Wind vs. Solar domestic hot water

gally74

hello,

im building a house at the moment, cant see the payback in solar, it just dosent add up to me im looking at cost vs. payback,

i would like to have free hot water thou,

the site we have is v windy, v near the top of a hill, its in county galway, im considering buying a small wind turbine and just connecting it to a 12V heater in the immersion tank,

any opinions, i reckon there's more wind in ireland than solar?

sickpuppy32

there was an english bloke on the radio the other day who's house is completely renewable, he said he didn't think much of his turbine ( think he lived in non windy london though), my uncle has solar panels and they work a treat - its a myth that you need "direct" sunlight so to speak, normal daylight will do. Most energy is used up creating heat from 0 - 10 degrees and solar panels work a treat for doing that for your water. Also look into "ground anchors?", heat pumps and pellet burners also

CJhaughey

gally74 wrote: »

hello,

im building a house at the moment, cant see the payback in solar, it just dosent add up to me im looking at cost vs. payback,

i would like to have free hot water thou,

the site we have is v windy, v near the top of a hill, its in county galway, im considering buying a small wind turbine and just connecting it to a 12V heater in the immersion tank,

any opinions, i reckon there's more wind in ireland than solar?

If you think a solar dhw system is not feasible in terms of cost vs payback time then I am afraid a small turbine hooked up to a 12v water heater will not do very much at all.
Have you done a cost vs payback for your proposed system?
I know someone who has a big Proven turbine and runs off grid mostly, he has a 48v immersion as a dump for the overgeneration.
a 12v immersion probably wouldn't even maintain a tropical fish tank at the correct temp!
If you really want to maximise your solar system forget buying here in the rip-off republic buy direct from Austria or Germany.
Forget the grant and install it yourself.

AJL

Hi once you have a south facing postion to put solars in then I think it is a way better option than wind.
I put in 5 m2 of solar and 300 l tank for net of 4000 euros. Got to take into consideration that I got a tank for this price so take away cost of your standard tank for the real net cost of the solar part. this was back in 2006 so Im not sure what the prices are now and changes to grants

Roughly I estimated that about 400 euros spent heating water in the year. So payback in 10 years. This system made sense to me because I have air to air heating so I have no way of heating water other than immersion. I am delighted with it and would install it again if I was rebuilding.
Not convinced on the wind yet. Waiting to see if grants are made available because they are very costly.
As long as I have been on boards people say that if you have the right facing roof solar panels for DHW are long term a no brainer!!

gally74

thanks all,

appreciate the feedback, i agree on the industry here and will buy from europe or the us,

can anyone recommend a good retailer in austria or germany,

thanks