Talk Morgan Forums Community General Photo Gallery Solar PV at the N-M ranch

I know that one or two of the TM regulars are also micro generators, so I thought I would post our new installation up for anyone interested.
It's a 4KW system and it went live at the end of last week, but with so little bright weather over the last few days we have not generated very much electricity so far.
Cheers,
N-M

Graham,
we have a routine where if the sun shines the dishwasher etc go on. Otherwise it is economy 7 for them. It makes a big difference & I can see the impact of the poor summer vs last year on the bill.

The solar panels have really brought the Yorkshireman out in me.
e.g. Don't put the toaster down until the kettle has boiled etc...

One other thing...If you want to be able to maximize the benefit of your generated energy, you could consider fitting a bit of electronic trickery that diverts any un-utilised energy to power the immersion heater in your hot water cylinder.
One company that makes such a device is here: www.immersun.co.uk
I haven't decided if I should go this route yet, because I am looking to renewable heat devices at the moment.
Just thought I would mention it for anyone interested.

Be interested in your renewable heat devices findings.
One option I had was to power the immersion heater - but we haven't got one. Should we change the tank in the future I'll make sure I get one fitted.

I might also consider a couple of PV panels for the garage roof, to charge some large car type batteries to power my amateur radio equipment .

Cheers,

Must get one of them. Looks like a great idea.

Just a thought Graham....perhaps one of those Immersun type diverters could be used to divert energy to charge your batteries rather than go to the cost of having extra solar panels etc..
Just a thought.

On the web I saw comments that you can switch up to 8 devices.
Their box needs to go next to the main switchbox so provided you have a power cable to that device only you can wire it in.

Cost seems to £500 fitted so less that panels I would have thought.

I would shop around John. £500 sounds a bit high to me.

Agreed lowest was 360. I will get the guys who did my panels to quote first.

April through Sept we used around £350 in gas so I reckon if it does hot water only the saving could be c 150-200

Don't get too over optimistic with your calcs, John. Remember, it will only put energy in to the heating system when the sun is shining and there is enough spare energy available.

I don't know much about it but a Danish friend was telling us that he uses a heat pump for winter heating of his house. Apparently their use is quite common in Denmark where people have a bit of land where they can run the underground tubing and can save quite a lot on energy bills.

Our local sailing club uses one which uses tubes in the lake.