So tell me about the reality of having either hot water or heating from solar panels. Who has their hot water supplied and if so how much of total requirement and for how many people? Also, does anyone have underfloor heating thus supplied? Also, location and cost of installment would be of interest.
We’ve been researching but aren’t educated just consumers yet. The best solution is adding solar panals on our roof from what i’ve found so far.
They have their limitations in less than sunny climates such as Ontario or England but they can be a good secondary source.
Hi
We have 14m² of solar panels which supplies 100% of hot water for 6 people and about 70% of heating, this is the south of France so there’s no shortage of sun even in winter. We could probably get more efficient results if we could program the system to react to sunlight, at the moment we can just program heating for hours of the day and it heats whether it is sunny or not but we also installed a condensation gas burner so it doesn’t cost too much.
Underfloor heating is the best since solar power works best with a low temperature heat source in the house, we installed this since we renovated an old house and needed to replace the floor beams anyway so replaced them leaving the extra 10cm necessary for the floor heating.
Cost was 20000 euros for a Weishaupt solar system (14m²), 900 litre water storage, and the gas burner, completely installed. 210m² of floor heating was another 6000 euros. We had to pay for a plumber to do all this as you only get the tax credits in France if a professional installs it. Material costs were around 22000 euros, installation about 4000.
The reality is constantly available hot water, easy to use heating and no fuel bill headaches…
cheers
Graham
Come on, you spent enough time on the South Coast to know that it feasible, it’s not like we are talking about Manchester!
Thanks for your information, Graham. Whilst we are obviously not enjoying the same climate as you it’s not disimilar to the North of France and as we are on the coast there is plenty of unobstructed clear sky. I am particularly interested and heartened by your comments with regard to underfloor heating. Very helpful.
Cheers.
We have a late 70’s version of solar heat including panels, storage tanks, gas water heaters and hydronic heating using fored air heaters. I’d have to say that unless you get a lot of sun in the winter, they don’t work real well and your auxillary water heating source will be running a lot.
“you spent enough time on the South Coast to know that it feasible”
It’s been more than a few years Julian, but I do remember sunny summers and drab wet winters in Bournemouth and the New Forest if my memory serves me correctly. England is a fairly nothern latitude, even on the south coast, so the summer days were relatively long and the winter days short. I’d think it’s quite feasible in the warm season, but probably less so in the winter?
Would you think it fesible in Vancouver? Because the latitude is the same and we have less rain and cloud than there in the winter. Interesting thought, eh?
Julian,
I have heard that the best bang for your buck is to look into solar water heating for hot water needs, first. Then look into the possibility of heating the house with the radiant heat from the the stored hot water. The up-front costs are not insignificant, and It would be interesting to see what the pay-back time would be for this. However, it would be great to be off-the-grid for soemthing like this. It’s not rocket science technology and I have heard that the amount of sunshine needed, is less than people think.
MissP and I have talked about it for our house, but we live in a semi-detached and I am not sure if our neighbours would into having all the solar stuff up on the roof which is shared between the two houses.
Yes, setting up for hot waterfirst and then expanding seems the most logical way to me too. A lot of people that are doing this in the uk (and for wind generated power) sell back to the grid and recoup set up fees that way. Over here there are grants available from the government for set up costs are there such incentives in Canada?
Julian,
If you get a chance you should check out the continuing article in Popular Mechanics about a guy who is adapting his energy usage to live off the grid. He has wind power, solar power, geothermal…pretty much everything except traditional electricity from a power plant. It is interesting to see how he has overcome a lot of his real-world problems with doing this sort of thing.
Good luck. And I for one would be interested in occasional updates.
Bernie
Is that an international magazine or site, Bernie? Sounds very interesting.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/home_journal/home_improvement/1820211.html
http://www.popularmechanics.com/home_journal/home_improvement/2422966.html
http://www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/energy_family_news/1977582.html
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/energy_digital/2723176.html
Julian,
Here are some links to the articles. The first two are from the print magazine, so they may be excerpts. I get a subscription, that is how I initially read the articles. The second two are internet only. I hope you find them interesting if not helpful.
I would imagine that you could get a subscription internationally. It is a very well-established magazine that has been around for awhile. There are some pretty good articles. I think that I can honestly say that every month there is at least one article that makes the subscription worthwhile.
Bernie
Wow, that’s great service. I’ll check those tomorrow (I have two frames selling on ebay this evening).
Many Thanks.
It comes with a full money back guarantee if you aren’t completely satisfied!
Can’t say fairer than that!