Solar panels - advice please

[Susie2017]

Hi all. Am thinking of perhaps installing solar panels. Recent heatwave and worry over global warming are factors. Was wondering if this would help to reduce my families carbon footprint. I use electricity every night to heat the immersion for morning showers. Electricity bills are too high. Very worried about the way the planet is heating up and the consequences for agriculture, transport, everyday life, fires etc. Irish politicians seem to be largely ignoring the issue. Anyway just wondering if this would be a good first step and looking for other ideas eg water butts/ harvesting to help conserve water etc that I could implement in my home to be a little greener. Hybrid car under consideration when next trading in. I have read that the evacuated tube type of panel is the best. One price I have seen is 5500 with a possible grant of 1200. Would love to hear from other people's experiences of solar panels. Are they maintenance free ? I have a south east facing roof at the back of the house.

 

[Zenith63]

One of the most effective things you can do to reduce your carbon footprint is to swap from beef to basically any other meat. So turkey mince instead of beef mince in chilli/bolognaise, chicken burger when you go to McDonalds. Eat beef when it’s really worth it like at a good steak restaurant, but eating it in crap burgers at McDonald’s is a tragic waste of resources.

Consider a full electric car if you can. We recently swapped to two Nissan Leaf’s and love them! Not practical for all, but way more so than most people think!

By almost every metric, solar is more efficiently done centrally than on all our rooftops, at least until battery storage gets cheaper. So you can get most of the effect, much cheaper, by just moving to one of the green energy companies. Take the saved money and buy an electric car ;-)

 

[Susie2017]

I havent eaten beef or mince for years. I have never cooked it in any form for my kids. We also dont buy ham or pork products with the exception of sausages on occasion. We eat fish most days and chicken once a week. I felt put off by meat after BSE, seeing the way the foot and mouth disease outbreak was managed and veterinary practices in particular antibiotic usage in cattle. I know fish may be not entirely safe given the state of our seas but i like it. Will probably introduce more vegetarian products into our menu e g quorn as time goes by. Veggie sausages are good !. Would be interested to hear more about the electric car. I would also like to hear re solar and if possible wind energy installation. I live at the top of a hill and it is quite windy in my back garden.

 

[Zenith63]

If you can explain what your car needs, will see if there’s an electric that suits? How many cars do you have, distance travelled daily, frequency of longer trips, number of kids to transport, do you own your driveway etc.

 

[RETIRED2017]

If you can explain what your car needs, will see if there’s an electric that suits? How many cars do you have, distance travelled daily, frequency of longer trips, number of kids to transport, do you own your driveway etc.

I use my electric car to store energy from the panels I have my own drive way and car is home during the day .if i had not got the electric car, panels would never pay there way when everything is taken to account,

 

[Leo]

We can leave the car/ transport element to the Cars, cycling and transport forum, but unless you're sourcing clean electricity from sources such as PV panels like REITRED2017, then switching to an EV may not make as much of a difference as you think in terms of CO2.

Evacuated tubes heat water directly, photo voltaic (PV) panels generate electricity. The evacuated tubes can work well here as they'll even deliver some energy on overcast days. There are still doubts over whether PV solar panels can pay back the installation cost over their lifespan, especially without grid buy-back being in place where you can sell excess electricity to the grid.

Other potential changes you can make...

If you have gas or oil heating, if it's not already, get the system zoned so that you can use the boiler to heat water for showers. This will be much more efficient and far cheaper.

For a wind turbine, do you have a large garden? Turbines can be erected under exempted development so long as the total height from the ground to the blade tip doesn't exceed 13m and the distance from the base of the turbine to the closest boundary is at least its height plus 1m.

This won't be popular with a lot of people, but if you have dogs or cats, get rid of them. A medium sized dog has a carbon footprint similar to that of a small car.

If you water your garden, or wash your car, then harvesting rainwater makes a lot of sense. It's really cheap and eliminates the need for filtering and treating water to drinking standards just to pour it on plants, etc.. Rainwater is much better for your plants too as the chlorine in mains tap water inhibit growth.

 

[PaddyBloggit]

but if you have dogs or cats, get rid of them.

... bit harsh to do that.

All this talk of going green and saving energy/the planet is all for naught if the overall world picture isn't tackled... the multitude of cars on every road in the world, the plethora of planes spewing their exhaust fumes into the sky etc.

I'm all for green, but us individual plebs aren't going to save the planet on our own.

 

[rob oyle]

This won't be popular with a lot of people, but if you have dogs or cats, get rid of them. A medium sized dog has a carbon footprint similar to that of a small car.

I'm not sure of the relevance of this point either... other species have their own share of the carbon output on the planet, surely? Otherwise you'd be suggesting to kill all non-human animals?

Now if you were to suggest that we stop BREEDING such animals, that would make sense. There's over 100 billion land farmed animals worldwide and they directly generate a multiple of the GHG emissions of the 7.6 billion humans.

 

[Susie2017]

I am happy to move discussion on car elsewhere. I m genuinely interested in both solar and wind. My garden is not large maybe 25 - 30 feet long but is quite wide as I have a side entrance to a detached garage. I didnt realise it needs such a clearance around it. Is that in case it blows over ? We use gas for boiler and zoning is on my to do list as I have heard it is much cheaper and faster to use gas to heat immersion. I disagree that individuals cant change the progress of global warming. Everybody must take responsibility. If we do nothing our planet is doomed. It is the biggest threat we face and I am truly frightened by some of the predictions for temperatures in the not to distant future eg regular long heatwaves in the UK by 2040 where temperatures will exceed 35 degrees for months. If we do nothing then we are responsible.

 

[Leo]

... bit harsh to do that.

