ENERGY MATTERS

[Stanley]

Durham University have published a report into the micro-seismitic tremors associated with 'fracking' and find that they are too small to be a problem and that more events are caused by non-fracking activities like mining. They say they shouldn't be described as earthquakes.

[Pluggy]

Most Energy companies have had a standing charge option on at least one of their tariffs for a long time. Its probably that they've decided that a standing charge tariff is cheaper for you. (depends if you subscribe to the hype I suppose). I've had a standing charge since I changed to EDF about 2 and a half years ago. But EDF still do tariffs without a standing charge. If you use a lot of energy, its generally better if you do pay a standing charge, if you only use a little, its generally better if you have an 'all in one' tariff.

One benefit of this clear, dry, cold spell we're having is that my solar panels are doing their stuff with a vengeance. Its would be better if weren't so cold with it........

Anybody with google and the will to explore could have told you the tremors caused by fracking weren't earthquakes. One of the tremors couldn't even have been felt if you were stood directly on top of it, they only knew about if from seismometers, the other was barely, if you were stood on it. You generally need something a couple of orders of magnitude bigger (100 X or 2 points on the Richter scale) to do any structural damage (chimney pots falling off poorly maintained houses for example). It sells newspapers and gives Greenpeace something to whinge about......

[Tripps]

Having received today the largest gas bill I have ever seen - get fracking says I.......

[Stanley]

This winter I have relied almost exclusively on the stove in the front room. The nice thing about the fuel is that the price hasn't changed in 12 months. Probably one of the advantages of having a completely home produced fuel from a source that is fighting for a market. Just waiting for this quarter's gas and leccy bills and I know now they are both minimal, the leccy reduction is down to cooking on the stove. They sent me a 'cheapest option' advisory the other day and according to them I can save £7 a year by switching. I shan't bother of course, I know more about my energy usage than they do!

[hartley353]

Meter reader came yesterday, I now await the elec and gas bills. The elec bill should match last years with a rise due to profiteering, but the gas bill should be a pleasant surprise, due to miniscule use.

[Pluggy]

The cold winter, the Mr's desire to have the house warm and teenage daughters attitude to electric use have conspired to produce an horrendous energy bill. They are putting up my monthly payments by £50 a month. Since it was my readings, I'm confident they are correct,I'm on fixed price contract until later in the year, and I owe them the wrong side of £300. I don't really have anyone to blame outside of the household.....

[Big Kev]

Fortunately my lot have all moved out, with bills of their own. Just two of us now, sub £100 combined monthly energy bill (+ the annual dual fuel discount knocked off).

[Stanley]

Got my three month bill and as expected, leccy use is down 140Kwh compared with same period last year. I have a credit of £180 so I've clawed £100 back. Gas use is down 60Kwh despite the hard weather. Total energy for the period is 1050Kwh but of course I have the advantage of being solitary and have complete control. I have the cost of coal on top but this is more than paid for by the savings on gas and leccy, the stove is more efficient, largely because it can be used for cooking. The estimated usage for next 12 months is £150 for leccy and £350 for gas plus coal costs.

[Whyperion]

Thats still £2 to £3 a week energy bill. The gas seems impossible to get down , is it the heat loss through the stone walls. Work is moving the wife , so I had better follow, in July to different property that should be brick/cavity larger terraced property ( and 300ft lower down but still a bit exposed ) , expecting some reduction in the rather pricey gas bill once we are settled there )

[Stanley]

No heating yesterday. First time the stove has been out for a while so I took the opportunity to give it a good clean out.

[Stanley]

Cold enough this morning to trigger CH at low level. I shall light the stove later and then I can save gas and also save leccy when I warm my soup up. Not what you'd call warm yet and they promise us frost next weekend....

[Tizer]

Last night our village hall hosted a lecture by Dr Rob Kirby who has been advising the government on the Severn Barrage. I support the idea of the barrage but have been concerned about some of the issues that didn't seem to have been sorted out and I didn't trust the firms of consultant engineers who stand to make a lot of money out of such a project. But I came away from the meeting in full support of the proposed scheme and found Kirby to be an excellent project champion. Now in his late 60s, he studied zoology and oceanography in the 1960s and has studied the Severn estuary ever since. He worked at a government hydrology institute in Taunton but this was closed in the 1980s and, as he put it, decades of data were thrown on local rubbish tip - but he held onto his own data and it still fills his house in Taunton. He's now regarded as the world expert on the Severn estuary. He has colleagues who also were scientists working for the government and then thrown out in the 70s and 80s and they did the same, carefully retaining their data and often continuing the same research but with funds garnered from other sources. One of them, for example, has records of the species and abundance of fish off Hinckley Point for the last 40 years and has plotted the decline as the estuaries water temperature rose with climate change.

