Solar panels..do they really save that much?

loup

My bro in law is humming and hawing about this, he has just managed to get one of the last grants available for doing this. Going to cost approx 5K in total. He will have the option only to collect hot water from the panels...and company has assured him as the rads are not connected that there will be some benefit to the heating also? Any experiences from anyone that has it installed? Does it save a lot of money? Any downsides to it?

Slig

try construction and planning, renewable energies

bertie1

Hot water only , the sunshines the most in the summer when you don't really need the heating

BigglesMcGee

Ask him to work out his water heating costs for a year and he get 20% of that figure.

This is roughly how much he'll save average over a year. Is it worth the initial cost to save that much a year ? I bet its not

Solar panels are never as good as they are made out to be

311

More and more people are going for solar panels ,
It will be interesting to see house values with solar installed ,calculating hot water over the cost of a mortgage and see what savings you make:)

skinner2x

loup wrote: »

My bro in law is humming and hawing about this, he has just managed to get one of the last grants available for doing this. Going to cost approx 5K in total. He will have the option only to collect hot water from the panels...and company has assured him as the rads are not connected that there will be some benefit to the heating also? Any experiences from anyone that has it installed? Does it save a lot of money? Any downsides to it?

I have them (got the grant also). Not much solar energy around this year!!
As others stated , it saves turning on heating(or immersion) just for hot water.
I think whats important (especially in Ireland) is to get a good sized, well insulated cyclinder. I have a 500 litre cyl, might seem excessive, but advantage is on a sunny day, it will heat all this up to 60 deg (I upped my to 70 actually).
So , if it 's only sunny every 2nd day, you still have plenty not water for showers etc.

BigglesMcGee

skinner2x wrote: »

I have them (got the grant also). Not much solar energy around this year!!
As others stated , it saves turning on heating(or immersion) just for hot water.
I think whats important (especially in Ireland) is to get a good sized, well insulated cyclinder. I have a 500 litre cyl, might seem excessive, but advantage is on a sunny day, it will heat all this up to 60 deg (I upped my to 70 actually).
So , if it 's only sunny every 2nd day, you still have plenty not water for showers etc.

Try one sunny day a month for this year and last year

I have a friend who installs them. He wont install them on his house though til the price is 1/5th of what they are now. That tells the whole story about the value of them.

CJhaughey

BigglesMcGee wrote: »

Try one sunny day a month for this year and last year

I have a friend who installs them. He wont install them on his house though til the price is 1/5th of what they are now. That tells the whole story about the value of them.

I have them in for the last 3 summers, I think that in the last 3 yrs we have had to put the immersion on for maybe 7 days total per year during the solar season Mar-Oct.
The rest of the year we still get some where between 8-12 deg from the panels this allows the immersion to top off the heat.
It is a myth that you need sunny weather, yes it helps but solar radiation is still landing on the ground anytime there is light.
Lay out a piece of black material and a piece of white material on virtually any day and feel the difference in heat between them.

Biggles
Your installer mate is obviously one of the installers that have come about since the grants were announced, anyone selling and installing something that they wouldn't have themselves is a cowboy IMO.
But as in most things Ireland has overpriced a good and valuable technology.

BigglesMcGee

CJhaughey wrote: »

I have them in for the last 3 summers, I think that in the last 3 yrs we have had to put the immersion on for maybe 7 days total per year during the solar season Mar-Oct.
The rest of the year we still get some where between 8-12 deg from the panels this allows the immersion to top off the heat.
It is a myth that you need sunny weather, yes it helps but solar radiation is still landing on the ground anytime there is light.
Lay out a piece of black material and a piece of white material on virtually any day and feel the difference in heat between them.

Biggles
Your installer mate is obviously one of the installers that have come about since the grants were announced, anyone selling and installing something that they wouldn't have themselves is a cowboy IMO.
But as in most things Ireland has overpriced a good and valuable technology.

He's been installing them for about 5 years now. He installs what the customer wants. Solar panels are the in thing now. Everyone wants them, but noone does their own research on them.

311

It's nothing to do with the in thing ,you must have a renewable energy source in a new house now.