Solar energy Installation

patoinsf

I am thinking of installing a solar system in my home to give me hot water and help with my heating. Does anyone know of a place on the web i that would be able to get Good advice as to what type system i should install etc. Each installation company i have looked at has pages and pages of tech data that says how good they are however none of it makes sense. It would be great if there were something like a basic set of specs that I should insist on.
Thanks in advance for the help



IN LIFE THERE ARE NO MISTAKES ONLY LESSONS

probe

patoinsf wrote: »

I am thinking of installing a solar system in my home to give me hot water and help with my heating. Does anyone know of a place on the web i that would be able to get Good advice as to what type system i should install etc. Each installation company i have looked at has pages and pages of tech data that says how good they are however none of it makes sense. It would be great if there were something like a basic set of specs that I should insist on.
Thanks in advance for the help



IN LIFE THERE ARE NO MISTAKES ONLY LESSONS

One would expect to be able to go to www.sei.ie - a website that costs the Irish Government €€€€€€€€€ to run, and see a "web 2.0" if you will pardon the dated lingo, picture giving details of suppliers, user experience feedback for each supplier (even if such feedback has to be sanatized into "ratings" from excellent thru good and "could do better" type lingo, due to the Ireland's antiquated common law system).

Without some form of user feedback on supplier and system performance, sites like sei.ie are almost as useless as a brochure.

I did a quick search on "solar" info on the Consumers Association on google - "Your search - solar site:consumerassociation.ie - did not match any documents".

Leaving the individual consumer in Ireland to "reinvent the wheel" when it comes to making his/her green energy decisions. Go try it out sucker. Waste your own life savings. There are lots of con merchants out there, and many half-baked technologies being sold.

An appalling state of affairs in a country with a Green party in Government!

.probe

gerky

You might be better ask this over in Renewable Energies

CJhaughey

^ as above but I will give it a rattle:D

Start with the size of the system that you will need.
How many people do you have in the house?
Will this stay the same or does it fluctuate during the year?
Usually 1m2 per person of solar collectors will suffice, but oversizing a bit gives a degree of flexibility.
What aspect does your house have? SE, S, or SW?
Hopefully you will have enough roof space to allow enough panels to be fitted.
Now heres a bit that you might not like but say it I will.
Solar thermal does not work or make any sense for space heating here in Ireland.
Solar thermal is great for domestic hot water (DHW) but is a waste of time for space heating.
Tubes or Flatplates? Your choice, as long as both types are good quality there should be no problems with performance.
I have flatplates and find them to be very good over the year, mind you looking at the specs on www.spf.ch they performed very well.
Ask the installer for test reports for their collectors if they have none or are slow with factual info instead of marketing drivel then start to look elsewhere.
Ask them what solar system they have themselves.
many of the current crop of solar sellers have only started selling these since the grants from SEI came out and I expect there to be a huge exodus since the grants have stopped.
Many will sell tubes over flat plate because tubes are a lot lighter and easier to fit than FP but the tubes look uglier IMO.
My advice to you if you want to save money is to buy direct from the Germans or Austrians and Install yourself.
the Sustainability.ie magazine has solar DIY courses during the year
Maybe contact them and ask about doing a course.
I have seen systems on german ebay for €2600 for a 6m2 and 400l tank.

probe

CJhaughey wrote: »

^ as above but I will give it a rattle:D

Thanks CJH for the www.spf.ch link. Typically Swiss - efficient, functional, structured, multi-lingual, minimalistic, and to the point.

.probe

patoinsf

Thanks a million guys

dixiefly

CJhaughey wrote: »

^ as above but I will give it a rattle:D

Start with the size of the system that you will need.
How many people do you have in the house?
Will this stay the same or does it fluctuate during the year?
Usually 1m2 per person of solar collectors will suffice, but oversizing a bit gives a degree of flexibility.
What aspect does your house have? SE, S, or SW?
Hopefully you will have enough roof space to allow enough panels to be fitted.
Now heres a bit that you might not like but say it I will.
Solar thermal does not work or make any sense for space heating here in Ireland.
Solar thermal is great for domestic hot water (DHW) but is a waste of time for space heating.
Tubes or Flatplates? Your choice, as long as both types are good quality there should be no problems with performance.
I have flatplates and find them to be very good over the year, mind you looking at the specs on www.spf.ch they performed very well.
Ask the installer for test reports for their collectors if they have none or are slow with factual info instead of marketing drivel then start to look elsewhere.
Ask them what solar system they have themselves.
many of the current crop of solar sellers have only started selling these since the grants from SEI came out and I expect there to be a huge exodus since the grants have stopped.
Many will sell tubes over flat plate because tubes are a lot lighter and easier to fit than FP but the tubes look uglier IMO.
My advice to you if you want to save money is to buy direct from the Germans or Austrians and Install yourself.
the Sustainability.ie magazine has solar DIY courses during the year
Maybe contact them and ask about doing a course.
I have seen systems on german ebay for €2600 for a 6m2 and 400l tank.

Have the grants stopped? I was over on sei.ie and they are still referring to the grants.

zod

dixiefly wrote: »

Have the grants stopped? I was over on sei.ie and they are still referring to the grants.

yah .. i thought the grants had stopped only for new houses ??

I believe that it's now a legal requirement to include some renewable energy element into any newbuild. look in renewable energies for nore info

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