At the moment, I am surrounded by workmen who are putting a huge array of solar panels on the roof. When they are connected up, they will be generating up to four kilowatts of electricty while it is light. Can't wait for it to be finished!

Very interesting. They want us to put them on our roof in the UK, but you have to pay out out a small fortune to have them installed. Alright if you are young and live in the house for 25 years. Love the sound of your sceme. enjoy it and waaauw no bills, they will get bigger and bigger for all of us

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by edithfarminer 31 Aug 2011

I see you are in the UK. Will send you a PM

by spendlove 31 Aug 2011

If you buy them, they should pay back in 10 years or less.

That is so incredibly awesome. I want to move to a sunny location so bad!! And being off the grid would be a huge bonus. Right now I live in the forest, where we get no sunlight. It is pretty, but after a while it gets kinda depressing. My husband swears he is going to live out his days in this house, and I want to move. Hmmm, I wonder who will get their way. Maybe both of us. :) Just kidding. My son is really in to solar power, and has been designing a house that is completely resource independent. That is so excellent that you can lease your roof. That is a new one to me. If you post pictures, you can use tinyURL.com and share privately instead of granting public access. Then just post the link here and only cuties will know about it. Just a thought...

This is so cool. I could have used that this weekend when the power was out. Enjoy

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by spendlove 31 Aug 2011

Unfortunately the system shuts down if we have a power cut. Don't want to electrocute the men working on the power line!

I hope you have lots of sun, to generate the power to keep your machine happy ...Hugs Sally

yep, we did this last week. DH likes to look at the remote thing, it's like a new toy, watching the power go in and calculating how many $$$$ he's saved!!

You'll be glad you did this!! We built our house 33 years ago and had 3 solar water heating panels installed then. It seemed expensive then but it paid for itself in just a few years. We haven't paid for hot water - always available - for many years.... and we had a house full of children for about twenty years.

Now we have 10 solar power panels as well that feed power back into the grid and we get 52c/Kwatt. We're not making a profit here but our power costs are very low and we can keep warm in winter.

It's the way to go and I believe that all houses and commercial buildings should be harnessing solar energy. You don't need much sun to generate power and even in winter on the dullest of days the panels are working, albeit slowly but surely.

AlmaG.

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by spendlove 31 Aug 2011

I agree wholeheartedly!

How wonderful the lower electric bills will be!! Lots of extra money to buy designs, stablizers and threads!!!!! Hugs, Mary

That is a wonderful trade off to let someone use your roof and they take care of the panels and you get free electricity.

not long had our solar panels install and got our first bill and approx 1/4 deducted and they had not be producing power for a full bill cant wait to see it next time....soozie

How super.

Like the idea and free is even better. I've seen a couple of shows on tv about a house done with the solar panels, but that was a while ago.
Enjoy the cheaper electic bills!

Would wish for that at our small farm. I'm so tired of being "connected" and "on the grid" as they say. Good luck.

We had 10 solar panels installed on our roof, but the power generated goes to the Grid and we are paid 60 cents per kilowatt generated. So far we are generating more electricity than we are using so we are making a small profit, a big improvement on our previous $800 plus quarterly bills.
It sure feels good!!!

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by spendlove 30 Aug 2011

Doesn't it just?!

by killiecrankie 31 Aug 2011

What were you running that used all that power? Our last bill was about $235 & that was the winter bill .We use about 14kw per day for the rest of the year.
No panels here ,we were worried that they might cause roof problems because of previous roof troubles

by meganne 31 Aug 2011

This was Ray's house at Penrith, the off peak HWS gave out and we replaced it with a new Heat pump type hot water system and our bill sky-rocketed. Also our heating and cooling was done by two air-conditioners. Just outrageous!

Wow! Good for you! Good luck with it!

This sounds like a great idea. Wish I could rent my roof. Enjoy the humming happy machines.

Wow -- that's wonderful! It would cost us a small fortunate to have it here, where electricity has been relatively inexpensive in the past, but has risen in cost.

I am thinking of doing whole house set up, my other half just wants the portable backup. I think this policy may come over the pond and I will do the same. Thanks for the info and congrats on a good for all (including then planet)situation!

Excellent, I am looking forward to getting solar in our next house.

Good for you Sue. Wish we could afford to have the same, especially with all the sunshine we have here in SA. Sarah.

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by spendlove 30 Aug 2011

It actually isn't costing us anything! We have leased our roof to a company who will install and look after the panels. They get the government grant and the money for the electricity which goes into the National Grid and we can use as much of the elctricity as we can whilst it is being generated.

by mysew1325 30 Aug 2011

wow that is great.. I love free and no cost..

Brilliant Sue, this is something we thought about when we built our house. Look forward to a reduced electricity bill. Hope the chaos ends soon as I am sure it is chaotic getting it set up

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by spendlove 30 Aug 2011

Up and running now!