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Off Grid domestic lighting by installation of Solar Panels and leisure battery

  • Added: 12/07/15

Encourages a complete switch to LED lightbulbs and changes attitudes to leaving lights on

Overview

Having had solar panels installed, our household has a completely different attitude to leaving lights on now. The total cost of the installation was just over £1000 and qualified electricians and solar installers were involved.

My project is about promoting and fostering a sense of independence and resilience and at the same time hopefully encouraging a more judicious and respectful attitude to domestic electricity consumption.

We are all encouraged by media to think of ourselves as energy consumers who should shop around to get the best or most appropriate deal from a limited range of large corporate suppliers. Going partially off grid slightly disrupts this model and could lead to a greater sense of responsibility and ownership about the energy we produce and consume.

We have two 250 watt PV panels supplying a 110 amp-hour 12 volt lead acid gel leisure battery via regulator.

95% of our household lights are supplied from a high quality inverter connected to this battery. Our electrician ensured that there was no cross contamination of the earthing circuits and and that we can revert to mains in the event of the battery being flat (this only happened during midwinter on very cloudy/dark days).

Such a set-up could be copied but other houses.