Solar panel

[DIDO.1 22,864]

We have a dormer bungalow and the upstairs bedrooms are freezing in winter and like an oven in winter. I'm trying to address it with insulation etc. One of the rooms isn't to bad because the chimney breast runs through it and that takes the edge off the cold in there. The other bedroom is the worst. Now I'm not over bothered because my son who sleeps in there is one sweaty kid. Honestly even in winter he just sleeps in boxer shorts, once he's in bed he's plenty warm enough. We have the logburner on downstairs, open all the doors and I reckon we will go through winter hardly needing the heating on..

.... I would just like some little heater in the colder bedroom to just take the edge off in the cold earlier in the day. I'm wondering if a small solar panel set up could be connected to a little storage type heater. When you Google it you get all sorts of calculations about how many panels it would take to run a heater along with the fact that it's not going to work if it isn't sunny. Now I understand all that but how does that actually work in practice. Has anyone actually tried it. I don't want to heat a room up to comfortable temps in the middle of winter....just stop the temp from hitting freezing cold before I get the logburner going in the late afternoon. 

I get it's not going to be really good at making heat in cloudy weather, but surely it would produce some, especially with a battery and some sort of storage heater.

Any actual experience of using solar as a heater that could say if it would be worth doing or not?

[byron 1,279]

Only good for telly and led lighting matey.will not run any heater.get a chinky diesal heater mate.

[chartpolski 28,487]

I've got oil filled radiators in my kennels.

Theres a setting that kicks in to keep the temp just above zero, I use that to stop the water freezing.

Cheers.

[Greyman 32,406]

56 minutes ago, DIDO.1 said:

We have a dormer bungalow and the upstairs bedrooms are freezing in winter and like an oven in winter. I'm trying to address it with insulation etc. One of the rooms isn't to bad because the chimney breast runs through it and that takes the edge off the cold in there. The other bedroom is the worst. Now I'm not over bothered because my son who sleeps in there is one sweaty kid. Honestly even in winter he just sleeps in boxer shorts, once he's in bed he's plenty warm enough. We have the logburner on downstairs, open all the doors and I reckon we will go through winter hardly needing the heating on..

.... I would just like some little heater in the colder bedroom to just take the edge off in the cold earlier in the day. I'm wondering if a small solar panel set up could be connected to a little storage type heater. When you Google it you get all sorts of calculations about how many panels it would take to run a heater along with the fact that it's not going to work if it isn't sunny. Now I understand all that but how does that actually work in practice. Has anyone actually tried it. I don't want to heat a room up to comfortable temps in the middle of winter....just stop the temp from hitting freezing cold before I get the logburner going in the late afternoon. 

I get it's not going to be really good at making heat in cloudy weather, but surely it would produce some, especially with a battery and some sort of storage heater.

Any actual experience of using solar as a heater that could say if it would be worth doing or not?

You will need an mppt controller a leisure battery or two and an invertor of around 2000/3000 watts, the more battery storage you have the bigger and longer you can run, it’s the invertor that takes your 12volt upto 240 so the bigger the draw the bigger an invertor you will need, it’s not as complex as all those mathematician types try to make it seem once you have your head round it, one of these into a large battery and an invertor will suffice your needs without going all techie

 

[Greyman 32,406]

19 minutes ago, byron said:

Only good for telly and led lighting matey.will not run any heater.get a chinky diesal heater mate.

Incorrect you can run an entire house if you have enough battery’s and a big enough invertor

[South hams hunter 8,996]

6 hours ago, DIDO.1 said:

We have a dormer bungalow and the upstairs bedrooms are freezing in winter and like an oven in winter. I'm trying to address it with insulation etc. One of the rooms isn't to bad because the chimney breast runs through it and that takes the edge off the cold in there. The other bedroom is the worst. Now I'm not over bothered because my son who sleeps in there is one sweaty kid. Honestly even in winter he just sleeps in boxer shorts, once he's in bed he's plenty warm enough. We have the logburner on downstairs, open all the doors and I reckon we will go through winter hardly needing the heating on..

