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SteamyTea

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Everything posted by SteamyTea

  1. SteamyTea
    may be worth someone that is living in a caravan on site to try it out.
  2. SteamyTea
    Is this garden room affected by building control, if not, why not just make a GRP roof with a few timbers in it as mounting points for the PV?
  3. SteamyTea
    A quick look at PVGIS shows that for a 1 kWp, south facing, system in Milton Keynes, there is only 3.4 kWh/year difference (73.7 kWh/year @17°, 77.1 kWh/year @40°). So really just random variation and statistically insignificant.
  4. SteamyTea
    Yes, it was late. So 16 kWh times 6.7p/kWh is £1.1 I agree, why annoys me about quoting efficiency sometimes. Once you add in all the losses the figures often look dreadful. Just easier to remember 3 zeros after the decimal point and then a 3. But when put into its mechanical equivalent it is only a tiny difference and probably lost in 'noise'.
  5. SteamyTea
    I wear cheap Dunlop steel toes trainers at work, last about 6 months, but they are only 22 quid. Grip well on a wet floor though. Steel toe caps are useful as I work with a clumsy, messy, ginger, inbred, Cornish oaf. Walking is different matter, just bought a pair of boots at the Millets sale, Peter Storm ones they have StormGrip soles that seem to fit me better than most.
  6. SteamyTea
    I would have PV if it was free You can check PVGIS for estimated yield from a system http://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvgis/apps4/pvest.php# That will give you an idea of what can be generated, but yet again, is only part of the story as it relies on mean kWhs and not instantaneous power (watts). Actually, just had a look at PVGIS and it does now do estimated mean power.
  7. SteamyTea
    Really depends on how much DHW you actually use. And for bathing, anything below about 30°C is useless.
  8. SteamyTea
    1 lt of water takes 4.2 kJ of energy to increase by 1°C. 1 kJ = 0.0003 kWh (near enough). So to raise 250 lt of water from 10°C to 65°C will require: 250 [lt] x (65 - 10) [°C] x 0.0003 [kWh] 4.125 kWh The boiler has an efficiency of 90% (near enough) 4.125 kWh x (1/0.90) = 4.58 kWh (LPG needed) The cost of LPG 48p/lt There is 7.1 kWh of energy per litre of LPG, which works out at 6.7p/kWh (cheaper than E7) So cost is 4.6 [kWh] x 6.7 [p] = 31p (near enough). I often make mistakes in my arithmetic (statistics is so much better), but someone will be along to correct me I am sure. This is only a very small part of the calculation. You then have to take into account the real life performance of the boiler i.e. it is starting from cold and may only be running at peak performance for a short while. Then there are the thermal losses from the 250 lt cylinder, over a day these may easily be 50% of the stored energy. Then there is the maintenance costs of a gas boiler, and for that matter a solar thermal system. And this is before looking at the volatile price of LPG and any fixed costs for the storage tank. The main question you need to ask yourself is what you are trying to achieve?
  9. SteamyTea
    Your a sick man Ian, well done
  10. SteamyTea
    Yeah right, so great for Christmas lunch for all the extended family, as long as you start at Harvest Festival. These things really should be banned.
  11. SteamyTea
    Or Oscar Pistorius
  12. SteamyTea
    Don't tell Ian about cutting rods, he will have the lid off in no time.
  13. SteamyTea
    What Berkshire, it is 250 miles away, unless she is on holiday and a dressed as a Pirate to help keep up the Cornish tradition of failure.
  14. SteamyTea
    Don't beat about the bush, say what you really think Ed
  15. SteamyTea
    It was the £600 for a vinyl floor and £9k for a shower that got me. Anyone fancy emailing him and pointing out that his 'interior design company' is really just his ideas of how to decorate others homes.
  16. SteamyTea
    So they knew nothing about DIY and got fleeced. http://www.homesandproperty.co.uk/home-garden/interiors/how-ikea-hacks-youtube-and-mdf-helped-this-couple-overhaul-their-north-london-flat-on-a-shoestring-a113116.html
  17. SteamyTea
    Chipboard covered in rubber. Or plywood covered in GRP.
  18. SteamyTea
    Strange Welsh Cockney there
  19. SteamyTea
    One of my dares is to eat one sober, at lunch, with a knife and fork, and in public. I get strange looks. Think I will try some 'Doomsday' on the next one (see youtube for this years chilli challenge).
  20. SteamyTea
    So does welsh lamb in a kebab
  21. SteamyTea
    A much more useful skill set to have in my opinion.
  22. SteamyTea
    Is it worth trying out some aluminiumised mylar first, seem to remember that it is pretty cheap online. If you remember my old solar tile experiment over at the other place (several years ago now, April 2010), the old aluminiumised crisp packets worked well. http://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=5643&page=3&Focus=80703
  23. SteamyTea
  24. SteamyTea
    Or not heard it. MikeL, over at the other place has a GSHP that makes more noise, still not intrusive as it is positioned in a utility room. If you can get your heating load down to circa 1 or 2 kW, then you are hard pressed to need anything other than a resistance heater. My place has a heat load of less than 1 kW and I just use a fan heater.
  25. SteamyTea
    "Never answer the question that is asked you. Answer that question that you wish had be asked of you" Robert McNamara
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