DD my son with the farm open vista's all sides enquired about panels, got a quote, worked out the costs and the savings and found it would take ten years to pay for them. It seems they need cleaning on a regular basis, break down, stop working and some need replacing so he said no and installed a wood chip self loading furnace in the Barn Liz said she is now warm in every room, they used to have oil fired heating and always a open fire. Do the math DD you may get more sun than us in the NE of England.
Clear bright day here quite warm plenty of sky and I can see the Cleveland Hills which do not have snow on them.
Haggis in our neck of the woods has oatmeal, cannot imagine it with flour.
Cloudy still a bit windy and looks like it might rain. Going out for a walk and than doing a chicken broth with the Sunday leftovers. Need walkies as without much to do in the garden I have started to browse the annuals on the web and my credit card is saying no, no, no!
Very windy here and still quite dark. Have the lights on
Dove, we don't have panals, but know somebody that does. As Palaisglide says, very expensive and takes ages to pay for itself. Also works better to heat water than the heating itself. Know someone else who in the know so to speak and doesn't have it himself, and said not worth it for the heating of the house
But I knew someone who didn't have electricity at all (in Dordogne), so they had solar panels and a generator. Often went wrong and when she wanted to use the washing machine she couldn't put the electric kettle on. Probably didn't have enough panels. But I kept having to do her washing in my machine when it went wrong!
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
Dove, we had solar panels fitted in the 1980s when it was a bit of an adventure... on a south-facing roof in rural Northumberland. They heated the water only, and did so remarkably well; on frosty, sunny mornings it was lovely to have really hot water just from the sun. Of course, on dull days the heating effect was much reduced, but we used less fuel (solid fuel boiler, in our case) because the chill was taken off the water by the panels. We reckoned at that time (no government help) it would take 17 years or so to recoup the outlay, but it was primarily a "green" decision, not a financial one. As far as I remember we never had to clean the panels, and up until my sister left in 1998 they didn't break down, either. They were still there last time I passed the house.
Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
When we moved here we seriously looked into having them.
Did the math, took into account our age and decided to not have them.
NDN but 1 have them, and as their whole roof is covered in them looks a bit of an eyesore but their heating bills are low - lot younger than OH and me!
I was going to garden this morning - before rain - and bake this afternoon.
I've got solar panels, Dove, but I was lucky enough to have them fitted free when it made it worth while for firms to fit them when the feed-in tariffs were a lot higher. They are on the back of the house where they are not too obvious but they look ugly if they are overlooked. I had an old electricy meter until the electric company changed it and it turned backwards when I didn't use all the electricy generated but unfortunately the new meter doesn't do that. The company does any maintenance as another thing to be aware of is the inverter which converts the direct current coming in to alternating current can fail and this can be expensive.
I'm happy with mine as I live in Cornwall and they were fitted free but I am not sure that it would be worth paying for them.
Well, not impressed - Solar person turned up 35 minutes late so sent her off with flea in her ear. We're easily accessible from two major roads neither of which have any bad hold ups according to AA and BBC traffic websites
The scheme they were talking about doesn't go 'live' until December - apparently we pay nothing up front, the panels are provided and installed free, our daytime electricity is free and the excess electricity fed into the National Grid pays for the panels and installation. Sounds too good to be true and probably is - I shall do more research and contact them if I'm interested.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Thanks for the link Dove. Oatmeal is the weapon of choice but when I went to Tesco and Asda both of their haggis selections included wheatflour: it's often added to seasonings to bulk them up.
It's grey and horrid outside. I can't decide whether to stay at home and do the washing or bundle up and go on the hunt for a good local garden centre.
Posts
DD my son with the farm open vista's all sides enquired about panels, got a quote, worked out the costs and the savings and found it would take ten years to pay for them. It seems they need cleaning on a regular basis, break down, stop working and some need replacing so he said no and installed a wood chip self loading furnace in the Barn Liz said she is now warm in every room, they used to have oil fired heating and always a open fire. Do the math DD you may get more sun than us in the NE of England.
Clear bright day here quite warm plenty of sky and I can see the Cleveland Hills which do not have snow on them.
Haggis in our neck of the woods has oatmeal, cannot imagine it with flour.
Frank.
Cloudy still a bit windy and looks like it might rain. Going out for a walk and than doing a chicken broth with the Sunday leftovers. Need walkies as without much to do in the garden I have started to browse the annuals on the web and my credit card is saying no, no, no!
Morning all.
Very windy here and still quite dark. Have the lights on
Dove, we don't have panals, but know somebody that does. As Palaisglide says, very expensive and takes ages to pay for itself. Also works better to heat water than the heating itself. Know someone else who in the know so to speak and doesn't have it himself, and said not worth it for the heating of the house
Frank, Dove was asking about panels, not DD.
But I knew someone who didn't have electricity at all (in Dordogne), so they had solar panels and a generator. Often went wrong and when she wanted to use the washing machine she couldn't put the electric kettle on. Probably didn't have enough panels. But I kept having to do her washing in my machine when it went wrong!
Dove, we had solar panels fitted in the 1980s when it was a bit of an adventure... on a south-facing roof in rural Northumberland. They heated the water only, and did so remarkably well; on frosty, sunny mornings it was lovely to have really hot water just from the sun. Of course, on dull days the heating effect was much reduced, but we used less fuel (solid fuel boiler, in our case) because the chill was taken off the water by the panels. We reckoned at that time (no government help) it would take 17 years or so to recoup the outlay, but it was primarily a "green" decision, not a financial one. As far as I remember we never had to clean the panels, and up until my sister left in 1998 they didn't break down, either. They were still there last time I passed the house.
Morning
When we moved here we seriously looked into having them.
Did the math, took into account our age and decided to not have them.
NDN but 1 have them, and as their whole roof is covered in them looks a bit of an eyesore but their heating bills are low - lot younger than OH and me!
I was going to garden this morning - before rain - and bake this afternoon.
Rain beat me to it
Good morning all,
Hope everyone is okay in this windy weather.
I've got solar panels, Dove, but I was lucky enough to have them fitted free when it made it worth while for firms to fit them when the feed-in tariffs were a lot higher. They are on the back of the house where they are not too obvious but they look ugly if they are overlooked. I had an old electricy meter until the electric company changed it and it turned backwards when I didn't use all the electricy generated but unfortunately the new meter doesn't do that. The company does any maintenance as another thing to be aware of is the inverter which converts the direct current coming in to alternating current can fail and this can be expensive.
I'm happy with mine as I live in Cornwall and they were fitted free but I am not sure that it would be worth paying for them.
Well, not impressed - Solar person turned up 35 minutes late so sent her off with flea in her ear. We're easily accessible from two major roads neither of which have any bad hold ups according to AA and BBC traffic websites
The scheme they were talking about doesn't go 'live' until December - apparently we pay nothing up front, the panels are provided and installed free, our daytime electricity is free and the excess electricity fed into the National Grid pays for the panels and installation. Sounds too good to be true and probably is - I shall do more research and contact them if I'm interested.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
It's grey and horrid outside. I can't decide whether to stay at home and do the washing or bundle up and go on the hunt for a good local garden centre.