KWH - How Does It All Work?

KWH - Now this is the question, for home owners the simple answer is to look on your electricity bill and work out how many Kw your using for a given day/week/year, an average house hold uses around 5kwh per day according to Ofgem, i would say it was nearer 8kwh depending who's in the house through the day! Solar panels now can range up to 600w each so 10 x 600 = 6000 x 5 (average daylight hours) =30,000w which equals 30kwh Do you need that many? Well no! But........remember we live in the UK, on a warm sunny summers day that's great but what about our long autumn and winter periods, the fact of the matter is it's better to go overkill on the solar panels than find out you need more later, after all, what goes back to the grid you get paid for! If your on a hybrid system then you should have fully charged batteries to last even the longest nights! For the 12v/24v/48v brigade it's much the same scenario, it's a little more difficult to work out how much your depleting your batteries in terms of amp hours but this would be first rule of thumb, however and as discussed elsewhere, space is also an issue, this is where our 18v flexible panels shine, space required and performance got! Plus the fact they are low profile, you can walk on them and for each panels size the results are brilliant Read more

Fitting Solar - How Hard Will It Be?

  Fitting Solar or an installation of Solar for home user's is now much simpler than it used to be, hybrid inverters like the ones we sell have most items installed, i.e the inverter itself, the MPPT, a battery charger (should you want to store energy) and even a solar power meter (used to calculate how much is going back onto the grid) For all us 12v, 24, 48, it's even more simple as all we want is to replace the charge taken out of the storage (batteries) as quickly as possible so calculate how much you take out of a given day, then work out how many panels (from the amperage of each panel) you need, leave room obviously for dull days that the panels aren't working at full capacity! Read more

DIY Solar Install

Can you DIY Solar? The answer is yes! Although for home owners it's a little more tricky as to tie into the grid requires a qualified electrician, not only to do the work but to also 'sign it off' the rest of the install though is fairly straight forward and any competent diy'er should be able to fit the associated main parts of the system. Things are much simpler for boat's, caravan's, motorhomes and even static caravan's (mobile homes) and a simple installation that doesn't break the bank should be easy enough to fit, indeed i have fitted a few solar systems for friends over the years, on boat's, a few static homes, the key is knowing what amount of power your going to use and then price up from there! Plan your solar panel install well, this can be tricky depending on roof space and strength. As they say.....here is one i did earlier! 10 x 510w 48v Black Panels, split into 2 x 5 (2 parallel x 5 series) these are mounted on galvanised Unistrut along with zeb's with solar retainers fitted, the only problem was finding the strength in the roof, but lifting a few sheets of tiling soon revealed where the main struts were. The power fed down through a solar isolator to a 5500w hybrid inverter with 100ah 48v battery backup, this was doubled in time to 200ah to last through the night, the saving in cost going down normal gel (AGM) batteries wasn't worth it, which is why we don't other selling AGM or Lead Acid batteries, if your thinking of doing similar then Lithium (LifePo4) is truly the way forward! So far 2 years + down the line, owner still hasn't bought any electric at all! Plus i might add, now has a hot tub outside and has bought an electric car! Read More

Is Solar Energy right for you?

The benefits of solar energy speak for themselves, whether your a home owner, live on a boat, caravan etc the benefits once the initial cost's are covered are substantial, with rising fuel cost's it's only a matter of time that energy as we know it will cease and everyone will need to support themselves in some form or another, solar energy has come on leaps and bounds in the last few years and that development work means that not only is the quality getting better but the performance to! Not to mention cost's are coming down as well! Read More