Number 6

Dear all

We are looking at rural villas in the Valencia region and many have solar power for electricity and water heading. Living in 'grey England', I'd appreciate hearing your experiences and thoughts on how effective solar power is in Spain. For example:

Is there a room to panel/battery ratio solar power - should there be a certain number of panels and batteries dependant on the size of the house/number of rooms?

Although most properties have a back up generator, are solar panels effective all year round including winter?

Are there restrictions on how many lights, appliances, aircon etc. that can be run at the same time via solar before things run out?

Are there certain kinds of panels which are better than other types?

Any other advice appreciated.

Many thanks

Dxf

Hola
The amount of electricity consumed is what matters; the more people the more power needed so the more panels to generate electricity.

Solar panels are effective all year round; there’s more daylight in summer than winter and also you can have a rainy day or two so you need a back-up generator

What you have running depends on the batteries and the inverter – you will need a larger inverter if you want to run something that uses a lot of electricity.

For everything else you need to talk to someone about specific circumstances

Davexf

Number 6

Thanks Dave - that's really helpful.

What would constitute a 'large' inverter and sufficient batteries/panels for a 4 - 5 bed property?

Dxf

Hola

I'm no expert but you need to add up all the appliances that you are likely to use at any one time. Then you need to add spare capacity - not forgetting pool and well pumps and the like
Davexf

VFR

But a place that is on the mains (IMO)

Failing that YouTube is awash with info about solar.

FranE

To give you an idea of living with only solar electricity: We have a small 2 bed campo cottage and only solar power for electricity. We use bottled gas for the water heater, fridge/freezer and cooker. We have a log burner for space heating in the winter.


As Dxf says, it depends not so much on the size of the house (although that plays a part obviously, but on the appliances you want to use, and how much you use them. We use it for lights, tv, satellite box, hairdryer, washing machine (cold wash only), iron, kettle, toaster, vacuum cleaner, lap top computer, electric toothbrush and phone chargers. And my husband's "sleep mask" overnight for his sleep apnoeia.


We have 6 panels and 24 batteries. It was calculated on the appliances we use, the amount of time during the day when we would use them, plus some "spare". It's also a balance between panels and battery storage. No use have masses of panels if you don't have the battery capacity to store the power they generate, and vice versa. My husband worked it all out but the installers agreed he had it about right. Installers can estimate panels/batteries for you but I suspect they might be tempted to over-estimate as they do sell the stuff after all!


Max use at any one time is 3kw, so you have to get used to the wattage of everything. The lights and eg phone chargers use very little. A 2kw kettle and 1kw hairdryer at same time is OK, but I can't use the kettle and toaster at the same time, and when washing machine is on "spin" I make it a rule not to use anything else until it stops.


We were advised not to let the batteries go down to below 80% capacity, as if they are regularly run down to less than that it shortens their life considerably, and the batteries are (individually) the most expensive part. We have a meter in the house showing the current capacity of the batteries, and except in clear sky/sun conditions I check it regularly throughout the day.


In the summer with clear blue skies, the batteries are at 100% by 9 or 10 am, and if the sun shines all day, they're still at 100% until evening, because the power we use is all coming straight from the panels and not depleting the batteries at all (although we're still limited to 3kw at any one time). By bed time they might still be at 90% or even more.


Different story in the winter! The sun is lower and doesn't hit the panels until late morning, then goes down behind the trees by 3pm. So we're always watching the charge rate (we need to keep 2% in reserve for his sleep mask). If it's cloudy the batteries barely re-charge at all during the day. I don't use the electric kettle or toaster in the winter, I use the gas cooker instead. After 3 days of cloud and frugal use (including no tv, read instead!) we might have to resort to the generator to charge up the batteries if we want to watch the tv. So far we've not had to suffer more than 3 days of zero charge. If we wanted to improve on our system we'd need more batteries so that we had more power in reserve for a longer run of cloudy days.


It depends on what appliances you want to use, and your lifestyle. We don't mind this sort of existence, in fact we love it. It's all perfectly manageable if you can be bothered, and are prepared to think about the wattage of your appliances and organise your electricity useage.


The saddest thing is that when we get a day of sun after a couple of days of cloud, hubby says "Let's go for a walk!" and I say "No I'm going to get some washing in the machine!"

Dxf

Hola

Absolutely brilliant post - Karma given

Davexf