ENERGY MATTERS

[Whyperion]

Makes sense , you used 6 from the Grid because you were using when you werent generating enough eg night/early morning, you then generated 3 which you used daytime and then generated another 9 left over which went back to the grid , taking the meter to where it was at picture end.

[Pluggy]

The FIT is having its desired effect, that is to reduce the cost of installationss. They've about halved in price since it was introduced in April 2010. It that continues and power continues to rise in price, I don't think it will be too long before they become viable in their own right. They probably already are in some parts of the world with expensive power and lots of sunshine.

[Wendyf]

Problems with our inverter. Waiting to here from the manufacturers.

[Pluggy]

Problems with our inverter. Waiting to here from the manufacturers.

Not good Wendy, what breed is it ?

[Wendyf]

Mastervolt Sunmaster XS5000

[Stanley]

Piece on R4 as I write about rising oil prices, One presenter has just made bleeding obvious comment that it will affect the way we all live. I think we knew that.....

[Pluggy]

Another good day for the panels yesterday, the meter backtracked again over 24 hours



Sunday at 16:00



Monday at 16:00



Tuesday at 16:00

Judging by the weather outside, the meter almost certainly won't backtrack over the next 24 hours. The panels might not even get out of bed.....

Wendy, The Mastervolt looks like a prettier box than mine (SMA Sunny Boy HF2500) - big red thing. Best of luck with getting it sorted

[Whyperion]

Half listening to the Republican Candidates speeches after super tuesday one blamed Obahma for the $5/gallon for gasoline prices. So all we need is a Republican President of the USA and oil prices will come tumbling down ( they are also promising more US jobs - they only have 8% recorded unemployment rate at the present time , lower taxes removal of death duties and a everlasting land where everything in the garden's rosy - or not as also planning going ahead with cheap domestic fuel=carbon buring at a tremendous rate ).

[Stanley]

They should look at what is happening in the real world. God alone knows how ordinary people run cars these days.
Got a shock this morning when CH kicked in while I was in the bathroom (The boiler is in there). Then I realised it was the auto run that kicks in occasionally to make sure the fan and pump bearings are free. Phew!

[Tardis]

I got the thermal image of the house yesterday from Pendle along with a huge wedge of leaflets. Some of them were quite interesting.

I will ask if I can get an electronic copy and stick it up.

It sounds like they are looking for Street Champions for the Low Carbon initiative, so maybe there is more to come.

[Tizer]

Tardis, have you tried pointing your thermal camera at conservatories? Many are centrally heated in winter but they lose vast amounts of heat even with blinds on the windows. Even worse are the conservatories that open straight through into the house, i.e. no doors to separate it off from the rest of the house (you're only allowed to do that if you get permission from Building Control). In those cases, much of the house's heat is disappearing out through the conservatory. There's little point in trying to improve the energy efficiency of the house if all the heat can escape that way.

[Whyperion]

Given the Govt gets extra VAT from vehicle fuel increases there's a bit of scope for the Govt to reduce some of the deficit. I would like to see insurance premium tax eliminated rather than reduce fuel duty , this would then become a lever to try to get down some of the car and other insurance costs. Often forgotten in the TV headlines on hauliers is that for them the VAT element is recoverable so less of an impact on the higher fuel pump prices , hence the campaign to reduce duty , which is not recoverable. The duty element should be a good incentive to attempt make vehicles and transport even more efficient. Choosing the hybrid as a company car definately has a 10 to 20percent fuel use saving.

[Tardis]

I don't think we had many conservatories on the houses we went around. Mostly terraced streets. We did a few of the porches and back kitchen extensions but the heat loss from them was not as great as from the main part of the house.

The camera is now back with LCC, although once the Town Council have bought theirs then I do hope that it can be used as an educational tool, but also in supporting other streets etc that weren't in the original survey area.

The full report doesn't have to be ready until the back end of April because of Easter, so if I do get an electronic copy I'll put it up here.

I would say that using the thermal camera was useful, but I wonder if the information gleaned from it could be sharpened by actually getting someone who knows what all the information it provides means. It is really hard work picking up that amount of engineering in a couple of hours and it was much easier to point and click

[Tardis]

I got sent this today:

Have a look at www.energybillrevolution.org

We are facing an energy bill crisis. Families are suffering huge financial hardship, and one in four households can't afford to heat their homes. Cold homes are damaging the health of our most vulnerable citizens, including children and older people.

Not sure I entirely agree with the aims, but solving the energy security should be a priority to stop fuel poverty impacting more than is necessary.

[Tizer]

The Energy Bill Revolution looks good but I've got concerns with a few points. It makes a big issue about getting more money to pay for insulating homes - but there is plenty of money available for this already, the problem now isn't finance but how to motivate those who have not had their homes insulated when they would benefit from it. Also, the web site demands use of renewable energy - it doesn't have to be renewable, what about nuclear?

