howden40

Does anyone have solar heating. We are having extensive alterations made to our home and am seriously considering solar panels for heating and water. Has anyone else installed solar panels

Dave n Ann

Good thread,
I imagine in the long term it would pay for it'sself, probably a good few years tho!

Are you thinking of getting a small (roof mountable) wind turbine (24 hrs)to compliment the energy storage part of the system?

I herd that you neighborhood flooded a while ago, considered a water turbine

Good luck, hope someone with firsthand experience replies, is it because they are only harvesting 1kw and can't run their laptops enough to logon and reply

PS. If in doubt, would it be worth having the roof built to be strong enough, and channelling for wiring etc fitted whilst you gather more research?

howden40

[QUOTE=Dave n Ann;6443913]Good thread,

I herd that you neighborhood flooded a while ago, considered a water turbine

Some people just love to be the bearer of good news

We are fortunate (I hope), the drainage system put in place a few years back included our section. We have no evidence of any water damage on the ground floor, and as an ex rental I don't think too much would have been done to a laundry room.

Keep on smiling
Pauline

teambwr47

I now work for Ricoh NZ and we had a pr thing the other day where we fitted an exercise bike to a small generator/inverter/storage unit and had it powering one of our MFD units and a laptop.

During the day all sorts of celebs came in to our office to be pictured creating some energy on it and have their pic taken which was then printed out on the unit it was powering.

I had no idea who the so called 'celebs' were but the girls in the office did.

We had Shane Cortese? Candy Lane, Frank Bunce and loads of others there during the day.

Back to the thread...... maybe getting such a unit in every home could help not only the power crisis but also help the wives lose a few pounds......

howden40

You do realise you are asking for trouble with this comment
and of course husbands are never overweight.

Enjoy life - if you can after this comment
Pauline

Am Loolah

Hi Pauline,

We were looking in to this option, but then got distracted and did no more about it! Solar 60 are meant to be very good, we've seen them around quite a bit and Phil part of "Family Maidment" (no longer on here very often) works for them. I could get you their email address if you wanted to ask Phil?

CAN2NZ

Hi, we built a new house and have had a two panel solar system put in for water heating. We moved in on 7 March 2008. I have been comparing our usage of electricity here in the new house to the old house. It is difficult to make a direct comparison as the new house has two heatpumps, bathroom heaters and we have used the dryer more on account of the weather. Also, we have had less sunshine hours than average in the first two months since moving. With all that preamble I can tell you we are using just under 19% less electricity so far this year. I expect that we will save about $500 per year on the electricity and a similar amount on wood, so total savings from the more modern home is about $1000 per year, but we are so comfortabel by comparison.


There are also geothermal options for home heating and home water heating also that you may find are more consistent than solar.

Swift wind turbines installed in the UK cost about 4,000 pounds and are being trialed by Vector in Wellington. I don't know how that is going or if they are going to be available here.

howden40

Thank you, what company did you use and if it's not too personal what did it cost to install - have no idea of cost.

thanks Pauline

CAN2NZ

The system we have came from http://www.solartech.co.nz/Files/home.html

I don't know how much it was installed as it was included in the house price.

The important thing is you need at least a 30 degree pitch roof with 3 hours of sun eithe side of noon.

I notice the our electricity cost per unit is up 11% since last year, but we are paying less as we are using nearly 19% less. I look forward to our next bill as we will have nearly three months worth of data.

j19fmm

[QUOTE=teambwr47;6445939]I had no idea who the so called 'celebs' were but the girls in the office did.
We had ....... Frank Bunce and loads of others there during the day.
QUOTE]

WHAT?? You don't know who he is? All Black? Rugby?New Zealand? Got it yet?
He's a friend of my cousins, plays for same team now and he signed one of his rugby shirts for my Christmas pressie.....spoilt I am.

howden40

[QUOTE=CAN2NZ;6446660]The system we have came from http://www.solartech.co.nz/Files/home.html



The important thing is you need at least a 30 degree pitch roof with 3 hours of sun eithe side of noon.

Visually the roof looks to be over 30 degree's, I have a fairly good eye for this type of thing, we have nothing blocking the sun. It rises on the right side of the roof and sets on the left side so we definitely meet the sun criteria, it's on either side all day and both sides when high.

Looks a great possibility now, gonna go for it.
Thank you
Pauline

howden40

j19fmm

I have been following your story on STEP CHILDREN and wish you the best of luck, keep your chin up, thinking of you.

Pauline

Kiwiprincess

Shane Cortese- actor. Also was on first series (i think came second to Norm Hewett) of Dancing with the Stars where his claim to fame was that he met and later married his dance partner (as opposed to Brendan Cole who denied he did anything with Skanky Kaplinski). Was on shortland street and Outrageous Fortune.

Candy Lane and the Candy Lane Dancers. I know a dancey person who had heard of her. Apart from that, also Dancing with the Stars.

Frank Bunce. Known for being one of the All Blacks who besides being brilliant on the field had a rather haphazard attitude to life off the field. I think he avoided getting food poisoned (from memory) at the Rugby World Cup in South Africa because he had filled up on McDonalds and didn't actually eat much at the hotel. Apparently rather difficult in his younger days to get him to commit to being on time for *anything* and the reason quite a few TV stations wouldn't employ him in the past for commentary positions. Ok, the random things I know. Apparently he has changed though!!!