This should have been happening for years, unfortunately though, people already complain homes are too expensive, so adding another £10k isn’t going to help
As a person who has solar panels, adding them to each individual house is really wasteful, in the duplication of inverters and batteries. A combined array supplying multiple homes would be a far more effective solution, however that would not float well with home owners I imagine. Im sure there is a way to make it work, but each property having its own system is very costly in terms of materials and cash when there is the opportunity to do this better.
Surprised this isn’t already mandated in some way. New homes should probably be built with heat pumps in mind as well
You wouldn’t even have to make it mandatory. You could maybe cut stamp duty if your property has solar panels installed and confirmed to be working when it’s surveyed. Solar panels, double glazing, lots of insulation, all cutting a small amount from stamp duty up to like 80% maybe?
We should require parking lots to be covered with panels instead.
Massive open spaces that do nothing but hold vehicles and would benefit from the cover from rain, and shade in summer for drivers/shoppers.
I’m not saying to make the supermarket or property owner pay for it, but they should facilitate some provider installing them.
Yup, include water collection , heat pumps and modern insulation to the requirements.
It’s actually bonkers how this easy win has been ignored for so long.
It’s going to have to happen due to grid constraint particularly in the South. Grid constraints are only for mere mortals though, doesn’t apply so much to Prime Minister’s houses it seems.
Our local Labour party has been campaigning for this but the conservative council throw it out at first glance.
Agreed – if all new homes were built with solar panels, air source heat pumps, underfloor heating and good insulation then running costs would be absolutely minimal and also would not rely on any gas for heating. These things are stupidly expensive to retrofit into an existing property but can be designed in from new at minimal cost – property price may be higher but lower utility bills would offset higher mortgage payments.
I would add commercial buildings too, all these massive distribution centres and industrial estates popping up and hardly a panel in sight.
Why the hell isn’t it already.
At bare minimum all new builds should have solar, rain water recovery, heat pumps, tripple glasing and significantly higher insulation standards.
“Oh but it costs too much” is a damn weak argument when the profit margin on new builds is so high.
Also, people going for the cost argument – stop using the off the shelf price for 1 home having something retrofitted. Making it a requirement means the big house builders have dedicated teams, and suppliers – that significantly reduces the costs, especially if its planned into the fabric of the building.
They should be on every suitable roof as part of a national infrastructure project.
It sounds sensible to me, we need to do something about the forthcoming crisis of energies.
I agree with her, but we also need to stop the enslavement of children who mine the materials for them.
I have solar panels, I love my solar panels and I’d encourage anyone with a suitable space to get solar panels.
It seems like requiring them on new builds would be a good idea but not every house / roof is suitable for solar. Orientation, slope, shading, roof lights, dormas, vents and flues can make an install completely impractical / unproductive.
This would work great for some people but would leave some buyers paying for a solar system which will never pay itself back.
I remember talking to a energy consultant at my last job who drew a line from Liverpool across the country and said ‘there is no point in Solar above that’, then we pushed ahead with a massive installation in Scotland.
Solar should be deployed where payback makes the most sense, it costs carbon to make the panels, if deploying in Spain gets 4X the energy why should we ever stick them up here, it’s stupid and pathetic signalling.
As I understand it, they are basically compulsory now if you have gas anyway.
Super idea to just say it, at the moment you can avoid them with other sustainable heating methods.
But yeah, they are already fairly mandatory.
Anything to make new homes more expensive to build, right? What’s an extra 10K to a first-time buyer?
Mass adoption of micro-generation sounds like quite an inefficient way to increase our share of solar. Is it not faster to install them in solar farms in industrial quantities.
oh great, further increasing the price. Just give me gas boilers and gas supply instead of this nonsense
This should be extended to rental and sales to speed up the transition. Want to rent or sell a property? Hit passive house insulation standard or fit solar.
This is one of those “only time will tell” situations. In principle is a good idea but in action it will fall prey to the normal problems.
Integrated Solar Systems are the obvious way to go due to no yearly maintenance and being safer overall but the raised ones (unfortunately the one you will inevitably see the most of as they are cheaper. Like the one in the picture on this article) require a lot more maintenance to keep running effectively as well as additional safety features (I was once asked for a metal membrane that could be installed behind a raised system to prevent fire in case of a bad failure. I would like to hear from any actual solar installers/engineers if this is a common thing or this particular chap was just being over-careful?).
All solar systems have a max guarantee of 10 years. Marley’s Solar Tile can be extended to 15 years if used as part of their full system spec but even then its not really that long considering the type of equipment we are talking about. Part L has already made it so that Solar Panels are a viable way of achieving the values required but house builders will just go for the cheapest option.