These men are not theoreticians, they are pragmatic, hands-on scientists and don't need models - they plot their data on simple graphs that anyone could understand. The `fish man' even has records of fish stocks in the estuary for the last 800 years, gained by study of historical documents. All this helps us understand the effects of climate change but also shows how the barrage might effect (or not effect) the wildlife of the estuary. The studies of Kirby and his colleagues show that the estuary now has no benthic (bottom-living) wildlife, no worms, shellfish and the like, and therefore no bottom feeding fish. The water is so silty that there's little else living in the water column. The wildlife for which the estuary is known, the wading birds and ducks, live on the wetlands alongside the estuary and not in the river.

The damage to the estuary is being done by climate change, the increasing sea temperature, and we need the barrage to help minimise these rising temperatures. Building the barrage would be likely to improve the wildlife habitats rather than damage them. Placed across the estuary from Cardiff to Weston-super Mare, it could provide the energy of between 2 and 3 nuclear power stations.

We now need the government to see the sense in proceeding with the project, especially at a time when major infrastructure projects can help the kick-start the economy.

Here is a BBC article about Rob Kirby from 2010: LINK

[Stanley]

Good clear post Tiz and it strengthens my long-held belief that barrages like the Severn and Morecambe Bay have much to recommend them. Harnessing the power of the tides is the ultimate green power source, free, absolutely predictable and massive amounts of energy. It seems to me that the reason why our leaders prefer to throw billions at foreign firms and nuclear power is more to do with politics than common sense.
Still cold enough to warrant keeping the stove lit. When will this winter end?

[Stanley]

I shall call in at B&D and order some more coal this morning. No problems with the cost, the stove is saving me money but I do hope this lot will last for a while. No more till Autumn? Or am I being too optimistic.....

[Stanley]

Question is, will this see me through to summer?

[Stanley]

Apart from the 75% efficiency of the stove and the fact it can be used for free cooking, it struck me the other day that there is another advantage; the fact that the wall of the house even up in the bedroom, is warmed by the flue gases. I'll bet they get an advantage next door as well!

[Tripps]

I see they are 20 kg bags. I remember when they were heavy hessian things containing 1 cwt, which is 50 kg. The coalman had a back protector leather with studs - like a ninja turtle .

[Stanley]

That's right, a back leather.

[chinatyke]

Coal in white sacks? A sign of the times?

Our coalman was Preston's at Earby and now the same family sell BMWs!

Where there's muck, there's brass!

[Stanley]

Mention of sacks reminded me of the 'railway sacks' we used when I first went farming. The combine was a bagger and it was the usual practice to use hired sacks. They were large very heavy Hessian sacks which held over four bushels. So a bag of wheat was over 250lbs (roughly 60lbs a bushel). The bags had the owner's name stencilled on them. All the railway companies had hire sacks and other hirers were Gopsill Brown and Severnside Hire. They were repaired when they got back to the deopt by sewing patches on but in later days Copydex was used to stick patches on the inside. They would be illegal these days! When filled 'catch weight' at the docks they sewed them up and were able to get more in them. They ran up to almost 300lbs and put muscles in places you never knew existed!

[Tizer]

Were the railway sacks marked in some way to segregate them for different uses, e.g. food, coal, or did they get used any old way?

[Stanley]

Tiz, as far as I know they were only used for harvested cereals. Coal sacks were heavier and had to have a tin disc riveted on them to certify they held 1cwt. When weighing the coal a bag was always placed on the weight pan under the 1cwt weight which was also certified. When I was open all hours Weights and Measures used to call in occasionally and check all the weights and scales. The scales all had recesses in filled with lead to take adjustments and the certifying stamp.

[Stanley]

Cold enough to kick the CH in again this morning.....

[Stanley]

Talks going on between British Coal and the government which could lead to partial nationalisation. See this LINK for a report on the Daw Mill fire. This pit provides 28% of our coal and 5% of UK total energy requirements.

[Tardis]

I changed to the People Power option

Mostly because of the £240 cash back over 12 months, but also because my NPower account has a £90 credit on it.