Solar solution in Local Authority Park

thegreek15

Hi all,

I was hoping some of you could please advise me in regards to our Football Club.
We currently have access to a Small Dressing Room x 2, a Toilet and a storage room in a Local Authority Park.
There is a supply of water feeding the building from the Mains, however there is no electricity and the nearest source is approx 175 Meters away at another Building in the Park.
To dig and run cables under the Grass and Paths would be very costly and for what we need it for is not really a viable option as you will see.
We only require power to Light up the 4 Rooms that has a fluorescent light in each and to Power a water heating "Burco" for about 2-3 Hours each Sat and Sun morning.
Would our best option be to use a Gas Water Boiler and to source the Solar Lights that are advertised on the EBS Web Store?
Any advice would be fantastic and much appreciated... Free Tea and Biscuits if we ever get the project off the ground.

quentingargan

thegreek15 wrote: »

Hi all,

I was hoping some of you could please advise me in regards to our Football Club.
We currently have access to a Small Dressing Room x 2, a Toilet and a storage room in a Local Authority Park.
There is a supply of water feeding the building from the Mains, however there is no electricity and the nearest source is approx 175 Meters away at another Building in the Park.
To dig and run cables under the Grass and Paths would be very costly and for what we need it for is not really a viable option as you will see.
We only require power to Light up the 4 Rooms that has a fluorescent light in each and to Power a water heating "Burco" for about 2-3 Hours each Sat and Sun morning.
Would our best option be to use a Gas Water Boiler and to source the Solar Lights that are advertised on the EBS Web Store?
Any advice would be fantastic and much appreciated... Free Tea and Biscuits if we ever get the project off the ground.

Since you only use the facility at the weekends, you would be better off with a solar photovoltaic (PV) panel, battery pack and a small inverter. If you have four flourescent lights with (say) 30 watts each for a couple of evenings a week, your electricity consumption is about 13 Kw Hrs per year. Of course, you will have too much power in summer, and not enough in winter. You would need to size the solar panel to provide your winter requirements, and dump the surplus energy in the summer to protect the batteries. Solar PVs are coming down a lot in price, and marine suppliers would have suitable inverters and deep cycle (Leisure) batteries.

By the way, you could consider solar water heating. A modest system would heat a cylinder durng the week, and your solar photovoltaic panel will have enough juice to work the pumpstation. Not sure if your "football" means soccer or Gaelic, but I know GAA is keen to carbon offset Croker and you may get some brownie points for an entirely solar operation. But you'll get brickbats in the winter if you don't back that up with gas I suppose:o

Evergreen

quentingargan wrote: »

By the way, you could consider solar water heating. A modest system would heat a cylinder durng the week

I agree with Quentins advice, but would add one thing in there. If you are going to go down the route of solar thermal then it might be worth looking at a drainback system.

The problem with installing a solar system into a dressing room setup is that you can often have the solar panels in over heat mode for long periods during the Summer months. This will cause the glycol to boil and breakdown much faster than is normal.

A drainback system will drain the fluid (it is possible to use just water) back into a container once the cylinder is fully heated or once there is no longer enough heat in the day to keep them running.

It is now possible to get a drain back pump unit for use in small solar thermal systems that have a two stage pump, first stage fills the system quickley with fluid when there is heat in the panels and the second stage the pump goes into normal circulation mode.