Quote ="JerryChicken"Well you don't have to turn off the ones that aren't in use of course, and don't turn off the one that your alarm clock is plugged into.
I have a architect friend who designs some very expensive private villas on the more exclusive parts of The Algarve and I asked him a few months ago about solar power and why hardly any of the villas on the Vale do Lobo seem to have any form of solar panel, his reply was that none of the properties that he designs will ever have them as they look bloody awful and they are too inefficient to justify to his clients (not that his clients ever need to worry about their 'leccy bills).
I assumed he's done the research that an architect would be expected to do so for the time being I'm sticking with his opinion.'"
The unsightliness might not be that much of a problem in the future. There's talk that roof tiles will be made out of solar photovoltaic material eventually, so they'll look pretty much like a normal roof.
I've seen a couple of fairly impressive systems using ground source heat pumps, with solar panels providing 90% of the electricity to run the heat exchanger and heat pump, resulting in in a building with almost no energy bills, apart from the rather high cost of setting it up in the first place. Needs a very well insulated property and plenty of south facing roofspace for the solar panels though.
