© The Old Salopian

See the Pictures...

The panel above is a 30 Watt panel used to charge larger batteries including car batteries.

A smaller 5 Watt panel (bought quite cheaply on Ebay) charges smaller batteries such as AA and AAA cells.

As you can see, we are quite keen on renewable energy and ‘green’ options.

We installed the PV in 2005 2013. By 2009 it had generated 7700 units  and to date (September 2013) it has generated over  13,300 (kWh).

This first  set of PV panels has been joined by a 2nd installation bringing our total PV installed capacity to 3.53 kWh (peak).

We have also taken part in the trial  of the micro-CHP unit  known as a Whispergen micro-CHP. The two peaked at roughly opposite times in the year, which made them perfect partners. That came to an end this year when E.ON terminated the research programme. The plus side of that is that we are now in a position to install solar thermal (evacuated tubes).

These pictures show the Whispergen. It doesn’t look much but inside the box is a thing called a Stirling Cycle engine. This is linked to a small electrical generator, so whenever the unit runs to produce heat (hot water) it also produces electricity. The electricity which is thus produced is fed into our mains and is either used within our house or if we don’t need it, any surplus is automatically ‘exported’ out onto the national grid.

The meter you can see on the wall behind is an import export meter, so we can keep an eye on the electricity being produced (and the electricity it takes to run the unit too).

We charge up rechargeable batteries  from solar rather than mains power.