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The panels are not optimum south facing but they do get direct sun for part of the day in winter and all the day in summer. The acid test is that during the gloom they produced circa 40W each but yesterday with a period of sun and then mixture of cloud and hazy sun they produced 260 to 280W each so seven times as much.

I forgot to mention. I love your kite turbines and loads of great information on your RUclips channel www.youtube.com/@KiteTurbine

@@MrJonesDIY thank you . Crikey. if only I had them installed all the time like your solar. Must record an update on progress soon. Thanks again

Totally agree.

Indeed there are many ways to store energy but it would be a daunting task to execute some of them and the cost would result in significantly higher energy bills. ED Milliband plans to close all gas power stations in five years so my question to him would be to show us a detailed plan for the new sources of energy that are independent of sun and wind.

Bought it from BPS and it has been a life saver. So simple to put up and incredibly stable for something so light. I can push it around on my own.

The orb has arrived and power is coming out of my panels. Happy days!

Totally agree and I believe that high energy prices are already causing this to happen. in my case I am trying to generate more power in conjunction with draft proofing and insulation. Thermostats down to 21C in our main living area and no heating upstairs apart from a quick blast of gas central heating to make the morning routine more bearable.

The stated aim of Mr Milliband is energy security and he has repeated this many times. Which would be most secure whilst we transition to green energy, using our own resources or importing fossil fuels? Using gas from our own doorstep or transporting it half way round the world in ships? At the moment we definitely need both gas and nuclear plus imported electricity and yes I did mention France and nuclear power. Importing power is not energy security and recently a number of French nuclear power stations were out of action for upgrade and due to design faults. The gloomy windless weather affected a large swathe of Europe. The sun may well be out in Spain but until they have a surplus of solar energy to sell and until the cables are run/upgraded and until we sort out our own national grid, it is all rather meaningless. Strangely I do not read either of the papers that you mention because the information they provide is of dubious quality and all about headlines. I hate the oil giants with a passion, I hate the fact that they profit when world events curtail the availability of both gas and oil. Their profits are obscene and the money is made from some of the poorest people in the country. In my own way, I am also a proud eco warrior, installing solar, cutting my energy usage, trying to insulate this big draughty house and wearing outdoor clothes right now because my office is cold. The difference is that I believe that we need to transition as quickly as possible but not turn our backs on the energy resources we have in order to remain energy secure during that transition. You refer to me as being stupid. Stupid would be to follow a policy that results in power cuts, putting lives at risk, whilst dependable storage or other sources of renewable energy come on stream. I don't think you are stupid, I think you are passionate about the environment but non technical members of parliament could lead us to a situation where the lights really do go out. Remember it is our wonderful governments over decades that failed to invest in clean energy and the national grid infrastructure. My faith in them making the right decisions now is minimal.

Well done. Using less electricity is rarely a part of the discussion, but it should be a key focus. I also enjoy those cooler days, just by putting on some warmer clothes or using a blanket ("heat the person, not the space"). Many of us could also use less lighting just by going to sleep earlier and waking up earlier. (Lighting can be very energy efficient these days, but this is just another example of how we can adjust our behaviours to reduce our reliance on electricity, often with no real sacrifice).

I have been interested in the lack of capacity in the national grid because it is a ridiculous situation to have wind power available but not be able to use it. The government said in May this year "In a report published today, the Environmental Audit Committee concludes that many planned renewable energy projects are being hampered by persistent problems accessing the electricity grid. These include slow connections, limited capacity, inappropriate planning regulations and market uncertainty." The report also states that net zero is at risk due to the limitations of the grid and th length of time it will take to install pylons and a subsea cable. In 2023 the National Grid paid wind farm operators £215 millioin to shut down turbines due to a lack of grid capacity to accept the power generated.

@@MrJonesDIY So, is your solution for the future more fossil fuel, or that we upgrade the National Grid? You definitely seem to come down in favour of oil billionnaires at the expense of the rest of us

@@Neilhuny I believe in moving away from fossil fuels as quickly as possible but not having unrealistic targets that will result in power outages and incredibly high energy costs that hit the already disadvantaged the hardest. I worked in the oil industry and I saw the incredible inefficiency that is hidden by the high energy prices. I would far prefer nuclear as the transition energy until storage methods for green energy make it viable as a primary source.

