SUN, SUN, SUN – HERE IT COMES!!

As Dave and I made the decision to install a solar heating panel on our bungalow it was thought that you might be interested in what brought this about and why we decided on this particular addition to our otherwise standard Ashton Hayes bungalow.  It was installed on 5th July this year.

We had been interested in solar panels for a year or so, following some that we saw at Criccieth.  It seems to us that there is a lot of energy in the sun that is going to waste, that is, of course, unless your main recreation is spending all day on the beach.  We think that harnessing a natural resource and making it work for us (instead of wasting it) just makes sense.  We have a very boring but mature oil fired central heating system.  This suits us admirably mainly because it just happened to be here when I moved in ten years ago and we’re not prone to spending money unnecessarily.  One of the things that make oil attractive to us is that there is no Standing Charge unlike a lot of other fuels which means that you just pay for what you get when you need it and you don’t pay any hidden charges to your supplier for the privilege of using their fuel. 

Well, we had this idea of maybe some day having a panel fitted but when our village decided to strive for carbon neutrality it gave us the push to put our thoughts into action.  We like natural things that are free and the thought of paying about £2,500.00 for the panel didn’t seem too much of a burden when offset against free water heating (provided the sun shone) or certainly reducing the cost of heating our water over the long term.  After all this is a long-term investment both in our heating plan and in the planet.  Working with Solar Twin through the village scheme just made sense because the village is a showcase for them and it makes business sense that they get it right.  You could say, well why not go for a gas combi-boiler.  For one reason the bungalow doesn’t have a gas supply and so we would have to pay for that to be installed from the mains, and then the cost of the boiler and any upgrade to the radiators etc etc, not to mention my enemy – the old Standing Charge.

You know, since we had the solar panel installed I have to say (with hindsight) there is one thing I really miss!  The fumes!  Be they oil or gas, when you’re combing your hair next to our wash basin when the boiler is on the one thing I really notice is the fumes!  I miss them like a hole in the head.  This last Summer when the sun was shining we didn’t have the boiler on at all.  The sun heated all the water that we needed and central heating was not on the agenda.  I boast that we have cut our heating bills by a half but Dave holds me back and says 25% is more realistic.  We used to have roughly two oil deliveries a year.  Now it looks as though we might get away with one (at a pinch). 

Our panel doesn’t work brilliantly on a cloudy day but there are panels on the market now (see Which for October 2006) that do work in cloudy conditions.  You can even buy panels in B&Q but I wouldn’t fancy letting Dave loose on our roof to fit it.  Much better to leave it up to Solar Twin and let the experts risk life and limb.  It took them about two hours to fit it, I believe, in the end.  Dave would tell you, as he enjoyed chatting with the men when they told him that people in the North of England were enquiring about panels far more than people in the South of England.  Interesting.  Perhaps we just care a lot more about our planet up here and want our children to enjoy a fume free future without global warming!

Rosie & Dave Humphries