Reply to: Switched Energy Tariffs

[Old Hack]

Didn't Kev of McCloud fame have some bijou problemettes with some of his super eco developments?

I remember a couple of shows form the mid noughties, where early adopters got caned a little, but iirc, that was mostly on the wind turbine front. Most other technologies, which are available to the plebians, are fairly mature. I remember on one show, they didn't have the right gearbox on the turbine, so couldn't operate it, and no one seemed to take ownership of the issue.

I think you simply have to plan to take advantage of which kinds of technology would best suit you and avoid the ones that didn't; it is pointless putting a turbine up that is 30' tall, if all of the trees around you are 40'. Sometimes, people miss out on common sense.

[Old Hack]

Ecohouse 2 - A Design Guide by Sue Roaf

[Old Hack]

David MacKay FRS: Sustainable Energy - without the hot air: Contents

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to doodab again.

That's the boy.

I also have another book about Sustainable Development pertaining to housing, which is incredibly insightful - something about eco houses. It gives all information about how sustainable and environmentally friendly housing was built through the ages, and that some methods used thousdands of years ago, apply today, thinks like having the entrance to the house lower than the living areas, in its separate space, like a porch, that is dug lower, with steps up to the living areas; very thermo-efficient. if you're interested, I'll get the Mrs to look for it and give you its name.

It's an area my Plan B is in.

[doodab]

Nps. If you are interested, there is a book, whose title escapes me (something '...without the hot air'), which is delightful, if slightly depressing reading.

David MacKay FRS: Sustainable Energy - without the hot air: Contents

[Old Hack]

WHS. A hydro-electric plant is looking cheaper ...

Edit : cheers for the info OH. Renewable energy is one of my interests.

Nps. If you are interested, there is a book, whose title escapes me (something '...without the hot air'), which is delightful, if slightly depressing reading.

Other things to note, most paybacks used to be within 7-10 years, with the old FIT, but that's padded out now, but the flipside, is that these technologies are becomming mroe and mroe reliable, so if you keep your PV clean, and detrius free, you can expect 25-30 years worth of service from them. The controller i bought, at great expense (but with a nice grant to offset its costs), has a pay back of about 6 years, and has a 25-30 year lifespan (estimated). So if you plan well, and look after it, it generates you a lot of money, if you can look at the money, longer term, both physically and mentally. I expect to be fairly carbon neutral at my new place, with very low utilities; the dream is to be bill free, but that's a fairly hard task unless you have some good land, with great locations for all of the types of renewables.

Prices for the equipment is also coming down.

[Zippy]

Ouch!

WHS. A hydro-electric plant is looking cheaper ...

Edit : cheers for the info OH. Renewable energy is one of my interests.

[Old Hack]

Ouch!

Indeed... 3 bathrooms, always occupied. Always. Announcing you are going to toilet is foolhardy, as by the time you have got there, one of them will have occupied it. It's a female conspiracy.

Oh, and retirement is a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooong way off...

[Troll]

And finally, I have 3 daughters and a wife,

Ouch!

[Old Hack]

I thought it was seriously expensive to install?



And the moustachioed Major's water company charged him to borrow the water

OldHack - does your ground source heat pump use a lot of electricity? And can you generate enough to cover it? Do you buy the most energy-efficient appliances?

It all goes through a massive controller, with the PV and all so I am not really sure. I have a colleague here, who lives in America and he's introduced me to an Android based 'gadget' which you can return all sorts of data from. I have bought the gadget, but need someone to wire it all up for me, and I'll know more (I am not doing myself for previous stated reasons). Suffice, using oil, as we used to, for underfloor heating and the hot water, used to cost around £1600-1800 a year, and it's now down to around £380-400. When we move, we're hoping to have a back boiler too, burning willow (as mentioned before), which should reduce that by around a third, maybe a half.

The ground source doesn't cost much, in relative terms, about 1/6th, 1/7th of previous consumption. I will split the figures up, but you have to remember the FIT too.

