New Home Owners And Snagging Forum
Home Owners => Energy => Topic started by: Betty on June 05, 2020, 01:45:25 pm
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I have been meaning to invest a bit in solar energy and in the meantime be more eco-friendly.
I was thinking between installing a wind turbine on my field and use that as a power source - I am generally aware of the costs and the amount of energy it provides.
But lately someone said I should look into solar panels and install them on my roof. I am no expert on that field and so I come to you. I have a roof surface of about 32 m² so how many solar panels do I need, what is the estimated energy amount they would produce and what are the installation and upkeep costs?
What is better? The wind power of the solar power?
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To state the obvious wind power needs wind and solar power needs sun.
So it will depend on where you live and which way the roof faces that you can put solar panels on south facing being the most energy productive.
In most cases with either, it will take many years to break-even cost wise, although your home may be easier to sell, perhaps at a higher price. The government has also greatly reduced it's feed-in tariffs over recent years too, making solar panels less attractive, That said the cost of the panels has come down.
Really only you can make this choice.
A wind turbine will probably need some maintenance and solar panels may need cleaning.
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The best thing to do is use both sources of power, but we all know how expensive that is. It all depends on where you live and what's the weather there :D
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We installed solar panels on the south facing side of our roof. And we're very happy with them.
We use them to heat the water and basically we have pretty good levels of hot water for about 8 months of the year.
Not so much during the winter. It was a good investment. Good savings on water heating - we rarely have to switch on the immersion heater now.