One of the choices you will need to make when you install a Solar Hot Water system is how large the solar panels on your roof should be. On the one hand you want to make sure the system supplies enough hot water. On the other you don't want to pay unnecessary costs by having solar panels that are too large and so produce too much hot water.
The right size of panel depends on several things, like the number of people living in the house, how many bathrooms there are, where you are in the country, and what type of solar panels you are installing: evacuated tubes or flat panels.
Typical domestic installations in the UK are normally between 2 and 5 square metres. For a house with up to 4 or 5 occupants, a panel size of 3 to 5 square metres is normally recommended. A panel size of 2 square metres is normally only sufficient for a house of flat occupied by a couple of single person.
The table below can be used to roughly size the panels you will need. It is based on a system in the South of England, and allowing 50 litres of hot water per person per day. It is also based on a flat plate system: an evacuated tube system will require only about two thirds of the area in the table below.
|
Orientationof solar panels |
South | South-West | West | South East | East |
| No. People in the house | |||||
| 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 |
| 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 6 |
| 6 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 7 |
A qualified installer can tell you exactly the right size of panel to have installed. To obtain a proper sizing and quotation from our one of our qualified installation partners, follow this link to fill out an enquiry form.
