Self sufficiency?

[expat]

Incidentally one source of heat is wood: if you own enough trees, you can harvest them yourself and replant.

[DimPrawn]

Good point. A very cheap solar powered solution.

I wonder how much land you would need to be self sufficient in wood to generate all your power and heating?

[thelace]

Power - we have too many trees around our pad so wind power is out, so I am guessing we have to go down the solar cells route.

Chop the trees down and burn them?

Then you can have the wind power

[NotAllThere]

Re: Heating - underfloor is the way to go. You need a much lower water temperature to maintain the same room temperature than radiators

Yep. That's what we have. And the temperature gradient is much more comfortable - no more cold toes. It's also very efficient.

[PM-Junkie]

Incidentally one source of heat is wood: if you own enough trees, you can harvest them yourself and replant.

not ours unfortunately...we do have two rooms with open fires though. £50 twice a year does us for wood - and there is nothing quite like an open wood fire!

[mrdonuts]

you can get 20% efficient panels now, there is theoretical efficiency of around 35% in labs but that wont be appearing in 2-3 years.

[PM-Junkie]

I know people in Ireland who have put in geothermal heating, ended up with very large electricity bills from the pumps required to pump the water under pressure for the systems. Under floor heating can't be turned on and off quickly, takes about a day to cool off or heat up. Most systems heat whole house, can't turn off spare room, dining room etc. Not cost effective on existing house, maybe new builds, but I think the dury is still out, new improvments may swing it.

hmmm, excellent point. Obviously something else to look into.

Gravity can be a damn nuisance sometimes!

[NotAllThere]

hmmm, excellent point. Obviously something else to look into.

Gravity can be a damn nuisance sometimes!

What if the geothermally heated water is already under pressure. Then no pumping required.

[d000hg]

IF you could have wind power, it is possible to end up selling power back to the grid, saw a piece on it fairly recently. It's big hassle but the point is it can be cost effective in the long-run.

For water, isn't collecting rain easier and cheaper? Build a storage tank rather than using water butts.

Out of curiosity, are you aiming to grow a load of stuff and reduce reliance on the outside world generally?

Can you share more about the circumstances around this - it sounds interesting?

[darmstadt]

Live in a hotel