ENERGY MATTERS

[David Whipp]

Thanks P.

At the time we did the others, we didn't have the brass to sort the stained glass one out. It's something for us to consider once we've dealt with our roof...

[Stanley]

My daughter had a similar problem. The contractor fitted a unit on the outside of the old one and it's been OK.

[Stanley]

Cool this morning but CH hasn't kicked in so it must not be down to 18C upstairs. Have put a tee shirt on under my shirt.....

[Tizer]

The proposed Hinkley Point C nuclear power station has been approved by the European Commission after a 9-month delay while they vacillated over whether or not it broke state aid rules. Sometimes I want to give the EC a kick up the backside! It will be the first new nuclear power station to be built in Britain since 1995 and it's still being delayed.

[Stanley]

I cracked yesterday afternoon and gave the CH a blast when I noted that the core of the house was almost down to 18C (64.4F). It kicked in briefly this morning of it's own violation as my old mate used to say.... (He also talked about a shot across the front of a tank shattering the enemy's morals) We can't escape it, we are moving into the heating season. I have all my ducks in a row, plenty of kindling and fuel and the Tilley lamps have been tested. For dire emergencies I have the Primus stove......

[Stanley]

Low level CH is the order of the day now even though the thermostat is set just below 19C on the landing. This means between 18C and 19C in the front room and I have no problem with that. So I haven't lit the stove yet, that will come when the temperature drops a bit further. Bonus at the moment is that the shed gets a bit of heat as well from the radiator and makes going in there a bit more attractive.

[Stanley]

See THIS for a report on the fire at the Didcot gas fired power station. The central board say it will not affect the national capacity. Even so, it is an example of how events can affect this vital service.

[Stanley]

See THIS for an example of how Didcot has sparked fears of power cuts if we have a severe winter. One small point about what was said on BBC news this morning, John Humphrys said it could result in light bulbs burning dimly and electric clocks running slow. He was right in the first instance but wrong in the second. Accuracy of electric clocks depends on cycles in AC current, 50 per minute, and not voltage. It varies slightly all the time but is adjusted by the CEGB.

[Pluggy]

Scaremongering. Half of Didcot is 650MW, Nothing as far as the grid is concerned. We're a long way from peak use, and a peak use depends on exceptionally cold weather. Because of the relative prices of coal and gas, gas powered stations are mainly used for load balancing. Peak use will probably occur around 7PM on a very cold day, usually in January or February. It only happens once every few years. Nowadays it won't be a problem if the wind is blowing when it occurs. Now doubt they'll have Didcot back on line by the time theres any chance we'll need it. Load hasn't been above 40GW so far this year, we don't need to start worrying until it gets north of 60GW. They shut far bigger plants down for maintainance on a regular basis, and that doesn't get a mention.
It sells newspapers.....

Nice windy day today, the grid metered wind farms are producing 7GW (10 times as much as half of Didcot produces) as I write this, and theres half as much again that isn't grid metered, it just shows as a lack of load. Circa 25% of our electric is coming from wind at this point.

[Tizer]

John Humphrys said it could result in light bulbs burning dimly and electric clocks running slow. He was right in the first instance but wrong in the second.

He's probably confusing the `electric clock' (mains power) with a battery clock which does run slow when the battery starts to flag. Now we know what sort of clock Humphrys relies on each morning - perhaps he should get a mains operated clock!

[Stanley]

Pluggy, nice dose of reality and I love the fact that wind power is producing so much now. I agree about selling newspapers but we all know that we have to do something soon about new main line capacity.... I'm a pessimist, I have my ducks in a row for when it happens.
I haven't lit the stove yet, waiting for it to get colder. The CH is on at low level and keeping things comfortable and especially the shed.... I'll review this policy as it gets colder....
Later at 07:10, a report on BBC R4 confirms everything that you said about wind power Pluggy.

[Pluggy]

Yesterday's wind power made today's news : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-29715796

There was more power from wind than nuclear. Not likely to happen regularly, many of the nukes are shut down for maintainance and some are running at reduced power, and it was a very windy day.....

[Stanley]

We got there first......

[Tizer]

There's an interesting debate going on here about the pros and cons of a proposal for a big `solar farm' about a mile from us. The pros are that the UK needs more renewable energy and the site is well placed to get maximum sunlight. The cons are that it's one of the high spots of the Somerset Levels that doesn't get flooded and it's known for having the best potato growing soil in the district. Oh, and that all those people who live on the hill alongside will no longer see a green field but a big array of shiny PV panels. It's interesting too that if the view is going to be changed then it would be a great place to have houses, above the flood level, but nobody would be allowed to build on it.

[Stanley]

I have no experience of solar panel farms but suppose they have the same effect as acres of poly-tunnels the difference being that in them, food is still produced. I have little doubt that the bands are going to get tightened over the next few years in respect of sheer generating capacity and I wonder how the balance of the argument will shift when people realise the disruption power cuts can cause. Some of us can remember the last lot... Bancroft looked quite splendid with all its lights on in the total darkness of an evening power cut. Nobody ever complained about us.... When stopping time came I had to leave the engine running to give enough light for people to get out of the mill safely. Then I walked up the field in the dark to Hey Farm and into the glow of our Aladdin Oil Lamps and the warmth of the Rayburn...

[Whyperion]

I understand Rochdale BC are creating a solar panel array on otherwise contaminated land that can not be used for any other building or leisure purpose ( not the T&N site so far as I am aware ). I suspect there could be other similar land that could be used , rather than productive land, mind you do arrays on land have to be at ground level, if they were supported on metal strutting , potatoes (in somerset) could still be grown below- with plant tops growing up the supports if needed , obviously areas of shadow would need to be addressed.

[Stanley]

I was listening to the spokesman for the electricity generators yesterday assuring us that there would be no 'domestic power cuts' this winter. This may well be accurate but doesn’t take into account that in order to ensure this the generators have made arrangements to pay large firms to severely restrict power usage at times of peak demand. He didn't mention power reductions either. The bottom line is that at 4.1% spare capacity we are worse off than at any time in the last five years and it's getting worse. (LINK)

[Pluggy]

We were without power for 2 hours and 40 minutes this evening. Power failure rather than a power cut. I called in to powergrid and they said it was in hand and it affected about 2600 customers. We dug out candles and torches and we cooked the evening meal on the gas hob. I put the hob on later for heat because with no power the heating was off as well. It came back on a few minutes before Powergrid predicted just before 20:30. No harm done.....

[Stanley]

I didn't have the cut but did get a very bad drop out like a bad switch over at one point, can't remember when. I was surprised that even though the lights went out and came on again, nothing tripped and the FM3 carried on as though nothing had occurred.

[Stanley]

Short brown-out for perhaps 3 seconds at 14:44. Didn't knock the FM out....

[Stanley]

Another bad switch at 03:58 this morning.....

[David Whipp]

Thanks for posting details of dropouts and power cuts.

Following Ken Hartley's raising the issue, we have a meeting at 6pm on Tuesday at the Rainhall Centre with representatives from Northern Powergrid.

The more examples of failures we can give them, the better.

[Pluggy]

Having done a bit of 'keeping the lights on' on a warship in my younger days and making a c*ck up or two, I can't complain..... . If the Captain was to be believed I was nearly responsible for the loss of one of HM's frigates due to an unscheduled power outage

[Stanley]

Sounds like an episode from the Navy Lark....

[Tizer]

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Radical insulation programme would pay for itself and achieve huge economic benefits to UK.
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You can send a message to your MP supporting the movement:
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