When we had our solar panels installed, the deal was that we paid £5 a month and got all the electricity that we were able to use from the panels and Homesun got the feed in tariff and the £5.

I got a letter today saying that they'll be cancelling our monthly direct debit so we now get the panels for free, but they'll still maintain the panels for ( Read more... )

I've just made a complaint to the Telephone Protection Service about a solar panel company.  Telephone cold-calling people on the TPS list is illegal.  I can't do anything about overseas companies, but I sure can complain about the UK ones.

That's the second solar panel company to phone me in a week.

I like solar power, I already have solar panels.

( Read more... )

I've found a useful web page that works out average sunlight in different places and tells you your likely power output each month for a given inclination and orientation of roof.  You can enter your own values and look at the result.
This entry was originally posted on Dreamwidth where it has
( Read more... )

Take one cup of rice and two cups of water (will do three people ( Read more... )

For those who haven't read all the comments:

1. If there is a power cut the panels cut out as well, because if they kept generating the national grid would still be getting charge going back on to it (remaining live) and would be unsafe to work on. There have been some interesting comments with regard to batteries, but these would not be ( Read more... )

Hazy sunlight.  Generating 1.62kW  at 2:20pm.  Using around 360W, which feels a bit high.  I've only background plus the computer ( Read more... )

Although I'm currently minus 5KWh on my electricity meter since Tuesday, I'd warn people to be sceptical of claims by some firms that you'll halve your electricity bills.  I still think 1/4 to 1/3 reduction is more likely.

That's because that negative 5KWh is the electricity I didn't use.  I suspect some firms take the total you generate and ( Read more... )

The firm I used are Home Sun.  If you want to know if you qualify under their rules, see this page.  The key factors are:

Compass direction of roof.  Must be between SE and SW.

Angle of slope of roof.

Lack of shade from trees/neighbouring properties.

Size of roof - the bigger the better.  (economies of scale on installation)

It's unlikely that you'll ( Read more... )

Keris asked a bunch of questions:

----OK, how does that Owl thing show you how much individual things are using? Is it only by turning them off and seeing the difference?

Yes.  but it's advisable to do it several times to get a sample as things like fridges and freezers go through a cycle, which can affect results.  However, some things are easy ( Read more... )

A thought from Alex_Holden.

If I had two sensors with logging (My current one doesn't have a logger), then I could use one after the inverter and one in the usual position and get some really pretty graphs.

I can't currently justify spending £70 to get a pair, but I do like the idea of being able to see both generation and consumption.

sky mostly ( Read more... )