ENERGY MATTERS

[Sunray10]

You are well prepared Stanley. I have plenty of candles. So do I take that to mean power cuts in 5 years time.

[Stanley]

What it means Ray is that I remember the last power cuts and am not the sort of bloke to be caught out without a back stop. Nobody can guarantee enough power capacity as the old stations wear out and are not replaced. Pressure for replacement has fallen due to reduced demand in the recession which is not helping things. Being prepared makes sense.

[Tardis]

Looks like Germany is about to pull it's subsidy for solar PV's as last year they got applications for more than double what they had anticipated, about 9 gigawatts.

[Tizer]

Germany has a more structured plan for PV than the UK does and they re-assess the FiT each quarter to keep the total installed PV for 2020 on track.

For an interesting read on energy efficiency have a look at Mark Brinkley's blog article, `Pathways to Darkness', the second article down on this page: http://markbrinkley.blogspot.com/

[Sunray10]

Yes, I remember the power cuts of 1970-1 and 1974 and a few years after that 76 and 78 ? Everything was in a right old mess. Schools closing and factories and mills on three day weeks. Rota cuts they were called. I remember looking at the map in the Norweb electricity shop in Nelson to find out when our area would have a power cut. Something similar might happen, then. So, yes be prepared.

[Stanley]

Funny thing then was that while Barlick was in darkness the lights at Bancroft stayed on as we made our own electricity. During the three day week we were forced to shut down even though we had 300 tons of coal on stock. I used to go home from normality at the mill to oil lamps at home.

[Tardis]

Out with the thermal camera again last night just as it was going dark,

Strange the number of people who had their central heating on and windows open

[Stanley]

Perhaps they're rich and like fresh air.
Stove was still lit yesterday morning so I cleaned it out and chucked some kindling in. As soon as it caught I chucked some nuts in and when it had burned up I shut the dampers down. I haven't touched it since and there are still hot coals in there so I've chucked more kindling on. It's very efficient and the ovoids from B&D are brilliant, they burn so slowly and completely. Just had a look and it's caught again so I shall repeat the exercise. No gas burned of course and a warm house.

[Whyperion]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/analysis-uk-ga ... 00226.html

I have consistently said much of UK problem is a lack of a coherent , planned , domestically supplied energy policy

[Stanley]

Did you see the programme last night on the two major routes to fusion? One the US favoured laser containment and the other the electro-magnetic containment favoured in the new ETA experiment in France. I saw a huge laser at Berkeley UCL 30 years ago and they told me then that it was going to be used to contain fusion. The scientists engaged in the experiments gave dates ranging from 2020 to 2050 for when we will first see commercial quantities of juice from fusion. I wonder if I'll live long enough...?

[Pluggy]

I saw it, I haven't seen it before but the dialogue in the programme suggests it was made around 2009, in the bit about the South Korean reactor, they said it would have achieved its goals in around 2-3 years - about 2011. The date stamp at the end of the programme confirmed this. I'm far from a fan of Brian Cox, but I found the programme fascinating.

[Tizer]

A taste of things to come? .... Biomass fire at Tilbury power station:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-17180221

and on Green Building Forum:
http://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/new ... e=1#Item_0

[Stanley]

I'd seen the report of the fire, now I understand!

[Pluggy]

Back on planning permission and my solar panels, I've just been pointed at the latest amendment to the hallowed Town & Country Planning Act Part 40 which say I don't need planning permission. They came into force 1st October 2011 (about 6 weeks before mine were installed). Pendle were quoting the 2008 amendment which says I need planning permission because I'm in a conservation area and they are visible from the highway. The 2011 amendment says I would need to be in a conservation area and the panels mounted on a wall visible from a highway to need planning permission.

Here it is in black and white on the governments own site : http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2011/2056/made

All I have to do now is convince Pendle Borough Council...........

[Stanley]

It sounds as though you are doing a valuable public service dragging them into the current legislation. Go to it!

[Tizer]

Haha, lovely one Pluggy. It's typical of the planners to not know the legislation properly for their own profession. I read the self-build magazines and it's quite common for the builders to have to correct the planners!

[Pluggy]

Just had a callback from Pendle Borough Council, with confirmation I don't need planning permission.......

[Wendyf]

Excellent news Pluggy. How are the panels performing now the days are getting longer? We were surprised to find ours producing between 500 & 800watts in the mist and drizzle the other day. Enough to be exporting to the grid.

