Back     Latest news from Green Building Press    Subscribe to our newsletter

Solar panels put to the test

Posted: 30/11/2006

Hastoe Housing Association and Places for People Group are working with Viridian Solar to test out a new approach to solar water heating. The pilot project aims to dramatically increase the convenience and reduce the cost of using this technology in their developments.

Part-funded by the Carbon Trust, the prototypes at Steeple Bumpstead in Essex and Norfolk Park in Sheffield have been designed to test the speed of fitment and the energy performance of the new solar water heating system.

Stuart Elmes, Chief Executive of Viridian commented: "We were delighted by how straightforward the plumbers and roofers found the installation. By the time we were on the third solar panel, it was installed and flashed on the roof ready for tiling after only fifteen minutes."

He continued "Special thanks are due to Hastoe for supporting us in our goal to develop cost-effective solar water heating for the construction industry."

The panels were installed in front of an invited audience from the British Board of Agrement and the Building Research Establishment. Once residents are in the houses, later on in the year, the energy performance of the solar panels will be independently monitored.

Viridian also announced recently that it has completed six months' testing of its innovative solar water heating product in its Automated Test House. Results are 10% ahead of predictions.

The test house has been constructed to run solar panels under realistic conditions. The company consider it to be unique. Previous testing in the UK has taken neither the effect of the hot water use pattern, nor the effect of auxilliary heating into account, they say.

The Automated Test House has been running a water use pattern according to the European standard for the average sized home. In the seven months to September, 1,050kWh of heat from the solar panel has been collected. More information is available on the Viridian website www.viridiansolar.co.uk

Green Building Press  
 

Back     Latest news from Green Building Press    Subscribe to our newsletter

1716