Viridian Solar Announces Results of Monitoring Study

Most Realistic Performance Measurement of a Solar Panel

May 2007, Cambridge, UK. Viridian announces that it has completed a full year of testing of its innovative solar water heating product in its Automated Test House. Results were in line with expectations, and well ahead of the prediction from Part L of the Building Regulations.

Stuart Elmes, Chief Executive of Viridian said "This is the most realistic and representative test of a solar panel that has taken place in the UK. Previous tests such as the DTI side by side testing neglected to take into account the pattern of hot water use, and the effect of auxiliary heating."

"When you ask solar companies how much energy their product will save, they start to wave their arms around and say things like 'up to 70%'. Only Viridian Solar can point to credible independent test data such as this to underpin the performance of the product."

The Automated Test House ran a water use pattern according to the European standard for the average sized home. Over twelve months the solar panel added 1450kWh of heat energy to the hot water cylinder, accounting for 56% of the total energy supplied by solar and conventional heating.

The energy from solar was equivalent to gas with emissions of 281kgCO2 or electricity with emissions of 580kgCO2.

Web Links:

Automated Test House
Report on full year results (PDF 900kB)

DTI side by side testing of eight solar panels

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