Solar Panels are great, but........

Discussion on living for a better and more responsible future
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Richard
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Solar Panels are great, but........

Post by Richard »

My goodness they can be ugly !

There's the same on another two parts of the roof as well !

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kitla
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Re: Solar Panels are great, but........

Post by kitla »

I agree! horrible to look at. I am hoping that soon, with advanced tech in solar energy, these sort of panels will be replaced with tiny ones, or some of the other very clever stuff that's being developed, like solar glass (imagine a whole office building powering itself).
I hate seeing the massive expanses of land covered in ugly solar panels - better than a power station I know but hopefully one day we'll look back on these panels as really old fashioned tech, like the giant computers we used to have!
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wildlifemad
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Re: Solar Panels are great, but........

Post by wildlifemad »

I agree they are ugly but serve a good purpose & also hate to see swathes of them in the fields. I thought when they first came up with the idea of them going into the fields they were only going to get planning if the land was no use for growing? We live on the edge of the Vale of Evesham (Asparagus county) & have loads in the fields around here.
With the ones folks have on their roofs I have read before that the surveys aren't always carried out well & there could be too much weight on them for proper support & also that it may invalidate your house insurance if you fail to tell them.
As Kitla says, as we go forward hopefully a "smarter" solution can be found & when it is they should include them in all new builds
Gwenoakes
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Re: Solar Panels are great, but........

Post by Gwenoakes »

S bit late to be joining this topic but here is my two penny worth.
Solar panels in our opinion as roofers should only be put on new builds because quite often we have been called to repair roofs with these on and the owners have had to get the people out to remove them before we can do that. That is not cost effective by any means and anything they have gained saving on electricity is spent on paying someone to remove.
Also there are a lot of companies out there that sell them, but do not look at the roof to see if it can take the weight, or if the roof is old how repairs/re-roofing will be achieved. All they seem to care about is selling them. These panels put on older roofs are an accident waiting to happen in our opinion.
Ironically if you want to change roof tiles/slates in some counties you have to fix extra rafter supports to allow for the extra load the roof will have to carry. Somehow no one seems to be allowing for this with these panels.
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saint-spoon
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Re: Solar Panels are great, but........

Post by saint-spoon »

I believe that Teslar have come up with a roof tile which is in itself a solar panel, cheaper to produce than conventional panels and less ugly.

I have 80w solar panels for my caravan, great bit of kit, they keep the leisure battery topped up a treat.
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Spreckly
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Re: Solar Panels are great, but........

Post by Spreckly »

We have a small solar panel for our caravan, like Spoonie, just to top the battery up, after one back end being plunged into darkness. Amazing how difficult it is to locate a torch and candles in the dark on a pitch black camping field.
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