Our System
Why do we specialise in solar PV?
Cool Power has been involved in many major full-scale field trials into
renewable energy generation in Irish buildings, involving over €10
million of investment. These studies have included ground water, bed rock, heat pumps, combined
heat and power, district heating, wind turbines, solar thermal and solar
PV.
Of all these systems, solar PV has proved to be the best. It's
the simplest, most reliable, consistent and cost effective sustainable energy solution.
About Photovoltaics (PV)
Photovoltaics (PV) is in many ways the most exciting and promising of solar technologies. If you've ever used a solar calculator, you've seen PV in action. As the name suggests, photovoltaic cells produce electricity directly from sunlight, a free and sustainable energy source. Solar PV provides an on-site renewable power generation solution for almost any application. You can have your very own green power plant.
Click image for larger diagram.
How it works
- The Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Panels transform sunlight directly into electricity. They should be located on a south-facing roof surface, with an inclination (tilt) between 30° to 60° from horizontal. The roof area required for a standard domestic system is between 10 (c.1.5 kWp) and 20 m2 (c.3 kWp).
- The inverter converts the electricity produced (direct current) by the solar panels into the type of electricity supplied by the grid (alternative current) and used by most light bulbs, domestic appliances, immersion heater, etc. It also ensures that your system operates safely and provides useful data like power produced, etc.
- Your solar PV system is supplying electricity to your home through the existing circuit board where it is connected with its own fuse. You still keep your old ESB account in case you need to draw power from
the grid, for instance during the night.
- Whenever your solar PV system produces electricity in excess of your power demand for lighting, cooking, etc., Cool Power Products' Energy and Micro-generator Manager (EMMA) directs this excess electricity to an immersion heater in your hot water cylinder or an electric space heater (e.g. underfloor heating or storage heater). This maximises the electricity savings generated by your solar PV system. It works perfectly with Smart Metering, preventing your solar PV system from needlessly exporting surplus energy to the grid when you could benefit from it yourself.
- Cool Power’s solar PV systems are grid-connected which means that the grid is your back-up system at night or during poor sunlight conditions.