We are replacing our appliances as we need to with more energy efficient appliances, but it's also learning to turn everything off, and little things like that. We've also converted fully to LED as of last weekend, and we expect that to make a big difference.

Edit to fill in stuff I missed:

I didn't realise that they started charging him for the water, I assumed he had a stream on his land. We've followed that up, and you can use it, but you have to have permission from the EA if you are altering the course of any water body. Although, on 6 acres of land, I'd be surprised anyone knew...

And finally, I have 3 daughters and a wife, so factor that into the bills too. I have to beg my eldest to get out of the showers as she will, literally, spend over 30 minutes in it...

Finally, you legally have the right to bore a hole into the aquifers beneath your land. It costs around £2-2.5k to set it all up, but you'll save heaps of money in the long term, and it has surprising pressure.

Anyway, we're moving soon to apply all of these things together, and it will be the final home too, so it's worthwhile spending the money, although my house has increased in value with all the additional features fitted.

[Zippy]

Microhydro can be very effective, depending on the head of water available.

I thought it was seriously expensive to install?

The moustachioed Major Sawbridge built a water wheel in his Cornish hideaway.

However, a proper turbine would be many times more efficient.

And the moustachioed Major's water company charged him to borrow the water

OldHack - does your ground source heat pump use a lot of electricity? And can you generate enough to cover it? Do you buy the most energy-efficient appliances?

[Old Hack]

Plan B it is then!

• Dig up mains supply for gas & electricity
• Install meter bypass circuit

Luckily we caught the last FIT, as the current one (hehe), isn't has much. It's still worthwhile, but payback takes a bit longer. I'd get in before 2014, for they're bound to lower it further.

[Troll]

Evactuated Tubes, around 12 I think? We had all the work done at the same time (8m2 PV panels, ET, ground source heat pump and central controller) and it came to about £24k iirc, but then we had a £6k grant so about 18k, but we're getting about £2200 a year back from feed in tarifs.

Plan B it is then!

• Dig up mains supply for gas & electricity
• Install meter bypass circuit

[Old Hack]

On your solar water did you make the tubes yourself (I'm considering) or buy off the shelf - if off the shelf which solar collector technology did you go for - evacuated tube or flat panel? (prices would be useful too )

Evactuated Tubes, around 12 I think? We had all the work done at the same time (8m2 PV panels, ET, ground source heat pump and central controller) and it came to about £24k iirc, but then we had a £6k grant so about 18k, but we're getting about £2200 a year back from feed in tarifs.

EDIT:
Sorry missed the Q about how they were made - Bought in. Company did the job lot. I know a good friend who put his on PV panels in, and wired them all up, but if I tried it, I'd probably be dead. I do not like working with electricity, since a childhood skirmish with plug socket and screwdriver...

[Troll]

Ground source heat pump, PV panels, and Solar water has seen my bills plummet over the past year. Also looks good for a payback within 8 years, then I am in profit.

On your solar water did you make the tubes yourself (I'm considering) or buy off the shelf - if off the shelf which solar collector technology did you go for - evacuated tube or flat panel? (prices would be useful too )

[Old Hack]

The moustachioed Major Sawbridge built a water wheel in his Cornish hideaway.

However, a proper turbine would be many times more efficient.

You can get these Archimedes screws now which are, £ for £, the most efficient, but if the water wheel is top fed, its about as efficient as they can be. The bottom fed ones are pretty much maxing out at 20% efficiency.

I read a book about sustainable energy, and the crux of it, was that to do it successfully, you had to do as much as you can, no matter how small it may be, advocating all approaches, used together. It's persuaded us to look at maintaining a 1 acre willow copse, as it keeps on regenerating and after 2 years, you can pretty, much, have all the fuel you need for a back boiler.

In the future, if we don't get a big deal out of fracking, we're going to be held to ransom by Russia and others, in my opinion, and if you don't start addressing it soon, then you're going to be paying through the nose.

EDIT:
Oh, and it's that Major that started me seriously thinking about our footprint. I used one of his designs to build a solar food dryer. It works fantastically!