Renewable Energy News

Where does the energy used in our homes go?

This is a useful question when trying to determine payback on technology such as solar water heating panels.

Electricity generated by Solar PhotoVoltaic Panels is fairly simple to determine as this is metered and exported to the national grid at an agreed price. However, when looking at solar water heating panels this calculation becomes more complicated.

Solar water heating panels contribute to your gas or oil bill and it is not immediately obvious how much of your oil or gas is used to heat your hot water vs heating your home.

For this information there is a study that took place in 2005 by the ECI. See graph below.

This graph shows that the vast majority of energy used in our homes is for space heating. However it also shows that, of all the gas used, 31% of it is used to heat hot water. So if you install solar hot water panels and expect to save 50-70% of your hot water heating bill then you can determine that this is likely to reduce your gas bill by between 16 and 22%.

Labels: Solar-Water-Heating-Panels