@@RegEdmunds lights are definitely on but only because of gas, nuclear and importing electricity.

Tidal power seems like an excellent solution especially as the tides occur at different times around the country. There was a plan to build one in Swansea but it did not happen. Wave power seems to be difficult and most have ended up being damaged.

@@MrJonesDIY Not at all, another useless renewable source of expensive power. There is no worse environment than the sea to install mechanical devices. Again asynchronous (See my earlier post)

One big trouble with hydro and tidal is the devastation caused to the environment and local wildlife. Scotland is full of hydro built before environmental concerns were a thing. And yet when you look at the power produced it's negligible on a country-wide scale. The Severn barrier has not being built despite being considered for nearly my entire life (60 years) because it will cause massive damage and just doesn't make sense from an energy producing point of view. Far better to install 10x the number of turbines in the North Sea - each one, btw, is creating a new habitat for sea creatures. All suitable buildings the the UK should install local solar PV. It's so cheap and such a no-brainer. Massive battery storage to take us through a period of dull days, interconnects to help balance the load and a couple of gas powered powerstations to be used once or twice a year to provide emergency energy.

If you do the calculations on gravity energy storage systems you'll find the physics doesn't really work. The formula is E = mass x height x gravity. For example, you can estimate the mass of your house, use 10m/s/s for gravity and work out how high you'd have to lift your house up on stilts every day so that when it drops you could generate electricity. Your house (on average) weighs (has a mass of) 50 tonnes so 50000(kg) * 10 (g) * 1 (metre) - 500,000 joules. Sounds a lot but that's only 0.14kWhours. So to get a day's worth of energy (shall we say 14kWhrs) you'd need to drop your house 100 metres.

@@iareid8255 Wave power has not been a success and the sea has managed to destroy a number of the experimental devices. Tidal power however can be more benign. I am thinking of Cardiff where the bay is no longer affected by the tide because of the sea wall and released when vessels leaving the locks. There are however other issues such as fish that move up and down with the tides.

It is great to find so many like minded people. My system is set so that it does not export and rather it will reduce the power generated. To be honest this has not happened because the water heating mops up all the excess in the summer and batteries will take care of the rest when I install them. I hate British Gas with a passion and wish I had more land so that I could have a small wind turbine as well.

Oh dear Norman, even old age pensioners have feelings. I only realised how boring I can be and how much extra weight I am carrying since making videos. I have noticed a distressing side effect of excessive DIY. Builders bum!

Until efficient power storage on a truly colossal scale is possible then wind and solar will remain a support act for fossil and nuclear power.

Interconnects and even even more wind turbines and solar are required. Anything but anything is better and more cost effective than £47billion going into producing 3.2GW of nuclear power (new Hinkley). You think that's going to keep the lights on?

@@MrJonesDIY Storage is not the answer, abandoning the dead end that is renewables for grid supply is. There is more to running a stable and reliable grid than pure capacity. Renewables fall into the category of asynchronous generators which basically means they follow frequency but contribute nothing to ensure that it is kept in strict limits. Since we have steadily reduced coal generation to nothing, gas is all we have left to keep the grid in supply and demand balance. It is the backbone of the grid and we reduce it at our peril and risk extensive power failures.

@@iareid8255 Storage will help if/when we come to the point where wind solar etc provide in excess of the whole countries electricity demand on occasions. I do however agree and the path being taken to ignore UK gas and oil resources and instead import is ludicrous.

@@MrJonesDIY an interesting paper by Dr Capel Aris shows just how low wind output is the norm and high output very rare, 20% or less for twenty weeks in a year, just over one week in a year at 80% or greater. The availability factor says it all, i.e. about 33% for offshore wind. Not only that wind and solar generators' output deteriorates steadily with time, such that some wind farms are uneconomic for their operator after fifteen years. (When the subsidy ends)

The last coal power station closed down a few weeks ago even though it had been upgraded and was well within its life expectancy. Each of my solar panels made approx 40 Watts yesterday so basically nothing. The media stops reporting when the facts do not support their beliefs.

