SteamyTea

Which also means you can have a smaller capacity boiler/HP. Take my E7 DHW system, it has a 3 kW element and a 200lt cylinder. Total Cost for parts about £400.

Basically saying that it is hard to predict future energy prices, but you can know, almost to the penny, what an installation will cost. Over the last 30 years, domestic energy prices have been about 5% of mean household wages. This has been a developed world trend.

Shouldn't a labour shortage cause a materials price decrease?

The curing agent can come in may forms. Usually a liquid, but often a powder. This powder can be incorporated into the weave or mat. Nothing special about it.

I was chatting to someone that runs a data centre that collects usage data for the National Grid. He was enthusing about 15 minute blocks. Personally I don't think we will, or need, to go that low. So will probably stay with the half hour slots that are currently used. This gives time for capacity to come on line (hot and spinning reserves) and also minor over generation can be easily controlled by switching off RE generation (you don't just pull the plug on a 5 MW turbine or solar farm). The other things is that local storage and automation may make much of this balancing unnecessary, it will happen behind the scenes by the DNOs, as it is done now. Much of it does depends on how our Nuclear generation program pans out long term. With 15 to 20% of our generation currently covered by this, it still plays a very important part. We know from Frances example that a large country can run with very high fraction of nuclear (~70%). They have the advantage that they can off load to nearby countries (including the UK), but that off loading could be changed to storage. For the foreseeable I think gas will be doing the bulk of the work, regardless of the governments ambitions to have ever home powered by wind and solar. Adding capacity is easy, removing it is not. I also don't hold out much hope for carbon capture and storage, even if we can reduce to 100g/kWh. Last year Q1 generation was ~75 TWh. That is still 7.5 million tonnes to collect and storage. Landfill, for just our household rubbish, for 2018 was 24.4 million tonnes for the year, so 6.1 million tonnes a quarter, a similar amount. We currently recycle about 45% of that. We could say that carbon capture is similar to recycling in that it needs collecting, sorting, processing and transportation, before the actual end use is realised. So about 2.7 million tonnes a quarter is a useful amount. I cannot find a reliable figure for the percentage captured by CCS, but it will not be 100%, probably 50 to 60%, then add in the extra energy needed for the process, there is little to be gained from it. Either way, it is a mammoth task. So that leaves us back to the path we are taking, which is nuclear and RE generation. As we increase the capacity of these, we have to pay upfront, with nuclear being a huge amount before it starts earning, and RE a lesser amount (because it is smaller scale and distributed). If you look at the capacity factor of the technologies, nuclear is around 90%, offshore wind around 40% and solar is just about pushing 20% now. That leaves a big gap which needs to be filled with either demand management or storage. This does depend on the percentage share that each technology contributes to both our total energy requirements and out peak and trough needs. We can probably up the total amount of nuclear to French levels, maybe a bit more, which would leave 20% for wind and solar. I am not sure if this is realistically financially or socially. So I think we could probably have around 30% capacity covered by nuclear (probably fit that onto existing sites) and a lot more solar, which is cheap and easy to deploy (but socially unacceptable), and about 1 TWh of storage, or about 35 kWh/home. If Vehicle to Grid technology becomes a reality, then 35 kWh is not a large amount, most EVs will have double that, but only use a quarter of their capacity on a normal daily basis.

As a combination of installation costs and running costs, a basic vented cylinder and E7 heating is probably the easiest as it can be self installed. If it comes to running costs, a small ASHP may work better as it will usually have a CoP of 3, so even at full daytime electric costs it is cheaper than resistance heating on E7 (about 7p/ kWh as opposed to about 10p/kWh). You may find that an exhaust air heat pump could work for you if the rest of the building does not cost too much to heat (how is that heated), and it needs mechanical ventilation to keep the humidity down. It is really a matter of sitting down, finding the prices of different equipment and doing he sums. Long term I do not think that E7/10 will be a good financial option and will probably be phased out when variable tariffs come into play more.

And if they get caught, I (we) pay for their board and lodging. It is on my radar for when I get too old to look after myself.

Ouch. I would have gone 'off grid'. At todays prices (around 60p/litre), that would have bought about 400 MWh of diesel. I use about 4 MWh/year.

600m³ of air has a mass of about 750 kg. Not a lot to move a few metres in an hour when you think if it.

Hard to say. Depends on the floor construction. You may find that using a roof integrated PV system costs about the same as a traditional roof. Just keep an eye out for bargains, it is very easy to overpay. Insulation and airtightness (and cold bridging) is more than just passing SAP. You have to look into the way they interact with each other. Why a condensation risk analysis is done. Regarding the budget, you may have to swap some 'nice to have' to 'perfectly adequate', kitchen and bathrooms being the main ones. These, like cars, can be easily changed at a later date, and like cars, they are functional items, not artwork.

There is probably a way around it, an extra 50mm insulation for the floor. But why would you not put in PV at the build stage?

Silly sod.

That name comes up too often down here. I have not met anyone that has actually used them. Do you really think you need an Architect, a few on here have not used them.

Must be a Bristol term.

When I did my survey course at university, I think they said OS tried to get an accuracy of 3mm either way.

Probably caused by the 'thermal mass', you know, that thing that keeps the house at the right temperature, at the right time, and saves everyone money. Probably cures illness and poverty as well.

Think I typed E for energy, not P for power. Remove the time and you get power. (I think, out at moment so only half a brain on it)

Make up some breathable 'sausages' from garden weed control fabric, fill with mineral wool insulation, then staple to rafters.

No idea. But it could be the inbuilt software misreporting. How much charge did the SA accept, 3 kWh?

I seem to remember reading something like that. But they will not be able to do much with a solid.

This

Let's hope not, could have long term ramifications for whoever shot blasted it.

Think we have a thread on it somewhere. It may sense the fusion temperature, plus and minus a degree or two. Which may account for it not being able to be charged up untill it is 75% depleted. That bottom 25% may be the energy it can take when the magic wax is fused.

Do an Open University BSc in Physics and Mathematics. And another one in Law.

Insulate the cupboard, not the cylinder. Then pipe out the warm, damp air with the MVHR. Or buy a washing line for a quid at Poundland. You are at home most days.