New houses and solar panels

[woodenhead]

Interesting article here, seems councils are not afraid of generating electricity and saving money

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/dec/04/councils-generate-own-power-big-six-energy-fuel-poverty

 

https://www.local.gov.uk/sites/default/files/documents/download-potential-energy-9f8.pdf

 

Edited February 13, 2020 by woodenhead

[LisaP4]

On 09/02/2020 at 22:51, Andy Hayter said:

 

My post earlier was not about the panels not lasting the lifetime of the property or even the roof of the structure, but rather not lasting the lifetime of the debt incurred in buying and installing them.  In other words you will still be paying for them after they cease to work.

I did the maths on solar panels and batteries here a little while ago, and it'd cost less to go solar than to pay one electricity bill. If I wasn't planning on moving out soon(ish) I'd be on solar already.
Admittedly I have very low energy needs, and it'd cost more if I had to include heating a UK house in winter, but it'd certainly be paid for well before it wore out.

[Vistisen]

On 09/02/2020 at 11:38, jonny777 said:

 

Not just mandatory solar panels on all new houses; but a small vertical axis wind generator on the roof, and hollow nesting bat/bird bricks incorporated in the walls. 

There is one point that no one has talked about yet. When I was on the board of the a local school a few years ago we looked at the possibility of putting Solar panels on the Schools large roof. We had to abandon the idea because of the extra danger there is in the event of a fire.  If a building has solar panels you can't  just start spaying water every where in the event of fire as the panels are still generating electricity. : https://www.solarpowerworldonline.com/2018/09/keep-fire-safety-front-of-mind-commercial-solar/

[PatB]

We had solar PV installed just over 18 months ago and are about halfway to breaking even. That's a big (8.8 kW) system, in a very sunny location and a consumer with some fairly unusual electricity needs (big, 3-phase electric kiln running at least weekly at ~100kWh a pop) though, and so is far from typical, and a bit different from the UK situation.