Round about 2004 we took our first by installing a solar boiler. A solar boiler is an insulated vessel that holds water and is heated by sunlight. The sunlight is captured by a collector; an insulated rectangular piece of metal with tubing attached. An ordinary heating pump tansports water though the tubing and the water is heated. The hot water flows back to the vessel through insulated pipes and flows through a big coiled pipe in the bottem of the boiler. The water in the boiler heats up and cools the water in the coil. This process is repeated until the temperature in the boiler is higher than the temperature of the collector. Smarter setups (layered storage tanks) exist, but this general principle applies to most 'dumb' varieties.
In 2008, the city of Amsterdam sponsored our next step. In the ZonOpJeDak event, home owners could buy a 600W solar PhotoVoltaic (PV) system. That led to our first setup that has 3 PV panels of 200W each and a Soladin 600 (500W) inverter. The panels deliver DC power to the inverter and the invert converts this to 50 Hz 240V that is fed in the utility. When there is no utility power, the Soladin switches off automatically. When there is not enough solar radiation, the unit is also switched off and uses no power. Connecting the setup is as easy as connecting 6 DC plugs and connecting the 220V plug to the wall mains socket.
Expected yield first year: 0.850 x 0.6KWp=510KWh. Realised: 499.42 (without january and february 2009)
In 2009 Amsterdam repeated the ZonOpJeDak subsidy, which allowed for two 600Wp systems that will deliver a total of 1200Wp. Each of the sets is at a 10° angle with the horizon, and the sets are facing South, East and West, so a good comparison in yield will be visible from the graphs we generate. We expect to generate 3x600Wpx850Wh/Wp, so 1530 KWh annually. That covers about two thirds (65%) of our annual electricity consumption.
More on our solar thermal energy 4.2 GJ/yr system, West, 30° inclination
More on our solar voltaïc energy 600Wp system, South, 10° inclination
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