SteamyTea

What I am testing at the moment. More to come.

I have just had a quick look at my DHW usage since May 22nd, when I changed over to using just the top element in my 200 lt cylinder. 2.3 kWh/day. Prior to that it was 2.75 kWh/day. I am not sure if, for a saving of ~0.5 kWh/day, which is 10p, only having 'just enough' DHW is worth it.

That may be using quite a bit. Have you checked its usage? I have cobbled together a new energy meter, one the counts the pulses from a meter's LED. Put it on my fridge circuit and it counted 298 pulses of 1 Wh each. That works out at 0.298 kWh, mean power of 12W. I can live with that as the last time I did this test I was away, and it was mid winter, with no heating on in the house. When I have done a few more days testing, I shall write up a bit more about it.

Have you been writing to the papers again. No need to go nuclear to temper global warming (1) Published 6 July 2022 From David Flint, London, UK Graham Reynolds asks us to choose between long-term storage of nuclear waste and “worldwide, incomprehensible damage to the climate” (Letters, 25 June). That would be a good argument for nuclear power if we had only two choices. But we don’t. We can also choose to sharply reduce energy waste and to rely on power from the sun, wind and tides to heat our homes and move our cars, buses and trains. This is the pragmatic solution because it needs only things we have already designed and built, and whose costs fall each year. It frees us from dependence on an industry that just can’t deliver on time and within budget. Why wouldn’t we choose the renewable option?

Yes, covers upgrading from an open fire, or rubbing Boy Scouts together. Think the latter us now covered by other legislation.

Yes, my car is more economical at 65 than at 30. Why I jump red lights.

If it is physically connected i.e. NOT off-grid, then yes. It is a safety thing, the DNO can physically check that all generation is off. It is why you have to tell them where the isolator is physically located.

Was his name Owen.

Yes, it is not bad, not are surefooted at my old 309s. And nowhere near the grip in the wet. It does have an A2AHP in it, just to get the thread back on topic.

I often upgrade my thoughts and opinions. Not as often as I downgrade them though. In my mind, I have upgraded my car to a Porche, in reality, it is a rattle C-Max (which is in the garage at the moment to cure the rattle). Reality kicks in when I take a corner too fast.

I thought it was 'high fences make for good neighbours'.

Sound all very expensive.

Get your university to pay for it, or you will be living in a cabane in the Bois de Fontainebleau.

Not at all, I like that idea. I have a mirror hanging on my neighbours fence. It reflects light onto the back of the bamboo, where an echium if growing.

That is a brilliant idea. Cover the problem over.

This neighbour, is he called Boris?

I think that one problem of being 'off grid' is that people expect to get the same controllable levels of comfort that we have all come to expect. It really does not matter of your house swings 4°C in temperature day to day, or you have to take a short shower, instead of 3 baths. When I was a student in the early 1980s, we had flat that had a 2 kW bar heater in it, that was it, apart from the cooker. We survived, through studying, fresh vegetables (one flat mate was a farmer) and alcohol (2 other flat mates died from it, eventually). Just a change of lifestyle, and thermal underwear.

Shop in Market Jew Street has this.

Insulate it and use it as a thermal store, or other energy storage.

Chalfont St Giles.

Needs a huge amount of insulation under it, and to the sides, as well.

Is that purely heat pump driven, or does it use the built in resistance heater as well? i.e. it has a CoP of 1 at 60°C.

Nor me, or landmines. A more manly method.

I think so. Basically you need to be able to isolate the inverter from both the AC and the DC sides. Just remember that if the inverter is working, isolate on the AC side first.

No, thermal bridges are places where you have a larger than normal surface area. So corners and internal walls where they meet external walls. Basically any uninsulated areas that protrude. Airtightness is purely the ventilation. You need to control ventilation, not let just random holes and joints govern the infiltration. Airtightness also improves sound insulation. Have you started to think about sound transmission. You my find that mineral wool is better than rigid board. There are also 'resilience' bars that decouple ceilings and plasterboard walls.