Loan at last

It only took twice as long as they said it would, but Energy Saving Scotland (ESS) finally approved my loan. It made for an interesting morning. I phoned ESS first thing and enquired about my application that had thus far taken twice as long as it should have. The lady at the other end informed me that a letter had been sent out yesterday and that approval had been given. Yay!

I then phoned Installation Company and decided to go down to their premises and chat directly. During this visit, various things were learned and a few issues came up. One was the availability of the Topsola panels that we had been quoted for. End of May was their earliest date. An alternative panel they can supply is made by Sharp but they have a different aspect ratio - short and fat instead of long and thin. There was doubt whether they would fit on the roof. A chap is coming out at teatime to check the roof's dimensions. In the meantime, I did a bit of measuring myself.

I reckon the roof pitch is 9.6 by 4.6 metres. If an 8 by 2 array of Sharp panels was set up in portrait orientation, with a further 4 panels arranged in landscape orientation along the bottom, that would give an array of 8 by 3.6 metres - well within the roof's edges and it allows for the 200 mm of roof space that has to be left all around. The question is whether the cabling of this layout would be acceptable. I'll ask the chap when he gets here. Another issue with layout is to leave enough room for a solar thermal array in the future.

Next is the availability of inverters. The Sunny Boy 3300 model I was quoted for is currently difficult to get hold of. They can supply a much larger inverter from another manufacturer. Now originally, I had thought it best to have the inverter and meter under the stairs. However, it was pointed out that it might be better to have it in the loft. The shorter cable run to the meter means fewer power losses before it gets metered for payment of the Feed-in Tariff (FiT). If so, I could maybe accommodate the large inverter.

If the generation meter goes up in the loft, there is the issue of gathering readings from it. For the purposes of metering for the FiTs payments, access to the meter only needs to be gained every few months. However, I'm a technophile who loves his spreadsheets and I'd want a reading every evening. There are various options.

1. Sunny Beam. This expensive kit (over £350) is only available for the Sunny Boy inverters and I may end up not getting one of those.

2. Wireless energy monitor. For between £30 and £45, these will send readings to a desktop unit based on their own measurements of power flow from the inverter. Their chief disadvantage in my head is they are likely to give a different reading from the meter that will be used for the payment of the Feed-in Tariff (FiT). I'd prefer to know the readings that reflect the money.

3. Wireless webcam. This is a daft, but wonderfully workable idea that came to me. Wireless webcams like this one link into the house WiFi system. They have their own webserver software built in. If one could be set up peering permanently at the FiT meter, I can gather a reading from it when I like. Appropriate LED lighting would have to be set up, as would a mains power feed.

By the time we got home, the postie had delivered the ESS letter about the loan. Happy days.