In January I internally insulated the living room which gave a noteable improvement in temperature

and now my attention has been focused on Solar panels for my (more or less) south facing roof.

There was such interest in the house renovation pictures when we first came to live in the cottage that I thought that I'd document the arrival

of solar power to my world.  We went from naught to full speed in eight hours . . . and life has just become a little bit greener.

After a site visit and a quotation, I agreed a Solar Package with Eden Solar and on the appointed day their installers turned up and and it was all go.

The system didn't need planning permission as it is small domestic installation, not on a listed building and is out of sight from the road.

There were six guys, three roofers, one working in the loft on the inverter and one in the kitchen dealing with the mains connections.

If you're paying attention you may have noticed that's only five . . . the sixth guy was a younger trainee, run about, a general goffa . . . an essential.

Brackets were fitted under the slates and roof bars made ready for the panels.	In the loft I had cleared the end wall ready for the installation.

A very neat package . . . the black boxes on the side are the battery system, the upper white box the inverter and control panel, the other box is not part of it.

The DC 8 volt solar power comes in at the top via the thin black cables and is converted to AC 240v and sent on to power the house via the red cutout switch.

Downstairs the distribution board was now the centre of attention . . .	. . . the extras all fitted in, give or take moving a few jam pots around !

It's 5 pm and outside the panels are now in place and wired in.  Everything was cleared up and the system was ready to check.

It's working . . . and the system is generating power despite the lack of direct sunshine.

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Next morning I check the smart meter on the house supply and see that the amount of power drawn from the grid significantly reduced at around 6 am when the daylight arrived and even more so at 8 am when the sun really started to shine.   Now if we can keep that going I'll be a happy chap !   - - - o o o - - -

System Spec for those folk interested . . . 8 Tiger Nero 430w Solar panels,  3.7 Kw hybrid inverter, two 2.5 Fox 2.5kwh batteries, plus accessories and cables. Labour and parts came to about £8.500.  Payback in around eight or so years. The system should output 2200Kwh per year, approx 6Kwh per day, when averaged out between the seasons. Hopefully it will cut my electricity bill in half based on current usage.   The system is designed to power the house, any spare power goes to the battery and then any further excess goes to the grid. All that remains now is to fix in an 'feed-in' tariff and get paid when the system is producing more than I actually use.

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A good idea . . . with all the money you could save you could spend a little on this . . .

Now is  your chance to have your favourite web site pictures hanging on your wall all year round and to support a good cause. - - - o o o - - - " We've done it again. We've brought you twelve months of Loweswater pictures, Lakeland scenes and your favourite mountain dogs."   Yes . . . The 2024 Loweswatercam Calendar is now on sale - - - o o o - - - Click here  or on the photos for full details of how to buy your copy.