Does anyone out there have experience with redoing the Roof with Solar Panels?
Any advice would be a great help,Thanks

Not directly, but a friend added them to his roof by himself with the help of an association. Apparently not a very difficult DIY.

Also read recently that Ikea will begin selling the panels with the option of using their installers like with other products.

I also heard that the may be an official subsidy for fitting solar panels.
Afraid I don't know details, and may only be hearsay, but worth looking into.

This weekend I was shopping in Jumbo and I saw they sell solar panels... Can be worth looking into.



Jumbo-Markt AG (Zentrale)
Industriestrasse 34
8305 Dietlikon, Switzerland

And even Ikea is getting into the game.

We are thinking of taking away the tiles on the Roof and doing it all with Panels, so quite a big Job I would think.
That why I wondered if anyone had heard any good or bad reports

I read reviews that in Switzerland it's quite badly efficient-
Ie the cost of the entire thing VS the "savings" made on electricity are very very bad.

Apparently it's also due to any excess of electricity produced was supposed to be purchased at a decent price by Electricities companies, but in fact they hardly pay .10chf /KW
(can't find the links)

Here there are pros and cons (lot of cons):
http://translate.google.com/translat...ts-rentabilite

I have also seen a map showing how in Switzerland we are mostly in a medium- average low area for using Solar energy. Better zones are obviously south, from Mediterranea to Spain, etc...

It means that we don't get so much sun to produce a lot of electricity.

That can also be moderated by were you live, if you live in a covered area, well, you are screwed- If neighbors built something high covering the sun, you are screwed, etc...


So I think based on the above and a lot of different readings, that it's a good idea but in practice it costs and lot, is not super efficient in Switzerland.

Maybe it should be used more like a minor complement for less demanding devices?

From what I have seen, there are "hooks" that go under the tiles to fix the panels to the roof. I think the idea is to leave the tiles as they protect the roof.

Get a professional installer to give you some insight into what would be the most suitable panel for your roof. They will generally also take care of the maintenance, in case you should require some.

That also has to do with the energy mix in Switzerland.

In Germany for example, where there are still lots of plants that burn dirty lignite coal (all the more so now, as they are cutting off nuclear power), there are lots of ecological arguments going for solar, even when its inefficient.

In Switzerland, where hydro power makes up a large part of the mix, while being arguably greener than solar while also cheaper, there's not really the same motivation to go down the solar road.

WE have to redo the Roof so thought we would look into it

We are currently exploring energy solutions so here are a couple of links to share.

Das Gabaeudeprogramm applications for subsidies according to canton Zurich

HEV Schweiz Energie page. Lots of good articles and links regarding house building and renovations.

I know of a firm that does beautiful whole roof panels, will send the firm info later as I canät recall the name off the top of my head.

We had 6 square meters of solar panels installed this summer on our roof. They are not for generating electricity but supplementing the hot water system.

It's not really a wise investment but it is a nice hobby. My quick calculations show that they probably won't pay for themselves for 15 years. That probably could have been brought down to 10 years if I would have installed them myself and sourced the components from outside Switzerland. Of course the components probably won't last that long so I don't anticipate ever recouping the installation expense.

Unless you are talking about some sort of battery, which just recently hit the market, then there are almost no components produced in Switzerland and the quality mostly depends from what company you plan to purchase them from.

That oughta be something really really high to put you in total darkness and prevent solar generation...

I am also impressed by the sheer quality of the site you linked to. Not only they say cargo ships are polluting because they run on heavy fuel (never mind their two-stroke diesels are probably far less polluting than a scooter engine) but they claim nuclear fission generates CO2 same as burning hydrocarbons and coal

Long live internet science.

Have recently looked into this (Vaud) via a specialist company based in Geneva. They would be responsible for all administration and installation.

The equipment is all German manufactured (solar panel + converter + battery). The equipment costs are subsided by the Federal Gov. and the installation can be claimed back as house improvements via income tax. The power produced reduces overall electricity costs (non-heating in our case). With the subsidies and reduction in use of external source, I estimate that will take 8 years to reclaim costs so benefits are marginal, but it does partially insure against rising costs from the Swiss grid and I like the technology.

No direct experience of installing solar panels but do check wih your commune/gemeinde first. You may need permission to install them, you certainly do here but I suppose the rules vary depending on where you live.

ha I have not even read that site, just gave a quick link
So it's unreliable source, even for me-I just glanced and saw a few "cons" and select it-

In fact the 2 sources I had seen before were one law suit in Switzerland because some landlord had some building built just close to their solar panel house and allegedly it screwed significantly their "efficiency".

The other one was some comments about a Swiss politician specialized in the energy field who was commenting on how ashamed he was that a person had purchased solar panel trying to go "full solar". They were showing how the investment is bad, how the energy provider lied by pretending they will purchase the extra energy for a decent price, while in fact they purchase it like .10CHFKW and resell then at 0.90CHFKW, etc...

They were both more reliable sources.


Also, the map of "how efficient" your solar panel will be seems to be genuine, I have seen it on a few professional websites. They clearly state that if you are in that zone, it will be producing less energy, in average, due to less direct sun light or something- They were showing on you get more energy if you live in Spain, for example, than in Switzerland. That seems reliable and understandable, unless these solar panels capture the light which goes through clouds....


So at the end I still read a lot of more reliable sources which say that it's costly and not to invest a quick return on investment VS the relatively short life of those panels-

We are thinking about doing something similar for our outdoor pool to keep it from being too cold in Sept/Oct/Nov. But we are in Spain, so only need to raise the temp 5-10°c. Did you find your plans on the internet? Interested to know what you have done.

fduvall

We have fixed solar panels (this summer) ostensibly for heating the pool but we are told that even in these northern climes, there will be excess capacity which can be directed towards the household hot water system throughout the year.

There were federal subsidies, cantonal subsidies and subsidy from the town meaning that the price became rather reasonable and from the forward calculations (I work for an environmental consultancy so they modelled some pretty detailed figures for me) we anticipate the system paying for itself within 10 years. System lifespan is 20 plus.