Our friends at the Energy Saving Trust have just published the results of the biggest ever survey of solar water heating systems in the UK. Good Energy contributed to the research and some of our customers participated.

The report shows that solar thermal can be a really effective renewable heat technology – saving both money and carbon – provided it has been installed correctly and households use it in the best way.

The graph below illustrates the performance of the best and worst systems compared to the median and general target.

The key factors influencing performance are volume of hot water use – the more people in the household, the greater the saving; timing of back up heating (when you choose to take your daily shower can therefore make a difference); temperature required; and level of insulation of hot water tanks – poorly insulated tanks lost more than 10 times the heat of well insulated tanks.

 “Our study strongly affirms that getting your insulation sorted and thorough research of your needs in advance should always be the first priorities when planning to install a solar water heating system,” says Jaryn Bradford, senior technical manager for the Energy Saving Trust. “The way in which a system is used is as important as its performance alone. This is a technology that works, and works well in the UK. Great strides have been made in the standards of installation but that’s not a reason to rest on our laurels – we’d like to see the industry sit down and look at what can be done to ensure everyone has the same, high quality experience.”

Introducing domestic solar water heating systems accounts for over 6% of the Europe-wide 2020 renewables target – and the technology is already well established in the UK. It’s been growing significantly, increasing by 18.1% during 2010.

Good Energy's CEO, Juliet Davenport says: "The EST report confirms that solar thermal panels are a fantastic, cost effective way for the UK to reduce our demand on imported energy whilst cutting our bills and also our carbon emissions, provided the technology is used properly.”

Since 2008 Good Energy has been promoting greater uptake of solar water heating systems through our innovative HotROCs scheme – the UK’s first renewable heat incentive, and a precursor to the government RHI which is due to be launched for domestic installations in a year’s time. HotROCs is directly linked to Good Energy Gas+ which means customers buying our gas are helping to grow renewable heat in the UK and reduce the country’s overall dependence on gas. We’re delighted that the EST has conducted this key study, which should help households really get the most out of their solar thermal systems.

You can download a copy of the report. And if you have solar thermal panels at home, why not join our conversation on Twitter and Facebook?