Genuine question. Have seen lots of videos of people putting just one or two solar panels in their garden, on a shed or even on a van and using tech called a grid-tie inverter to plum it into the mains electric. Its started to make me wonder if we should all do this. Just a few hundred watts each from a percentage of homes around the average town or city would surely make a dent into carbon, meaning less oil and gas were burnt.
Obviously there are people who cant afford the tech or the space, but from just looking online the inverter is a couple of hundred quid, a 2-300w solar panel is 150 quid each. Cables not much. Talking to an electrician friend most homes have fuses here that can take a maximum of 30-50amps (in and out), so if your set up is small its not going to blow the electrics out.
Thoughts?
Depends a lot on where you live and what kind of buildings your property has. The ideal would be, place that gets a lot of sun, relatively dry, mild winters, and a house or building with a flat roof that’s easily accessible. The gains are going to be more minimal if the locale is often overcast or doesn’t get much direct sunlight. And remember, solar panels need maintenance, parts go bad in them, especially as they’re exposed to the elements. So if you can’t get to them easily it’s going to make maintenance a pain in the ass.
I feel like the real ideal would be having them installed on larger commercial and apartment buildings that have flat roofs designed for maintenance access and there’s already a superintendent team handling maintenance issues.
One of these videos was from England, famous for our sunny weather. Ahem. Guy reckoned he's knocked a chunk off his bill (in the comments). How many people can get to their rooftop solar? If its on a shed or in a garden its accessible.