Solar energy guide
Solar energy is one of the best sources of renewable energy for any smart home, our Solar Energy Guide explains what you need to know.
Solar energy systems come in two versions:
- Solar thermal, for heating hot water
- Solar photovoltaics (PV), for making electricity
Solar photovoltaics (PV)
Solar photovoltaics (or PV for short) generate electricity from daylight.
If you’re thinking of investing in solar photovoltaics to generate electricity for your home you might enjoy our detailed solar energy guide to learn how solar PV works and our explanation of polycrystalline vs monocrystalline and other types of solar PV, as well as how the feed-in tariff works.
If you have solar installed, see our post on how to maximise the efficiency of your solar PV system by directing excess electricity to your immersion heater. You may also want to explore demand flexibility services to help you save money.
Choosing a solar energy installer
With so many solar Installers springing up on the Microgeneration Certification Scheme register it’s hard to know who to trust but it’s still the best place to find your local solar installer.
Before choosing a solar installer always get 3 quotes – and make sure to ask:
- How long they have been established, when they joined MCS (the Microgeneration Certification Scheme), and how many installations they have performed
- The length of the “workmanship warranty” they offer, because your PV panel “power warranty” will not be worth anything if the panels fall off the roof!
- Check that the energy generation figures they are quoting you are based on SAP (the Standard Assessment Procedure)
Once you have had solar PV installed you may want to think about monitoring your solar energy production and what happens if you have an old electricity meter which runs backwards.
Solar energy facts
- Enough sunlight falls on the earth every hour to meet the world’s energy demands for an entire year.
- The sun will not run out of fuel for 5 billion years!
- It takes 8 minutes 19 seconds for light to travel from the sun’s surface to earth.
- Albert Einstein won the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics for his experiments with solar energy and photovoltaics.
- If we covered a small fraction of the Sahara desert with photovoltaic cells, we could generate all the world’s electricity requirements.
Find out more about the area of solar panels required to power each country.
See our Ripple Energy review for details about how you can reduce your energy bills by investing in a share of a solar park.