Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Off grid and power walls etc

That's another scandal around where I live. Lots promised and a condition of planning. But when new estate built it turns out they couldn't be included and the builders just pay another fee...I mean contribution to the local authority to "enhance local facillities" which doesn't happen either.

Primary and secondary windings become reversed reducing transformer efficiency Dave. I'm guessing there are a multitude of other negatives in general power distribution as well since the network was designed to provide power in just the one direction.

An interesting discussion here:

https://assets.website-files.com/5d...nsformer%20%20Reverse%20Power%20Flow.pdf

Notification from EON today our monthly DD will increase marginally to £64-48 per month from May, happy with that. No gas supply so oil does the rest for us we won't entertain a stinking wood burner as they pollute at a far higher level nationally than any current form of transport

No panels on the roof or the like, hate the look of them our neighbour has them..

We are planting a new rose bed when the weather turns ..

Our garden is planted with Bees and wild animals in mind and we have regular hedgehog visits to their house and full nest boxes - it's all about choices.

With the first quarter is over so here are the numbers. These are straight off the app and as the data loggers log on 500 sec cycle the actuals will be sligtly different. Checks so far though show the meter difference is < 5% & as I onlt have meters on the PV production & the bought in streams I'm using the app numbers.

March
75% renewable "in house" power
87kWh off the panels
119 kWh off the batteries

25% bought in
69kWh

Export to grid
24kWh which in practice means used to heat our hot water vs buying gas

Q1 23
64% inhouse
218 kWh off the array
297 kWh batteries

36% bought in
289 kWh

Export to grid
59 kWh

Since installation 21/11/22
62% renewable
488 kWh from the panels
387 kWh from the batteries

38% bought in
546 kWh

Export to grid
62 kWh

Even now despite the rain we see days practically off grid (less than 1kWh bought in). Though I suspect as the spring moves to summer we will be sending the "export" to the grid as the hot water heating takes max 2 kWh per day.

You will not be surprised that with PV alone it is not easy to be totally off grid, but 62% so far ain't bad.

Based upon the payback so far the battery crude payback is 8.7 years and falling.

John,
interesting data and food for thought.

Since installation in November 2011 we have generated 41,618 kwh, which has yielded £24,383 revenue. Payback was 10 years, as expected.
What is interesting is that we have not had to clean the panels as they continue to generate, on average, as much as they did when new.

We have a single 3kw battery, plus solar boost to heat hot water. As the energy market evolves I think further batteries and optimisation by buying night storage electricity to charge the battery makes sense.
We are now considering an air source heat pump to replace out 12 year old gas boiler: Octopus has quoted £6500 after the Government Grant, this includes any additional radiators needed and electrical wiring.

Difficult decision: given the Government is going to punish boiler makers who don't sell enough heat pumps I do wonder if waiting would be wise.

Ideas, suggestions??

A heat pump seems like an ugly lump to have outside the house, and I don’t like the idea of the noise disturbing the rural peace and quiet!

When I asked the question of friends with new builds with air source heat pumps they said don't bother as the system is expensive to run and runs at a far lower temperature (35-45C) than an ICE boiler (75C). Further facts and comparison.

Like Jon I don't want an ugly noisy box in our garden either.

This advice also came when I asked my Central Heating Engineer, so we shall go for a replacement for our Grant Oil boiler at as close to the cut off point as possible. He said they have completed a lot of heat pump retrofits but will decline others as the customers are unhappy with the comparison with ICE.

I don't feel the cold but my good lady does so I'll stick with it no matter what they decide to charge for oil, her happy at 21C is us all happy.

We are having to replace our gas boiler this week, it’s 15years old and tripping a lot due to heat exchanger problems. While we’ve gone the whole hog on electricity with solar, battery, EV, I’m not convinced about ASHPs so sticking with gas for now.

Interestingly 15years ago BG quoted us £3000 to fit a new boiler (we went elsewhere) today our new boiler is £3000 and that includes fitting, system flushing and a new filter. The warranty is 10years so we’ll wait to see what the best heating technology is (and exactly what kind of mess gov.uk is making) in the 2030s.

I feel a bit guilty but I think there’s a lot of overselling going on with ASHPs at the moment and bizarrely the stupid energy certification system will downgrade your home if you have electricity based heating.

The fan on ours runs faster in cold weather but even when flat out can hardly be described as noisy. It's tucked out of sight for the most part against a chimney stack. I have never heard either of our close neighbours heat pumps whilst outside and can only hear ours when standing next to it.

It's true that the temperature achieved is much lower than a gas boiler but this is offset by pumps pushing more fluid around the system and a tall 127 litre hot water tank. In theory this would lead to insufficient water temperature for showers etc. but even mid winter the top up immersion heater is only programmed for half an hour per day and often turned off completely in the summer as water is too hot. TBH it's only there to ward off legionnaire disease.

There is a degree of latency with the under floor heating but with experience this is offset by earlier on and off settings. We are totally reliant on electrical energy for heating and cooking but with 3kW of PV solar. Have just checked and the total paid for electricity use on our new build three bedroomed bungalow over the last 12 months was £546, admittedly after government assistance.