ENERGY MATTERS

[Stanley]

Rather than forcing the CH to kick in I raised the temperature on the stat to just over 18C. This means that while the stove is ticking away on a low setting during the day and night the CH tops the rest of the house up at a low level of heat instead of roaring and gobbling gas if you just override it. Warm house and the shed is kept at about 40F which is good for ot and the water pipes! Never regretted the cost of the stove, a fine addition to the house!

[Tizer]

We're so pleased with the wall insulation that we've got the builder back to do another solid walled room. Especially important when the price of oil is likely to surge later this year.

Our modifications to the chimney and the replacement of the back plate in the stove haven't cure the unreliability of burning. It's definitely an external, environmental problem caused by some kind of atmospheric inversion capping the chimney and preventing the hot air rising out of it. We get periods of several evenings with fierce burning but then times when the paper to light the fire burns up but the wood won't even catch light. There's ample air for the fire, well-seasoned wood - in fact I've been burning a lot of timber from the builder's work - and no significant soot accumulating in the flue. I'd need a factory chimney to be sure of getting a good burn every night!

[Wendyf]

Because of the development of our house over a few centuries it now has two internal walls that were previously external...if that makes sense. They are about three feet wide and go right up to the roof, so its very frustrating when it is snowy to see that precious heat is escaping up through them. Having insulated all the external walls we may have to think about internal ones as well!

[Tizer]

I know what you mean Wendy because we have a 24" thick internal wall between the front (south facing) and back (north facing) parts of the house. In the past it could sometimes be like going from the Equator to the North Pole when we went from front to back, but the insulation on the external walls has changed all that. Part of the 24" wall is still made of cob and that's probably better insulation than the stone-built parts. The loss of heat that you are describing now gets called `thermal bypass'. It can be up through a wall into the roof and this is especially a problem if the old wall projects above your loft insulation (but it might be possible to insulate the projecting wall); through the wall down into the ground; or laterally where the internal wall makes a T junction with the external wall.

[Pluggy]

First ever totally zero day from the solar panels today. More the snow sat on them than lack of light.

I've just been doing a bit of CH flow tweaking. We have 2 radiators in the living room, we need them when its bitterly cold, but its a pain getting them so that both of them get hot when its cold, I'v been going going playing with stop checks to get hot water going through both. The rest of the house takes a lot because the thermostatic rad valves open up when its cold and the pump struggles maintaining a flow around everything.

[Stanley]

Bigger pump Plugs! Or a supplementary wired into the boiler pump. I've got my annual figures and will do a bit of accounting today. Not expecting any big saving from stove, the advantages are more in warmer front room and saving leccy by cooking on it.



All cooking done on the stove yesterday, it's ideal for anything that needs to simmer slowly and I have the regulation cracked now. The kitchen isn't quite as warm of course but a thick shirt and waistcoat cures that and I am feeling no pain!

[Pluggy]

Its part of the combi boiler so its difficult to change. Its turned full up. The stop check tweaking seems to have done the trick.

Probably another very meagre day from the panels, I don't fancy going up on the roof to sweep the snow off 'em.

Cooking in the front room is purely the domain of those living alone I think Stanley.

[Stanley]

I don't know about that Pluggy. Any good cook would recognise the value of very slow cheap heat! Nothing boils so there's no steam or cooking smell and no mess. Lots to be said for it! Besides, I quite like the sight of pans sat on the stove arguing quietly no matter what room they're in. Homely.... (Jack hasn't complained yet...)

[Stanley]

I haven't done the sums but cooking on the stove will have done wonders for my leccy bill. I got a bot of a surprise the other day. The stove was a bit sluggish so I decided to burn the fire off and have a good clean out. I soon found the problem, the firebars were partially choked with clinker. (Fused ash) I've never had this before and wondered whether it was a bad batch of smokeless fuel. Whatever, a good clean out and we are back to normal. CH usage is at a minimum even in this cold weather as the stove is in all night and keeps the stat on the landing quiet!

[Stanley]

It's clear and frosty but I let the stove go out last night so I could have a good clean-out. CH hasn't come on yet so residual heat must have been good enough. Main thing is there is no wind. Good clean out including the bend in the flue and I have bitten the bullet and ordered a new side brick to replace the LH one which is in three pieces.

[Stanley]

Pluggy's panels will have been doing well lately......

[Wendyf]

13 units produced on our roof yesterday.

[Pluggy]

Just short of 9 (8.97) yesterday. Just over 22 (22.04) in the last 3 days. 1.36 so far today. More than the whole of January in 4 days. January was half of last year. They did nothing whatever for 6 days due to being covered in Snow.

Can't complain.

[Stanley]

I was sent a book on rural life in Minnesota for my birthday. One thing the man mentioned was the advantages of having a ground array of panels on the farm because it was easier to clear the snow off them in the severe Minnesota winters. Evidently they sell special scrapers for the job that do minimum damage to the panels.

[Pluggy]

In this country you need planning permission to put them on the ground, whereas it's immune if you put them on the roof. Some people with dormer windows brush the snow off from the window.

[Tizer]

I've got a question about PV panels - sorry if it's been dealt with before but I can't remember if it has. I understand that (1) a tariff is paid for each unit of leccy put into the Grid; (2) any leccy used in the home is free; and (3) when the panels aren't generating you use leccy from the Grid. My question is not about payment but concerns how the installation works. Are generation and usage completely separate and only integrated on paper as financial calculations or do your panels actually supply leccy to your house when the sun shines? In other words, if the Grid shuts down do you still have an electricity supply (as long as the the sun shines)?

[Pluggy]

A normal installation is grid tied, the grid goes off, the inverter shuts down, no electricity. There is an option which is quite expensive to have a backup facility fed by batteries and supplies electricity to the house and inverter. In this case the panels feed the house with electric and charge the batteries whilst the grid is off. The batteries will feed the house with electric for as long as they last if the grid is off and the panels aren't generating. In any case you get first bite at the electricity you generate.

[Pluggy]

Another 'best this year' day from the panels yesterday -9.37 kWh it was unbroken sunshine all day though. Back to dull today and they haven't got out of bed yet

[Tardis]

http://www.peoplepower.co.uk/

Is the link for the 'group' initiative being backed by Pendle Council to help energy bills

[Stanley]

All energy bills will go down automatically when the power cuts kick in......

[Tardis]

All energy bills will go down automatically when the power cuts kick in......

Not if the raw material for the power you do receive does increase in price because we have to import and rely on world market spot prices

[Stanley]

You'll still pay less if you aren't using it.....

[Tardis]

You'll still pay less if you aren't using it.....

True, but you'll not be eating hot food or watching TV, listening to the radio...

[Stanley]

Stove, reading books and battery radio Lit by Tilley lamps when leccy is off. Some of us have been here before.....

[Stanley]

What I'd like to see in the British Gas figures is how much is taken out of the industry by dividends......