Roger440

Thats interesting. Im not keen on batteries, but want to use the power for heating. I wonder just how small a battery i can get to cover the start up demand of an ASHP.

Thats pretty good. Higher tham most stuff ive seen quoted. I guess being vertical is the thing that makes the difference this time of year.

And back to what i said earlier too. Unfathomable to normal people. What does any of that mean?

Not really. We have discussed on here at length. Its not got political previously. Always good to remember that not everyone, will share your view. Which is where it inevitably goes pear shaped. Theres other places for that. Take it there.

Having lived in a village subject to flooding, including my house, im only too well aware. Sadly, its just paid lip service. No one cars, no one enforces. Developers just get good reports written to bamboozle planners. Even when measures are put in place, no one maintains them. I can give you enough examples to ramble on for days. But a couple The one that winds me up most is permeable block paving. Permeable until the gaps block of with dirt and moss. About 2 years in most cases. Then its just impermeable. Utter bollocks. Just a box ticking excercise. Supermarket near stratford on avon. Tingewick bypass. Built and surfaced with porus tarmac. No surprise it failed in short order due to freezing. Resurfaced with normal surface. Same road has some extensive drainage. Problem is, its completely blocked. Bear in mind this is only 20 or so years old so all built to relevant standard. Drains are blocked because bucks council abandoned drain clearance over a decade ago. So the rain of 1/2 mile of road ends up in one place, flood over road and straight into the river. Been like it years. New housing estate in buckingham. Big balancing pond and connected to exsisting culvert to river. Pond full of vegetation. Council wont take it on. Developer doesnt give a toss. Its compromised already. Give it a few more years it will achieve nothing. Estate of 400 houses feeding into that culvert. Developer will wind up that company and no one will look after it. Ref A/C. Maybe i should have expanded. If you have a/c, then part of the deal is your own solar big enough to drive it. Zero demand on grid. Zero pollution. Bebefit A2A much easier to fit, get right, and for owners to understanmd. ie, press button, heat comes out.

I think its best we dont go down the politics road tbh.

Im inclined to agree with most of that. So little to be optimistic about then! Apart from the spaffing billions on stuff that wont make any meaningful difference. Cut straight to the end game. Anything else is a complete waste of time and money. Though you say we can afford it, as you observe, we spend it on other stuff. For us to afford it, the fact remains that peoples standard of living will go backwards in a big way. More of an exsistence than a life. Humans are humans, they are not going to agree to that on a voluntary basis. Only a dictatorship can impose that. I cant go along with that. And even if we did, the reality is, most of the world wont or cant afford it. So prepare for the inevitable

So how big is the total array? Certainly some whorthwhile power given where you are.

Its the vehicle charging and using it as a house battery that seems to be fraught with complexity. That is a generous offer, which i shall likely take up, albeit not immediately. I currently have nothing to connect said panels too. Though as i may have mentioned, i think for me, with no EV, and not one in the foreseeable future, i think heating water is what id like to do. So i need to make some progress on that, though that seems equally complicated! I cant see the point of seperate batteries, when every EV has a set in.

Like gone west, the quality of the meat trumps the energy used. Im eating it. That stuff from 5000 miles away is highly unlikely to be as good for you for a whole host of reasons. Eating crap, because its saved energy isnt happening for me. My last round of lamb came from animals that have grazed in my field.

Ahh, yes, if its 12volt that isnt that relevant to the rest of us You name and location suggest more of a sideways rain environment that sunshine!

Dont think so?

I thought i had. Twice. Prepare for whats coming. In the UK, primarily i think thats going to be more rain. Much more frequent flooding events. Whatever else, i think we can all agree, less rain is very unlikely! At the moment we tinker at the fringes, dont fund it well, maintain jack all, build on flood plains, and pay lip service to SUDS regulations. Theres a lot of the UK's housing in flood prone areas. Its likely that many will simply become unlivable. Where will those people go? Can you protect them? Who is thinking about it? And coming up with a plan? No one is the answer. And i guess we will will have more exceptional heat events. The whole grant process effectively bars fitting of anything than can do cooling. Like A2A systems. Bonkers, just bonkers. During those heat events, you tend to find its bright and sunny. So lots of energy to be had to drive them. But no, lets make sure we cant fit the very thing we are going to need with increasing frequency.. I could go on, but dont see much point. These are sensible, practical things we could do to deal with events that are almost certainly going to happen, ASHP's or not. And in the end, deal with them is exactly what we will end up having to do. At huge cost.

Only a complete moron with no sense of self preservation would ride a bike here. 5 miles just gets me to the nearest civilisation. And thats britains smallest town. Riding a bike outside a few of the bigger cities is a near sucidal activity. Before i had a car, i used to ride a bike. More than enough close shaves. At least back then the roads were not riddled with potholes and drivers looking anywhere but out of the wondow. When i was living in buckingham, i used to see a guy commute along the A422 on a regualar basis In the dark and rain. So many times people nearly hit him in the dark. He is dead now. Run over by a truck. Cycling is fine as a leisure activity. It has no place as real transport outside of big towns.

