SteamyTea

I got all the futurology from this.

Do you know your annual utilisations?

Sounds to me as if it is not set up right. What are the flow temperatures and rates?

There are probably better ways to do that. Swapping a car to a more fuel efficient and lower CO2 emissions would make the bigger difference to my personal carbon budget. But last month, my 16 year old Mondeo Eco diesel averaged 66.3 MPG. That is about 1,700 kWh for the month. Almost half what my house uses in a year.

I bought a washing line and pegs from Poundland, cost 2 quid, it is the biggest saving I have ever made. When I changed my washing machine, I realised that I had not used the dryer on it for over 2 years, so got a new machine without a built in dryer.

They draw so little power that they do not register at the Wh level very often. Unlike when I first started data logging and was using an old desktop that was pulling about 200W. They obviously do take some power. Looking at the data from 2019 to now, the mean 'no power' is 53.7% of the time. This does give a quirk to mean averages, so I calculate the total mean and the 'power draw only' mean, 0.44 kW and 0.62 kW respectively. Maximum power is obviously the same for both, 13.16 kW, but minimum power above 0W is different, 0.001 kW, or a watt. That is probably the logging power usage, radio alarm clock and washing machine on standby. As I am on E7, time of use gives different numbers depending on time. During the E7 window, they are 1.14 kW and 1.47 kW, higher number excluded 0 power draw times. During the 'day' the numbers are 0.1 kW and 0.19 kW. 84.6% of my usage is at night. Would be hard to justify a battery system to offset 15.6% of my usage as the marginal price difference is 18.9p/kWh, and I only use 1.6 kWh during the day (over the last 6 years), and last year, I got that down to 1.26 kWh. So would only save about 29p/day. I am not sure how much it would cost to cobble together a battery system, got to be £1000, so would take 11.4 years to recoup my costs at today's electricity prices. Fun to do though.

I am staying silent on this one.

Plenty of jerky videos today was there?

There is a lot more to it than just the ability to time shift. Start with looking at your current usage patterns, download your half hour usage if you have a smart meter. Then see if you can get a better tariff that will fit your usage better, or if some simple changes will make a difference. The biggest thing you can probably change, for nothing, is reducing parasitic loads. Half the time my house pulls no power at all. Many battery systems have a minimum load requirement, so running a laptop and a light may not be enough to start the battery system.

I had a leak about 20 minutes ago. If I drive up to yours, I will be ready to do another one. More that willing to test all your handy work with my aqua vita.

I see that Rebel Energy have gone into administration.

So have others had trouble logging on today?

While I like this idea, and had a similar one for heating my fishpond, it may be better to just find ways to stop the energy getting into the shed. PV on the roof will reduce the input, as will a mirror.

I cannot be bothered to go though your shopping list in detail. But a couple or three things. What is your expected electrical usage? Are there any panel optimisers in there? Why not go for microinverters?

I tried to pronounce that, in Welsh, all I got was (expletive deleted)