I can only assume from your comment that we have an infinite supply of gas/oil to burn. Coal is the dirtiest and the least efficient fuel to burn. Huge efforts have been made to clean up coal emmissions and it's still there. There has to be an alternative.

We have in this country an infinite amount of coal but we choose to buy it from Australia, Poland etc which just by transporting it is not green. The coal cleaning is a lot more efficient than transporting it. Gas is not infinite and neither is oil. Our politicians, Ed Miliband, talk up green policies but if this country disappeared off of the face of the planet tomorrow, it would have no impact on so called global warming. I am glad you were able to reply, as without green alternatives you would probably have no power with which to charge your phone😂

@@JohnnyMotel99 Its not infinite but we need something to keep the lights on until a method of storage for clean but intermittent power is found. I am not suggesting coal powered stations but we will need gas for some considerable period of time.

@@MrJonesDIY Look up green energy storage before you embarrass yourself even more. (Note, none of these meet your IMMEDIATE requirements; make it worthwhile and they will: market forces, baby. Not Daily Mail bollocks) Batteries Thermal Mechanical Pumped hydro Hydrogen

Iceland takes full advantage but there are drawback such as Volcanoes in the back garden. Only joking and I believe there is a geothermal project in the south of England. I don't think a hand auger from Amazon would get me deep enough.

@ this will take years, IF it works. Oil fracking tech is being adapted to provide much more geologically & geographically flexible geothermal power. It’s promising enough that some US coal power plant operators are planning pilot projects. Idea is new geothermal at Coal plant locations to re-use their existing grid ties and even turbines. Have to see If it’s cheap enough to drive a market wedge between utilities and fossil fuel companies. Operating costs for grid scale geothermal have always been prohibitive. 🤞🏼I think there is a project in Germany and maybe one in China as well.

If the £47billion that's being wasted building Hinkley c was used to improve drilling technology for geothermal we'd be far better off and it probably be sooner than the white elephant nuclear 3.2GW (max) that hinkley going to produce. Keep the old coal and gas plants but drill down for the energy source. It's not rocket science - it's easier.

I like you, you're funny👍

After spending my life travelling and living in different countries, I am absolutely loving being home with my family and doing my DIY. Thanks for your comment most appreciated.

And my memories of childhood in West Wales are of endless hot sunny summer days. Unfortunately i think my memory is rather selective.

Timely comment because I was going to work out how many panels I could possibly squeeze onto my roof and garden but I am pretty sure it will still not be enough for winter when we most need the power. i love solar and summer days using next to nothing from the grid means that I have saved a cushion of money to get us through the winter months. I plan to have a separate off grid system for emergencies because I fear that the lights will go out.

I assume by real green energy you mean having to turn back on loads of coal power plants because the renewable alone just wasn't cutting it

i don't have many kilowatts left in me!

Chinese diesel heaters are brilliant! They chuck out lots of heat, are cheap to run, and they pollute🙃

@@barriewilliams4526 I have three wood burning stoves even if the government tells us that the particulates emitted are worse than a diesel car.

This is a point that many do not understand, the backup that needs to be fossil fules or nuclear has to be 100% of the whole countries peak load. This is never mentioned by the likes of Ed Milliband.

@@MrJonesDIY We still have to pay for them to be on standby too!

@@JamieW-o7b Milliband never mentioned any of this and most of the public are unaware.

I take your point but if a politician was to say. "Look we know we need to embrace clean renewable energy but we have to be practical and ensure that we do not run out of energy with dire consequences for the lives of people and industry. Therefore we will exploit the oil and gas resources within this country in order to secure our energy supplies until such time as renewables or more important the storage of power becomes practical. We will also fast track awarding contracts for mini nuclear power stations ensuring RR are one of the two chosen." Instead we are turning our back on our resources and buying them elsewhere and causing even greater polution. The LNG we rely on is carried on ships that also pollute and of course there are the losses and refrigerants that have to be used. We are either being lied to or the the people making the decisions do not understand the basics. Wind and solar will not sustain this country and relying on France and others for our electricity is anything but secure.

