Dommo Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 The house behind me uses solar panels to heat a small swimming pool. Seemed like a good way of getting something out of it rather than just cost savings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lyonspride Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 The house behind me uses solar panels to heat a small swimming pool. Seemed like a good way of getting something out of it rather than just cost savings. Or a socially acceptable excuse for having a pool Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete g Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 lyonspride would love to see how much money you have made in the bank over the last 4 years. I have had 6.5k back tax free on 13k not adding any electric or gas savings. :d :d over to you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lyonspride Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 Well if you spend £10 and get £5 back, your still down £5......... But the problem is that we generally live up to our means (I don't, but that's another story), so any money made back would typically get spent as though it were extra spending money, rather than going back into the savings pot it came from. So for the vast majority, there are no savings at all, just more spending. I wonder how many people save their Christmas bonus? If you make money back and then dump it all straight into a savings account (which you don't touch), then you'd have a half decent chance, but that takes some serious discipline, and a run of good fortune to never need that money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SootySport Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 Well if you spend £10 and get £5 back, your still down £5......... But the problem is that we generally live up to our means (I don't, but that's another story), so any money made back would typically get spent as though it were extra spending money, rather than going back into the savings pot it came from. So for the vast majority, there are no savings at all, just more spending. I wonder how many people save their Christmas bonus? If you make money back and then dump it all straight into a savings account (which you don't touch), then you'd have a half decent chance, but that takes some serious discipline, and a run of good fortune to never need that money. You're beginning to sound like David Iycke. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SootySport Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 Do you mean full DIY? or buying the units ready made? They're little more than a box full of black painted copper (or alloy) tube, with polycarbonate on one side and all the air sucked out in the middle (kinda like a double glazed window). The pipes are filled with anti-freeze, it leads off to a heating coil inside your hot water tank and a pump circulates the water through. But either way they're really quite efficient, even if you just use them to supplement your existing boiler. Light to heat is far more efficient than light to electricity. I would buy the Solar panels ready made, I would think they are more efficient than anything I could make. The plumbing bit I can do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete g Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 in another 5 years I will be spending nothing and will be getting £1.8k back tax free per year . to waste on whatever I want . :d :d :d Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pistol Pete Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 Even at today's rates of interest if you locked £13k in a 10 year bond @ 4% you would end up with approx £19k at the end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete g Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 19k profit or 19k total before or after tax wait 10years for you money .I have it sent to me every 3months .and can reinvest it to make more money. only there is no where safe to reinvest it.robbing bankers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lyonspride Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 You're beginning to sound like David Iycke. Well, nothing distracts from the truth more than a crazy conspiracy theory It's reckoned that most of all the UFO, Roswell, Area 51, aliens related crazy stuff was actually leaked by the military in order to keep attention away from defence related activities and projects during the cold war era (makes a hell of lot more sense than little green men). Find one crazy person, give them an idea, wind em up and let them loose. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SootySport Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 in another 5 years I will be spending nothing and will be getting £1.8k back tax free per year . to waste on whatever I want . :d :d :d Like errr ummm , A 1.6 Ecotec engine maybe? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete g Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 sound like a plan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northwarks Posted September 9, 2014 Author Share Posted September 9, 2014 Wow solar panels to Area51 in 25 posts I totally get its the initial outlay, we went for a log burner to save forking out on gas central heating last winter, best thing we ever did, heats the whole house if we leave the doors all open. Back to solar panels and water heating, it looks like I need to do the math, if I didn't want or wasn't concerned about HMG subsidy I could still get them installed myself ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hammy Posted September 11, 2014 Share Posted September 11, 2014 Something else not mentioned is that research is still going on in panels,- the performance does fall off with time reducing output . There are also problems with panel seals failing and protection diodes failing . The controllers fail too. The big problem for me is they look aweful and don't add to the house value- so if you move , you lose. Just my view of course . Water panels for water heating nice and simple and effective tho ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John K Posted September 11, 2014 Share Posted September 11, 2014 I spent eleven hours on a flight to Korea sat next to a guy whose company makes plants that make PV cells. We got talking about the 'green' credentials of PVs and it seems to be like electric cars. If you ignore the generation of the electrikery they are green. But it seems that the electricity used to baked the glass onto the cells (seems to need two bakes) was way more than a PV cell would generate during its useful 20 year life. If this was right, it means you might make electricity running a PV, but over all the world is worse off... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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