Melin Homes 

Gerddi'r Mynydd, Brecon, Wales, November 2010

 

Overview

 

Melin Homes is a housing association working towards making a positive difference for their tenants. At the end of 2010 they decided to be the first housing association to self-fund solar PV on their housing stock. Southern Solar Installed 1.5kW systems on 24 or their new affordable homes.

 

Our Solution

 

The 1.5kW systems will generate around 1,351kWh which should save the tenants an average of £100 a year on their electricity bills, as well as instigating a behaviour change by communicating the importance of energy saving. Each property has a system made up of 9 175W Sharp panels. These panels are manufactured in Wrexham in Wales - we believe that it is crucial to help build the UK solar manufacturing industry and boost the local economy as much as possible.

 

We provided all of the tenants with advice on how to keep their electricity bills as low as possible. As part of the project each home is fitted with a smart meter which helps the tenants to keep track of how much energy they are using, how much they are using themselves and how much is feeding back into the grid.

 

The Smart meter also feeds back to Melin’s management team so they can ensure that all the solar systems are operating at their optimum level.

 

Melin will allow the tenants to use all of the electricity coming from the panels to reduce their bills. They will claim the entire income stream generated by the Feed-in Tariff and they will use this to fund additional renewable projects for their tenants.