[PanBiker]

Yes good news Pluggy, My daughter has just had their house fitted with panels on two of the three roof surfaces they have, (they are in a linked semi so front, back and also a side roof). Last week when we called in it was chucking it down all day but the output never dropped below 1.2Kw, should be magic when the sun shines.

[Tardis]

Just had a callback from Pendle Borough Council, with confirmation I don't need planning permission.......

Excellent

[Tardis]

The LEAF project next phase starts on Monday.

Letters are going out for the Home Surveys, now 300 homes are wanted.

The Micro-renewable project has been awarded, and I believe their will be an opportunity to consult with people who already have the technology in the town around about the 2nd or 3rd week in March. At the moment I don't have that information to give out contacts or specific dates. When I do I will put it on here in case it interests those outside the survey area.

No one mentioned the thermal camera last night, so you'd have to ask Richard Nelson the town clerk.

[Pluggy]

It was running around 3-400 watts on the bright rainy day, usually enough to be exporting unless we have a lot of stuff on and/or heavy stuff (shower, vacuum cleaner , kettle, toaster, oven - you get the idea). It peaked at 1911 watts at 12:40 today, which sounds about right for a 2.5 kwp system at this time of year. The clouds set in after that and its been running 4-500 with odd peaks since then. You can see how its doing in the link in my signature. Now I've got the spectre of planning permission off my back, my next concern is how long I can hang onto my 'holy grail' disk electric meter. The power companies generally swap them out for new fangled digital meters which stop when they are exporting. Having them running backwards means you get the full saving on your bill and you get half of what you generate as well as the feed in tariff. I have fitted my own secondary meter after the official which doesn't run backwards to get reasonable consumption reading on my monitor. They pretty much match each other when not exporting but the official meter reads about 50 units less than 'my' meter over February. EDF do ask ask if you have an old disk meter on the FIT application so they know I have it, Apparently they are snowed up with applications so they haven't fully processed it yet. If/when I get a new official meter, I'll change my unofficial import meter to an unofficial export meter. Should be good for 8 or 9 units today, I have shading issues after about 3 o'clock from a large tree on high ground , this should improve and disappear as the sun gets higher in the sky. I used to have a big dip around noon as the house across' shadow passed over the panels in December/January , that has gone with the sun higher now.

Just checked up since 7:20 this morning, the official meter says I have used 1.9 units, my unofficial import meter says I have used 6.4 units. I've generated 7.9 units. The implied export is 4.5 units (6.4-1.9) which is more than half what I have generated.

[Pluggy]

I love sunny days, yesterdays meter reading at 4 in the afternoon :



At todays at the same time:



The smaller white meter is my unofficial import meter, it says we used more than 6 units from the grid. A good example of why the electric company's don't like old disk meters when you can generate electricity and export it. EDF will be about a pound worse off from me today......

[Whyperion]

Why will they be worse off , they have sold your leccy to someone else at at least the same rate , and not had to buy in as much from another generator ? If we all do it they can save themselves either a powerstation or that expensive imported French electricity.

[Pluggy]

They would still be able to sell my electricity, that won't change whatever the meter, they are worse off because I won't be paying them for the 6 units I took from the grid today and I won't be paying for the 3 units wound back from my meter. I will be paid for the units I've generated at the FIT rate and for half what I've generated deemed to be exported at 3.1p per unit (from a separate generation meter). Because my main meter runs backwards, I won't be paying them for 9 units that I would be if the metering worked as it should. In round terms, I've generated 12 units, used 9 myself of which 6 were imported and 3 came from what I generated. I exported 9 units to the grid. I'll be paid for all I've exported but won't be paying for what I used today the way things are. or about a pound.

We couldn't all do it, because the FIT which makes it economically viable for private individuals to have PV panels installed comes from everyones electric bills. The government isn't too happy because the takeup has exceeded their expectations and the stream of money coming from everyones bills isn't keeping up with what they have to pay out in FITs. Without the FIT, PV panels would never pay for themselves. The power coming from privately owned PV panels is far more expensive than offshore wind and nuclear which are the 2 most expensive ways of large scale generation. It doesn't get rid of power stations either, because it can't be depended on and the power stations have to be kept in reserve for when the sun doesn't shine.