Surprised, a little, yesterday

[TheMobileWanderer]

Ok so I was in our upstairs front room and a brand new Pilote went passed. Nice looking but, not even one solar panel on it. I'd have thought that resale would be less without them which means they'd be a good thing to have even if the first owner doesn't use them.
Discuss. (If you like )

 

[meanders]

I agree that by now you would be constructing the whole roof to include solar. But equally around here, they are are building massive warehouses along the A14 with not a solar panel in sight! yet within half a mile of one have taken a huge area of agricultural land to install a solar farm! The latter would be easily solved by a 'sensible' changing in planning. Equally every one of the 1.6m planned new homes should be forced to be built with solar.

 

[chaser]

I agree that by now you would be constructing the whole roof to include solar. But equally around here, they are are building massive warehouses along the A14 with not a solar panel in sight! yet within half a mile of one have taken a huge area of agricultural land to install a solar farm! The latter would be easily solved by a 'sensible' changing in planning. Equally every one of the 1.6m planned new homes should be forced to be built with solar.

I read somewhere yesterday that all new houses are going to have solar on.

 

[chaser]

Solar panels to be fitted on all new-build homes in England by 2027

Government to press ahead with net zero plans as Keir Starmer rejects Tony Blair’s criticisms of climate policy

www.theguardian.com

 

[TheMobileWanderer]

I think every commercial building shoul have it a requirement of planning, that the roof is covered in solar and either used for the businesses within, or their customers in the car park. Thereafter, any excess should go to the grid. For small premises, eg those with a shop or restaurant, it would help reduce their operating costs and help more to survive. Supermarkets like Asda Sainsbury's etc, imagine the power that could be generated on one of those collisiums and their petrol pumps canopy. Angled appropriatley too.

Houses, solar can be unsightly imv. Coutry pubs, or other historic buildings - another location perhaps should be used.

My 2p

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[Jimbohorlicks]

Yes you would have thought that there would be at least 1 solar panel on a new van but I suppose that some owners just use campsites and hook up.
For new warehouses there should be legislation to ensure that at least a half of roofs ate covered in working solar panels.

 

[meanders]

Solar panels to be fitted on all new-build homes in England by 2027

Government to press ahead with net zero plans as Keir Starmer rejects Tony Blair’s criticisms of climate policy

www.theguardian.com

I had missed that, but how many will be built without them between this government coming into power last July and 2027?

 

[Solwaybuggier]

Particularly surprising for a Pilote, perhaps - given that the Evidence spec (only available on the most popular models admittedly) includes a solar panel, and the mags are always saying that Evidence is a very high proportion of UK sales.

 

[Puddleduck]

I read somewhere yesterday that all new houses are going to have solar on.

It's very difficult for new houses to comply with energy performance regulations without solar panels.

 

[meanders]

Well they are managing around here. It only seems to be the social housing builds that have solar during the build.

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[TheMobileWanderer]

Solar panels to be fitted on all new-build homes in England by 2027

Government to press ahead with net zero plans as Keir Starmer rejects Tony Blair’s criticisms of climate policy

www.theguardian.com

I quite like the paragraph in that link ....
"Ministers are also preparing to offer government-funded loans and grants for the installation of solar panels on existing homes."

There was a scheme about 10yrs ago. I know a cottage industry on a former farm, which utilised the grants and financials, such that ROCS payments and contributions to grid earned enough to pay the installation loan and reduce electricity bills.

 

[Puddleduck]

Well they are managing around here. It only seems to be the social housing builds that have solar during the build.

It depends on when planning permission was granted as to the level of energy performance required. Commercial builders will still have sites under construction where planning was granted many years ago when the requirements were not so tight.

A few may also have "solar tiles" or "solar slates" that look almost like ordinary tiles or slates.

EDIT: If we were to build another house (very unlikely) we would use straw bale infill in a timber frame with solar slates.

 

[Landy Andy]

It will, and should just be an option. Would you want a mid to bottom range solar panel screwed to the roof of your van? Or would you prefer to have a solar panel system that is designed and fitted to your requirements?

 

[Dolmen]

Yes you would have thought that there would be at least 1 solar panel on a new van but I suppose that some owners just use campsites and hook up.
For new warehouses there should be legislation to ensure that at least a half of roofs ate covered in working solar panels.

I spend a lot of time off grid and I do not have any solar. I have 230ah lithium and a b2b and rarely stop more than 2 nights so b2b always replenishing the lithium battery. Solar of course essential if you like lo use your van for long(er) term camping, however, solar not essential in all cases, depends on how you use your van

 

[gus-lopez]

Supermarkets like Asda Sainsbury's etc, imagine the power that could be generated on one of those

On Monday when we had the catastrophic power outage here in spain I was actually at the till when the power went. everything was plunged in to darkness except the actual hypermarket which continued seamlessly without even a splitsecond cut or changeover due I assume to the arrays of solar panels on the roof

I had missed that, but how many will be built without them between this government coming into power last July and 2027?

