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Solar hot water
For over 20 years Solar Panels installation has meant the use of solar thermal panels on your roof supplementing the heating of water for your home. These are efficient in hot countries but not in the UK. They are complicated devices that frequently do not heat the water to a high enough temperature and fail to operate almost at all for many days of the year. OFGEM estimate that they typically provide 30% of the hot water requirements of a home thereby cutting down the average gas bill by approximately 12%.
Give the average gas bill of £600pa they return between £50 and £90 each year. Give the average installation cost of £4000, the payback period for solar thermal systems is typically between 50 and 80 years.
BSOLAR do provide a solar hot water solution. Our solution was developed in conjuction with Lancaster University. Through the installation of Solar Photovoltaic (PV) panels and an energy management device, hot water will be provided to your existing hot water cylinder through the immersion heater. When tested this solution is typically 3 to 4 times as efficient as solar thermal systems.
Your solar PV or other micro-generator system will often generate more electricity than you are using, especially if you are out of the home at peak daylight intensity hours.
Without an energy management device, this surplus energy is automatically exported to the grid for little or no reward. At other times, you will be importing energy from the grid. Energy losses occur during the "double handing" of export and import, making this an inefficient and therefore emissions unfriendly process.
Efficient energy management will prevent double-handling by maximising the onsite usage of locally produced energy. It does this by monitoring and comparing, in real-time, energy generation with energy consumption and directing all your surplus energy to local energy storage devices - hot water cylinders, storage heaters, heat pumps, electric vehicles etc.
If no electricity is exported, you maximise the energy and emissions savings from your solar PV system.
NOTE: BSOLAR do not provide solar thermal systems because of the long payback period.
Benefits of Solar Hot Water
BSOLAR has worked with Lancaster University and offers a solution for customers that is a hot water solution that involves a device that monitors power generated by the solar PV and when it is sufficient, turning on the immersion heater. Simple and very efficient.
To be able to heat water using the power of the sun is one of the few truly renewable energy sources. It is a very green thing to do and is one of the best solutions to the energy problems of the world. Unfortunately in the UK the problem is keeping the water warm which requires much insulation and for fluid to be circulated through collectors only when it will be heated not cooled (when the sun shines), this makes for a complicated and hence expensive solution.
To use the free electricity produced by your investment in solar panels, which pays you to generate not to sell, is a simple and far more cost-effective way to produce ‘green’ hot water without major additional investment.
Please contact us for further details or fill in our quote form below for a free no-obligation quote.
Contact us
- 0845 009 8642
- info@bsolar.co.uk
- Orchard House
17 Summerwood Lane
Halsall, Lancashire
L39 8TH
