Solar water heating

What we've done

In September 2005, we installed a solar water heating system.

It consists of four flat-plate collectors, mounted on frames on the roof of our main building.

The technical bit

• There are 4 Filsol FS20 flat plate panels each with a surface area of 2 square metres.
• The system, which was supplied and installed by Southern Solar Ltd., Sussex, cost £6,000 and was funded by a grant from the POWERGEN GreenPlan Fund
• The Low Carbon Buildings Programme, launched by the Department of Energy and Climate Change, provides domestic uses with grants for installing micro-generation technologies. This can provide a grant towards the costs of purchasing a solar water heating system for your home. A typical domestic system would require 2-4m2 of flat plate collectors facing between south east and south west.

What we're achieving

• The panels work in conjunction with our biomass (wood-chip) boiler which provides heating and hot water for the main building and the Wetherdown Lodge. This is an ideal combination, with the boiler providing hot water (and heating) to the Centre during the colder months, and the solar panels providing hot water when the boiler is off during the summer.
• The panels provide all the hot water for the main building for hand-washing, kitchens and showers.
• The panels produce around 3,272kWh a year (sufficient to power three households).