The best,
cleanest, cheapest source of energy we have available to us
on this planet comes from our sun. There is effectively
limitless energy available, if we could only harness it, and
we did not live in Manchester! Actually at Drayton & Ellis,
we believe living in the Manchester area is a good thing,
and we would love you to come and see our renewable energy
equipment at our office in Stockport. And solar power is a viable option for us,
even in Manchester.
Solar
thermal panels are designed to absorb heat we receive from
the sun in the form of solar radiation and transfer it to
water within a heating or hot water system. These panels are
not to be confused with
solar PV modules,
which generate electricity from solar radiation, please see
our web page about these for more information.
Solar
thermal panels are somewhat simpler in design, and cheaper
to manufacture, than solar PV modules. In its’ most basic
form, a thermal solar panel system is simply a roof mounted
collector panel or panels, where water passes through the
pipes within the panel to be heated by the sun, linked to a
larger than average hot water storage cylinder. The big
problem in this country is that the time we get a lot of our
sunshine, we do not have high demands for heating or hot
water. For solar thermal systems to work well, it is
important to store as much heated water as possible, this is
why solar thermal panels work so well with swimming pools,
as they are a very large amount, of relatively low
temperature water.
Solar
thermal is relatively cheap to install compared with other
forms of renewable heating, but the payback time is longer
than solar PV systems, because the Feed In Tariff for solar
PV is SO GOOD! However, solar thermal systems will be
eligible for the Renewable Heat Incentives (RHI’s) which are
financial support for renewable technologies which are
coming into effect from later this year (2011) For more
information on RHI’s please visit the Energy Saving Trust
website at
www.energysavingtrust.org.uk.
Solar
thermal panels can be a very good way of enhancing a low
energy, high efficiency heating system, and will work best
in systems which can be designed from scratch to suit the
use of renewable heating technology. We are always happy to
come and give a free, no obligation quotation for any work
you may be considering, please contact us for more
information.
We have
two
solar thermal panels on the roof of our office and we
have a large (800 litres) multi fuel thermal store
for them to heat. This means, we effectively have a big
battery for storing the heat they produce. Even if they only
raise the temperature of the store by a few degrees Celsius,
over a period of time the temperature of the store
increases, this reduces the amount of work the
Air Source Heat Pump
has to do, which is our main source of heating and hot water
supply in the building. If you want to use solar thermal
panels as part of a system to provide central heating as
well as hot water, it is important to design the system
well, store as much water as possible and use
under-floor heating
or
fan coils
as the main type of heat emitters.
Our office is open most
weekdays, please call to see the system in operation or for
more information. It may be that there is a better energy
efficiency option that is right for you, and we pride
ourselves on finding the best solution for your heating and
plumbing needs.
