Planning a Home Renewable Energy System
Where to Start?
If you are looking to improve the property you live in, a useful place to start could be to establish how much energy you are using, what energy sources are used (gas, electricity, oil etc), what appliances are using the energy and ensure that as much value is being squeezed out of the energy you are currently buying as you can. Check out our energy efficiency article for some ideas, In the long-term this will pay dividends in cutting bills for any traditional energy systems you retain and save money through not oversizing a new renewable energy system.
We have a simple home appliance energy usage form that you can access online here. Once you have got a good grasp of what energy efficiency improvements could be made and what your energy requirements are we can then move onto initial system design and establishing the right kind of system that will meet your needs.
What are you looking to achieve?
The solution for someone looking to protect themselves against power cuts will be very different from those looking to lower their carbon footprint and different again from those looking for energy independence or protection from future energy price rises. Below are some example system designs and technolgies that you could employ.
- Using Renewable energy to protect against power cuts
- Using Renewable Energy to Lower your carbon footprint
- Using Renewable Energy to achieve Energy Independence
- Using Renewable Energy to Protect from energy price rises
By harnessing solar power you can create electricity to power your home, office, holiday cottage or even a flat.There are a myriad of systems available to generate solar energy. It is often the case that the correct choice is obvious but in other circumstances the decision can be all together far more difficult and require both the plus points and the negative points of each system to be carefully weighed up. This article will guide you through the options available to you and explain which factors should be taken into consideration.
The starting point we suggest is to get an accurate idea of your current or anticipated energy usage. This can be done by simply recording what energy is being used using your gas and electricity metres. You can also calculate your energy use by totaling up the combined energy usage of all your appliances. The figures you are looking for to start with using both methods is your Kwh or how many kilowatts of energy your home uses in an hour and your kWp or kilowatt peak. The kWP figure is how panels, invertors and other accessories are sold and what you will need your system to be able to handle at your homes busiest energy usage times.
The next thing you need to think about is where your panels are to be installed. Think about the availability of sunlight, south facing areas are best in the UK although panels can be split across a roof if the house is facing an East-West or West-East direction. Think about how much physical space you have to install panels, a typical UK 2kWp installation for a family home takes up 20sq metres of space. Any shading on the panels from trees, chimneys and even TV arials will have a disproportinately negative effective on your panels performance.
If you are limited for space consider rearranging the electricity distribution system in your home, could the TV, PC and lighting be run from solar charged batteries and the freezer, boiler and oven run from the mains? Solar energy doesn't have to be all or nothing, neither does it have to be expensive if done gradually.