30W solar panel to power a house?

Hi, have been trying to work out what type of solar setup I would need to run my house hold purely from solar, the best way I could work out my daily consumption was to record my electric meter usage, this equates to max 15wh does this mean I could run my electric from one 30w panel, 4amp charge controller and 12ah deep cycle battery? Would be glad of your input, many thanks.

Looking at your meter is certainly a good way of working out your needs. But unless you have an extraordinarily energy-efficient household it's probably reading 15kWh per day, not Wh. That's 1000 times as much.

Most households need about 4000W of solar panels provide enough power to meet their needs - a 30W solar panel won't do much more than power a single low-energy lightbulb for a couple of hours a day!

best wishes,
Andy
Midsummer Energy

Glass-glass laminate solar panels

We have a south facing conservatory with an angled double-glazed glass roof.  We are thinking of replacing the glass roof with solar panels (which produce electricity) but are struggling to find the right product.  The sticky panels you sell might be an option depending on weight. But do you know of a product which would replace ordinary double glazing with similar thickness (and weight) glass panels which have integrated PV cells?

Yes, it is possible to get solar panels that are glass-glass laminates - ie the solar cells are sandwiched between two sheets of glass - rather than between a layer of glass and a sheet of metal or plastic, which is more normal in framed panels. See http://www.solarcentury.co.uk/products/low_carbon_building_products/solar_glazing for more details.

Glass-glass laminates are effectively double glazing with integrated PV cells, which sounds like exactly what you want.

The adhesive-backed panels are not particularly heavy incidentally. I shouldn't imagine the additional weight would be a problem on most roof structures if you wanted to consider them instead.

Connecting solar panel into domestic electrical circuit

If I bought a solar panel to take abroad could I link it up directly to the
house electricity cables after the voltage meter?
Would this draw less power from the grid during the day?
Kindest regards, Saiduz.

Unfortunately it's not that simple! Solar panels produce DC electricity, usually at 12 volts, which is fine for battery charging. But it's not compatible with 240 volt AC mains electricity. You can use an inverter (eg the Silverline Inverters or Steca Inverters on our website)  to produce mains electricity from the battery that you have charged, but even then you can't simply plug that electricity straight into your mains circuit, as the frequencies they are running at will be slightly different and out of phase. Any equipment running off the inverter would have to be on a completely seperate circuit.

It is possible to get a type of inverter which can connect into your mains electricity. However these 'grid-connect' inverters are far more expensive, and only really suited to big arrays of solar panels.

Unisolar PVL 68

I am interested in these flexible panels to put on a flat roof for a new build house. Are they still available? Can substantial numbers of them be linked together?

Yes - they are still available, and they are ideal for houses. In fact that is what they were designed for! If using them in a residential situation you would usually link them together to a grid-tie inverter, in order to connect them into the national grid system. That way you can still use grid electricity at night and in the winter when you aren't getting much return from your solar panels; and in the summer you can sell your excess electricity back to the electricity companies.

You can link any number together, as long as your inverter is rated to take the power that they produce.