Solar Panels for Heating Water

[sawtooth]

Hi,

I'm having a boiler installed next week. Reading up on the Worcester website I came across the greenskies solar panel accessory which I will ask the engineer about.

However for a unbias opinion I thought I would ask the engineers or anyone on here what they think of them, and are they worth it? Would a 3rd party solution be better or cheaper? Just to be clear these are just a couple of panels that heat the water in the cylinder and not put power back into the mains. I like the idea of solar power panels but at the same time I don't want the look or expense of covering my whole roof with them. However this seems a good compromise.

All comments good and bad welcome!

 

[Deleted member 1740]

Hi,

I'm having a boiler installed next week. Reading up on the Worcester website I came across the greenskies solar panel accessory which I will ask the engineer about.

However for a unbias opinion I thought I would ask the engineers or anyone on here what they think of them, and are they worth it? Would a 3rd party solution be better or cheaper? Just to be clear these are just a couple of panels that heat the water in the cylinder and not put power back into the mains. I like the idea of solar power panels but at the same time I don't want the look or expense of covering my whole roof with them. However this seems a good compromise.

All comments good and bad welcome!

What is the initial cost of the panels?

 

[sawtooth]

What is the initial cost of the panels?

Not sure about Worcester ones but I saw a kit advertised for about £3500!

Did a look up on Navitron and found a 20 tube evacuated tube panel for around £400. They said one is needed for a south facing garden which it is.

I don't know much about it but have a feeling that cost might be prohibitive for the whole system!!!

 

[DCB]

Use them on a commercial set up at a couple of our swimming pools. Great on a sunny day where flow temp off the roof can climb quite high, You may need an additional buffer vessel to hold the water as it comes off the roof, which of course will put up costs of install etc.

Great when they work, but, costly accessories if they don't work well.

Building needs clear aspect towards sun, highest arc of sun obviously giving best heat. Good from late march - Oct on sunny days though.

 

[Deleted member 1740]

Not sure about Worcester ones but I saw a kit advertised for about £3500!

Did a look up on Navitron and found a 20 tube evacuated tube panel for around £400. They said one is needed for a south facing garden which it is.

I don't know much about it but have a feeling that cost might be prohibitive for the whole system!!!

Depends on how much hot water you use daily. Personally I'd swerve it, the panels will look awful on top of your £2m mansion :rofl:

 

[sawtooth]

I am fortunate that the back of the house is south facing and it sees plenty of unobstructed sun for many hours of the day. I think it would be a good fit for solar energy.

However I would only be interested if the startup costs are reasonable.

So in this system water runs through the panel and back into a twin coil cylinder? Isnt there a system that powers a heating element that plugs into a standard cylinder or was I dreaming?

 

[Deleted member 1740]

I am fortunate that the back of the house is south facing and it sees plenty of unobstructed sun for many hours of the day. I think it would be a good fit for solar energy.

However I would only be interested if the startup costs are reasonable.

So in this system water runs through the panel and back into a twin coil cylinder? Isnt there a system that powers a heating element that plugs into a standard cylinder or was I dreaming?

No and you must've been!

 

[ScienceBoy]

The house I rent came with this, our summer gas bill was £4, worst I had was £40 for 3 months.

 

[Pipetwister]

Yes there is a 'plug-in' heater that can be used ( think it was made by Salamander). During summer my boiler is switched off completely, so no gas bill for hot water.

 

[NorfolkShaun]

one of these?

http://www.solaplug.co.uk/

 

[Pipetwister]

Yep! that's the one.

 

[NorfolkShaun]

Yep! that's the one.

Looks a good idea, myself and my old boss talked about this a bit ten years ago. Great thing about using solar panels to run an immersion heater is you have limited parts so less to go wrong and it is easy to retro fit.

You just use your water tank as a storage battery and when it is full (hot) you shut of the immersion

 

[Foxholer]

To my mind, the numbers just don't add up!

£3500 will pay an awful lot of power bills - even if there's sufficient solar power available to eliminate the water heating cost!

I'm convinced that solar power will become viable, but don't believe it's cost-effective currently!

 

[ScienceBoy]

To my mind, the numbers just don't add up!

£3500 will pay an awful lot of power bills - even if there's sufficient solar power available to eliminate the water heating cost!

I'm convinced that solar power will become viable, but don't believe it's cost-effective currently!

It certainly is great for us as renters, really low bills compared to our previous place of half the size! Effectively we are paying a quarter of the cost as we have less than half the bill cost and double the room!

I think it does pay off eventually unless you were terrible with heating and go from worst to best, then that could be quicker.

If I would put a rough number on the gross cost, unadjusted for difference in room and improved insulation I would say its around 400 a year on gas alone compared to our previous flat. This is due to getting lower standing charges (lower gives higher rates but better for less use) as well as reduced consumption of gas.

I will admit we did move from an E rated home (IIRC) to an A rated one.