9 tips: use solar energy in your new home properly

9 tips for prospective home builders: If you are planning to build a house or a bungalow, you should take certain things into account even at the concept stage. This will allow you to harvest solar energy and thus keep investment and energy costs down for decades to come.

When building a new home, you should consider some basic hints so that the largest possible share of your energy demand can be covered by PV. If the orientation of your house is wrong or the roof is in shade, even complex technology will not be able to make up for such deficiencies later on.

1.      Orientation of the building: favour east and west!
2.      South-facing covered veranda!
3.      If possible, have large windows to the east and west!
4.      Match the capacity of the solar generators to your electricity usage!
5.      Five to six square metres of solar roof produce a one-kilowatt solar generator
6.      If possible, generate hot water electrically!
7.      Heating: run heat pumps on solar energy!
8.      Prefer local components and equipment!
9.      Leave the installing to the experts!