Yep, agreed and I can't see pet ownership being take on in my lifetime anyway.

I'm no massive green advocate myself, but you could argue that if all us plebs do nothing and wait for governments across the world to prioritise measures that won't see results until after their term or political career is over, then we're all doomed anyway.

 

[T McGibney]

The logic of equipping our homes with industrialised structures such as solar panels and backyard turbines in order to reduce so-called carbon footprints escapes me. Do people think these things are made of magic dust?

 

[Leo]

I'm not sure of the relevance of this point either... other species have their own share of the carbon output on the planet, surely? Otherwise you'd be suggesting to kill all non-human animals?

It's relevant to how the choices we all make affect overall carbon output.

Now if you were to suggest that we stop BREEDING such animals, that would make sense. There's over 100 billion land farmed animals worldwide and they directly generate a multiple of the GHG emissions of the 7.6 billion humans.

I've seen reports that the production of cat and dog food accounts for 25% of the total greenhouse gases produced by all animal agriculture. I was surprise it was so high, so added it for awareness purposes.

 

[Leo]

I didnt realise it needs such a clearance around it. Is that in case it blows over ?

Yes, that's it.

 

[PaddyBloggit]

I disagree that individuals cant change the progress of global warming. Everybody must take responsibility. If we do nothing our planet is doomed.

Without governments coming together to agree a plan, we're on a road to oblivion.

When I hear of green initititives from ther government, it's usually in the form of more taxes. Charge people more and they'll stop using them. Without affordable alternatives, that will never happen. I'd love to go green with the vehicles I'm driving but there's no green alternative to the jeep I use to pull a trailer. There's nothing strong enough out there.

We are doomed without global action and us plebs will have no significant impact on anything. We can do our little bit of lip service and that will make us feel good inside.

I'm no spring chicken, but neither am I ready to hang up my boots yet, but when I was growing up, most homes had one car (if any) in their driveways. Now it's 3 or 4 cars connected with each home.

My father remembers driving on a main route in Cork and meeting no other vehicle on the road and if he did he'd know one was coming by the reflection on the telephone line. And that was all of 50 years ago. The traffic on the road never stops now.

Where will we be in another 50 years?

Leadership has to come from the top down. Going green has to be seen as a good thing and not something that is continually attracting a tax.

If I could, I'd take public transport to work everyday, but where I live it's not available.

The local recycling centre used to be free to enter to dispose of compost waste etc. Now they charge an entry fee and that has had a negative impact on those who would have used the service but couldn't be bothered now.

Personally, I think it's too late (globally), climate change is happening and meaningful action to tackle it isn't.

When I think of the amount of fumes spewing out of engines today compared to a 100 years ago, I think of a smoker's lungs... eventually the lungs give up.

 

[Leo]

The logic of equipping our homes with industrialised structures such as solar panels and backyard turbines in order to reduce so-called carbon footprints escapes me. Do people think these things are made of magic dust?

The huge industry that has grown up around micro generation in response to government initiatives conveniently ignores that in their sales pitch. The government is happy as they're seen to be doing something, a good chunk of the grants comes back to them in taxes, more employment is created installing and maintaining these installations, and people are happy thinking they are doing their bit.

No one ever looks at the bigger picture and works out if the overall result is a net reduction or increase in emissions, or whether the money would be better spent on more efficient centralised schemes.

 

[T McGibney]

Personally, I think it's too late (globally), climate change is happening and meaningful action to tackle it isn't.

Climate change has, throughout history, always happened. The capacity of mankind "to tackle it" remains open to debate. And while I respect your viewpoint that fumes and other pollution from cars is harmful to the environment, the fact remains that these are far less toxic than they were a generation ago.

 

[huskerdu]

I agree with the last few posts.
I feel an obligation to reduce my carbon footprint but I very aware that its contribution to the net reduction in emissions is minicule.

Back to the OP.

Solar panels for hot water will not save you money. The cost of installation and maintenance will be more than the electricity saving.

The best way to reduce your heating / hot water bills is to use less.

With hybrid cars, I have never seen a comparison of the emissions vs petrol.

75% of all our electricity is created from fossil fuels and the generation and distribution of electiricity is not 100% efficient ( I have no data on the efficiency).

So, you should never forget that your hybrid car is burning fossil fuels - just at the electricity generating plant.

Again - the only real reduction you can make it to reduce your use of the car.

 

[T McGibney]

I've seen reports that the production of cat and dog food accounts for 25% of the total greenhouse gases produced by all animal agriculture. I was surprise it was so high, so added it for awareness purposes.

Sounds like fake news. Doesn't make sense on any level.

 

[PaddyBloggit]

the fact remains that these are far less toxic than they were a generation ago.

but... what I'm trying to say is that these emissions didn't exist a few generations ago. They exist now and they are contributing to an acceleration in climate change.

They may be less toxic now, but the sheer volume of cars, lorries, planes etc. that emit emissions is staggering.

The best way to reduce your heating / hot water bills is to use less.

and turn off the immersion switch. Years ago I was told it was more efficient to let it on rather than to turn it on when needed... the amount of money I'm saving on my ESB bill since I turned it off is staggering.

 

[T McGibney]

but... what I'm trying to say is that these emissions didn't exist a few generations ago. They exist now and they are contributing to an acceleration in climate change.

They may be less toxic now, but the sheer volume of cars, lorries, planes etc. that emit emissions is staggering.

Are you talking about carbon dioxide emissions or fumes from vehicles? Your earlier post specifically mentioned the latter.

Of course there were carbon emissions a few generations ago. And vehicles were generally dirty, disgusting and inefficient to a level that we wouldn't accept today.