Solar photovoltaic (PV) panels capture the sun’s energy and convert it into electricity. By including solar battery storage as part of a home’s renewable energy set-up that power can be kept for use after dark. Including solar thermal technology – which provides hot water – goes a long way towards self-sufficiency and low utility bills.
Projects that prioritise renewable power generation WORDS EMILY BROOKS
1 OFF-GRID LIVING This cast concrete house by Craig Steely Architecture is on the north-eastern side of Big Island, Hawaii, USA, in a sea of waving grass. Built for a couple, it is off grid, with all the electrics, hot water and heating powered by PV panels and all of its water needs met by stored rainfall.
The 204sqm, two-bedroom home is mostly single storey, although there is also a lower-ground floor garage and living area, as well as a room for the ten batteries that store the electricity.
The house has a diamond-shaped cantilevered roof and an open courtyard at the centre. The 12.705kW array, designed and installed by Renewable Energy Services (renewablenergy.com), is ground-mounted on one side of the building, and tilts to optimise the amount of sunlight it captures. (craigsteely.com)
2 WHOLE-HOUSE APPROACH The energy-efficient retrofit of a two-storey 1950s house in Belsize Park, north London, saw the old gas boiler replaced with an air-source heat pump. There are also 14 PV panels, producing 4.2kW of power, and two solar thermal ones – all mounted on the roof. Together they provide heating and hot water all year round. The high levels of insulation and new triple glazing keep electricity bills at around £100 per month.
The 116sqm, three-bedroom house was remodelled by Sanya Polescuk Architects at a cost of £387,000, which included adding a timber-frame 9sqm kitchen extension with a large pivoting window. This freed up space where the old kitchen used to be at the front of the house for a utility room, the heat pump’s hot water cylinder and bike storage. (polescukarchitects.com)
3 HOT WATER PROVISION New Zealand architect Paul Davidson designed and built a 118sqm, two-bedroom house for himself, his wife Julia and their one-year-old son Luca. The two-storey home is in Waitakere Ranges Regional Park, Auckland, and echoes its woodland surrounding with its Monterey cypress timber frame and dark cedar-clad exterior. The nine PV panels on the roof have a 2.475kW capacity and are linked to the grid so any excess electricity can be exported. But most goes to heat a 270-litre hot water storage cylinder used for everyday washing and showering.
In keeping with the l
