Solar PVs with GFCH/Heat pumps

declanobrennan

I'm doing a complete renovation - plumbing, electrics etc - on a shell of a 3 bed terraced house in Dublin. I've a more general thread elsewhere but my very specific question here is regards Solar PV - it's something I want to get in, but it will have to wait for at least a year or two before budget allows, until I get the rest of work done.


My question is - is it prudent or even possible to make some allowance for the future installation of Solar PV (with possibly a battery to heat water) when I'm doing the rewiring now? Do the integration of Solar PV differ much, from homeowners point of view, depending on the heating system I get (I'm considering air to water heat pump vs combi-boiler) or is it straightforward?

I'm not really asking about efficiency here - more about installation and future proofing whatever I do now for expanding to solar pvs?

thanks folks!

graememk

declanobrennan wrote: »

I'm doing a complete renovation - plumbing, electrics etc - on a shell of a 3 bed terraced house in Dublin. I've a more general thread elsewhere but my very specific question here is regards Solar PV - it's something I want to get in, but it will have to wait for at least a year or two before budget allows, until I get the rest of work done.


My question is - is it prudent or even possible to make some allowance for the future installation of Solar PV (with possibly a battery to heat water) when I'm doing the rewiring now? Do the integration of Solar PV differ much, from homeowners point of view, depending on the heating system I get (I'm considering air to water heat pump vs combi-boiler) or is it straightforward?

I'm not really asking about efficiency here - more about installation and future proofing whatever I do now for expanding to solar pvs?

thanks folks!

If you have an idea where you could put your inverter (and/or batteries, but with a feed in tariff, prob not worthwhile on payback terms)

a power cable and say 2 data cables (cat6) going from your consumer unit to where you want to put the inverter. Prob will only need 1 of the data cables but it's easy to put two in now.

Another power cable to consider is if you end up getting a hybrid with batteries, a second power cable for the emergency power supply could be used.

House wiring could be designed with that in mind with a sub board with essential circuits.

Eg when power goes off the sub board can be switched to backup power.

Maybe then a route(trunking/conduit) for dc cables to get to your inverter from the roof to where you want the inverter.

declanobrennan

thanks for this! I guess I can just give these instructions to any electrician? How much are these details likely add to the wiring job?

Alkers

declanobrennan wrote: »

thanks for this! I guess I can just give these instructions to any electrician? How much are these details likely add to the wiring job?

You could just run a small duct or something behind the plaster so the cables can be ran at a later date