Sun, 28 Jun 2026 10:31:55 +0100 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/ Lussumo Vanilla 1.0.3 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=11874&Focus=198443#Comment_198443 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=11874&Focus=198443#Comment_198443 Mon, 17 Mar 2014 15:38:10 +0000 danpipe
What are your thoughts on how best to use this roof space? Our original plan was to put solar PV on the main roof - covering as big an area as possible - and put a solar thermal panel on the side extension roof, coupled with a megaflo system and thermostatic showers to make best use of the hot water.

It's been suggested that it's better to use solar PV for hot water, as there's less wasted potential solar energy in the summer, so now I'm considering putting solar PV on both roofs. Whatever system we end up with, we want it to run itself with minimal tinkering - e.g. no manual switching on of immersion heaters - so the system would need to heat up the water with automatic backup from the gas boiler to provide sufficient hot water for morning showers.]]> https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=11874&Focus=198446#Comment_198446 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=11874&Focus=198446#Comment_198446 Mon, 17 Mar 2014 15:48:26 +0000 Ed Davies
Before talking about details it's probably best to have in mind the expected use of the house. Will it be occupied during the day time much?]]> https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=11874&Focus=198447#Comment_198447 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=11874&Focus=198447#Comment_198447 Mon, 17 Mar 2014 16:22:04 +0000 danpipe
I estimate that the main roof can comfortably fit a 4kW system, so adding PV to the side roof would take it over 4kW - are there any complications with having a large PV array feeding in to the grid? I've heard it mentioned that permission may be required over a certain power output.

I've also searched around and discovered products such as Apollo GEM which are designed for making best use of renewable electricity for heating water, which is ideal and leans the arguments in favour of PV of solar thermal.]]> https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=11874&Focus=198480#Comment_198480 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=11874&Focus=198480#Comment_198480 Mon, 17 Mar 2014 22:01:48 +0000 Ed Davies
http://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/forum114/comments.php?DiscussionID=11798]]> https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=11874&Focus=198492#Comment_198492 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=11874&Focus=198492#Comment_198492 Tue, 18 Mar 2014 08:31:37 +0000 renewablejohn
http://www.vdg.no/index.php?articleid=12]]>