Solar Panels – Good Idea or a Waste of Money ?
The information available is produced predominantly by people selling a solar related product so should be viewed with a little circumspection. For example I have just read a product brochure produced by an Australian manufacturer were the “map of sunshine intensity” shows that central Portugal is the same as northern England.
Something amiss here me thinks!
Let’s look at the simple heating of water for everyday use with a solar panel or two. Friends who have panel installations say to me that they experience a real difference in the amount of hot water that they have at their disposal and that they hardly use their back up boiler. Just what we want to hear.
Before we rush out and order a solar panel or two…Let’s have a look at the costs and what is involved.
If you are building a new house here in Portugal the council will insist that you have the size of solar panel array that your house dictates. Not governed by the number of people that actually live in the house. A typical 3 bed house would have two panels and a 300 Ltr storage tank.
We think about the panels and where they could be positioned on our property. We tend not to think about the other gubbins that goes with them and were to put it.
You will need a secondary form of water heating for the winter. A gas boiler for instance. and a 300 Ltr water tank are the larger items. You will also need a Gas supply, emergency cut of valves, pressure regulator & flue.
Then there are the bits and pieces (taken from a recent quote)
Nuts 1 “x1 / 2 to 22 Buffer 1 “M – 12 automatic traps – 12 one-way valves – 12 return valves – 12 Conj. Clamping joints 14mm – 12 A forced circulation solar kit 300ltrs.
1 pair Probes Group movement Vase expanção solar discharge Valvola vent tightening Unions hydraulic connections. + the labor to install all of this which of course comes at a price.
Its the price or course that we try and reconcile. Lets say that this system is going to cost 5,000 Euros to install. There are 3 people living in the property and compare it to our annual gas usage of 130 Euros not including cooking. Even with a 10% increase each year in the cost of gas. its going to take 40 years to break even. In 40 years time the entire system will have broken down, the companies who made it probably ceased trading and it may of had to have a major refit and maintenance.
For most of us it will never break even as we will not be around to take advantage of it in 40 Years.
Solar panels linked to central heating may produce a quicker payback but that’s for another day !
