Solar powered fish tanks, Stockwood, Bristol

Number of Panels: 4

Make of Panel: Sanyo

Power: 0.94 kWp

Projected annual income: £411.11

Homeowner profile: Constant baseload demand for electricity to power pumps for tropical fish tanks.

 

“I would not only recommend Altereco; I would insist that they were contacted”

 

We recently completed this lovely little installation on a semi-detatched house in Stockwood near Bristol. The husband and wife who own it have had the solar thermal panel (on the right of the image below) for years and have been very happy with the abundant free hot water.

Mr Marklew decided it was time to invest in solar PV to combat rising electricity prices. Even though roof space was limited, he was determined to get solar panels to contribute towards his electricity usage as he is a breeder of rare tropical fish! Mr Marklew is in fact one of the very few breeders of these particular South American catfish in the UK. As the tanks are constantly powered by several 25 Watt pumps, there is a constant demand for electricity amounting to half a kilowatt hour (kWh) per day.

We maximised the roof space available by using the sleek, black framed Sanyo 235w panels, giving him just short of a kilowatt of power. These super high efficiency panels will not only provide him with free electricity for his fish tanks, but he will be saving money by not having to buy this electricity from his supplier and he will also getting direct, tax-free Feed-in Tariff payments of approximately £400 per year for the next 25 years. Mr & Mrs Marklew are the perfect candidates for solar panels as they will greatly benefit from the free daytime electricity.

The owners of this system were delighted with the Altereco workmanship and were pleased that we had completed the works in a day and a half, but still with acute attention to detail so the finished product was neat and tidy.

Mr Marklew said: “From start to finish we received advice and help at no point did we feel we were under any pressure, Altereco did all the hard work arranged all the visits and all the inspections. From start to finish it was never a stressful or unpleasant experience. The office staff were totally helpful, it was not like talking to a company - more like a friend. I would not only recommend Altereco to a friend, I would insist that they were contacted!”

Currently the panels are outputting an average of 4kWh per day which more than covers the demand from his fishtanks. The Marklews are now looking forward to 25 years of free electricity and environmentally friendly fish!

Mr Marklew jointly runs a website called PlecoPlanet