SOLAR POWER TO THE PEOPLE - The man that paved the way for UK home power genaration.

Originally printed in the Water Gardener Magazine December 2002

Next time you get an electricity bill and it is a warm sunny day, take it outside and stand next to your pond. Feel the heat of the sun and enjoy it. Doesn’t it seem a shame to have to pay for the running of all the conveniences of life like heating and cooling and machines when there is that great power station in the sky pumping out all that energy for free?
Look down into the pool and (possibly) see the green gloom of the algae proliferating down in that water. If you have a biological filter system with u/v clarifiers, then look at that. Then say to yourself,
“Hey! I’m a complete IDIOT. Here are millions of the simplest plants on earth multiplying and growing and even moving, largely by the power of the sun, and I here am I spending money on electricity to destroy them, the production of which pollutes the planet!”

Well, trapping the power of the sun can be done but at the moment it comes at a price in terms of cash.

Anthony Skelton's shed.: This shows the kit that is necessary to convert the power from the photovoltaics to A/C current. The batteries for storing the power are in the wooden box and the 'inverterr is the black box.There seems to be a desperate irony here, paying to be able to capture something that is essentially free. But that didn’t bother a man I know. He was just interested in solar power for its own sake, but heThe complete garden with shed and solar panels for the fountains and waterfalls. also realised the ‘payback’ time on solar technology can last a lifetime. His name is Anthony Skelton and he decided he wanted a solar powered water garden and garden lighting. With a bit of advice from a company called Wind and Sun, on the choice of batteries, charge regulators and solar panels, he installed a system that was powerful enough to run three water garden pumps; two powerful 12 volt pumps and a Blagdon Amphibious 230 volt pump (55 watt, 400 gallons per hour). Added to this there is the garden lighting, which consists of three carriage style lights and one high efficiency L.E.D. light.

To run all these there is a bank of six BP 55watt solar panels sits on top of his garden shed, feeding power down into the shed where there is a chest full of six fork lift truck batteries (what they call ‘deep cell’ batteries rated at 560 Amp/hr) that store it. Between them and the pumps outside, there are all the necessary fuses and switches and a small inverter that changes the output from DC to AC power, as if it were coming from the mains. Most of the fittings were purchased locally. Now there is enough power and storage facility to run everything all the time, although Anthony has the system on a timer and the lights triggered on by an infrared detector when you come into the garden.

But it has not stopped there. If anything new in retail solar technology comes out he cant resist trying it, so a relatively recent addition was a was a small rock/pebble fountain feature with a solar panel driven Oase Aquasolar 1500 pump.

ONE THING LEADS ON TO ANOTHER…

New products on the market mean there is something new to try out like this pebble fountain kit.Anthony’s initial inspiration was over eight years ago (this is 2002 remember) and he was so pleased with the results, one thing just led to another. Now the whole house is run on solar power and since 5th November 1999 he has been living in one of the smallest power station in the country. Still linked to the national grid, when the household is not using power in the daytime, it is making power that feeds back into the grid, for which they get reimbursed. Anthony reckoned that his system, which was designed to produce 850 kW hours, gives a 30-45% cut in his fuel bills. This would take a long time to pay for the initial £7 K outlay, but now with the recent government grant scheme, where 50% of the costs of the installation of a solar power are paid for, Anthony has doubled the size of his system. This has meant he has forked out another £3.5K and the Energy Saving Trust has stumped up the rest. So it is yet to be seen how much he is saving, or indeed even earning from the national grid!

Anthony says that once you have taken the plunge in investing in solar power, you get a rewarding sense of independence. Also, once you have, it is there for keeps. If you use the best quality powerAll the best people use a bit of solar power. Here it is in action at Garden Organic, Ryton,UK, formerly the HDRA producing panels, they will be doing the job maintenance free for the rest of your life and beyond.
Where he went, others will follow, especially now the government has taken away the turmoil of paper work and is offering to pay for half the installation. Grants should be still available from the Energy Savings Trust for everybody that owns a home, or for institutions like schools and even businesses. For further information ring the Energy Savings Trust on 0800-298-3978 or apply on the web on www.solargrants.org.uk.

The amazingly helpful company Wind and Sun also have links and news updates on their website www.windandsun.demon.co.uk . They are constantly assessing new developments and products in the world of sustainable power, whilst designing and installing sustainable set ups. Other companies like Beco Solar and Solar Century also provide a bespoke service for all requirements, whether it is for inner city schools, a Housing Association renovation projects, to remote crofters, for a completely integrated system with the national grid, a ‘stand alone’ self-sufficient power supply, right down to the delivery of a solar fountain. Beco Solar were instrumental in enabling the Breitling Orbiter balloon produce power for its on-board instruments on its global circumnavigation. For more information about all the companies in the UK that work in this field contact the British Photovoltaic Association (website: www.pv-uk.org.uk ).

ANTHONY’S TOP TIPS FOR POWER SAVING AND CHOOSING SOLAR TECHNOLOGY

• First of all, if you want to make an immediate impression on your electricity bill, turn off all the ‘phantom loads’ in the house, all those little red lights on Video recorders, TVs, radios and computers, and you will find that the tiny amounts of electricity they consume non-stop 24hours a day really makes a significant difference to the weight of that bill.