22 comments
This should have been happening for years, unfortunately though, people already complain homes are too expensive, so adding another £10k isn’t going to help
As a person who has solar panels, adding them to each individual house is really wasteful, in the duplication of inverters and batteries. A combined array supplying multiple homes would be a far more effective solution, however that would not float well with home owners I imagine. Im sure there is a way to make it work, but each property having its own system is very costly in terms of materials and cash when there is the opportunity to do this better.
Surprised this isn’t already mandated in some way. New homes should probably be built with heat pumps in mind as well
You wouldn’t even have to make it mandatory. You could maybe cut stamp duty if your property has solar panels installed and confirmed to be working when it’s surveyed. Solar panels, double glazing, lots of insulation, all cutting a small amount from stamp duty up to like 80% maybe?
We should require parking lots to be covered with panels instead.
Massive open spaces that do nothing but hold vehicles and would benefit from the cover from rain, and shade in summer for drivers/shoppers.
I’m not saying to make the supermarket or property owner pay for it, but they should facilitate some provider installing them.
Yup, include water collection , heat pumps and modern insulation to the requirements.
It’s actually bonkers how this easy win has been ignored for so long.
It’s going to have to happen due to grid constraint particularly in the South. Grid constraints are only for mere mortals though, doesn’t apply so much to Prime Minister’s houses it seems.
Our local Labour party has been campaigning for this but the conservative council throw it out at first glance.
Agreed – if all new homes were built with solar panels, air source heat pumps, underfloor heating and good insulation then running costs would be absolutely minimal and also would not rely on any gas for heating. These things are stupidly expensive to retrofit into an existing property but can be designed in from new at minimal cost – property price may be higher but lower utility bills would offset higher mortgage payments.
I would add commercial buildings too, all these massive distribution centres and industrial estates popping up and hardly a panel in sight.
Why the hell isn’t it already.
At bare minimum all new builds should have solar, rain water recovery, heat pumps, tripple glasing and significantly higher insulation standards.
“Oh but it costs too much” is a damn weak argument when the profit margin on new builds is so high.
Also, people going for the cost argument – stop using the off the shelf price for 1 home having something retrofitted. Making it a requirement means the big house builders have dedicated teams, and suppliers – that significantly reduces the costs, especially if its planned into the fabric of the building.
They should be on every suitable roof as part of a national infrastructure project.
It sounds sensible to me, we need to do something about the forthcoming crisis of energies.
I agree with her, but we also need to stop the enslavement of children who mine the materials for them.
I have solar panels, I love my solar panels and I’d encourage anyone with a suitable space to get solar panels.
It seems like requiring them on new builds would be a good idea but not every house / roof is suitable for solar. Orientation, slope, shading, roof lights, dormas, vents and flues can make an install completely impractical / unproductive.
This would work great for some people but would leave some buyers paying for a solar system which will never pay itself back.
I remember talking to a energy consultant at my last job who drew a line from Liverpool across the country and said ‘there is no point in Solar above that’, then we pushed ahead with a massive installation in Scotland.
Solar should be deployed where payback makes the most sense, it costs carbon to make the panels, if deploying in Spain gets 4X the energy why should we ever stick them up here, it’s stupid and pathetic signalling.
https://i.imgur.com/lgc1AtA.jpg
As I understand it, they are basically compulsory now if you have gas anyway.
Super idea to just say it, at the moment you can avoid them with other sustainable heating methods.
But yeah, they are already fairly mandatory.
Anything to make new homes more expensive to build, right? What’s an extra 10K to a first-time buyer?
Mass adoption of micro-generation sounds like quite an inefficient way to increase our share of solar. Is it not faster to install them in solar farms in industrial quantities.
oh great, further increasing the price. Just give me gas boilers and gas supply instead of this nonsense
This should be extended to rental and sales to speed up the transition. Want to rent or sell a property? Hit passive house insulation standard or fit solar.
This is one of those “only time will tell” situations. In principle is a good idea but in action it will fall prey to the normal problems.
Integrated Solar Systems are the obvious way to go due to no yearly maintenance and being safer overall but the raised ones (unfortunately the one you will inevitably see the most of as they are cheaper. Like the one in the picture on this article) require a lot more maintenance to keep running effectively as well as additional safety features (I was once asked for a metal membrane that could be installed behind a raised system to prevent fire in case of a bad failure. I would like to hear from any actual solar installers/engineers if this is a common thing or this particular chap was just being over-careful?).
All solar systems have a max guarantee of 10 years. Marley’s Solar Tile can be extended to 15 years if used as part of their full system spec but even then its not really that long considering the type of equipment we are talking about. Part L has already made it so that Solar Panels are a viable way of achieving the values required but house builders will just go for the cheapest option.