SteamyTea

Climbing shoes are great, till it is wet. Don't try walking shoes, one wet rock and it cost me a broken pelvis.

I did think about modifying some storage heaters, but the SHC is a nats under 2 kJ.kg-1K-1. Thing is with water, it is easy to use, cheap to buy, all the bits are already made, and has a second hand value if the idea is a disaster. The real problem is that I really don't need much heating, so can get away with a fan heater when I do need it. I think last years bill was under £400. This year there has been a large hike in the day rate for E7 customers, the night rate is not so bad still.

Part of the trouble is, that with FITs, you can have two energy suppliers in effect connected to the same meter. What is hard is whether it is best to charge customers for the right to connect, like a shopping club, or just charge them more for the product because they are not members. If the later, then there should be a charge for connecting home generation. It is really about what the charges should be, not if people should be charged.

It would be a stand alone system, just that the cylinders are relatively cheap, maybe second hand if I can find them. Don't, just that two 200lt (400 kg) cylinders will fit under the stairs and can be plumbed in easily. To the storage capacity for a the worse case, I would need to store 24 kWh above 30°C (ish). Also using two cylinders allows me to only use one when the weather is not so cold. Heat loss from the system is not such an issue as it will all be within the insulated envelope and only used when heating is needed. I would have thought someone would have commented on routing out the floor to fit the pipework.

That is how it should be. They are going to use more, so need to start paying the true marginal costs differences and pay for the extra infrastructure.

I usually think about space heating for my place this time of year. I am rather limited in what I can do, and hate spending money. As I have a particle board floor over polystyrene, I could router some semi-circular groves in it and fit UFH pipe and cover back over with the parquet flooring. Then connect that to a cheap pump and hot water cylinder. As the floor area that needs heating is probably about 20 m2 and only needs about 1 kW delivered to it to heat the whole house, I would only need to store 24 kWh. I could store that in 2, 200 lt E7 cylinders (I have room under the stairs) and run them up to 85°C. Not sure how realistic that is, but probably a fairly cheap to find out and I would be left with UFH pipework if I wanted to connect to a heat pump. I may have to model it.

And musically https://www.wired.com/2015/03/many-different-songs-can/

" .How many variations with just 12 notes? " 12! = 47900600 So quite a lot

I have had a quick read though that document, and it would take many more reads to understand what they are talking about properly. Two things that crossed my mind is that they talk about forward investment and energy reduction. If energy usage was reduced significantly, future investment would be lower, this would lead to less of a problem about billing. Apart from that, I really don't think it makes tom tits difference how the distribution billing is implemented. If they want more revenue, they need to up the price, if they want more control, they need to up the price, if they want fairness, they need to up the price somewhere. Purely as an aside, I am in Halifax NS at the moment, since I have been here (about 3 weeks), there has been two major unscheduled power cuts that have lasted several hours. This is more than I have had down in Cornwall in 15 years. The weather has been superb, days up in the 20°C and little wind or rain. The UK really does have a fantastically robust National Grid and we should be holding it up to the world as a beacon of engineering prowess. The Nova Scotia power has a time of day rate system that varies by time of year as well. https://www.nspower.ca/en/home/about-us/electricity-rates-and-regulations/rates/domestic-service-TOD.aspx Meter charge is just under C$11/month. They don't pay much for power here, especially when you consider they earn more.http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/labr69a-eng.htm

LED lighting is hard on my eyes since I had my cataracts replaced with shiny clear acrylic. I find a single 3W LED from a pendant is a simple glass shade perfectly adequate for a 12 m2 room. Loads of electricity savings as well.

I have not read the report yet. But it is that 'bit in the middle' that is a problem. The retail part makes very modest profits, and so far has not been bailed out like the banks and railways. Read that SSE and nPower may merge to take on British Gas. That could be interesting as SSE and nPower have both been loosing market share. Not that Market share is in the least bit important to the consumer or the casual investor. Profitability is the important bit, you need to stay afloat. I too think that the only way to get the investment needed to charge by the MWh only and then the DNOs can chase the billing companies for the cash. Trouble is we will probably end up with a system that tries to divvy up the costs between the generators, the wholesalers and the retailers and then stick some time/load dependant 'congestion charge' into the mix for a laugh. If only governments would keep things simple and understandable.

I found a pair of of wire strippers with insulated handles. Managed to poke them up and open them just enough to grip the screw. Why don;t they think about these first and use an adhesive that does not break down with heat over time. I did tell my Aunt to get some LED bulbs, but she bought the last two incandescent ones in the shop. So if I come over in another 28 years I may have to change them again.

I hate ES stuff, it really should be banned. Had to remove a light bulb for my Aunt, it did the inevitable an fell apart, leaving the metal bit behind.

I am currently on a parallel that is equal to Bordeaux, and they pretend to speak French here. I think I am the only one that has been to France. Where I usually live, you are all Northerners!

Just done a quick and dirty analysis of house sales in Harrogate, Oxford and Poole, they are next to each other in population ranking (i.e. size of borough). Make your own minds up if Harrogate is a 'southern' town.

Name a comparable town to Harrogate in the South and we can compare the two.

Always worth looking at the whole picture, rather than just an obscure quirk in the market. http://landregistry.data.gov.uk/app/ppd/

Yes I think this is a topic for another thread.

Not if you are one the cheapest duel fuel deal https://www.ukpower.co.uk/regional_energy_prices But shows that there really is little benefit in shopping around unless you are on a dreadful deal.

Was there not a story about a guy from Culdrose that got in trouble for having some WD40 in the boot of his car without the proper chit.

Having lived in the Caribbean, I could easily live in something like that. Who needs a large house when you have the sun and sea.

Too much sugar for my tea

Would do me, the gear would grow quicker too.

How can you tell if it has asbestos in it. For some reason they decided to cover my house ceilings in it, no idea why. 1987 vintage.

Though it may take a while.