I've parked the idea of solar panels until I can get an EV with "vehicle to grid" charging.
The feed in tariffs are crap now, seems like panels only make sense if you've got a battery instead. Make your own, store your own, use your own. Trouble is, batteries are £££.
Unless you have a 100kWh battery parked outside your house anyway. The latest generation of EVs can do so called V2G charging, the limitation in this country at the moment is the charging standard/type. Works in Japan though
If the setup is big enough I might make the figures work. In summer it can provide much more than I use so a PHEV with a decent battery could save me £100+ a month on diesel, in winter I can use an EV charging tariff to top up the batteries overnight as well as charging the car.
I've made some assumptions there that I need to check, is the battery big enough and can I draw enough to charge the battery and a car in the cheap rate slot? And of course I need a big PHEV that I like. I've also assumed that I mght get a smart meter in the next year, that's a long shot.
I'm talking myself out of it now, I'll see when the quote comes in.
A full EV is not happening because we only have one car.
Docca wrote: ↑Tue Apr 11, 2023 3:21 pm
So I didn't appreciate that I had to register my solar panels to get the value and off-set my bills. D'oh!
Only for the miniscule feed in tariff I think, you would be getting the main benefit of free leccy without registering.
In a timely fashion I had a flyer from the council come through the door for a group buy scheme.
I put down for the whole works, 8KW plus batteries and an EV charging point and they estimated my quote would be just under 20k.
I'll be tempted if the quote is near that but not eager.
Octopus confirmed I need to register to offset my bills. The trickle feed of any excess back to the grid isn’t worth it, but I quite fancy getting the bills down.
Docca wrote: ↑Tue Apr 11, 2023 3:21 pm
So I didn't appreciate that I had to register my solar panels to get the value and off-set my bills. D'oh!
Only for the miniscule feed in tariff I think, you would be getting the main benefit of free leccy without registering.
In a timely fashion I had a flyer from the council come through the door for a group buy scheme.
I put down for the whole works, 8KW plus batteries and an EV charging point and they estimated my quote would be just under 20k.
I'll be tempted if the quote is near that but not eager.
Octopus confirmed I need to register to offset my bills. The trickle feed of any excess back to the grid isn’t worth it, but I quite fancy getting the bills down.
Anyway- will see. Have registered. I think
That makes it sound like there's something wrong with your setup, if you are using electricity you produce at home then it doesn't go through your meter for Octopus to know about. Alternatively Octopus aren't being entirely truthful as they want you to register.
Docca wrote: ↑Tue Apr 11, 2023 3:21 pm
So I didn't appreciate that I had to register my solar panels to get the value and off-set my bills. D'oh!
A while back Arizona tried (& failed) to classify home solar as electrical generating businesses & tax/regulate them as such.
I think one of our Spanish residents mentioned they used to have some weird solar taxes as well.
It seems going green is only OK as long as you still pay the energy companies for it, a few homes having their own is acceptable for show as long as it is small and you pay lots* to a MCS company for it.
* VAT reduction is only available if more than 50% of your setup cost is paying for labour from an approved company.
I can see why there are restrictions, safety and network management but there seems to be an active effort to discourage micro generation.
Mussels wrote: ↑Wed Apr 12, 2023 9:59 pm
I think one of our Spanish residents mentioned they used to have some weird solar taxes as well.
It seems going green is only OK as long as you still pay the energy companies for it, a few homes having their own is acceptable for show as long as it is small and you pay lots* to a MCS company for it.
* VAT reduction is only available if more than 50% of your setup cost is paying for labour from an approved company.
I can see why there are restrictions, safety and network management but there seems to be an active effort to discourage micro generation.
Talking of taxes. Senile Joe's EPA just announced that 70% of all new cars sales will be emission free (what they mean is *remote emissions*).... but didn't mention how they will compensate for the resulting drop in gasoline tax.
They also failed to mention when exactly the EPA were given the ability to bypass the Constitution/Congress & create their own laws. I'd be highly amused if the oil companies would get together & announce they've decided not to sell fuel or other products that are used to create plastics etc in just California to show the rest of the US/world how fucking imbecilic the politicians are.
BBC wrote:Renewable energy projects worth billions stuck on hold
It would explain why they are trying to dampen the home solar market, maybe it's time to put more money into energy storage research and give up on the long awaited battery breakthrough.
BBC wrote:Renewable energy projects worth billions stuck on hold
It would explain why they are trying to dampen the home solar market, maybe it's time to put more money into energy storage research and give up on the long awaited battery breakthrough.
Electricity grid balancing is a bit of an issue when there's no storage and little control of the inputs. Makes gas seem a bit of a doddle - although there's no gasholders any more, they use stuff like 'line packing' - over-pressurise and isolate a loop of medium pressure main ie overnight to meet demand in the morning. Plus there's high pressure storage etc.
I imagine National Grid would need control (directly or indirectly) of any sizeable inputs to keep the system in balance year round. Wind farms are turn-up and down-able on demand but solar, not so much. I think some are motorised to maximise output so I guess you could turn them down a bit but dunno really.
Doubt is not a pleasant condition.
But certainty is an absurd one.
Voltaire
British Gas has said heat pumps could leave some homes colder than those with a gas boiler as it offers a new money-back guarantee on its installations.
The energy supplier has said it will only fit a heat pump if it will heat customers’ homes as well as a traditional boiler on the coldest days of the year.
If a customer finds their home does not reach the agreed temperature, British Gas will give them their money back.
Its new scheme includes a five-year guarantee on heat pumps and it has pledged to match any offer given by a competitor below its installation fee of £2,999.
