I am thinking of getting a Enviromentally friendly roof...?

[xtermin8or]

Hi all,
I have been seriously thinking of installing an environmentally friendly roof. I have been doing a lot of research on Google and found a few interesting articles. I also found this Roofing Company who install Solar Panel Roofs... they look like they know what they are talking about...

BUT before i do anything i have a few questions.

1) Can someone tell me quite clearly the advantages/disadvantages of having a green roof, such as one with solar panels?
2) Does anyone here think this will be the future and increase the property value of your house?
3) How much should i expect to pay for solar panel installation? Is there any other company or service that does quality solar panel installation or who are experts in environmentally friendly roofing?

Any help at all would be much appreciated! Thanks.

 

[noseall]

you are delving into the unknown here my friend....

ask in about 10 yrs.

 

[2scoops0406]

How about a green roof, literally planted up with sedums, I'll try to dig out a link if you like. Solar Panels AFAIK never pay for themselves.

 

[breezer]

1) its a gimmick thats not worth it for the domestic house, but i have a cheap experiment for you.
buy a solarlight and put it in the garden, how long does the light stay on fopr a few weeks after you brought it?

Yes a solar garden light is not your house, but in proprotion i bet the garden light will use less energy than your house will.

how much sun do we get this time of year? not much, lecy solar panels need a lot of bright sun to work

2) only the comedic value

3) no idea, because it doesnt pay.

if it did why do the company you link to offer so many other services? is it because solar does not pay?

as for a website, look at the latesty fiasco with lapland in the new forrest, website says its good, but its not

 

[^woody^]

The issue is ... why do you want a green roof? Are you also doing green construction in other parts of the building?

Even a sedum roof needs constructing, so, is the construction environmentally friendly too or no better than a tiled roof?

Solar panels are inefficient and expensive and if you are going green, then you need to allow for manufacturing etc.

The fact is that you will never get enough energy for a typical home from a solar set up in the UK. You may be better off looking into ground source heat pumps and/or other alternative or supplementary power sources.

IMO, if you go green, then you completely go green. No half measures, gestures or fads, or else what you think you are saving from the environment with a gesture, you put back by other means.

 

[Xenon]

Talk to these people for unbiased advice.

Dusty Gedge is passionate about this and knows all there is to know.

We install Green roofs of all types and have one various awards for them. But, and its a big but, thats on a commercial scale, domestic can get expensive.

We also fit solar panels, and recent advances see them much improved, with them now being able to return power to the National Grid, and the homeowner getting a credit, again, initial outlay takes a long time to return.

Grey water systems are another growth area worth looking into.

On a sidenote, the roofing co you linked to have an excellent site, but i've never heard of them, and i should have. I will make some enquiries out of curiosity.

 

[str]

On the solar panels issue, I had a company look at our roof as I had thought of installing solar PV panels to produce electricity.

Big outlay at the outset, so long time to recoup your initial costs and this is only if you can get the full power out of them.

Issues we had (and part of the reason why we are not proceeding with them) is that although our roof is fully south facing, at certain times of the year, trees at the bottom of the garden (quite a distance away) would cast some shadow over the panels with reduces the effectiveness of them drastically - the way I understand it, if you have a number of panels, they are linked to be one system, so shadow on a small part reduces the effectiveness across the whole system.

It was suggested to me that an alternative would be solar hot water, which is cheaper to install.

For either, you do not need bright sun to power them as post implied.

 

[2scoops0406]

The best way, and one that can potentially pay for itself quickly, and the one that has the highest availability is hydro electric, but then it's not practical unless you have access to a large volume of flowing water e.g. a river.

 

[CloakedVerger09]

Are really looking for a green roof, or do you want to reduce the energy used in your home?

Trying to take your questions one at a time.

Advantages - makes a contribution towards your energy needs which is, over a period of time, saving CO2 emmisions (can take up to 5 years to repay the energy which went into manufacturing it) depending on the type of unit.

Disadvantages - long payback periods, certainly not less than 10 years, more likely 15-20 years. Installation may also create water ingress problems unless installed with great deal of care.

Value in future - depends on how important this is to the next owner

Costs - PV approx £8 - 15k for a typical installation, depends on output (kwH)
- Solar Thermal (hot water) £3.5 - £7.5k depending on size of panels + new hot water cylinder (twin coil) and possible new boiler.

You should not consider installing renewables into your roof before making sure you've taken all the preceding steps (insulate the house, change to low energy bulbs & appliances, energy efficient boiler etc.) if you haven't done this adding renewables is pointless as you're wasting the energy they generate.

These guys know their stuff check them out (I have no affiliation with them) Sundog Energy - Penrith.

 

[mattylad]

Whats wrong with your existing roof?

If your referring to being environmentally friendly then if your existing roof is OK then don't mess with it.

 

[chappers]

well said that man. nothing environmentally friendly about ripping off aperfectly good roof no matter what you replace it with.

 

[xerxes]

According to the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, it can take over 200 years to recover the cost of installing solar panels.

As John Maynard Keynes said, in the long run we are all dead.

 

[noseall]

some buildings will be around for centuries.

 

[chappers]

but I doubt the original solar system will still be running then.
But having said that, even though I am far from being an environmentalist, it is strange how everyone looks at renewable enery in terms of payback time. virtually every thing else we buy is seen as disposable and we think how long it will last rather than when it will pay us back