Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Anyone done this?

Place in the boonies that is connected to the grid but nice SSW facing roof & on top of a hill. Looking to get a 4Kw solar panel array, feeding into batteries and backed up by a small wind-turbine which will run all electrics in the house and an air/water heat exchanger for heating/hot water. Still connected to grid if ever needed.

I'm hoping to not have to worry about electricity bills in the future. Not worried about FIT as it appears that now the benefit of linking up is negated by the extra you have to pay for an MCS installer to do it. House already has the heat exchanger in, just need to get up on the roof for the rest of it.

How easy to fit panels on the roof? Anyone used a turbine on roof of house and any issues?

Yes, it'll cost me a few quid to buy/install (£6k) but as this is a long-term thing, not concerned about that as its budgeted for in the purchase price and eventually I should see an ROI.

Any advice/comments welcome

neil-h

On the note of linking it up, that could make life difficult as most inverters need a mains supply to synchronise the generated voltage to the incoming supply. You can get round that by having a stand alone inverter but you'd then have to have a change over switch between the two supplies as you've no way of guaranteeing the two are in sync.

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

I looked into it a few years ago as I'm in the middle of nowhere on a big hill, bottom line is it's not economically viable, mostly due to cost of turbine and service life, you'll not even break even no matter what system you fit.

That includes any feed back into the grid systems too.

There is a place just outside Southwell in Nottinghamshire that has the works and basically if you want to be sustainable and totally ecological as in recycling water etc, etc forget about it saving you any money, it's going to cost you a packet.

markjmd

iTrader: (11)

I thought the smart money now was in home-made solar hot-water systems, like these:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/diy/h...z12fmzphe.aspx
http://www.solarfriend.co.uk/index.htm
http://bigginhill.co.uk/solar.htm

The general consensus seems to be though that this kind of system will work best with under-floor heating, or failing that, the largest sized radiators you can get hold of and sensibly install.

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

Lol, I like the guy in the 2nd link, he touches on my problem with this stuff. I spend around £300 a year on electricity so with basic *** packet maths £6k is going to take me 20yrs just to break even at which point, being generous and even with the best will in the world my equipment would need replacing, which is also before the cost of maintenance, replacing batteries etc etc, even if nothing went wrong with the system, which I doubt very much, it's a bloody long time to wait for a return, be better off putting that money into an RA and leaving it under a tarp in the garage for 20yrs.

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

The idea behind this is to cover heat and electric as much as possible. 3 bed house is around £1200 per year, so with an electric air/water heat pump responsible for heating/hot water and low-energy lighting/equipment around the house, it should be possible to have a pretty minimal cost for both of those through micro-generation. House has already got the heat exchanger with underfloor heating/large radiators.

Its cheap as chips now but will power still be cheap in 15 years time when I'm retired?

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

Ah ok so your break even point is 5yrs, How much of the £6k is represented by the consumable aspects such as batteries and turbine and what is their life expectancy / depletion over time, also will this system produce 100% of what you require and continue to do so throughout it's expected lifespan.

Just curious as I know there are better solar panels in the pipeline that produce way more electricity and should cost considerably less, just not sure the technology has been made available yet, as I'd still be interested in some myself if the numbers add up.

BMWhere?

A point to note on home wind turbines. The amount of energy they produce is a cubic function of the radius of the turbine blades. Generally, the small turbines you get for home use, while they may power your home, they will never generate enough energy to cover the energy used producing them in the first place, so they are not really a "green" solution! The industrial turbines littering the landscape are enormous for a reason - they need to be that big to be a positive energy source!

modrich

iTrader: (2)

I have solar and air source heat pump for heating. The company that installed it all tried selling me a new Sonnen battery system at £5.5k (supposed to be a better battery than the Tesla system). It would save me £140-180 per year, and take me 30 1/2 years to break even, by that time the battery will have probably needed to have been replaced twice as they are only guaranteed for 10yrs, and charge/storage falls off in that period. There's a long way to go on the battery front I'm afraid...

Richy P1984

I'd say - check to see if you need planning on the turbine. Even small ones need them, and they can be a bitch to get through the planning system, as they can have visual amenity issues - especially if you are on top of a hill. Be careful of the NIMBYs.