@@MrJonesDIY I think the right answer is probably to drill for the gas, but tax carbon in general, build lots of wind and solar, because we are going to have to overbuild wind and solar by a factor of 3 or 4 anyway, at which point when it is windy or sunny power is extremely cheap, and industries will develop that can turn on or off quickly like green hydrogen and or storage. There still isn't really an incentive to build storage as there is rarely surplus power. I am not saying don't build nuclear, but it seems to be so slow that we aren't going to get much built at huge cost, and the UK is about the best location for nuclear except possibly Germany, and Japan as we are a long way north so solar doesn't work in the winter and densely populated.

@@daveansell1970 I think the carbon tax would be a good way to go and old people could get their heating allowance back. My plan is to overbuild on the house with so many panels that in all conditions there will be some meaningful power. With the Viridian panels and the Enphase microinverters they do generate in low light levels.

@@MrJonesDIY Totally, give poorer people the money so they could spend it on energy, or they may choose to spend it on something else. You probably also want to use some of the money it takes in for insulation, and or very cheap loans for insulation against energy bills. I would very much like to install a load of panels and overinstall them as they are so cheap at the moment, though I would have to somehow gain either time or money to achieve this. I am not sure if it makes sense to use microinverters at the moment, or just slap on 30% extra panels.

Fair comment. Trump however will, rightly or wrongly have a major effect on the US approach to green energy as he is not a great believer. Expect a lot more fracking and reliance on fossil fuels.

Good riddance.

Thanks for the follow. Much appreciated. This morning I am in the cold and drizzle putting in a concrete doorstep and so far its not going so well. This is all part of the energy system because batteries and electronics will eventually go in those spaces and they need to be weathertight.

This is something that I will cover in a final video because it is not necessarily the method I will use for the other side of the roof. The seal at the top is created by self adhesive EPDM under the tiles and almost up to the ridge and inserted into the groove meant for the Viridian flashing. The exisiting rubber seal needs to be removed but this is an easy process. I also ran a bead of black adhesive sealant along the top as belt and braces. Most important is to cover all surfaces with the EPDM primer because the adhesion is then incredible. For the joint between panels and it is a small gap, I ran a bead of translucent silicon (unibond) and that would probably be sufficient but I will be covering it in a strip of thin ,uncured EPDM as well. The garage is totally dry and because the panels are close to the ridge the water does not build up an flow over the panels and it escapes either end.

@@MrJonesDIY Many thanks Steve With your consent I'll stand on your shoulders. I'm sure a great result will ensue. For the vertical joint I was thinking along similar lines but I may fit a circa 30 mm wide piece of 0.6 mm aluminium into the two rubber seals before I run the bead of silicon. In the event of a very small ingress I believe the overall breathable membrane will keep the building fabric nice and dry.

@@boldford I did consider using aluminium between and only decided against because I had no space for any gaps between the panels. It would certainly provide additional protection.

I bought the tower from BPS and it is excellent. I have four stabilisers and it is rock solid.

@@MrJonesDIY Great - thank you!

There is no part 6 but what I plan to do is provide one succinct video that details the whole process and also is a form of lessons learned i.e. what I would do differently next time. The roof is a huge success and we are using the conservatory as a room and the doors and window to our kitchen are left open so we now have a large warm living space. What started as a method of avoiding having to demolish it and have nothing turned into a great living space that is affordable to heat.

@@MrJonesDIY that sounds great could you let me know when me know when you will do that and could you tell me how to remove the centre decorative victorian trim if you had one ?

@@colinmetcalf1994 I will put the video together in the next two weeks. The pretend Victorian trim was just stuck in place with silicon and was easy to remove. Other plastic at the ridge I just cut with a multitool. I use a Bosch and it was a lifesaver for cutting the plastic and even shortening the aluminium beams.

thanks that sounds easy enough@@MrJonesDIY

I love the way it looks and I keep glancing at it from the upstairs windows. I have had a lot of fun and most importantly Mrs Jones likes it. I will indeed video when it next rains heavily. We have already had thunder downpours and it has remained bone dry inside.

Thanks. What is most important is that Mrs Jones likes the roof.

Will have a look tonight. Literally run our of energy this afternoon. Most of the time I don't feel 68 but today I do.

