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Building Regs Ban Solar Water Heating

Posted: 28/05/2006

Government incompetence theoretically bans all forms of Solar water heating throughout the UK, according to Barry Johnston, Managing Director of Chester based company Solartwin. He says "Thriving mediocrity" at the ODPM when John Prescott was in charge caused 'junk' regulations to be written.

Coming on the heels of DTI's recent decision that nuclear is the future of Britain are revelations that several obscure regulatory publications by the ODPM, concerning solar water heating, are so badly written that if they were to be taken at face value, all solar water heating would be banned.

Johnston says ODPM red tape makes it impossible for 82% of Britain's solar water heating panels to be installed legally, unless they are installed in a place where they will not heat up such as inside a dark garage or underground. This is because a "supplementary information" phrase requires water entering a conventional solar panel to be cold. This is impossible to achieve unless the solar panel is sited in a place which is without light because it will otherwise heat up water. Of course, solar panels in the dark don't work.

The remaining 18% of solar panels which are of an innovative more environmental design escape this ban, only to be banned by a further piece of government red tape. This is complicated and unfortunately incorrect mathematical formula contained in a document published by DEFRA which says that their particular panels do not heat any water at all.

Solartwin.com make that residual 18% and M.D. Johnston commented: "Using this strange formula, I calculated today, what might be the energy delivery of a Solartwin panel placed on say a sunny roof of the house of Commons or a ministerial love nest in the Home Counties. Its initial result is zero: that Solartwin panels deliver not a single watt of energy".

"But the ludicrousness gets even worse than this. An add-on to the first formula says our panels actually use rather than deliver solar energy! This is because our technology is specifically penalised by a 75 Kilowatt hours (kWh) energy deduction, which is imposed because we use a green solar electric pump instead of mains electricity to run our system.

"The real figures, which we can verify using external reports, are that our panel delivers around 1000 kWh of heat in a year. So we say we save a lot (+1000) but DEFRA say we save none and use a little (-75). Do DEFRA really think that our panels don't heat water at all?

"Who is right? I know that mine at home heats water to 70C in summer, indeed our water is steaming hot today. And that's with no backup heating whatever. And the panel is shaded by a tower block until noon.

The sad fact is that these well-intentioned regulations, which were supposed to help stop global warming, have ended up as unenforceable junk. I'm glad that I don't work in Building Control at my local council, because I'd be tearing my hair out by now."

Johnston is now asking the government to: set aside these regulations; to explain why they have been published in such a crummy form; to reclaim any state funds which may have been paid to any advisers who have been involved in writing them; and to get new,slimmer unbiased documents drafted within six months.

"The environment cannot wait, and it's our taxes that have been wasted", he says. "We deserve an answer". So far he has received none.

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