what difference does solar panelling make to bills?
Sunday, February 28th, 2010 at
6:07 pm
we have gone to look at an eco home which has solar panels on the roof, we have been told it will reduce heating and hot water bills, but does anyone know how by how much?
Filed under: Solar Homes
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The estimates I have for uk are approximately 30% of your hot water costs, heating is very little because even though bright sunshine is not requires for solar energy, cloud cover would prevent enough heat being generated to pump round a heating system, unless you cover a very large area of roof there would be very little benefit on heating.
The solar panels are harnessing the suns energy to be used by your home. You will need to figure out how many kilowatts the solar panels produce and see how much kilowatts your home uses. If you create more energy then you use, you can see about selling the excess to your power company.
Most likely, it’ll just keep the bills low because you are creating your own energy and not using as much from the power company. When the panels aren’t working, then you will be using more from your power company and your bills will be higher.
If you take into account the amortization of the capital cost then they will increase your total bills by a substantial amount for many years. They will make practically no saving in heating costs as in sunny weather you don’t need the central heating on. You will get plenty of hot water in sunny weather.
You mention Hot water which makes me wonder if you have a solar thermal unit that actually heats water or a combination of solar heat and solar electric.
By how much ? That impossible to say without checking out the system. Do they have the manuals and info that came with the equipment? Age of the solar panels makes a difference too. Definately get some facts and figures together before you make the investment.
DUNNO