Brian and Ruth Willis live near Oxford, England and have been heating their home for quite some time now completely free of charge using solar panels and batteries. This is something that more and more homeowners across Britain are switching to, and with the sale of Tesla’s Powerwall battery now going on across the country, that trend is likely to keep on going. But, the Willis’ have done it their own way, without the help of Elon Musk.
The Willis’ previously had the traditional style solar panels installed on their roof, which they used for about four years. Although this helped with electricity costs, they wanted something more. So, Mr. Willis, having been an electronics engineer, invented a system that would allow them to use solar energy to heat their home morning, day or night, pretty much free of charge.
The system itself consists of 12 solar panels that are positioned on the ground, in a south-facing manner to ensure the maximum amount of energy possible is captured in all weather. All the harvested energy is then stored in 28 12V batteries that are in a covered enclosure outside, giving it a total capacity of 37 kW-hours. But, that’s enough about the batteries.
Moving on to the 16 solar panels that can produce 4kW – these are what power and heat the house in the daytime. In the evening, the source of energy switches back over to the batteries. This system then allows 3kW usage for the evening.
As well as this intelligent solar/battery system, the Willis’ also have a wind turbine pitched on their land and a wood burning stove too, so are very much self-sufficient and have energy bills that most of us would give our right hand for. The system the Willis’ use, including the batteries, cost around £8,000 initially, but it’s pretty clear that it’s a sound investment when it has an expected life of at least 12 years for the batteries and 30 years for the panels.
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