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yngwies Cat 8:59 Thu May 23
Solar Panels, wind turbines as alternative to the grid.

I'm not up in these matters, by have noted a lot more roofs getting solar panels.

Any whoers get them, any good?

Can you live off grid in a city?

Mini wind turbines?

Cheers

Kiwi Hammer 8:45 Wed May 29
Re: Solar Panels, wind turbines as alternative to the grid.

Not so far mentioned - but understood its all moved on to Hydrogen Boilers now - no pollution / carbon footprint and similar kick back on and unused energy to the grid. Apparently there are a couple of supplies in UK.

Cheezey Bell-End 8:42 Tue May 28
Re: Solar Panels, wind turbines as alternative to the grid.

Using batteries to store the power from the panels has been the norm for decades. I'm not sure what is different about the Tesla ones apart from being a neat package that mounts on a wall instead of looking like a bank of car batteries..
Tesla also produce a range of solar cell roof tiles.

Queens Fish Bar 5:34 Tue May 28
Re: Solar Panels, wind turbines as alternative to the grid.

Heat pump.

riosleftsock 5:05 Tue May 28
Re: Solar Panels, wind turbines as alternative to the grid.

The random fires from the Tesla batteries also acts as a secondary inadvertent source of heat.

Dm2004 5:02 Tue May 28
Re: Solar Panels, wind turbines as alternative to the grid.

You can buy tesla battery banks to store the unused electricity but they are very expensive. Ground source heat pumps and solar thermal are both good

terry-h 8:36 Fri May 24
Re: Solar Panels, wind turbines as alternative to the grid.

Anyone else notice the number of filthy pigeons that make a home for themselves under solar panels? That puts me right off the idea.

Cheezey Bell-End 5:48 Fri May 24
Re: Solar Panels, wind turbines as alternative to the grid.

This is something I have been looking into for years. I never planned to do it in the UK, but it would be doable if you plan it well. Ideally, the house would need to be designed and situated with solar in mind. Converting an old house wouldn't be ideal. You would also need to adjust your lifestyle. I've not considered wind power as I preferred not to live somewhere windy...

yngwies Cat 8:34 Thu May 23
Re: Solar Panels, wind turbines as alternative to the grid.

Something we are thinking of doing, and face it we are getti g bags more sun then we ever did.

Just regard to wind turbines, this is really interesting if wind power is your thing.



https://vortexbladeless.com/

yngwies Cat 8:30 Thu May 23
Re: Solar Panels, wind turbines as alternative to the grid.

Thanks lads, much appreciated.

BRANDED 12:16 Thu May 23
Re: Solar Panels, wind turbines as alternative to the grid.

Solar is ideal if you’re in during the daylight hours. You then get to generate electricity when you need it.

😉

atb trev 11:25 Thu May 23
Re: Solar Panels, wind turbines as alternative to the grid.

We got a 4kwh solar system on a east\\south east facing roof so not ideal but still worth doing.
It cost us 8k to install in 2014 when fit payments were 16p per kwh.
We've got about £400 in fit payments in the first year. It's been declining about 5-10% each year since with the exception of 2018 which was a bumper year so increased 10% on 2017. This year is looking even better so far.

As well as the fit payments, the electricity produced is free to us reducing the elec bill. We haven't measured this properly but we guess a similar reduction in our bill as to the fit payments.
Would be more if we were using the house more in the daylight. What we don't use at that particular moment goes back to grid. Fit payments are based on the assumption half
of your production goes to the grid. So you can beat assumptions if you are high daytime user.

The panels are guaranteed for 20 years. We were aiming to break even in year 10. Looks like that'll be year 12. So will profit will be around 5-6K after 20 years.


Not a chance of living off electricity grid on them for me and family. It covers 25-30% of our use. Singletons might get there though if they have really low use and good storage. Getting through the winter is the problem as production goes down to a trickle in winter. 70% if the year's production is generated in summer.


Fella up the road is an eco architect and has managed to off grid on heating. Did a full on diy internal insulation project. Just uses wood burners occasionally, which has it's own issues on air quality.
He's looked into electricity off grid but can't get the numbers to work on that, yet.

We looked into wind turbines but you needed to be in ideal areas and efficient storage for those to work out worth doing.

Solar thermal was the most effective in cost vs saving basis if you have a boiler system that's compatible with it. Ours wasn't.

New builds really should look into ground source heat pumps. Very expensive to retro fit, but really worthwhile if building from scratch.

Gavros 11:21 Thu May 23
Re: Solar Panels, wind turbines as alternative to the grid.

Used to be quite attractive, but government cut the subsidy so not worth it now, especially as it raises significant issues over ownership of your own roof so can raise complications with insurance and with selling your house.

, 10:58 Thu May 23
Re: Solar Panels, wind turbines as alternative to the grid.

In a city especially you won’t live off grid. Rather you contribute your surplus energy being generated to the grid and draw down from the grid when your demand exceeds your generation.

BRANDED 10:29 Thu May 23
Re: Solar Panels, wind turbines as alternative to the grid.

In which country?