When I bought my pad just under two years ago, it came with a HIP. It told me all about the energy efficiency, electrics, gas and all the plumbing. I remember my solicitor reading it annoyingly carefully while I sat in her office, waiting for her to tell me if everything was ok and that she'd recommend to my mortgage lender (who she also represented) that the deal should go ahead. I don't know if the report I had was more thorough than normal because my house was a repo, so (I was told) the process was slightly different, but there was a lot of detail in the various reports.
So are they then letting these houses have FREE electricity included or increasing the rent Reducing the rent as they are getting £600 a year plus free electricity ? Jack McH
Regarding batteries, a PP3 from the corner shop will be of no use. You will require what is called deep a cycle battery. Deep cycle £235 EACH a car battery is not up top the job. Also as has been said the roof has to be suitable, some solar companies have been installing (or at least quoting) to install them on a roof that has shade. If you google it would seem that none of these solar companies are even considering batteries (none that I have seen mention it) presumably not only due to cost, but if its charging your batteries it can't be feeding back in. The other thing they don't mention is the inverter (solar panels only make 12-14v dc, and inverter changes it to 230v ac) it needs to be changed around every 10 years at a cost of around £1k Also it is known that they don't work very well in the winter months, and definently not at night, but they base the sums on the average amount of sunshine. I also read (quite obviously if you think about it) That places that will benefit are ones that have air con on in the day, but that means they have lots of sunshine to make electricity in the first place. You may find this link interesting
Leisure battery from local garage, £65. Strip lights are 12volt, no need for inverter. Have adaptors for all the laptops. Works fine in the winter, only have the lights on at night
Ziggy, its not a dig at you, its about solar PV in general. (sorry if there were any misunderstandings) Besides, you don't count as you only have an 18Watt solar panel
this link has the answers to most questions: FAQ: General Questions | Cernunnos Homes and this explains the systems available and how they operate: http://www.cernunnos-homes.co.uk/technology/beginners-guide-to-renewable-energy-systems/ and from the same site, this is a very interesting article: Solar PV Feed in Tariff Cut | Cernunnos Homes aswell as this: http://www.cernunnos-homes.co.uk/latest-news/november-newsletter/
can still be done on a flat roof .... they use aluminium panels/strips which raises/tilts the end of one side In south africa, many people on the highveld (Johannesburg area) use panels to heat their swimming pools, thus giving a few extra months of swimming time (it gets cold in that area in winter in that area) ... people with larger gardens have the panels placed in a corner of the garden, and grow a low hedge to hide them out of sight I am sure that this can be done in the UK for properties that have thatch/grass roofs?
With water heating, its an advantage to have the collector lower than the storage tank so that a thermosyphon starts. The hot water rises & displaces the cold water. Otherwise it costs electric to pump it round.
That sounds like WATER solar panels, like the poor folks in Gauteng This topic is about ELECTRIC solar panels. As an aside, you should not have solar panels on a thatched roof. (no where to fix them to, a thatched roof should be walked on as little as possible, all cables should be in conduit near a thatched roof, etc etc)
