The bungalow in Trinity
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With this bungalow in Trinity the home owners were reluctant to have solar panels on the south face of the property, partly for ascetic reasons and partly due to the chimney and gable that would have created partial shading. Instead they opted to have panels fitted to the rear of the house on the bungalow’s shade free roofs, facing east, west and north.
Standard sized panels (1.750 x 1.134) were considered, however, larger “jumbo” panels (2.382 m x 1.134 m), more often used on commercial installations, proved to offer a more balanced appearance while making maximum use of the available space.
Each array consists of nine Aiko Stellar 645 W panels (5.8 kW), giving the installation a maximum hourly output of 17.4 kW.
The household currently uses approx 5,000 kW annually, while the estimated annual solar generation is predicted to be approx 14,000 kW. This surplus electricity will allow the home owners to replace their current oil-fired boiler with a heat-pump and run it almost free of charge.
This “oversized” system is designed to provide enough power to heat both water and household, as well as power the cooking, washing and lighting, and run the family's EV at almost no annual cost.
The property has 2 x 10 kW Sigenergy batteries which store enough electricity to power the house for approx 36 hours. The 10 kW inverter converts the solar’s DC electricity to AC. Any surplus being sent back to the grid and credited to the account.
Unusually, this home also has a “Gateway” fitted. This means that in the event of a mains power cut the house automatically isolates itself from the grid and runs entirely from their own generated solar power.
NB: It is a little known fact that even though a property may be producing and storing its own power, in the event of a power cut due to safety regulations that household will be blacked out just like its neighbours. The fitting of a Gateway enables a household to carry on as normal, potentially unaware that a power outage is even in progress.
NB: It is widely know that south-facing roofs are the most efficient place to install solar panels, however, what is less well known is that east and west facing roofs can produce 80% of what a south-facing array does and even a north-facing array can generate 60% of what the south-facing array would do.
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