2467 solar panals

Benvenuti Karolina,

This subect has been covered before. Type 'Solar Panels' in the search section in the blue bar at the top of the page.

Saluti
Rob

We are thinking of them. Our idraulico will install his own expensive favoured Sola Hart ones if we decide on this and pipework is in place for them to connect to our boiler. We are unlikely to DIY them.

It appears in our comune permission is not required at the moment. However it is required nearer the coast in eg Bordighera.

They can be bought from Enel who have a kit on their website, otherwise I would have a look in yellow pages or go to your nearest large plumbing or builders merchants and enquire.

[url]http://www.pagineutili.it[/url]

[url]http://www.paginegialle.it/index.html[/url]

2 useful websites

Assuming you have a central heating boiler backing it up for winter, you have two options of solar panels. One is the flat type which performs well in summer and is cheaper. The other are the tubular type which also perform well during the winter months, but are more expensive. You can get a good idea of how they all work at either:

[url]www.viessmann.co.uk[/url] or [url]www.viessmann.it[/url]

Either way, you need to mount them as close as possible to a southerly direction at 30degrees from horizontal.

Andy

I've read the solar/geo thermal forums with great interest. My question is:
Has anyone on the forums actually installed solar panels or geo-thermal in a house in Italy? or know anyone who's done it in Italy that we can contact.
If so, how's it working, who did you use, etc. etc.
or has anyone really researched doing it in Italy? I checked the ENEL site but couldn't find the link alluded to but unfortunately I don't know Italian which of course if a great hinderance.
sorry if I've missed this point but somehow no one seems to have actually mentioned having used solar or geo thermal in Italy. If you have, kindly contact me directly or through the forums.
thanks
Sarah
PS what type of trees are used for wood pellets? Are those trees really that fast growing and easily replaced?

The wood for pellets is generally Beech, I believe it is grown in a system of coppices, where the main tree is cut after a period of time, and the resulting stumps are encouraged to produce branches, which again are cut to restart the process. I'm certain that someone else can explain the system far better than I though

[url]http://www.pelletheat.org/3/residential/FACT.pdf[/url]

also

[url]http://www.pelletheat.org/2/index/index.html[/url]

[QUOTE=sarahd]I've read the solar/geo thermal forums with great interest. My question is:
Has anyone on the forums actually installed solar panels or geo-thermal in a house in Italy? or know anyone who's done it in Italy that we can contact.
If so, how's it working, who did you use, etc. etc.
or has anyone really researched doing it in Italy? I checked the ENEL site but couldn't find the link alluded to but unfortunately I don't know Italian which of course if a great hinderance.
sorry if I've missed this point but somehow no one seems to have actually mentioned having used solar or geo thermal in Italy. If you have, kindly contact me directly or through the forums.
thanks
Sarah
PS what type of trees are used for wood pellets? Are those trees really that fast growing and easily replaced?[/QUOTE]

As far as Italy is concerned, no I have absolutely no experience. As far as the UK is concerned, we have at work had about 100kW of geothermal heating and solar panels installed. We also currently have planning applications for around 8MW (mega-watts) of this being considered.

Whilst it's not one of my projects, I have attached a link to a project where we are considering geothermal, which I think you'll find surprising.

[url]http://www.aecom.com/MarketsAndServices/45/66/index.jsp[/url]

Solar water and geothermal are what are defined as 'mature technologies'. This in essence means they work well enough to use them now and are at a cost which is not too unreasonable.

Manufacturers of these systems tend to have a european reach, so the systems provided are the same as in the UK. A classic case is Viessmann as you can see from [url]www.viessmann.co.uk[/url] and [url]www.viessmann.it[/url] we use them a lot at work. They don't supply directly to the public, but they do have recommended installers both in the UK and in Italy. One big advantage is that you can speak to the UK reps and sort it out, translate it and give it to one of thier installers.

In general, I would say that these systems do 'exactly what it says on the tin'.

Forget geothermal for a minute, heat pumps have been used for years. I have said before they work in a similar manner to a fridge. That's wrong. They work in exactly the same manner as a fridge! what they do is exploit the stable ground temperatures experience a few feet below ground to ensure that refrigerants can be exactly matched to these temperatures. Heat pumps which use air to discharge heat etc have to cope with temperatures which can fluctuate between -5degrees and 30degrees. This makes them far more efficient.

In solar water heating the technology is again sound and well developed. Solar radiation warms thing up. If you put something in the sun, it gets hotter. PAint it black and it doesn't reflect any solar radiation. Turn this hot thing into a heat exchanger and pass water through it. That water gets hot. The heat exchanger technology is the same as that used in every central heating system in the UK. The only difference is they use gas to heat them.

As far as the technologies are concerned, they are fully transferrable between the UK and Italy. The more practical elements of who does what are a different issue. Most idraulico's know how to connect solar water heating. geothermal is a bit more specialist. It does pay to have an outline of how it all works as I would say that some would not appreciate for example the correct orientation of solar panels.

By the way, GerogeS is absolutely correct about the way the wood is grown. The process is called 'short rotation coppicing' stick it into google, there's loads of stuff. As a point of interest, it's not a new process and you can go to most local woods (my local is Epping Forest) and see evidence of this. Take a look for multiple tree trunks which split very low down, as this does not tend to happen naturally. In the UK we tend to use willow, but beech would be just as good.

Andy

many thanks for your informative reply.
Sarah

geothermal is being installed by friends of ours. send a personal message to me and i'll get back to you on that. janetta

If any of you are DIYers you might want to check out this wacky DIY site: Mother Earth News: [url]http://www.motherearthnews.com/[/url] most of it is beyond me even if I thought I could DIY something but might be interesting to some of you out there. Also an American site: [url]http://www.eere.energy.gov/consumer/[/url]
Sarah
PS Cassini, if you plunge in, let us know how, what, etc...
Janetta, interested to hear you friends experience

If we plunge our trusted idraulico will do the installation and he prefers to install Sola Hart panels. You can look at their australian website in English. However, we are now adjusting our thinking to the unexpected need to install electronic decalcification which functions at high water temperatures - a side effect of the pellet boiler when it is in standby mode and not pumping the central heating or instantaneous water heating. Disappointed really as we thought that might be next for summer hot water but now looking less likely for a while. You might be first.

why decalcification? is the water so calcare?
sarah