Some will give you battery helth as opposed to charge. But in many cases, you will need to be able to "find it" through a menu on a car you are not familiar with. Some you will need an OBD scanner. The general car buying public are not going to rock up at the dealership with an OBD scanner, much less have a clue how to use it. As i said, its a barrier, been identified as such, but no action is proposed. On a boat, i guess its a bit simler, but none of it is simple to the layman. Im at leasdt technically minded, but i find the whole thing perplexing. Sure, if you are in a position to just pay someone for a turnkey installation, thats great, but i cant pay that kind of money. To me, with the 4,5kw array i have on a pallet, ignoring payback, id like to install it, make it much bigger, heat up water for heating, and if i had an EV. maybe charge that too, and discharge back to house. Sounds simple enough when said like that. Try understanding how that would all work, never mind put it together. If i had to pay to have it done, its a complete non starter. But, i would contest your statement, its the cheapest option. It just isnt. Maybe you should start a thread on your battery set up. Sounds too good to be true.

That was me. Niether of those cars is close to capable of a 200 mile round trip commute. If my wife cant get back home from work, what will i do for dinner? These are imporrtant questions! The other issue at the sub £5k end is battery condition. If its very poor or defective, the car is scrap. Which can be a problem if you can only just afford £5k in the first place. I note that the HOL commitee report picks up on this and talks about some industry standards such that the consumer isnt buying a dud. Sure, you can by a dud ICE too, but theres little on those thats likely to scrap the car for a single fault. But the report was correct, its a barrier to ownership further down the food chain. That would be main concern. And ive spent 20 years in the trade, including 15 running an automotive workshop. As a consumer, i dont have the confidence that i can establish that what im buying isnt just scrap looking for a mug to buy it at his level of the market. The reality is, another corsa is the best solution.

Its viable But dont underestimate how crap you will be with a digger first time out. Creating a neat level trench isnt as easy as a good operator will make it look. And if your trench is all over the place, you will munch up a load of extra concrete. Ive done a lot of diggering. Not sure even now i could do "nice" trnches for foundations.

Are we talking about these guys: https://www.russellwindowsystems.co.uk/services/

A slower, sensible transfer to new, less polluting technologies. That doesnt involve chucking billions of taxpayer cash to try and artifically force the pace. With many such schemes ultimately failing and / or delivering results well short of what was intended. With the ridiculous target of fitting heat pumps to everything by 2030 being a great example. Not going to happen, cant happen, as we discussed before.

I dont know the answers, but as i need to buy a front door, im hoping you get some. Like you, i will need to fit myself. Nice drawing you have done there.

Good work. Im lacking any independant water supply. Ours is more unreliable than the electricity. Maybe, one day, they will replace the asbestos mains, rather than keep repairing them. I live in hope. Given where i am, i cant imagine i need to do down far to find water. Maybe about 2 inches 😂

I agree, no reason not to start moving away from oil. But the pace and the cost and all the problems that will cause will be on a scale not seen before. Thats where i have a problem. Im pretty sure target after target will get put back. As ive said, many times, id love to have done what you have done. It just wasnt to be. Ref EV's im still intrigued by how the caravan sector, a market thats very much alive and well, will deal with a world that essentiallly will eliminate that pastime. There was certainly no sign of change at the show at the NEC last week.

I dont know if im not good at explaining myself? Im also amazed at your optimisim and belief. Especially of politicians. Mind boggling frankly. I didnt say do nothing is acceptable. I said that doing nothing much is what will happen, at a global level. The difference between us, is im a realist, you are an optimist. I dont find it depressing, indeed, there is a small risk im may be pleasantly surprised. You will be disappointed. All that said, i still say we should be spending these vast sums (that we dont even have) on protecting ourselves from climate change, not a futile attempt to prevent it. Which is very different from the corner you seek to paint me into, of doing nothing. Eventually, when reality sets in, and the effects are well and truly here, them im sure we will pivot to that. Sadly, by then, we will have spaffed everything we have, and more, having tried to prevent it.

Oh, i believe mandatory restrictions, additional costs and all the rest of it will happen. Millions will be impoverished. For the majority, life will be worse. For a small handful, they will enrich themselves of the back of everyone else. Most of this group couldnt care less about people on environment. I get it. im convinced that will happen. Just as you seem to be. Though you seem to welcome it, whereas i dont. I dont think any societal good can come from it. Im saying that it wont change anything at a climate level. And ill be proven right in due course.

I appreciate my view wont be popular, especially here. Im very confident i will be proven right over the long term. The idea that some ASHP's and EV's will make the slightest difference, and that you believe it too, i struggle with tbh. Deep down, surely you know its all futille? A large chunk of the world just isntinterested. Even our own PM says one thing and does another. Nothing happens. Life rolls on.