Find a Solar Panel Installer you can trust in Northumberland.

Solar thermal panels are panels that can be used to heat your hot water. The collectors, which are either evacuated tube panels or flat plate collectors, harness heat from the sun and transfer it to a heat transfer liquid that heats up water that is stored in a hot water cylinder. You can use a boiler or immersion heater as a back-up in the winter or to heat the water up further to reach the right temperature.

Evacuated tube panels involve a bank of glass tubes mounted on the roof tiles, and while they’re usually more expensive, they’re more efficient than flat plate collectors. They’re exactly what they sound like – flat panels that can be fixed onto your roof tiles or integrated into the roof.

Having a solar thermal system will reduce your energy bills since heat from the sun is free, so you won’t have to rely on your traditional heating as much. You’ll also be doing your bit for the environment – if you have a natural gas heating system, you could save up to 295kg of CO2 every year.

Another benefit to solar thermal panels is that you might be eligible for payments through the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), which is a Government scheme to encourage people to take up renewable heating technologies. As long as you have your system installed by an MCS-registered installer and you meet a few other requirements, you could receive payments of up to £525 per year for seven years. And since the average solar thermal panel system costs £5,500, you could pay off over half of your system just with these payments. That’s not even considering that you could save up to £60 a year on your energy bills if you have a gas system.

The lifetime of a solar panel depends on its quality and age. Generally, the older a solar panel gets, the less efficient it becomes. The majority of modern solar panels come with 20-30 year warranties, which means that they’ll stay at a good efficiency level for at least this long. Some panels can stay efficient for as long as 40 years, while others won’t last this long.

You shouldn’t need to maintain your solar panels much at all as long as there’s nothing piled up on top of the panels that could block out the sun. They are installed at an angle, so when it rains the water runs off them and gives them a clean. However, if this doesn’t quite cut it, you can spray them with a hose a few times a year.

Solar cells , also referred to as photovoltaic cells (PV), absorbs energy from the sun and converts it to generate electricity. This, however, should not be confused with photovoltaic thermal cells or PVT which operates to generate heat for water in homes. Solar cells are linked electrically and also carefully organized into a large frame which is popularly called solar panels. Generally, solar cells are produced or made of silicon semi conductors which works to absorb sunlight and then turn it into electricity for use at a home. A solar panel comprises of either 60 or 72 solar cells which are electrically interconnected in series and parallel and also positioned in between glass and plastic which is then framed.

At present, solar panels incorporated for residential or domestic purposes only possesses the capacity to make use of only about 20 percent of the sunlight they’re able to absorb and convert it to electricity - also called solar efficiency. Available in the market are also a wide range of solar cell available for both industrial and commercial purposes. This type of solar panels have an efficiency rating of about 40 percent which will also automatically make them more costly than the domestic types.

One great thing about the solar industry is the fact that it keeps improving in such a way that raises both its efficiency as well as overall quality. And with further research and development, this is expected to even increase as the years go by. What’s more? As these aspects keep rising, it’s also expected that the solar panels price should be on a decrease. That way, they’ll become available to a wider range of individuals who’ll also like to save money on electricity bills and go greener.

There are a wide range of benefits you stand to derive by installing solar panels for your business operations. Not only can it help you save money,  but it can also go a long way to help reduce your business’ environmental footprint. Regardless of whether your company is big or small, it can still benefit immensely by making use of solar panels. If you’re considering the installation of solar panels in your business environment, then you probably want to know just how much it’ll cost to complete the project. In order to help you make the most informed purchase decision, we’ve created this post to give you a good insight into commercial solar panel pricing. Let’s take a look!

Generally, the cost of commercial solar panels is within the range of £16000 to £70000 for small to mid-sized companies. However, there are a number of factors that can influence the cost of commercial solar panels which includes the size of the roof, the amount of energy that’s generated as well as the number incorporated. There is a need to evaluate the cost of solar panels so as to determine whether or not they’re a feasible option for your business. In order to determine the amount of energy your company uses per month, simply take a closer look at your utility bill.  This should indicate just how much energy you use per month as well as how much the utility company charges per kW. In general, most small to medium sized companies will incorporate 30,000 to 50,000 kWh annually and you can expect the cost to differ based on your location and the size of your system. The rule of thumb with larger systems is to calculate using £1000 per kW, plus VAT as the yardstick.

If you’re thinking about installing a solar system in your home or property, this is probably one of the things you’d like to know before making a purchase decision. Well, you’ve come to the right place! In this post, we’re going to give you a good insight into this to help you make the best informed decision possible moving forward. Let’s take a look!

First and foremost, it must be stated that providing a short and accurate answer to this question is nearly impossible as the amount of time a solar panel will last after dark is influenced by a number of factors. These factors include the size of your solar system, the battery size as well as your power usage. As you would have imagined, batteries are charged when there is excess energy that’s being produced by your solar system but it’s not being incorporated to power your home or property. More often than not, this occurs during the sunlight’s peak periods from about 10am to 2pm.

The time it’ll take for your battery to charge is influenced by the size of your solar system in Kilowatts, the size of your battery as well as the rate in which your system is being used. Your battery can be charged in a day or two, of course unless it’s an over-sized battery for your system.

When the sun sets and your solar panels can no longer directly run your appliances via electricity generation, the battery then kicks in. You will use about 1 to 2 kW’s of power if you’re watching TV, using the oven as well as lights internet etc. in other words, even a small solar panel battery will last all night. However, the same doesn’t apply if you’re having a party with running floodlights, three fridges and air conditioner as the battery will drain a lot faster.

Most people want to connect solar panels to a battery when they’re not at home all day to use the electricity they generate, or generate more than they consume over a day. Solar batteries are a great way to maximise the savings on your energy bills since you can use every unit of electricity you generate.

If you want to connect your solar panels to a battery, the best – and safest – way is to ask an MCS-registered company to do it for you. They’ve had lots of training and hold qualifications in handling electricity and installing solar batteries, so they will be able to recommend the best battery for your solar panels and for the among of electricity you use. Some of the brands they might recommend include Tesla, SolarEdge and SolaX, but there are many more to choose from. If you want to send electricity to the grid from your battery to receive Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) payments, it’s also worth leaving installation up to a registered installer. This is because you might not be eligible for payments if your battery wasn’t installed by an MCS-registered company.

However, if you do want to have a go at connecting your solar panels to a battery, it’s worth finding out whether your system is ‘storage ready’. Most relatively new systems will be, since batteries are becoming more commonplace. If your solar panels are storage ready, they will have an inverter that can easily have a battery added to it. If this is the case, then you should be able to buy the solar battery you want and follow the manufacturer's instructions to install it.

But it’s worth remembering that electricity is extremely dangerous when handled improperly. If you don’t get the solar battery connected properly and something goes wrong, it could cause a fire or you could electrocute yourself. If a fire breaks out due to your battery, it’s unlikely that your home insurance company would pay out since you connected the battery yourself. That’s why it’s always worth speaking to a registered installer to install a solar battery storage system for you.

Solar panels are made up of photovoltaic (PV) cells. These cells are made from silicon semiconductors, which absorb sunlight and convert it into electricity.

There are three main types of PV cell: monocrystalline solar cells, polycrystalline solar cells, and thin film solar cells. Monocrystalline cells are usually the most efficient and expensive, and thin film solar cells are the cheapest and least efficient. These are all made from silicone, but are manufactured in different ways.