.... I would just like some little heater in the colder bedroom to just take the edge off in the cold earlier in the day. I'm wondering if a small solar panel set up could be connected to a little storage type heater. When you Google it you get all sorts of calculations about how many panels it would take to run a heater along with the fact that it's not going to work if it isn't sunny. Now I understand all that but how does that actually work in practice. Has anyone actually tried it. I don't want to heat a room up to comfortable temps in the middle of winter....just stop the temp from hitting freezing cold before I get the logburner going in the late afternoon. 

I get it's not going to be really good at making heat in cloudy weather, but surely it would produce some, especially with a battery and some sort of storage heater.

Any actual experience of using solar as a heater that could say if it would be worth doing or not?

It doesn't have to be sunny; just daylight. A panel or 2 to an invertor would probably power a fan heater during the whole daylight period without a battery. Which ever option you chose just try and find the lowest watt available 

5 hours ago, Greyman said:

Incorrect you can run an entire house if you have enough battery’s and a big enough invertor

We don't have any batteries; was only talking to my mate about this about an hour ago; we used £25 electric since the 14th so a few batteries would probably be all we needed 

[Greyman 32,406]

I got 440 ah of battery not got my solar set up yet but I can run the fridge,freezer,tv,water pumps, lights and a couple of apple chargers for about 12 hrs before I need to run the engine for an hour to top them up

[Francie 6,368]

1 hour ago, South hams hunter said:

It doesn't have to be sunny; just daylight. A panel or 2 to an invertor would probably power a fan heater during the whole daylight period without a battery. Which ever option you chose just try and find the lowest watt available 

We don't have any batteries; was only talking to my mate about this about an hour ago; we used £25 electric since the 14th so a few batteries would probably be all we needed 

 

1 minute ago, Greyman said:

I got 440 ah of battery not got my solar set up yet but I can run the fridge,freezer,tv,water pumps, lights and a couple of apple chargers for about 12 hrs before I need to run the engine for an hour to top them up

What size of panels are they lads?

[Greyman 32,406]

8 minutes ago, Francie said:

 

What size of panels are they lads?

I haven’t got panels on yet everything else in place I,m looking at about 4 x 100 amp panels to start with  then add more if that’s not enough further down the road, should definitely be plenty in summer, plus when I’m in my birth I’m hooked up to the mains anyway  

[Francie 6,368]

1 hour ago, Greyman said:

I haven’t got panels on yet everything else in place I,m looking at about 4 x 100 amp panels to start with  then add more if that’s not enough further down the road, should definitely be plenty in summer, plus when I’m in my birth I’m hooked up to the mains anyway  

Goodman grey

[South hams hunter 8,996]

6 hours ago, Francie said:

 

What size of panels are they lads?

No idea mate. Already on the house 

[mC HULL 16,383]

13 hours ago, Greyman said:

Incorrect you can run an entire house if you have enough battery’s and a big enough invertor

but battery’s go dead 

[tillylamp 1,940]

8 hours ago, Greyman said:

I haven’t got panels on yet everything else in place I,m looking at about 4 x 100 amp panels to start with  then add more if that’s not enough further down the road, should definitely be plenty in summer, plus when I’m in my birth I’m hooked up to the mains anyway  

what about if you hooked all that up to an heavy voltage alternator turning in the wind....it would still be charging at night time {if windy) to give you longer and constant power most of the time....plus you wouldn't be running your engine that often..... 

[Greyman 32,406]

9 hours ago, tillylamp said:

what about if you hooked all that up to an heavy voltage alternator turning in the wind....it would still be charging at night time {if windy) to give you longer and constant power most of the time....plus you wouldn't be running your engine that often..... 

Wind turbines and boats are a bit of a no go due to the amount of noise and vibration you get through the boat, the panels should charge the battery’s enough during the daylight hours to run you through the night especially as you are asleep for a lot of it so apart from the fridge and freezer there is minimum draw  

[Greyman 32,406]

11 hours ago, mC HULL said:

but battery’s go dead 

If you want to run a house on solar and a Tesla battery it will be connected to the mains so the battery will charge at night when electric is cheap if it doesn’t get enough sun but a fully charged Tesla battery will run a house for upto a week so it would still be a lot cheaper, there are loads of vids on the tube, old traction battery’s from forklifts etc are also excellent for running on solar, the gov don’t want you to be self sufficient mate so make it seem a lot harder than it is every new house should have solar and a battery bank but that would take people into self sufficiency which is the opposite to what they want