energy as from 80 to 81 degrees C.

It is linear.

see: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/thermo/phase.html

Yes but the losses rise as the temp rises.

KMSL

Solar Panels in Ireland do work. I am an installer. If installed correctly, they will work. There are also grants available in Ireland. Check out www.sei.ie

kvw

KMSL wrote: »

Solar Panels in Ireland do work. I am an installer. If installed correctly, they will work. There are also grants available in Ireland. Check out www.sei.ie

Big time.

On year 2 with my install and would recommend it to anyone with decent hot water demand, there used to be 5 of us queing for the electric shower, now thankfully that pos is gone and 400L of hot waiting for us from the panels instead.

Tank of kerosene (1000L) lasted 15 months in a 2600sq/ft house since installing solar and ESB bill averaging €90 every 2 months averaged out over the year.

SeanW

Just curious - how much would a solar-water heating setup cost?

dhaslam

Navitron do a 20 tube kit with retro coil to replace immersion at £799 or a similar kit with replacement cylinder at £1122. You have to add copper piping, carriage and installation to this. The grant usually won't cover the installation cost. A 20 tube system will produce about 1 Kw which would cost 8c with off-peak electricity so at 1000 hours the saving is about €80 per year. However since electricity is likely to rise by about 5% each year ten years is a reasonable estimation for pay back. I am installing two 30 tube panels so they should cover most of the years hot water requirement.

Navitron website www.navitron.org.uk

Fony Soprano

hi Broken arrows,
Surprisingly they work pretty well because they also work using diffuse light, not just direct. Obviously they work better when the sun is shining but on a south facing roof will give you 50-60% of your domestiv hotwater throughout the year. They aren't really great in the Winter. But from Spring (March) to Autumn (October) can give you up to 85% of domestic hot water . Have a look at http://www.betterenergy.ie/solar.html

Glowing

Would it not be better to install the panels on freestanding poles (as opposed to on a roof in a fixed position) to allow the panels to follow the sun?

Mothman

Glowing wrote: »

Would it not be better to install the panels on freestanding poles (as opposed to on a roof in a fixed position) to allow the panels to follow the sun?

Yes, but the extra installation and capital costs would probably not be recovered. Much better just to install extra panels.

jobrok1

Solar water heaters are definitely worth the long term investment.

We have 12sq.m of panels installed on my roof.
We don't have a directly southfacing roof, but due to the shape and orientation of the house we have both south-east and south-west facing roof slopes. So we put 6sq.m on each slope. In the morning the south-east set of panels catch the sun in the morning up until about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and the south-west facing set catches the sun from about 10-11 o'clock in the morning until sunset.

So for about 5-6 hours in the day I'm getting the full benifit of all 12sq.m of panels. And for the early and later parts of the day I'm getting full benifit from 6sq.m, plus the diffused light from the other 6sq.m.

The tank we installed for the system is an 800litre combination tank. With the clean domestic tank sitting inside the main central heating tank. Even in winter the bottom(coldest part) of the tank has never been below 30deg.C. The large volume of the tank allows us to store a large amount of hot water which we then use to heat our house with the help of just a multi-fuel stove at the moment. Soon we will be installing a condensing gas boiler, to give us extra flexibility. But for the last 2 years we've had no gas or oil heating in our house.

bored and tired

HI Jobrok1, could you give details on who supplied panels and did the instillation for you, i want to install what you have but have no idea where to start, thanks