On: Solar panels disguised as terracotta tiles in Pompeii

[hgomersall]

A properly designed house with solar can be energy neutral over the year in the UK (not notable for its sunny climate).

[graphe → hgomersall]

What does energy neutral mean? What does properly designed mean? And at what cost to comfort or the property? You could turn off all your electricity and heat yourself with kerosene and have used no electricity for the year.

[pjc50 → graphe]

Usually means "passivehaus", and "energy neutral" would mean "generates an equal quantity of electricity to that consumed, when summed over the year".

> heat yourself with kerosene

That's not energy neutral, is it now, unless you have a kerosene well on the property.

[hgomersall → pjc50]

Precisely - for a smallish 120sqm house the passivhaus heat demand is 1800kWh. 3000kWh is not unreasonable for additional electricity consumption. With a heat pump that heat demand should pessimistically translate into <1000kWh electricity, giving us a total energy usage of ~4000kWh. That's about what a medium size (~20sqm) south-facing roof-mounted PV installation would achieve in the south of the UK.

[graphe → pjc50]

Geothermal energy would be amazing! But it's hard to balance with carbon emissions.