Anyone looked into Solar energy, getting p1ssed off with the energy prices and would like to invest in a solar set up, i.e spend some cash up front and in future be immune to the price rises, any idea how much it would cost to set up to heat and light a 4 bed house ?

 

Solar water panels or solar electric?

I think there may also be goverment grants. Someone else can tell you how much though.

 

I would have thought that any wind or solar energy source capable of heating a 4 bed house would be a) humungous ...think James Bond supercriminal proportions!, and b) megabucks.

You might be into about 15k?? to buy and install, will you be living in the house long enough to warrant the outlay/maintenance etc?

On a smaller scale, why not look at say a wind turbine to charge batteries, invert the battery output back up to mains AC, and this should cope with your lighting circuit..for example:

http://www.sailgb.com/p/d400_wind_turbines/

charging a few:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/LEISURE-BATTER...QQcmdZViewItem

and then back to mains AC with ( very basic version )

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Soft-Start-Pow...QQcmdZViewItem


You would only really need to divert the outgoing circuits ( lighting) from your consumer unit via the battery set up, which is easy, and if the "bonsai power station" went belly up, a simple and cheap mechanical changeover switch could see you back on mains again.

If you wanted to get a bit more technical, and spend a bit more money, you could go for say a 2-3 KW set up, to look after your ring mains aswell ( TV, PC etc ), obviously this would fall over when the kettle was switched on, but I don't think it would be that hard to cobble up some kind of current sensing auto changeover switch to drop you back on mains for the duration of the kettle boiling, toaster toasting etc...





<goes and gets clamp on ammeter from work....>

 

Have a looky:

http://www.est.org.uk/housingbuildin...rbonbuildings/

 

I did a bit of research before realising that i don't have the roof space available (dormers on the south face ) and these guys were recommended by my mate the local council environmental officer:- www.solartwin.com

Roy.