• Analyse precisely what your needs are. Add it all up in terms of kilowatt hours, then see what is available on the market that will meet those needs. Prices for products are creeping down and the efficiency of them is improving all the time. Anthony was at great pains to point out that although it would be a long time before solar technology could be considered a ‘cheap option’, there were a lot of products on the market that are at a highly inflated price for their quality and usefulness. His advice was to do your research, especially if you were going to spend large amounts of money. Many of the best quality goods never reach the retail market, but once you find them they are often more reasonably priced than second division products. With regard to the BP585 Solar Modules that Anthony used on his house, they were some of the best available 6 years ago and they still are. Twelve of them cost the best part of £5000. With some of the less ambitious products like the garden lights, sometimes it seems that the very cheapest available are the best. He has seen a range of the best garden lights yet at between £7 and £15! Another good deal were some solar security spot lamps at just £45.00.

• Learn how to recognise the better quality product and don’t be afraid to ‘mix and match’, for instance taking a good quality panel to power a very economic pump, rather than buying a packaged deal of mediocre products.A great place to learn about the basic of photovoltaics and any other alternative energy generation, is a CAT: CAT is the Centre for Alternative Technology at Machynlleth in Powys, West Wales. If you have never been there, it is an essential place to visit. They also run courses on all manner of alternative power generation.

• If you are really serious about this or have any problems, seek advice at an early stage.

• Check planning regulations. It seems stupid that although the government may be seeking to make savings of 10% by the 2010 on power production using sustainable source energy, many local council are still reluctant to allow householders to put panels on their roofs. In fact you don’t need to put them on the roof and you can get photo Voltaic cells from SunDog and Redland Tiles that are in fact tile shaped to be completely unobtrusive.

OUT AND ABOUT

If you want to see and try out some of the latest technology in action then there is no better place than the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth, Powys, Wales. If you have never been to that part of Wales then should take some time to give it a thorough investigation. They also run courses in all forms of sustainable power production and building techniques.

'The Resorceful Garden' by Bill HowarthWind and Sun also has open days and runs courses. See the website for details.They also produce a very handy and informative catalogue at £5.

Nowadays you are beginning to see it unobtrusively everywhere you go, often being used together with wind power to run remote weather stations and vehicle monitoring equipment on motorways. Wind power is more financially attractive but is not maintenance free and at certain levels of installation, it can be noisy.

Even at the flower shows, some of the show gardens are pointing the way. This year (2002) we have seen “The Resourceful Garden” by Bill Howarth and Garden Innovations at the Malvern Flower Spring Show, which had a solar"Growing Schools Initiative" at Hampton Court Flower Show 2002 panel powering a pump that pumped water to a header tank that in turn released a water supply to an irrigation system. More sun meant more water to the plants. The garden was mainly dedicated to vegetables using ecologically sound principles, showing that ‘green measures’ were neat and easy to incorporate into any garden, helping it flourish with the minimum of maintenance. At the Hampton Court Flower Show there was a demonstration of sustainable technology powering water features by the Royston School near Barnsley, as part of the “Growing Schools Initiative Garden”. Back at their school in Royston the children under the encouragement of their geography teacher Ken Dunn have created a complete water garden powered by wind and sun.

REASONS TO BE SUNNY SOLAR

The amazing copper sculptor Richard Taylor had his fabulous copper dragon fountain powered by solar driven pumps.So is there any other point using solar power, apart from trying to be cool and save the planet? Well, there are innumerable companies investing in research and development of products for an ever-expanding market of consumers who can obviously see the logic in it. Ignoring the fact they cost nothing to run, it is the ease of installation that attracts people. If your garden is neat, tidy and established and you want to install power to a new little water garden away from the house, the last thing you want to do is drag a half metre trench through the garden from the house to lay down armoured cable. There is also the expense of the cable and the fittings at each end, which for safety’s sake need to be the best, therefore you are thinking terms of hundreds pounds even before you have decided on the pump and lights. So work that equation out when you are considering your options.
In fact, the more you look into it and the more you see how many people are exploiting the potential of the sun to produce electrical power it will become the natural choice to make.

WHAT IS SOLAR POWER? MAGIC?

Some substances like silicon that are semiconducting (they will conduct electricity under certain conditions like high temperatures) when placed together in a cell in thin layers under bright light, will generate small electrical charges. These can be conducted away with metal strips and joined together to make modules capable of producing 12volts of electricity. The current (amps) which is Direct Current will vary depending on the brightness of the light, so it would be most useful if it was used to charge a battery that once charged could provide a consistent, steady current. Alternatively, the current can be changed to Alternating Current by passing it through an inverter into the national network of power supply, the National Grid and the value of that can be subtracted from your electricity bill. All this from no moving parts, no noise, no pollution and, yes, they will produce power, even under grey English skies. Magic!

Today's Update

The updated Anthony Skelton shed is now a mini powerstation in its own right.Our Solar guru Anthony Skelton, not being one to rest on his laurels has doubled the size of the power output of the shed for the water garden and garden area and now has a complete roof of solar panels belting out 1kilowatt. This means more juice for the National Grid, since even with all the pumps on all the time, there is more power available than his water gardens need. These panels are the premier quality from the BP range of photovoltaic panels and have been proved to be some of the most efficient available.

He could of course get more power hungry pumps, but he is more than happy with the Oase Aqua-Solar Pumps supplied by Wind and Sun.

He also still advocates getting separate panels, rather than buying manufacturers made up kits. Not only do you seem to get more power for your money, they seem to be that more efficient.

Still trying out new products he is still dismayed at the amount of junk out there. Some of very expensive for what you get, pointing a finger at Band Q's and Mapli's attempts at filling the solar niche in the market.