Talking of nuclear energy, a recent Radio 5 programme (Costing the Earth, I think) covered the research on thorium nuclear power which looks like being a marvellous improvement over what we have now. It also mentioned how this could have been done (it was done on a small scale) in the early days of nuclear energy but governments wanted to concentrate on plutonium because of its use in weapons too, so thorium got side-lined by the vested interests.

[Stanley]

That rings true Peter. No doubt at all that the priority was weapons grade by products. I'm officially in 'fuel poverty' but have a warm house. It depends on what your priorities are in many cases. Not all, because everyone doesn't have the control I have by having a good landlord who supports my efforts to be efficient.

[Tardis]

I think I may have had the Thorium debate on in the background though I only usually have R4 on as I'm not fond of Nicky Campbell and Victoria Derbyshire just makes me switch off.

I agree with the insulation, which is why I had some reservations about the campaign. Perfectly happy to allow people to keep money so that they can decide their own priorities.

The one issue that is coming through loud and clear from the Low Carbon study is the few insulation schemes that are available and practicable to be used on stone houses in a conservation area. Most involve external cladding which you can't do in a conservation area. Almost like an enforced poverty rule, stopping owners actually being able to reduce fuel bills

[Tizer]

I think that eventually there will have to be permission for stone houses to be given a cladding comprising an inner layer of insulation (probably polystyrene) and an outer layer of stone or artificial stone slips. Technically, this is feasible and is already done with brick slips or render as the outer layer. All the technology is there, it just needs the planners to get their heads round it and for the money to be available to do the job.

[Tardis]

I have to flag up this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17285031

Absolutely and utterly nothing whatsoever to do with the Low Carbon Study.

Lancashire Policy are sending out warnings because they are operating in the area.

[Tardis]

Agree about the insulation.

It is a matter of getting the nimbys to accept it though, as shown by the letter Pluggy got for his panels

I wonder which politician is going to be brave enough to stand up to English Heritage and the National Trust to get them to change their opinions.

[Pluggy]

Which reminds me, I haven't been reimbursed the fee I paid for my non required planning permission.......

[Wendyf]

We have dry lined and insulated our old stone built farmhouse room by room over the last 10 years or so. We have attached studding to the walls, put insulation boards like Kingspan or Celotex onto the studding, followed by a dpc then plasterboard. It is what you might call a one and a half storey house with very little roof space, so there is thicker Kingspan between the rafters followed by the one inch then plasterboard. If you look at the roof in cold weather then our weak spots are where old three foot thick walls, (once external, now internal) go right up to the roof. The wind whistles through electric sockets cut through the insulation in the walls, and one of our big mistakes was to put downlighters in the ceiling of our on-suite bathroom, which for some reason just draw the cold wind in. We are nearly 1000ft up, so I suppose it would be hard to get it perfect!

[Stanley]

I've lived in stone houses for the last 56 years and have never had any problems keeping warm. My fuel costs are comparable with others according to the energy surveys people have done from time to time. I have always said that the key to getting the best performance is keeping the walls dry and efficient draught-proofing. I've gone as far as anyone can reasonably go with double-glazing, modern insulated doors, roof insulation and hot water management and don't feel deprived. Mind you, living in a terraced house with only two external walls and living on my own with perfect control helps, I reckon kids are the barrier to ultimate fuel efficiency! Perhaps Plugs could comment on that one. Coldest building I ever encountered was the old bank in Foulridge. I never lived there but my daughters tell me that when they visited their mother it was always cold, even with the heating on full blast. Detached stone built house of course, wind could get at it from every direction.
There is another factor of course, I am always aware of combustion and efficiency because for the last forty years I have been chasing it as part of my day job. I lit the stove yesterday at 6am and it is still in and warming the house despite never touching it since. 24 hours on about a quid's worth of fuel. It doesn't get much better than that. In about ten days I shall be publishing my fuel figures since Jan 11th when the stove went in and asking Plugs for a comparison with his as he has a similar house and like me keeps an eye on consumption and efficiency. That'll be an interesting comparison over the coldest part of the year.

[Tardis]

My survey is being done on Monday afternoon, so I can report back then, and hopefully can stick up the findings if I can get an electronic copy.

Based around SAP ratings, so an increase of 20 points on the SAP could see your fuel bills drop by about 33%, which is probably an immense saving with the sky rocketing price of fossil fuels

[Pluggy]

Not a direct comparison I'm afraid Stanley, mine is an end terrace, so I've 3 external walls losing heat. The Gable end is bigger than the other 2 combined , these are narrow houses.

For what its worth, these are my gas meter readings from 16:00 on the 11th January and this morning at 08:00 :





Doing the maths we used 439 cubic metres in that period, this translates to 4916.8 Kwh (multiplyed by 11.2 which is a slightly less accurate but much quicker conversion than on the back of your gas bill).

Working on 4 pence per Kwh which is probably about average with VAT, that comes out to £196.67

If anyone wants a tutorial on what all those numbers on your bill mean, I can give a resume on here. The upside of being a geek, you can understand energy bills.....