We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember Peter Parry
saying something like:

On Sat, 04 Mar 2006 13:51:44 +0000, Douglas de Lacey
wrote:


http://www.sustainable-girton.org.uk/pv/ gives a few figures on a new PV
installation, which in *February* produced 2/3 of the owner's
consumption. On good days it made 3.3Kw.

"The total cost was large,...If the predictions are correct, these
costs will be paid back in around 24 years"

Solar water heating may be marginal but solar pv is a wonderful way
of wasting money.

I don't see how. Sure, if you buy factory-made panels and all the
necessary pro stuff and pay for the installation.

This is a DIY group. Building panels from base materials and feeding a
pre-heat cylinder works out at less than a couple of hundred quid if you
DIY the whole thing from salvaged materials.

In my own situation, I have several suitable sized radiators and
double-glazing units which will be pressed into a different role from
their intended one. I have a few used-but-good hot cylinders and the
perfect position upstairs for a gravity solar system fed by 3 or 4
panels at ground level.

I don't expect it to work miracles, but I do expect it to work a bit -
enough to cut the cost of electrically heating water by at least a third
and probably half.
--

Dave