David Essex

Hmms... I'm not sure my aerobic effluent has ever smelt that pleasant. I'd be really interested to hear how you get on. This is the thing... the water company don't want to connect my "end of the village". It'd involve going under a train line. But, the cost would be significantly less (is it 90% of the cost of water consumed?) than what we pay at the moment and will be paying in the future. Thanks, yep. It'd have to be the model above that (75W delivers 95 l/min). I'd recoup the outlay more slowly but it's a good idea.

The company that installed your system advised this? And this is working for you is it?

Yeah, I'm half looking into this but don't know much about the tech - I'd need a PV panel with an integrated microinverter? Plus mount / installation etc. Not sure what the outlay would be. I'm not sure describing the potential ongoing savings as “pennies” is entirely accurate, though. My napkin maths is: - 100W device running 24/7 consumes 2.4 kWh per day - 2.4 x £0.22 = £0.528 per day = £192.72 per annum When prices rise (as they inevitably will do next year) then the annual cost could be, what, 2.4 x £0.30 = £0.72 per day = £262.80 per annum. More? Reducing the power consumption by 30% = an ongoing saving of £78.84 per year. Enough to fund my gin consumption for a few weeks. That’s worth doing if I’m not going to break the system. I’m just interested if anyone has bothered trying. The guy I spoke to who serviced the treatment unit said that problems could occur with sludge making its way back and eventually blocking the airlift inlet. He didn't seem too concerned about the effect on the bacteria colonies. No big deal! Just interested to know. Thanks for your responses.

We have a Mantair conversion unit and a Medo LA-100 air pump running 24/7, costing approx. ~£200 per year on the tariff we were moved to when our old electricity supplier went bust recently. £200 for peace of mind is fine, but if prices e.g., double next year and we’re then paying £120 for a service, £150 to desludge, and £400 in electricity costs - the whole thing is starting to get a bit expensive. And I really feel for the poor sods who have recently installed ASHPs. The advice we were given from the people who service the Mantair is that the air pump should be on 100% of the time, possibly tolerating a 9:1 on/off ratio. I’m considering putting it on a timer and using a 7:3 ratio - 21 mins on, 9 mins off. I was wondering if anyone here has experience in reducing their air blower on/off ratio successfully without breaking their system? Or is this just a bad idea?