When we moved in there were already solar panels to charge a bank of batteries which provided electrical power to the house. This was backed up by a generator which was used when the solar powered batteries could not provide enough power to meet the electrical needs of the house. Hot water was provided by a diesel powered boiler.

   Water came from a spring fed well far down in the valley below us,which was pumped up to a cisterna about 50 metres above the house which provided good water pressure. The pump in the well only operated when the generator was on and when the cisterna was full it overflowed into a pipe which fed into the swimming pool below the house. The swimming pool, about 10m by 6m, had a pump which circulated the water through a sand filter to keep the water clean. This pump also only operated when the generator was on.

   Although we had been shown how the systems worked we were a little nervous as I was far from being either an electrician or an engineer and being so far away from help and not speaking Portuguese we had to be self sufficient. We soon found that although the systems worked the solar panels were not providing enough power to meet our fairly modest needs and we needed to put the generator on fairly often to enable us to have a fridge on, to have lights on in the evening, and to have the washing machine on occasionally, and the generator was also needed to power the well pump and the swimming pool pump. The solar panels could provide about 2KW a day on a sunny day, or about 1.5KW on a cloudy day. We estimated that we needed 2.7KW a day to meet our needs. Although the generator worked it was about 20 years old and if we had it on in the evening the lights dimmed all the time.

   We therefore decided to get some expert advice and "Generator John" appeared on the scene. He had serviced the generator for the previous owners and had been involved with the solar system and the well pump. He was very helpful but must have thought me very stupid as he tried to explain how the system worked and how it could be improved. We had a clear choice of struggling on with the system as it was, or upgrading it to meet our needs. As we did not want to spend our time sorting out problems we decided to upgrade the system so that we could spend much of our time enjoying the fabulous location and the fabulous climate.

   We now have a new set of tracker (they follow the sun to get the maximum power from the sun) solar panels which provide 5KW a day on a sunny day. This enables us to use all the power we need and the solar powered batteries now power the well pump whenever water is needed in the cisterna. We have a new generator which comes on automatically if the batteries fall below 23.8 volts (it is a 24 volt system). It hardly ever comes on because our new solar panels give us as much power as we need.We also have some solar panels on the roof which provide us with constant hot water, with the old diesel powered boiler being there as a back up if it is needed although so far it has not been needed.

   We have used the old solar panels to power the swimming pool circulating pump. This does not use batteries but powers the pump whenever the sun is out. This is a vast improvement on the previous system which only operated when the generator was on.

   We have also fitted gutters to the house, something unusual in Portugal, which feed rainwater into tanks next to the swimming pool so that the pool can be topped up if the water level falls due to evapouration or backwashing when the pool is being cleaned.

   We therefore feel that we are very green at QV. The sun provides our power, the earth provides our water and  our wood burning stoves provide heat in the winter.

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