A couple are hoping to weather the rising costs of fuel bills and make their home a more attractive purchase for the future by installing solar panels on its roof.

George and Jill Hayne have won permission from Wokingham Borough Council to place three solar panels on their home in Bredon Road to heat their water supply.

Although the panels will not provide electricity or domestic heating, they will provide a huge saving on the couple’s hot water bill.

Solar Direct UK, which is the company installing the panels later this month, says the panels can provide 70 per cent of a homeowner’s hot water needs and save up to 30 per cent on annual energy bills.

This could be money well saved as energy bills are rising, and some reports say they will increase by as much as 40 per cent this winter.

Mr Hayne, 72, a retired council highways inspector, said: “I was listening to the TV one night and it said houses in a couple of years are going to be built with solar [panel] systems, so I thought we might as well go ahead.

“We are hoping when we come to sell the house it will go easier and with the price rises on fuel, we may make a saving as well.”

The panels will cost £6,000, however Mr Hayne and his wife, who is 70 and used to work as a science technician at St Crispin’s School in London Road, Wokingham, have been granted a £400 discount in lieu of a Government grant, which is awarded to households for installing sustainable facilities such as solar panels, because Solar Direct UK has not signed up to the grant scheme.

The installation of the panels will also involve a new water tank being fitted, which will be large enough to cater for a family.

Mr Hayne said: “The solar runs all right even without sun, but if you get a cold spell then we might have to put on the immersion heater, so we will have that as a back-up.

“We decided to go ahead with it before the latest [energy] price rise, whether we make the [saving] back on the house by doing this [I do not know].

“The main thing is our children will have no problem selling the house on after we are gone.”

The solar panels will only provide hot water, because the solar panel collection area needed to provide heating for a house would take up a far larger space than available on an average British home and would not be cost effective, according to Solar Direct UK.

Having the panels can increase the value of a home, especially now Home Information Packs (HIPs) highlight energy efficiency.

Last week, it was announced household energy bills could rise by 20 per cent to pay for the cost of meeting the European Union’s 2020 emissions target.

A report called Costing the Earth stated this, coupled with the soaring cost of oil also contributing to rising energy bills, could push a lot of households in to fuel poverty. Wind power is currently the most popular form of renewable energy used in Britain.

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