The Solar Power experiment: Is it worth investing in solar power for your UK business?

Defer not till tomorrow to be wise, tomorrow's sun to thee may never rise.

Photo by Ilix

Every week we are recording a killowatt output figure, showing how much electricity the solar panel on our roof has generated. Our office is located in Wiltshire, in the South West of England. We’ve got one small solar panel installed on our roof, which heats our water.

In an effort to determine whether this investment will pay off we’re producing this live case study on our blog, which will eventually show when the savings pay for the initial investment. So stay tuned to find out what happens by subscribing to our blog.

The progress so far

This graph shows the week by week killowatt output of the solar panels.

Graph by www.pasi.fi/simple-graph-wordpress-plugin/

The y-axis shows the kilowatt output and the x-axis shows the date.

Solar Power reading for 25th March 2008

Tuesday, March 25th, 2008

This Tuesday’s the solar power is up to 267 kWh.

The weather today is a bit overcast

Official weather reports:

6°C, Cloudy. 55% humidity. Very good visability. Sunrise: 06:02, Sunset: 18:30 (BBC)

6°, Mostly Cloudy. 57% humidity. 9.99 km visibility. Sunrise: 6:00, Sunset: 18:31 (Yahoo)

Solar Power reading for 17th March 2008

Monday, March 17th, 2008

This Mondays the solar power is up to 226 kWh.

The weather today has been, grey and cloudy, much the same as all week.

Official weather reports:

3°, Fair. 75% humidity. 9.99 km visibility. Sunrise: 6:15, Sunset: 18:19 (Yahoo)

3°C, Cloudy. 75% humidity. Good visability. Sunrise: 06:19, Sunset: 18:17 (BBC)

Solar Power reading for 10th March 2008

Monday, March 10th, 2008

This Mondays the solar power is up to 202 kWh.

The weather today is stormy, windy and there has been heavy rain. We have had storms and powerful winds overnight and clouds cover most of the sky.

Official weather reports:

7°C, Cloudy/Windy. 81% humidity. 9.99 km visibility. Sunrise: 6:33, Sunset: 18:06. (Yahoo)

7°C, Showers. 81% humidity. 6 miles visability. Sunrise: 06:32, Sunset: 18:06. (MSN)

Solar Power reading for 3rd March 2008

Monday, March 3rd, 2008

This Mondays reading is up to 153 kWh.

The weather today is partially cloudy but the sun is shining.

4°C, Light Rain Shower. 75% humidity. 9.99 km visibility. Sunrise: 6:49. Sunset: 17:53. (Yahoo)

7°C, Cloudy. 58% humidity. Very good visability. Sunrise: 06:52. Sunset: 17:52. (BBC)

Solar Power reading for 25th February 2008

Monday, February 25th, 2008

The solar power reading for today is 117 KWH.

The weather today is overcast.

The official weather for today in Trowbridge is:

8° C, Cloudy. 71% humidity. 9.99km visibility. Sunrise: 7:04. Sunset 17:41. (Yahoo!).

9° C, Mostly Cloudy. 71% humidity. 6 miles visibility. Sunrise: 07:03. Sunset: 17:41. (MSN).