In the UK gas fired stations are used as a quick response to winter demand peaks. It is very expensive electricity as the companies that provide it negociate high feed-in rates for the short periods the staions run for. The more cheap alternative energy production we have the less the expensive quick-response gas stations get used.

In an ideal world we would reduce overall elecricity demand and increase pump storage to the point the gas stations were never needed.

Jesus fella!!
SD why the
chill out F F S!

only seen a few of your post on here but every one seems to end up with you having a pop at somebody for having an opinion
No neeeeed! calm down

[edit] oh and btw I won’t be back to enter into an argument, simply not interested, thanks again for everyone’s input on the thread[/edit]

Edukator – Member
We’ve already done the energy payback time for PV panels and solar hot water heaters on STW, SD253. The payback is a year to three years for PV in Europe depending on latitude and panel type, not the 20 years you claim. The payback on thermal solar is even faster.

I’m currently getting 255kWh/year per Solar World panel. In 20 years they’ll produce over 4.7 megawatt hours each assuming a pessimistic performance deterioration. Do you really think it takes 4.7 MWh
Stagerring that I missed this 255kWh/year times 20 = 5100kw

In 20 years they’ll produce over 4.7 megawatt

4.7 megawatts = 4,700,000 kilowatts
From wikipedia
Megawat
The megawatt is equal to one million watts

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watt
Expalin please

29erKeith – Member

Thats crisp not a chip! I am assuming thats what it should be?

oh and btw I won’t be back to enter into an argument, simply not interested, thanks again for everyone’s input on the thread

I thought not as 255kWh/year times 20 = 5100kw not 4,700,000. So that appears to be a gross lie? Please tell me where I got it ……..No I doubt you will be on this part of the forum again. opps wrong person

SD-253 – Member

4.7 megawatts = 4,700,000 kilowatts

Maybe I’m missing something but I thought

4.7 megawatts = 4,700,000 watts = 4,700 kilowatts

Therefore 255kWh/year times 20 = 5100kw is 5.1 megawatts which is more than 4.7 megawatts.

So you are saying Edukator underestimated what he’ll get rather than over estimating!!

Explain please.

yep, a megawatt is a million watts. So 255kilowatt hours for 20 yrs (and allowing for performance degradation as Edukator has – although I dont know his basis) gets you to 4,700 kilowatt hours which is 4.7 megawatt hours.

I think if SD is having that much trouble with his maths, he might want to tone his manners down a bit.

Solar World guarantee their panels to lose no more than 0.7% output per year for 25 years. I’ve therefore assumed the worst case and come up with about 4.7 MWh per panel in 20 years. There’s no point trying to be super accurate with something so weather dependant.

Two cloudy days and the water coming out of the solar tank is now 33°C. Cloud forecast for tomorrow, time to start running the water through the immersion heater for a top up. five months and three weeks of 100% solar hot water this year thanks to the Idian summer.

good work. Im going to stop manually turning the boiler on and of (to give the solar a chance to do most of the water) this weekend, it’s time now to leave it on full time and just glean what we can from solar without screwing around too much.

it’s time now to leave it on full time and just glean what we can from solar without screwing around too much.

Thats where a hot water pre-heater calorifier would help.

yep.

But lack of space really. Might have a go one day when I can get hold of a free tank.

Well I’ve finally got my quote.

£15k for a Windhager BW26 fitted, inc plumbing and VAT.

Seems quite a lot but then someone on page 1 said Windhagers are expensive. Think I’ll go and talk through some options 🙂

for a windhager, that sounds about right.

£10k for a lower spec brand.

15k. How about 9.5k of insulating materials, 2.5k for a solar hot water heater, 2k for a wood burner and 1k for a basic air/air DC converter air con unit.

Edit: we’ve used the immersion heater once in the last week and the temperature in the house has just dipped below 20°C for the first time this Autumn. The weather is improving though so we might get another week before lighting the wood burner. 2nd edit: having checked the weather forecast again that migh tbe optimistic, -1°C forecast for the mornings.

That’s for a top spec Windhager too – there is a cheaper version which I’m thinking we’ll go for. Only thing that’s putting me off is he compared it to an Audi 😉