Have you installed or considered installing solar PV panels? Need help with a project

[FHerman]

Today, 12:37 PM Hello all,

I am a third year student at the University of East Anglia researching the decision process behind why people choose to install or not install solar photovoltaic (PV) panels on their homes in the UK for my dissertation. Also to save any confusion the survey focuses on solar photovoltaic (PV) panels which produce electricity not solar thermal, that heat water.

If you have ever considered installing, are going to install or have installed solar PV panels on your home and live in the UK, please could you take 5 minutes to complete the linked survey below. Any responses would be greatly appreciated to assist in my third year project. This survey is intended for UK resident only, sorry if you are not in the UK but thank you for your interest.

Survey link:

If you also know of anyone else who has decided to install or not install solar PV panels could you please share this survey with them as this would be a great help.

Thank you very much for your time,

F Herman

[Robin]

I think you might get a better response if you post using your uea.ac.uk email address and giving a direct link to your survey (as you did elsewhere) rather than via diybanter and with a tinyurl.

OTOH it was good to see that

included a contact on the UEA staff who can presumably verify that you are not collecting "leads" for yet another batch of cold callers selling PV panels ;)

[Tim Watts]

On Friday 18 October 2013 14:00 FHerman wrote in uk.d-i-y:

Hi,

Better survey than most of the stuff posted here by random students - and your post is well written, informative and courteous. You sir are already in the top 10% of people in your class :)

However, there seems to me, to be a problem with one question:

"Self sufficient energy production Not relying on the national grid for your electricity"

Current PV setups require the grid supply to be present to function (non islanding operation) so you inherently (with off the shelf PV panel setups that *most* pepole would install) cannot be non reliant on the Grid.

If I find any more, I'll post here.

If you are reading this and respond, please promote yourself to the top 1% of the class of people who post surveys to USENET ;->

All the best,

Tim Watts

[Jeremy Nicoll - news posts]

Hmmm, "F" is "Freya", which suggests to me that you've made an incorrect assumption, but then again, maybe I have.

Yes; I (and no doubt others here) made the same point in my survey reply.

[Tim Watts]

On Friday 18 October 2013 16:09 Jeremy Nicoll - news posts wrote in uk.d-i- y:

Where did it say Freya?

If so, I apologise - feel free to handbag me ;->

[Jim K]

Er...

Further to this survey, the lead researcher (Freya Herman) is conducting in depth interviews on this subject. If you are interested in taking part in these interviews, there is the opportunity to leave your email address at the.........snip

And/or last week's "test run" where we weedled out some bugs too...

Jim K

[Jim K]

Er...

Further to this survey, the lead researcher (Freya Herman) is conducting in depth interviews on this subject. If you are interested in taking part in these interviews, there is the opportunity to leave your email address at the.........snip

And/or last week's "test run" where we weedled out some bugs too...

Jim K

[FHerman]

Thank you all for taking an interest in my project, the positive feedback on a whole is great to hear.

Robin thank you for your feedback, as far as I was aware when posting I was putting the proper url link and not a tinyurl link as I have been on other sites. Also I wasn't aware I could post directly with my uea.ac.uk. so I made account with the site to post. The full url link is what is still shown to me in my post so I guess it has been changed when posting. Internet forums and how to use them is something I am learning a lot about through this project and I guess I still have a bit to go :)

Tim Watts and Jeremy Nicoll thank you for your time and interest in my project. I agree there are some problems around that question that have been highlighted a bit from the results, but at large it has been fine. I do understand that a grid connection is still needed for conventional PV installation. My reasoning for putting that question in there was to get an indication of how people feel about producing their own electricity separate from the grid, not necessarily if they were off grid or not. Also through my research I did pick up on people undertaking projects aiming to be 'grid free' and/or produce enough for their use, as well as small off grid communities in areas of Wales and Scotland. I know this doesn't cover the problems completely but I hope it helps. In hindsight I could have been clearer with my question, and this will be something I address in my final report if needed.

Thank you all again for all your time and feedback, it really is appreciated.

Also thank you to everyone who has taken the time to complete my survey so far, every response is a huge help.

[dennis]

AIUI most people would want the fit payments so would need a grid tie system. I don't think standalone systems qualify.

You can install an additional inverter/charger and some batteries to cover the impending power cuts if you have a few grand to spare.

[Tim Watts]

On Friday 18 October 2013 18:06 Jim K wrote in uk.d-i-y:

I didn't read any of that except "taking part" and "email" :)

[Tim Watts]

On Friday 18 October 2013 18:20 FHerman wrote in uk.d-i-y:

Fair enough :-|

Hope it goes well!

[Dave Liquorice]

You are welcome and thank you for following up.

I've completed it as a "no" person and there is a page of questions about 3/4 through that are rather difficult to answer as they are more related to those that have or are going to install a PV system. I had to go back several pages to make sure I had said "no"...

And the question about other installed renewable energy sources uses radio buttons so you can't select say Solar Thermal and Wood Chip Boiler.

[Robin]

Thanks. I didn't know DIYBanter mucked about with posts that much.

Take care - there are folk here who could spend a long time telling you about the wonders of bulletin boards, NNTP, Usenet etc!