ASHP, MVHR, PV and EV combo

One of the wonderful things about buildhub is the ability to discuss different viewpoints and ideas without constently bitching at each other. (Politicians please note!)

 

IMHO the grid has 2 main problems: what it uses to produce electricity and what it needs to supply our peak power demand.

 

More renewables will help, however peak demand is the killer. All the renewable power sources in the country will not produce enough power in the winter to forfill our demand. So in winter we use other types of energy producers to meet this demand which sit idling during non peak demand. This is a costly problem!

 

Just Drax's carbon capture plant for example, is going to cost about £30billion - that's £500 per household, and at some point it will already have to sit idle sometime during the year due to excess production from renewables.

 

If I have it right, we already reached the point that we produced as much as we used from renewables at one stage so we're already getting towards over production. 

 

As for the power generation and use, my utopian way would be self sufficiency which presently I/we cannot achieve due to financial restraints. However my aim is to work towards this. The main stumbling blocks for us are:

 

Cost and size of electricity storage on site and lack of power production during winter.

 

Peak demands from home equipment.

 

The lack of power production during winter is the biggest problem because by default the cost of storing the power and size of storage would be extreme for an individual home.

 

We have worked on our home appliances but reliance on ovens, toasters, kettles and the like really require a change of habits. 

 

So as I see it, the cost of peak production is what we will have to pay for, less any renewable energy available at that time, which judging by my winter exporting would be sweet F.A.

 

(By the way the only predictable source of winter renewable energy I know of not being used and  presently available is tidal!)

 

So I expect that the power companies know all this and aim to protect their profits by introducing a way to charge more for power used during winter and or peak demand. (Ho ho! Any guesses how this will happen???)

 

So I for one will be looking at ways to reduce my winter demand and increase my winter supply and storage capability.

 

Good luck to you all.

 

M

34 minutes ago, Marvin said:

So I for one will be looking at ways to reduce my winter demand and increase my winter supply and storage capability.

 

I look forward to reading about how that goes.

58 minutes ago, Marvin said:

We have worked on our home appliances but reliance on ovens, toasters, kettles and the like really require a change of habits. 

Yes, there is only so much effficiency that can be got from electro-mechanical equipement.

My two biggest savings have been from reducing heated water temperature and getting rid of parasitic loads, I still get miffed if I leave a 3W light on.

 

I have never done the sums, but DHW energy usage, in winter, could be improved, I think, by pre-heating, even by just a few degrees, the incoming water.  Then boost via an instantanious heater, powered from a PV supplied battery bank.  Really down to where the largest standing losses are, thermal storage or battery efficiency.

 

The easy way to to use a lot less, easy for me as I live alone and take an interest, harder for a family.

Who can put a price on an arguement over the length of a shower.  Well we all can, about 5p/minute for a 10 kW shower.