When we had our last house constructed offplan in 1999/2000 I quereied the 6mm double glazing as no longer legal ,it now had to be 10mm." yes but the planning for this was 5 years ago & the lower amount is still legal"

Commercial builders will still have sites under construction where planning was granted many years ago when the requirements were not so tight.

Yes quite correct Helen as above. All wrong really.

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[headlight]

Ok so I was in our upstairs front room and a brand new Pilote went passed. Nice looking but, not even one solar panel on it. I'd have thought that resale would be less without them which means they'd be a good thing to have even if the first owner doesn't use them.
Discuss. (If you like )

I would say that well over half the motorhomes at my storage, it's a big site with probably about 400 vans, don't have solar.
The majority just use sites and plug into EHU.
I was speaking to the owner of a nice 2020 Coach built yesterday whilst waiting to use the wash facilities.
He told me that solar and everything involved to off grid was to expensive.
His van was probably worth £40-£50k.
He said he had about 90-100 nights a year use at £30-£35 a night on sites.

 

[Whippet93]

I agree that by now you would be constructing the whole roof to include solar. But equally around here, they are are building massive warehouses along the A14 with not a solar panel in sight! yet within half a mile of one have taken a huge area of agricultural land to install a solar farm! The latter would be easily solved by a 'sensible' changing in planning. Equally every one of the 1.6m planned new homes should be forced to be built with solar.

Bearing in mind Tony Blair signed the Kyoto environmental agreement in the late 1990s, why is it still not part of the planning regulations for all new buildings to incorporate some form of renewable energy? Why cover agricultural land for 20 - 25 years, with solar panels limiting its use, when there are millions of acres of roof space, all of which have direct access to the national grid, so would presumably be cheaper as they don't need the infrastructure a field would. If buildings such as the Shard had 50% of its surface as solar panels it would probably be self sufficient in energy.
Why have wind turbines in remote locations, needing large infrastructure projects to get the power to where it's needed, when more, smaller turbines could be put on city buildings and feed directly into the grid?
I'm sure there is no engineering reason that wind turbines have to be the propellor design that is so prevalent. Commercial vans often have small wind driven fans on the roof, so a similar design would surely work as a wind turbine.
We have 1000s of miles of coastline, but how many tidal generation systems are there? Tidal power is constant and predictable, which wind and solar aren't. If tides stop, we don't need to worry keeping the lights on.

 

[raysalaugh]

My Pilote came with 100w solar panel, I've added another two 200w and I'm hoping that should be enough to keep the Fogstar drift 280ah topped up.
There is still room for another couple of 100w panels if the need arises.

 

[Shrimp]

Ok so I was in our upstairs front room and a brand new Pilote went passed. Nice looking but, not even one solar panel on it. I'd have thought that resale would be less without them which means they'd be a good thing to have even if the first owner doesn't use them.
Discuss. (If you like )

The Cathargo, we recently made a mistake buying, didn’t have any solar, only one battery and not one USB point and I don’t think it had any UK mains electric sockets.
No, it wasn’t brand new it was 2013 and we think it had only been used as a ‘snowbird’ van!

 

[Barriesimpson]

On Monday when we had the catastrophic power outage here in spain I was actually at the till when the power went. everything was plunged in to darkness except the actual hypermarket which continued seamlessly without even a splitsecond cut or changeover due I assume to the arrays of solar panels on the roof

All the big ones in Spain (Canaries too) - Mercadona, Lidl, Aldi etc. have diesel generators that automatically start up on a power failure. The big hotels here also have this standby just in case. It's known as forward thinking.

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[meanders]

The bigger supermarkets/hypermarkets and department stores have them here as well. UPS's on critical circuits and emergency lighting. Genny usually comes on stream in 5-7 seconds.

Mildly interesting story about a situation in a department store I was involved with where we lost a single phase. Both gen sets started but could not sync with the remaining incomers, got terribly confused as the sensors were telling it that it both did and did not have power so they kept trying to sync, detected power so switched back to mains and shut down automatically only to detect the loss of the missing phase to restart. We had to manually switch off the other two phases after which the gennies started and ran.

 

[L' Hobo]

I had missed that, but how many will be built without them between this government coming into power last July and 2027?

Around here, all council houses had them installed about 10yrs ago, so many, I thought it was Government policy?

 

[guy b]

Ok so I was in our upstairs front room and a brand new Pilote went passed. Nice looking but, not even one solar panel on it. I'd have thought that resale would be less without them which means they'd be a good thing to have even if the first owner doesn't use them.
Discuss. (If you like )

We’ve never needed them. Two motorhomes over the last 7 years, away for 3 months twice a year. Travelled to most of Europe and very rarely use campsites. Showers every day, never had to think ooh we can’t do that cos we haven’t got enough battery power.
On both vehicles we’ve had an 85ah leisure battery and never needed anything else. Really don’t know why solar is fitted