Welcome to New Time

Each week we bring you new articles and opinions from people working in the orgo-eco-ethical sector

 

Home . Contact Us . Living Ethically

---

The summer is over so why bother with solar?

by Paul Bourgeois

A reasonable assumption given that the period of extremely hot, dry weather seems to have been and gone and we are now faced with intermittent sun and plenty of clouds.

If you were talking photo voltaic or solar electric (to use another description) then I’d probably have to agree. But if on the other hand you are considering solar thermal or solar water heating (one in the same) then I’d have to respond by asking if you wanted to keep paying increasing fossil fuel bills?

Sure solar thermal systems only provide water heating and not central heating (in most cases anyway) but they don’t rely on just sunshine. Solar thermal panels, or collectors to use their expert term, use ambient or diffuse light, that’s normal light wavelengths to you and me and they can even use moon light or reflected light from snow covered ground.

I bet you are starting to say “that’s something I didn’t know, I thought they needed direct sunlight”. I have to confess that it is a common misconception and a myth in my profession I try to dispel early on in any conversation.

I have been involved in solar thermal technologies for over 5 years now and it is, by far, the most developed micro-technology for the mass market. There are more products, more manufacturers and more installers than there ever were. In fact many installers report that they cannot keep up with demand, furthermore some even have started to become choosy! An unusual position to be faced with given that renewable energy technologies are still considered by most as a pursuit of the rich, academic and eccentric and they aren’t the majority are they?

Well let me tell you solar thermal in particular is now very sought after and for those who already have it they have never looked back. Whilst fossil fuel prices continue to increase they are blessed with free hot water between April and October and much lower bills for the rest of the year, in fact many tell me that their boiler never fires up between those months and some even turn them off! I know that during the summer your bills do decrease considerably but given that most people now opt for direct debit your monthly bill is the same throughout the year.

What’s even more interest, and I eluded to it at the beginning of this one man discussion, is that people I know with a solar thermal system have had 50 degrees C water in January with no intervention from the old boiler. Take that any way you wish but you get my drift.

So whether or not I set out to convince you to buy a solar thermal system I would have thought that you are now starting to think how much do they cost? Well they can be as little as £1,695 where you’d install them (more on that later) or from £3,000 realistically including £400 from the government through the Low Carbon Buildings Programme (www.lowcarbonbuildings.org.uk). Its not every day you get a hand out irrespective of financial status is it?

So your next question is when does it pay itself back? Unfortunately there is no easy answer but I will try to explain:

If you consider your heating fuel first, if you are using electricity to heat water the period would be shorter than if you used mains gas. The next thing to consider is whether you have electric or power showers. If you use electric to heat cold water then your shower won’t use stored hot water so no saving there. If you have a mains power shower then you’ll be using three times as much hot water and probably draining your hot water tank in a 15 minute shower. Equally a very large bath if filled could do the same. Basically the more water you use the quicker your investment will pay back. Let me rephrase that for you, if you had £3,000 in a bank account before tax you might get 6% APR, well a solar water heating system would give you at least 15% equivalent, so where do you think the smart money goes?

One word of warning though, if you have a combination boiler, i.e. no water storage then there are few systems designed for you but this is being addressed. Equally if you go to your villa in Spain for June, July & August don’t waste your money on a system which will be operating at its optimum during those months and probably going like a steam train on your roof. Finally don’t think in terms of the length of payback think in terms of this is probably the only thing you will buy that will not require further expenditure during its life, simply put once you’ve spent your installation cost, that’s it. No routine maintenance, no annual service, no fossil fuel costs (well that’s not strictly true, you’ll probably pay up to £10 a year to run the electric pump which circulates the solar heated fluid to the second heat exchanging coil in your new, super insulated hot water cylinder).

So who do you go to? Well if you read the Sunday Mail you’ll have probably seen the editorial on cowboy solar water heating companies you’ll have thought it’s not worth the risk. Well follow my simple rules and I doubt you’d go wrong:

• Don’t respond to cold callers in person or on the telephone
• Don’t reply to circulars, however convinced you think they are from the government
• Go by recommendation if possible
• Use the internet to find local companies
• Try to get at least two, preferably three, quotes
• If a salesman comes to your home then hide your cheque book and credit/debit cards. Under no circumstances give a deposit, these can be non refundable
• If you are offered discounts for publicity photographs of your house in their brochures, show house status or signs on your gate, show them the door.

In my experience professionals know how much their systems cost and how much their time is, so a reputable installer won’t offer you a ‘friends and family’ discount, pensioner rate or any other such excuse to hike the price up prior to the sales pitch.

I mentioned earlier about a ‘DIY’ option and hear you say that’s not for me. Well so did at least 60 other people who embarked on a self installed route. Throughout the country there are solar clubs where people get together to learn how to assemble and install their solar water heating system components, usually over a weekend. In Norfolk for example workshops have been organised for 5 years and people come from all over the region to attend and benefit from tuition from one of the top three solar thermal experts in the country. The price is so competitive because by 10 people buying systems together bulk, trade discounts can be achieved (see www.broadsol.org.uk)

The last thing you probably need to know if that there are two types of solar collector currently offered by installers, flat plate and evacuated tube. The latter tends to be sold by salesmen as more technologically advanced and give greater performance so the price is hiked up. As far as I am concerned neither are true. Performance is actually worse at lower temperatures and they might have the selective surface in a vacuum but that’s were the difference ends.

So don’t rush, take your time and think of the savings you are going to be making...