Solar Panels

[witch]

The other half has bought 'us' some solar panels and is now thinking what to do with them. He would like a fairly easy project and would like any sensible ideas please. He has thought of wiring up the old immersion heater in the water tank to help give us hot water - can anyone think of anything else?

[Geoff]

Generating hot water is the simplest thing to do. Slightly more complex is to get a grid tie inverter, load centre and a new electric meter. Then you can sell spare power you generate back to the grid. You can only do this if power company is setup to let you do this.

[Lurch]

You'd be better off using them to power something you already use. If you have a fairly decent heating system heating the tank atm then switching to using the immersion heater would be a bit pointless and a waste imo. You'd be better off using them to power something that you already use, like all the heating and lighting. I'd connect them to a storage bank of some sort (a UPS would do) and then you don't have to turn all the lights off when it goes dark!

[ChrisH]

Hmm solar panels in this country.... I was expecting a joke :P

[pete]

Scaramanga style Solar Raygun (PIC chip with two ldrs out on arms, one on top and a servo so it can track and lock onto the sun)

Garden pond pump?
Provide electricity to an outbuilding?

It depends how much power he expects to get.

[Sirbendy]

I have a few bebsites at home that might be of use..I'll dig them out..

[laserblazer]

I've always had this hankering to build a swimming pool and use old central heating radiators, painted black, to heat it.

[witch]

Hmm solar panels in this country.... I was expecting a joke :P

Yes but this is the far South where we do get quite a lot of sunshine!

I like the raygun idea!

The UPS is a good one - I have one that I 'liberated' *cough* from one of my schools last year - would that sort of thing do?

He doesn't want to get involved with the 'tieing into the grid' bit - and besides, there isn't very many panels - I doubt it would generate anything much!

Thanks for the ideas - keep em coming.

[dhicks]

Thanks for the ideas - keep em coming.

Hook the panels up to a slow cooker - leave running for 8 hours and come back home to lovely slow-cooked stew?

--
David Hicks

[Geoff]

Hmm solar panels in this country.... I was expecting a joke :P

Anywhere north of Birmingham and it's not cost effective, down south it's a fine idea though.

Up north we're better off harnessing the hydro power of our house down spouts, due to the huge amount of rain we get.

[Sirbendy]

I thought of that before..heh...or small scale windpower maybe..

Solar I like...I have a solar radio, a solar torch, and a solar triffid at the sec...5 balls on sticks coming out of a stainless steel arty base thing..marketed as a garden light but makes a great low-level dining room lamp.

I'm very tempted to get the £20 4.8w solar panel from various places on the net, hitch it to a scrapyard car battery and use it to power an LED lighting grid in my garage, as well as providing an emergency boost if I can't get the car started. As a bonus, I have a spare stereo unit I could wire to provide me with tunes while I work on it, and a cheap "in car" 12-240v inverter could provide some scope for playing with the system.

Such things as the "Mintyboost" 2xAA battery to 5v USB charger intrigue me as well..we really do use 240v for convenience..most electrical stuff only knocks it back down to low level voltages again anyway.

I still thing this idiot government's insistence on nuclear power is stupid...go wind, invest in hydro, encourage home takeup of solar/wind, and encourage low energy product manufacture..

Look at TVs...the MILs Plasma uses 800 watts at least..my 21", 15 year old CRT based Tosh uses 60 watts...I could easily run my entire corner AV/Entertainment stack off a 12v inverter.

Sorry, I'm dribbling.

EDIT: This is the site I quite like...they have some interesting ideas you might like to browse..

Renewable Energy UK

[Andrew_C]

I still thing this idiot government's insistence on nuclear power is stupid...go wind, invest in hydro,

I saw a headline last week stating that some Scottish island had a wind farm turned down to protect some birds. Don't these idiots realise that unless we do turn to renewables many more nesting sites are going to get trashed?

[torledo]

I saw a headline last week stating that some Scottish island had a wind farm turned down to protect some birds. Don't these idiots realise that unless we do turn to renewables many more nesting sites are going to get trashed?

The story i read was regarding protected birds of prey which were getting caught in the blades. So not just 'some birds' as you put it.

[dhicks]

I thought of that before..heh...or small scale windpower maybe..

I'm sure I've actually seen someone selling small-scale in-your-drainpipe generators, I just can't remember where.

I still thing this idiot government's insistence on nuclear power is stupid...go wind, invest in hydro, encourage home takeup of solar/wind, and encourage low energy product manufacture..

I'd hate to think we were shying away from developing large-scale wind/wave power stations just because of the engineering challenge. It does seem rather obvious - ruddy great chunk of sea, perfect for plonking a bunch of off-shore wind turbines in where they won't bother anyone. Nuclear power stations will still leave us dependant on foreign imports of raw fuel.

--
David Hicks

[enjay]

Nuclear power stations will still leave us dependant on foreign imports of raw fuel.

Not to mention the far greater question of what to do with the spent fuel!

While some people don't like wind farms (although personally I like them, and even find them rather hypnotic, especially XCO2's "quiet revolution" ones - http://tinyurl.com/4wcb8d), there are ways and means to install them, either in remote places or by taking the time to convince the local populous of their value, as they have done with the ones where my brother lives. People's knee-jerk reaction will often be "no", but they may come round to a "yes" if someone takes the time to address any concerns and dispel rumours (e.g. they really aren't very noisy) or - dare I say it - bribe the local community with offers of new facilities in exchange.

If endangered species were getting kebabbed on that Scottish one, then it should be moved, that is only sensible - emphasis on MOVED not abandoned.