Solar power wiki

[Tim+]

Simpler still, just drive after dark. ;-)

Tim

[Theo]

Here you go:

Payback time about 3.6 years at current rates.

Anyone want to critique my numbers?

Theo

[Animal]

Some questions: How many kWh per day does your car use? How many days per year will this system provide that if the car is there all the time? As your system has no battery, how much time is the car not there, and how much power do you thus get to harvest? What percentage of what the system can produce will your car actually use? How much will the full buckets weigh? Is the roof upto it? If not, what willl it cost to reinforce it?

[wrights...]

Yes but that would mean shovelling all the empty food wrappers, dog leads, free newspapers, empty plastic bottles, forgotten garments, phone chargers, bad novels, single gloves, muddy footwear, Chinese takeaway menus, apple cores, windscreen scrapers, de-icer aerosols, bags for life, etc, from one car to the other. Maybe a cassette system would work, where the floor of the car could be automatically moved. Bill

[Robin]

A small point on costs. Planning permission is not required for most PV systems. But a flat roof means you can't usually manage sensibly the permitted development tests of "not above the highest part of the roof" and "project no more than 200mm from the roof". Costs about £200.

[Theo]

Well, this is an illustration. So it depends what you choose to use the power for. Most of the time the system will be generating in the region of

300-400W, with a peak of 640W in midsummer. That's enough to wipe out most people's baseload and contribute to running appliances, rather generate significant charge for their car.

How many kWh a car uses depends on how much you drive, so that will be a personal calculation.

That depends on the wind loading. I haven't done the loading calcs for the example location yet, but roughly a couple of bags of sand (~50kg) per bucket. If the roof can take somebody walking on it then it's probably OK, but you'd need to do your own calculations.

Theo

[Theo]

I haven't written about planning yet, but that will depend on the structure. For example, if you can fit within the outbuilding permitted development rules (2.5m height within 2m of a boundary, 3m height elsewhere) then I don't think you need planning permission. If it does, the fees depend on the local authority, although your £200 is about right in a lot of cases.

(IANA an authority on planning, I should emphasise!)

Theo

[Robin]

I have no experience but AIUI some councils at least take the view that panels added to the roof aren't part of the building and so fail the fundamental test for Class E: "The provision ...of any building ...for a purpose incidental to the enjoyment of the dwellinghouse...".

[Paul]

"60kWh charging-on-the-go trailer

The trailers cost about $11,000 "

Which gives you some idea how much of a ripoff consumer power packs are.

Paul

[Jeff Layman]

I can't wait to see someone reverse into a space and forget they've got a trailer on the back! And for those who find reversing is a nightmare, just wait until they realise they have to turn the steering wheel the other way when there's a trailer on the back.

[Animal]

Going forwards & braking can be bad experiences if you get it really wrong.

[tony sayer]

Bout time the law was changed upgraded to make solar collection permitted without PP excepting Grade 1 and 2 listed etc..