Thread: Siting of panels for solar water heating
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John Beardmore John Beardmore is offline
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Default Siting of panels for solar water heating
In message .com,
writes
Joe Fischer wrote:

Solar energy is primarily a sub-tropic region
energy source, and is not being guided in the right
direction. Solar panels on the roof, especially
retrofitted, is not a good idea, on walls facing the
equator is a much better idea.
Just one leak caused by installing panels
on the roof, and all the savings for 10 years is lost,

Kit mounted atop single storey flat roofs has significant advantages.

Hmmm... Flat roofs are notorious for their leaks. As an installer they
make me nervous as it's much harder to satisfy your self that the roof
is intact before work starts and after you've finished. You neither
want to do damage, or be a scapegoat !


FWIW its quite possible to use a controller that detects leaks and
shuts off one section of a parallelled system.

I think Joe meant leak in the roof envelope rather than leak for the
system that somehow gets through the roof ??


This would improve
reliability, reduce ongoing costs, and extend system lifetimes. But
this is only going to be cost effective when the equipment reaches mass
production.

Probably better to make kit that won't leak in the first place ?


The British planning system makes extending existing
buildings difficult to impossible,

Not really... Though granted it depends what you want and where you
are.


and this could also be improved.

Yes !!


Really old buildings may be the most difficult
to heat, and the trend in the US is larger homes,
so nothing is moving in the right direction to save
energy.

Its not too hard to retroinsulate old houses.

Depends how far you want to go. It's certainly not as good as making
them better in the first place.


Cheers, J/.
--
John Beardmore
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