Something Different Solar Electricity

Hi Folkes

I am always looking for new ways to save money as I think we all are, At a time of austerity from our government we should all be actively finding ways to save every penny.

The big bills these days are Gas & Electric.

Now I am not an Eco Warrior or even over concerned over the state of the environment as I am very sure whatever change that I make will never offset the damage caused by either Asia or America and the fuel guzzling cars.

So on the subject of efficiency.

I already have a high efficiency condensing boiler.
Most of the home has been converted to LED
The Loft has over 18" of loft insulation
and the wall cavity has been filled
The Windows are all double glazed

 So there is not a great deal that the cold calling folk can do to make my life wonderful lol.

The result of all the effort is a home that is draft free literately and easy to heat which then stays very cozy.

I have looked around at loads of different energy suppliers and it is very confusing, All the suppliers have different day rates and unit charges and even charge different unit rates dependent on how you pay your bill.

Here is an example those on prepayment meters have no choice they pay the standard rate always, this is cruel to those in our socity that can not afford or gain credit.

To make the insult worse those who pay on presentation of the bill get this rip off as well, I was not aware that if you pay by monthly direct debit you pay less per KWH unit than paying Quarterly.

So you have limited options either cut the use of energy in the home and insulate or as these green people would have us believe use alternative energy.

We could have a bio digester in the garden producing methane this would take up space be smelly possibly dangerous and not produce sufficient gas to feed the heating boiler or run out when cooking Christmas dinner.

Home wind turbines, not cheap, some people find them an eyesore and can make noise.

Solar Panels here is the reason for my blog today, with all the hype of this product and its claims I have decided to let a sales representative try and convince me, a qualified electrician that there is a benefit in this product when living in the north west of england.

So questions for today

The Feed in Tariff :    This is money payed to the owner of the system per KWH. now my concern is that if you are being paid more per KWH than what it would cost you to buy KWH how the hell is this sustainable.

Then the Equipment how much would it cost to fit out a small semidetached bungalow.

How much electricity will the install produce with daylight only and no direct sun.

The reliability of the Equipment required.

Modern Solar Systems consist of flat panels fastened to your roof and a device called an inverter which converts a low 12v from the panel to 240v domestic supply electricity.

This is then fed back into your fuse board and then out to the national grid. 

My view at the moment is that the government is propping up the price per KWH to comply with Euro Requirements for green energy.

I feel that it is imperative that you own the system outright as if you do not the installer will gain the benefit of the feed in tariff.

The panels appear to be reasonably priced and are getting cheaper so this is not the main concern however the inverter required is a big piece of electronics that could fail the cost of these I believe can be upwards of £1000.00.

So I will update you soon with what I have found out and I will be pulling the financial costs apart and looking at the data from live systems in Newcastle Under Lyme.

Steve