The money-back guarantee would be valid for a year after installation and is aimed at addressing a lack of confidence in the technology - one of the biggest barriers to heat pump take-up.
The Government has indicated that heat pumps will be the main low-carbon alternative to gas boilers and wants 600,000 to be installed every year from 2028 to help meet net zero targets.
Our gas combi is about 10 years old. Fine now, but will peg out sooner or later.
But changing to a HP would be a mammoth task as it would include finding space for a huge hot tank. Then there might be piping & rad changes required.
I'm more and more convinced that systems need some sort of air management/heat exchanger involved. The ramp up of energy prices has made me a bit more aware of our heating arrangements and while all the advice is about increasing insulation and reducing draughts etc, little attention is paid to ventilation/air quality.
I've been monitoring CO2 levels (400ish ppm is outdoors, <700ppm is ideal indoors, 700-1000 is minor pollution/poor and 1000-2000 is )
In a bedroom with the door closed and 2 small windows open, on a still night it hits 12-1300. In the lounge in an evening with just a night-latch vent open it's been >1500. It's quite noticeable when there are 2 people rather than one how fast it builds, so a small family sat in an unventilated room could easily hit 2000+. The other thing of note is that using a gas hob raises the level (unsurprisingly) throughout the house rapidly if the kitchen door keeps getting opened and closed.
Can't be bothered retro-fitting a heat exchanger/air management system in this house but if I was to spec a new build I'd definitely include one. I'd also vent the cooker hood to outdoors rather than the recirculate arrangement - even though it's venting heat.
Doubt is not a pleasant condition.
But certainty is an absurd one.
Voltaire
You can get heat exchangers which warm in coming air/cool out going air so that you ventilate your house without just chucking all the heat away with it. One of my colleagues has one in his full on 'eco house' (turf roof, heat pumps etc.)
Seems like a brilliant idea to me, but I think quite hard to retrofit.
Mr. Dazzle wrote: ↑Thu May 11, 2023 9:08 am
You can get heat exchangers which warm in coming air/cool out going air so that you ventilate your house without just chucking all the heat away with it. One of my colleagues has one in his full on 'eco house' (turf roof, heat pumps etc.)
Seems like a brilliant idea to me, but I think quite hard to retrofit.
Yup. That's the thing. They're quite common in Scandinavia (makes total sense in fully insulated, triple glazed buildings). I think the main exchanger is usually in the loft as that makes ducting and venting in the ceilings easier.
Doubt is not a pleasant condition.
But certainty is an absurd one.
Voltaire
I sent the plans to the manufacturer/seller, they designed it,and I installed it. I wouldn't say it was difficult, time consuming mostly, but then my loft makes an escape tunnel look spacious and I've only got Bruce Willis's hairstyle and the unhidden ducting downstairs needed boxed in.
cheb wrote: ↑Thu May 11, 2023 11:01 am
I sent the plans to the manufacturer/seller, they designed it,and I installed it. I wouldn't say it was difficult, time consuming mostly, but then my loft makes an escape tunnel look spacious and I've only got Bruce Willis's hairstyle and the unhidden ducting downstairs needed boxed in.
Ta. Any chance of a link to the manufacturer/seller? Cheers.
Doubt is not a pleasant condition.
But certainty is an absurd one.
Voltaire
Potter wrote: ↑Thu May 11, 2023 11:52 am
Co2 levels and VOCs are monitored in commercial buildings but rarely in houses, our old house isn't very good and ventilation is an issue.
On another note I was talking to a solar installer about planning permission and he said he'd occasionally had planning refused, but then always allowed under appeal when he challenges the decision makers on actively refusing green energy installations, he reckons they always fold and allow it rather than be seen to be anti-green. He reckoned if I was willing to have an argument then I could pretty much eventually do as I wanted on my place even though it would be an eyesore of an installation on an old period property (non-listed).
I've got a very bijou portable Flow 2 air quality monitor from Plume Labs* too (PM2.5, PM10, NO2 and VOC). Neat little thing. (Hey! Everyone needs a hobby ). Cooking on gas cranks up the VOC as well as the CO2...so does my wife's post-shower routine, dab of this dab of that all with volatiles of one sort or another.
I'm amazed at some of the solar panel installations. Try changing the type or colour of roof tile and they're all over you. Chuck some ugly slabby things on the roof? 'No problem sir'.
* They stopped selling to the general public after they got taken over by (iirc) the Accuweather people. Now I think they only supply in minimum batches of 5 to community projects or suchlike.
Doubt is not a pleasant condition.
But certainty is an absurd one.
Voltaire
Potter wrote: ↑Thu May 11, 2023 1:24 pm
I once got called out by a very irate tenant in a building we were managing because he had a portable air sampling device and he said the limits were way too high. I turned up, walked into the apartment and there he was decorating, paintbrush in hand, and on the coffee table was his device telling him that VOCs were high.
They were muck spreading in the fields behind our house the other day, I'm a bumpkin at heart and I like the smell of cow shit, but by crikey it was potent stuff, I wondered what an air sampler would have made of it.
Oh, roasting a chicken in an electric oven cranks out a few VOCs too.
If it was slurry they were spreading that stuff can be really ripe - must be a few volatiles in it for the pong it makes. Apparently 1 dairy cow produces 23t of slurry pa and it's worth £214 as fertiliser. It's true...where there's muck, there's brass.
Doubt is not a pleasant condition.
But certainty is an absurd one.
Voltaire
)
). Cooking on gas cranks up the VOC as well as the CO2...so does my wife's post-shower routine, dab of this dab of that all with volatiles of one sort or another.
and it's worth £214 as fertiliser. It's true...where there's muck, there's brass. 