Good idea and I shoule be looking at ways to make the job easier.

There have been occasions when I have felt like doing just that but then I look at the cost and the fact that two neighbouring houses have new roofs and the companies back and forth trying to resolve leaks puts me off.

Yesterday was not an easy day and I did not restrict my intake to one beer. Typically I managed to solve the misalignment issue in a few minutes this morning. I am just down from the roof now for a cup of tea and then will get back up there until the light goes. There are a number of things I will do differently on the other side and I will go into that in a sort of lessons learned. Basically I would use thin aluminium into the Viridian seal as well EPDM to take the water away from the panels. I may even put EPDM under the panels and use cable glands down into the garage so water passing underneath would not be an issue.

​@@MrJonesDIY That's a great plan with the glands and the extra EPDM. You can also fill the glands with silicone once they're installed and tight around the cables to add an additional layer of protection. If they clamp onto the EPDM you don't need the rubber washer on that side, but may see benefits if you put said washer on the underside instead 👍

There is only a small area above the panels to gather water so it should disperse down the right and left hand sides. If there is a downpour, hail or snow and it builds up then it will flow over the top of the panels. The EPDM is in the slot and the roof tiles are laid onto the EPDM tight up to the panels. Yep I should have known better. I may add a further strip of uncured EPDM just as belt and braces approach.

The weather is horrendous so I think it will be Thursday before I can make more progress.

It's been good experience and a lot learned. If I was starting again I would use a mixture of cheap thin aluminium that is simple to form and also EPDM. That will be the plan for the main roof. I think Madonna may have slipped out of her groove!

Unfortunately the conservatory is pretty much north facing and loses all sunlight from the end to September onwards. The house has huge roofs facing in all directions so as soon as I can get some south facing panels up right at the top I will do so. There is a sort of cavity wall but I had not thought about blocking it. Future project! I will continue working on this but keep in mind the need for vapour barriers and/or ventilation to prevent damp. Thanks for the comment. Really appreciated.

It would probably be sufficient to use high quality exterior clear or black silicon but in addition I am going to use a strip of uncured self adhesive black EPDM. I will cover this in a future video

​@@MrJonesDIY Keep in mind that clear silicone holds better and longer than other kinds, as it's not "watered down" with dyes. Although I don't know how it behaves in UV light over a long time. Black may well be your best bet there.

I hope it stops raining tomorrow so I can get back to it.

I will do some research for the best sealant to use and as you mention the top and side grooves will be the most critical.

Pleasure. It was supposed to be dry this morning so started applying EPDM primer in the solar panel groove and vertical surface but it is actually raining heavily and the Met Office just changed their forecast totally. Useless!

Not exactly. First there is a layer of membrane that provides leak protection if all else fails. The EPDM goes into the deep seal groove in the panel and then runs on top of the second row of tiles coming far enough down that it avoids the gaps at the top of the tiles. The third row then sits on top of the EPDM, fitting as close as possible to the panel. Despite the EPDM being self adhesive and to prevent potential water ingress via the top to the solar panel groove (unlikely) I will run a bead of black sealant/adhesive into the gap. I will also run it along the top interface of the third tile and the EPDM at the top. There was torrential rain this morning and even on my temporary small section the water was running down the tiles rather than entering the EPDM below. The water cannot get to the OSB but some could travel onto the second row of tiles and emerge on the outside of the third row and to the gutter. The weather has improved so I will open it up, take a video because that will be far easier than my convoluted explanation.

Thankfully this part of the country is blessed with a lot less rain than I was used to in Wales.

The problem is that 3.6kw is not big enough to cope with peak demand as in our house it goes as high as 6kw when microwave, cooker etc is on. My Enphase system is set to never export more that 150W therefore there are no circumstance apart from a defect where we could overload the local grid cables. I have no interest in exporting and buying back more expensive.

www.laddersandscaffoldtowers.co.uk/scaffold-towers/diy-scaffold-towers/ The company is called BPS and the tower is excellent. Easy for one person to put up and move plus with the stabilisers it is rock solid. I could not have completed my work without it. I feel very safe working on this tower and the quality whilst not up to industrial standards is good enough for DIY.