solar energy
An intelligent route to solar PV efficiency in social housing
Solar PV can offer cost-effective installations for social housing, but intelligent technology has now been developed which ensures properties use every bit of electricity generated to maximise efficiency. HMM reports on one firm’s innovations in this area.
‘T
he best things in life are free’, so the song goes. Many local authorities and housing associations would agree, and those who have solar PV installations across their housing stock are
now actively seeking ways to maximise utilisation of the PV generation for the benefit of their tenants. A new approach taken by some social housing bodies has been to install specially adapted ceramic solar PV-ready radiators in a tenant’s home and, with the help of intelligent technology, send any solar PV generation not being used by the tenant to them.
How does the technology work?
The technology has now been developed and trialling has begun of solar PV-ready radiators across the country in several local authorities and housing associations. The radiators work in conjunction with an intelligent controller to ensure that the tenant is using all of the electricity being
generated and minimising the generation that is sent back to the grid. The system will operate such that the feed in tariff received for generation is not affected and can still be received by the appropriate party. Intelligent controllers ensure that tenants’ power demand (e.g. for the
kettle, vacuum cleaner, television etc.) is met first by the solar PV energy generated, and only the excess PV generation not otherwise utilised is sent to the solar PV-ready radiators. The system can be programmed for up to three appliances to suit the tenant’s wishes, for example to operate with three ceramic radiators or two ceramic radiators and a hot water cylinder. The priority order of the appliances can also be programmed to suit the tenant’s requirements. The solar PV-ready radiators can operate from as low as a small trickle of
current being fed to them up to the full current required to heat the radiator to its maximum output. The radiators will continue to modulate at temperature while solar gain is being achieved and fed to the radiators.
www.housingmmonline.co.uk | HMM July 2016 | 49
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