solar installation Articles

November 15, 2024 In

Deerhurst Care Home – Powering care 24/7

Project Highlights

Saving Deerhurst Care Home £9,200 a year on their energy bills
100.57 kWp installed
226 JA Solar 445W modules and a fully optimised SolarEdge system
Estimated annual generation of 84,865 kWh
Estimated carbon saving of 17.57 tonnes per year
Three more rooftop arrays to come on other Brunelcare buildings.

Background

Deerhurst Care Home is an award-winning facility, providing the highest levels of nursing and dementia care for its 66 live-in residents and ten day-care residents.

As well as nursing, Deerhurst also provides entertainment for residents including musical performances, an art club, toddler group, and many other events.

Powering care 24/7

Care of this kind requires significant electricity, with a TV and nurse call system in each room, building lifts and charging for laptops and other equipment, so we were delighted to have the opportunity to design and install solar for Deerhurst, working with Bristol Energy Co-operative and Brunelcare.

The kit

We’ve installed a 100.57kWp system, including 226 JA Solar 445W modules and a fully optimised SolarEdge system. As well as a best-in-class warranty and high efficiency panels, JA Solar have a comprehensive badged, integrated, traceable system, recognising the importance of a responsible supply chain, so their panels were the perfect choice.

Generation and savings

Our estimated annual generation is 84,865.08kWh and the installation will provide an estimated carbon saving of 17.57 tonnes per year.

All power from the panels will help to run the building, providing energy bill savings of around £9,200 per year. Any excess will be exported to the grid.

Reaction

Site Manager, Lesley Hobbs, commented: “I didn’t know about community energy until work started here. I didn’t know that the solar panels were benefiting the community. It’s great that we’re having things that are going to improve the environment too.”

Joju Solar’s Project Manager, Oliver Sadowski, said: It’s been fantastic working with Bristol Energy Co-operative and Brunelcare to bring solar to Deerhurst Care Home. We look forward to seeing the difference it will make to their energy bills, as well as reducing carbon. We’re looking forward to getting started on future installations on other Brunelcare buildings too”.

Future plans

Three more rooftop solar arrays are planned on Brunelcare buildings, with the four sites totalling a combined 543 kWp.

The projects are part of Bristol Energy Cooperative’s South West Local Solar Scheme, which aims to install 2 megawatts of rooftop solar capacity across the West of England by 2025. The scheme is funded through a £500,000 grant from the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority’s Green Recovery Fund.

Beautiful and powerful – Mike’s new build home

Our customer, Mike, originally contacted us with architects plans for a new build house. He wanted the house to be highly energy efficient… generating its own power without this negatively impacting on the character and aesthetic of his soon-to-be-built home.

Back to black

We loved working with Mike to bring this vision to life and as solar tiles weren’t widely available at the time of install, and there were technical constraints with the products too, we specified all black solar panels built into the roof.

The all black panels have a black frame, black mono crystalline cells, and a black back-sheet with a neat finish, blending particularly well with dark slate and whilst there is a slight additional cost when compared to traditional on-roof solar, savings are made by not having to install slates and tiles where the panels are located.

We worked with Mike’s main contractor and roofer to complete this solar installation and in terms of the look for Mike’s new home, the panels worked perfectly.

As Mike says,

“We selected the black panels largely for the aesthetics and, given that we were building a new house, it made no sense to put a roof covering on and then put the panels on top… may as well make the panels be the roof covering. It integrates with the house much better”.

Never a truer word, we say!

Panel power

Well, the aesthetic is certainly attractive, but what about the solar generation?

As Mike tells us,

“We can get over 30kWh on really sunny days. In 2021 to date, we have had 3253hWh. We have battery storage now too and our electricity bill is less than £50 per month, which isn’t bad for an electric only house and two electric cars”.

Not bad indeed!

A great experience

Here’s to architecture that not only looks beautiful, but that also definitely generates the power and here’s to a great solar installation experience all round. Jon, our Head of Residential Solar, led the project and as Mike says,

“It was a really good experience, easy, and Jon was great. He did what he said, when he said he would”.

We can’t say fairer than that!

Find out more

Check out some of our other residential case studies here

Discover how to get the most from your solar

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