Diary of an RLO – With Senior Resident Liaison Officer, Tina Harvey This is the first in a series of blog posts about the team at CCS. The first person that we’re featuring is Tina Harvey who has been at CCS for 3 years and is our Senior Resident Liaison Officer (RLO). Before joining CCS,…
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How do Solar Panels work? Â Â Â Â Â
A Solar PV panel consists of many cells made from layers of semiconducting materials, most commonly silicon. When light shines on this material, a flow of electricity is created.     Â
The cells don’t need direct sunlight to work and can even work on cloudy days. However, the stronger the sunlight, the more electricity is generated.    Â
Solar PV systems are composed of several panels, with each panel capable of generating approximately 400W of energy in strong sunlight. Typical systems contain around 8-12 panels and generate direct current (DC) electricity. Because the electricity used for household appliances is alternating current (AC), an inverter is installed to convert the DC electricity to AC. This electricity can be used throughout your home or exported to the grid.    Â
Solar PV Tips
During daylight hours, you’ll be generating electricity even on cloudy days, but if you’re using more power around your home than your panels are generating, or during the evening when your panels are not generating any electricity, you’ll be supplementing this by importing electricity from the grid.
As your solar PV system will be working at its peak during daylight hours, it’s a good idea to run your electrical appliances, such as your washing machine and dishwasher. If you’re away during the day, some appliances have a built-in delay timer that allows you to program the start time of the appliance.
Please always refer to manufacturer guidelines prior to setting up delay timers or programme start times.
Using your Solar PV panels
On completion of your Solar PV installation, the system will be commissioned. During this process, the engineer will complete the setup of your Solar PV system. There are no controls which need adjusting.
Your new  Air Source Heat Pump heats the house and hot water cylinder much like gas or oil-fuelled boilers; however, there are a couple of differences which you need to be aware of at initial start-up.
CCS will have provided you with a room thermostat to regulate your new radiators, along with the fitting of Thermostatic Radiator Valves (TRVs) control units located on each radiator, providing you with full adjustment to your heat settings. The heat pump will operate from the signal sent by the room stat back to the heat pump. Â Â Â Â
Once the unit starts up, it will take time to get to temperature; it is not instant, however, within 10 minutes, you should feel the radiators beginning to warm up. It may take a few days to have everything set to the required temperature. Please do not switch your thermostats off during this period.                                                                 Â
The radiator temperatures will be lower than those of a standard gas or oil boiler. To add to this, they have been set to run in a weather compensation mode, which means that the unit measures the outside temperature and adjusts the radiator temperature to suit,  the colder it is outside, the warmer the radiators will be and vice versa. This function is automatic and is designed to save you money. In very cold  weather, the radiators will be at their hottest, and they will reach 50°C     Â
It is very expensive and slow to heat a house from cold. With a heat pump, the best advice is to maintain the house at as close to a constant temperature as possible all the time. By far the most economical way to run a heat pump is to leave it on 24/7 at one set temperature; don’t turn it off at the control panel. Please DON’T set the room temperature too low when you leave the house, ideally drop it no more than 2 degrees below your normal set temperature when you go out, or it will take a long time and a lot of energy to recover.                Â
To switch off the heating in summer, set your room thermostats down to 17°C or 18°C to avoid the heating starting up. Your radiators have thermostatic valves on them; you can adjust each room’s temperature using these.
The unit is set up to maintain the water between  45 and 50°C at all times. As you use the water, the heat pump will constantly top up the cylinder. The hot water cylinder has priority over the heating; if the cylinder temperature falls 5 degrees below its set point, the unit will automatically switch to heating the cylinder. This should take less than an hour. Â
Once the set temperature is achieved, the unit will go back to heating the house. The hot water cylinder is very efficient and keeps the stored water at a constant temperature with very little heat loss.
There is an automatic anti-legionella/disinfection cycle.  The unit will heat the cylinder with the immersion to 60°C. If the legionella cycle is not completed, an error code will flash on the screen and you will need to call an engineer to check it.
The room thermostat simply switches the heating system on and off as necessary. It works by sensing the air temperature, switching on the heating when the air temperature falls below the thermostat setting, and switching it off once this set temperature has been reached.
The best way to set and use your room thermostat is to find the lowest temperature setting that you are comfortable with, and then leave it alone to do its job.
