Exciting day on Wednesday. Bobbie and I went up to Earl’s Court for the Ecobuild exhibition. I’ve been sizing up the solar panels and had come down in favour of Solar Twin.
The reason is that their system includes a PV cell which generates the electricity you need to run the pump, so the system is completely self contained. They are also a UK company and the system is designed to work with UK weather. It helped that they also offered a big discount at the show for the DIY installation! So, I placed the order.
It was great having the exhibition to look around and see working examples of all the stuff I have been staring at on websites. PV cells were the other thing I wanted more information on. There are so many out there and I didn’t know how to start looking.
We saw all shapes and sizes from panels that fit on to the roof through to those designed to fit into the tiling. There were some that were designed to look like slate tiles, you had trouble telling them apart. Ideal if you need to get around conservation restrictions. However, the larger panels will probably be the right way for us. We are going to need an area for our cars which is under cover. Bobbie had the brainwave of using this roof space for the PV cells.
They need a roof slant of 15 to 30 degrees so we will need to bear this in mind when we come to design the roof. That’s on hold for the time being. I need to work out whether I want a 1KW, 2KW or 3KW system. This is based, obviously, on the amout of energy we actually need.
We also looked at options on rainwater harvesting. I’m looking forward to digging out a pit to put one of those huge storage tanks underground. First, I need to find out how much water we are likely to be able to store based on roof size. All good fun.
There was loads to see at the show, so it was well worth a visit. Some of the stands were aimed at the commercial and public sector but many were happy to chat about sustainability.
One stand looked beautifully lit and it turned out that they were promoting LED lighting. The light they generated was so different from all the others, it felt much more natural, I really liked it.
The stand Bobbie and I really loved was about wood. Wood framed buildings. They are so scrummy. I really must get around to designing my garden shed…
[...] Excerpt from: EcoBuild [...]