Risto Hyyppä and his wife Anne live in Korpilahti, right on the shores of Lake Päijänne. In addition to the residential building, there is also a garage and a lakeside sauna. Taloturva installed 24 solar panels on the roof of the garage, which has so far reduced the annual electricity bills by around 11%.
The residential building, built in 2003, uses a lot of renewable energy to heat the sauna building and the warm garage. In addition to the geothermal heat pump, there are two air-source heat pumps in the buildings. The latest additions are the 24 solar panels on the garage roof.
– The house is a Honkarakenteen log house and the main heat source is geothermal. There are a reasonable number of cubes to heat, so we had already planned to supplement geothermal with other renewable energy sources. Solar energy was a logical extension of that,” says Hyyppä.
– Solar energy is an easy and hassle-free alternative. It does not require any intervention. The panels are on the roof and the inverter takes the electricity directly to the grid,” says Hyyppä.
Clear reasoning helped to make the decision
The process started when Ilkka Nissinen from Taloturva called Hyypa in autumn 2017. The meeting was arranged directly at the couple’s home and the deal was done in one sitting. Risto works as a sales manager and particularly appreciated Nissinen’s proactivity and clear arguments.
– It was probably less than two weeks from the time of purchase when the installers were already on site. The panels were put in place in a day and the next day we went to check that everything was working.
First-class customer service
The theoretical maximum output of solar panels is about 6 kilowatts per hour. Since installation, the panels have worked perfectly, except for one month. In the spring of 2018, Hyyppä noticed that for some reason the returns were very low. She called the installer and he came to check the situation the next day. It turned out that one of the factory connectors was faulty. The fault caused only one of the panels, which was split into two circuits, to work. The fault was fixed the same day.
– It’s the only time I’ve had to contact them since the installation. It was first class that the installer came the day after I called and the issue was resolved the same day. I don’t think it can do any better than this,” says Hyyppä.
– The warranty on the components of the panels is 10 years. It’s a very long guarantee,” says Hyyppä.
Free energy for about 15 years
Hyyppä has compared electricity consumption and electricity bills before and after the installation of solar panels. They consume around 35 000 kWh of electricity per year, and the annual saving for them is around 11%. Hyyppä has estimated that the calculated lifetime of solar panels, regardless of the brand, is about 30 years, and the estimated lifetime of the investment is about 15 years. With this formula, solar panels would produce energy for about 15 years for practically free.
– We have a jacuzzi like that on the porch of the beach sauna, which is kept warm all the time. Its annual electricity consumption can now be replaced by solar energy. It’s such a concrete example,” Hyyppä smiles.
