Selfsufficientish.com

planning is a little difficult for us as we are in a conservation area and a national park, they are so strict its unbelievable..
I try and be philosophical about the pp side of our house, as without the strict rules that now apply to us, our two paddocks would have a whole housing estate on it by now!
maybe we shall have to focus on pv system, as it seems they will allow that...

To be honest, I'm warming to pvs - even at their inflated price!
In their favour, they are easy to mount, need virtually no maintenance, and will go on producing power way into the future - if you ally their uptake with drastic pruning of what you use, it can be viable
If you try all the normal "payback" calculations, they're rotten value, but if you realise that in 30 years you will have replaced several washing machines, cars, fridges etc (from which you demand no "payback"), and will have probably lost thousands on depreciation on them, it can begin to make sense.
I have the thought that they could be looked upon as an "heirloom" purchase - they will be producing probably over 90% of their present capacity in 30 years time - they can be "handed on" to future generations!

Martin wrote:To be honest, I'm warming to pvs - even at their inflated price!
In their favour, they are easy to mount, need virtually no maintenance, and will go on producing power way into the future - if you ally their uptake with drastic pruning of what you use, it can be viable
If you try all the normal "payback" calculations, they're rotten value, but if you realise that in 30 years you will have replaced several washing machines, cars, fridges etc (from which you demand no "payback"), and will have probably lost thousands on depreciation on them, it can begin to make sense.
I have the thought that they could be looked upon as an "heirloom" purchase - they will be producing probably over 90% of their present capacity in 30 years time - they can be "handed on" to future generations!

my minds been working along the same lines martin. i've been hoping that they'd drop in price for the last 3 years but no sign as yet. our 2.5kw proven supplies 90% of our needs (100% this time of year) and i think a 1kw array on the roof would compliment it nicely. what sort of size is a 48v 1kw array? and do you know if the proven charge controller can cope with it?

cheers paul

by my quick back-of -a-fagpacket calculations, it's quite a size! - somewhere around 15'x9'..........
I've never taken a Proven controller apart, so I'd suggest a quick enquiry to them to enquire as to if there are any facilities built-in, otherwise a controller isn't going to be expensive (a hundred or two), in comparison to the £4,000 or thereabouts cost of the panels!
I've seen innumerable reports of "breakthroughs" in pv manufacture, particularly from the US and South Africa, all promising, cheaper, better panels, but nothing seems to actually appear - it's always "next year", or "in the forseeable future"
In the meantime, we are paying a premium for what is available, due to the enormous demand from the German and Spanish markets, where they have sane governments who are pouring money into renewables!

Martin wrote: I've seen innumerable reports of "breakthroughs" in pv manufacture, particularly from the US and South Africa, all promising, cheaper, better panels, but nothing seems to actually appear - it's always "next year", or "in the forseeable future"
In the meantime, we are paying a premium for what is available, due to the enormous demand from the German and Spanish markets, where they have sane governments who are pouring money into renewables!

yes i was wondering what was going on, i was hearing the same thing about cheaper panels and was holding off doing anything until they appeared

cheers paul

[quote="welshphil"]I will also 2nd the thumbs up for the samrey kit. One of my neighbours has their bigger turbines on test so I get to see the samrey guys quite regularly (its nice speaking to someone who knows the technicalities of these things instead of just the sales pitch).
Last time I saw the engineers they were working on a datalogger on the turbine that updated live to a website to monitor the performance.
The turbine is a little different from the norm, but it looks good and performs well by all accounts.

Cheers,
Phil[/quote]

Sounds good. I wonder if they will make that website public?

Mark