ENERGY MATTERS

[Stanley]

I agree but I think that may be a slim hope Kev. I get a nasty feeling that whatever the reorganisation that's going on in Rolls is going to be a big contraction and then questions have to be asked about the viability of the plants in Barlick. That's obviously not what I want to see but it's going to take something quite extraordinary to change what looks like a disaster. Sorry, I'm very pessimistic/realistic about it.

[plaques]

In 1946 the American Admiral Rickover proposed the first nuclear powered submarine. Rolls Royce later created a nuclear division and at one time had a unit based in the Wellhouse Mill making some on the control valves. How much actual hardware manufacturing they now do I do not know. Whether they would be prepared to move manufacturing from existing plants into one that is currently on strike is hard to imagine. Although I can sympathise with the current loss of jobs I think they were too hasty in taking strike action.

[Tizer]

For anyone who wants more details of the `mini nuclear reactors' here are two articles...
`Smaller, safer, cheaper: One company aims to reinvent the nuclear reactor and save a warming planet' (Feb. 21, 2019) Science
`The countries building miniature nuclear reactors' (9th March 2020) BBC Future Planet

[chinatyke]

My wife was grumbling about paying the electric bill for last month's consumption in her bed-sitter apartment. She pays that account, I pay for the electricity consumed in our main residence. She was annoyed it was so high because we had only stayed there a few days. The bill was £2.50!

[Whyperion]

Never thought of ammonia as fuel.... you learn something new every day!

Wasn't that the main ingredient part of the fertilzer in Beirut that went up with a big bang ?

[Tizer]

No that was an ammonium compound, not ammonia.

[Stanley]

[Tizer]

I mentioned elsewhere about our Drayton CH controller failing after only 3 years. Our plumber contacted the company and they said it was guaranteed for one year only! Surely a gadget like that should last 5 years at least? They had the cheek to suggest that `the user' might have dropped it. So we went for a Honeywell this time which has a 2-year guarantee - still not much but twice as long as the Drayton. He's fitted it and we find it has only 4 time period settings which means you can't, for example, set a separate temperature for the lunchtime (which we've always been able to do before). We'd checked the details of the controller on the Honeywell site and read the user guide which showed 6 settings. Now we find there's more than one guide document for the same device - and one shows 6 and the other 4! I've sent them an email pointing out the problem. We can't rely on anything or anybody these days!

[Stanley]

My padded waistcoat doesn't have a guarantee but up to now has done over 30 years.
I've never touched the controller for my boiler Peter. It's over 25 years old now and is on its second boiler, should I be worrying?

[Tizer]

No but if you were in a larger house with more rooms you might prefer, like us, to have a wireless controller that you can operate from anywhere in the house.

[Tripps]

Interesting video,and I get to embed it.
Octopus Energy gets a mention and spookily they get a mention from 'Old Sparky in this week's Private Eye. It's the first negative press article about the company that I've seen.

It reinforces my misgivings about 'smart' meters. When I last mentioned that - a long time ago - I was told it wasn't possible to cut your supply . Agreed, but they can control the cost bigly.

We are told that the First Floosie has strong views on green matters, and with the departure of Cummings is having an increasing influence on Boris's thinking. The Spectator says she interrupted a COBRA meeting to get him to intervene on a press story that was being beastly to her dog !

[plaques]

Must try this out. Embed

[PanBiker]

[Stanley]

I thought about you all when I read PE this week and saw the article by Old Sparky. He likes Octopus and wants them to get across this problem they seem to have.

[PanBiker]

You can help them along if you wish:

If you use this link we will both get £50.00

https://share.octopus.energy/young-ibis-685

[Tizer]

`How my electric car is helping to power my home' LINK to video
`A pilot scheme run by energy company OVO is allowing some electric car owners to use their vehicle to power their homes. Owners can buy electricity from the grid at off-peak rates to charge their vehicle and whatever is leftover in the car’s battery can be used to power their homes or sell it back to the grid at peak times when prices are higher. BBC Click's Lara Lewington finds out more.'

[Stanley]

I've seen this mentioned elsewhere Peter. As pure electric vehicles gradually become more common their collective battery capacity when connected for recharging is great enough to be a significant factor in energy management.
We have to be aware of and open to developments like this. Use by generators of that capacity could be a condition of supply in future.

[plaques]

I can see that for those who are already connected to the grid and can sell solar/ wind power back could easily be adapted for car battery discharging. For those not in this loop they will need inverters etc. which will add to the payback time.

[PanBiker]

Won't hold our breath in Barlick. Our commitment to electric vehicles are two public street charging points up a back street behind the Library. The reserved area often has non electric vehicles parked in the bays. Mind you we cant even get the basics right, parking on zebra zig zags, junctions and double yellow lines is endemic. I think lots of Barlickers must be losing the use of their legs. The daft thing about this is that we have three decent sized car parks in the town centre and all are free.

[Tizer]

Even Taunton with a population of about 64,000 doesn't have many public charging points. I looked at a list and it showed about 50 points but looking more closely only about 15 are actually in Taunton, the others are in towns 10 to 15 miles away or at motorway service areas!

My relatives here have been trying out the hired electric scooters that have popped up on little parking areas in the town. They were impressed and found them fun and convenient but said wearing helmets should be compulsory and bells should be fitted on the scooters. They go fast but the wheels are tiny and the slightest pothole could throw you off. Hygiene (re covid) seems to be left to the rider, so wear gloves or take disinfectant gel. As well as cycle lanes you can use bus lanes too.

[Stanley]

"I think lots of Barlickers must be losing the use of their legs. "
That's the basic problem Ian. Car parks are no good to the real problem parkers as they want to be directly outside the shop they are visiting. They are the ones who complain about 'parking chaos' then complain again when Pendle sends wardens in.

[Tizer]

Some explanations...
`How electric cars are charged and how far they go: your questions answered' LINK

Have a look at the article and report what you think. I was a bit concerned about it saying `If you can find a parking space on the street outside your home you can run a cable out to it but you should make sure you cover the wires so people don’t trip over them. That seems dangerous to me. I know cables are put out like that temporarily by builders etc but we don't want lots of them on pavements. The article also says the cars are cheap to run - that's true but look at the initial purchase price of the cars! Many thousands of pounds more than the i.c. equivalents. The manufacturers know they're now onto a no-brainer and they're taking advantage of us. Battery research and development is moving and after a few years the range of the newer batteries will be much greater and owners will want to upgrade. Another point about charging. There are instances of drivers leaving their cars to charge but not returning for ages even though the charging is complete, thus blocking others from using the point. Even sometimes drivers of i.c. cars using the position simply as a parking space when there's not other space available.

[Stanley]

Didn't I see somewhere that contactless transfer of power is being experimented with and was already used in some public transport systems that relied on kinetic energy stored in flywheels which were revitalised at each stop?

[chinatyke]

Didn't I see somewhere that contactless transfer of power is being experimented with and was already used in some public transport systems that relied on kinetic energy stored in flywheels which were revitalised at each stop?

The electric buses here recycle some of the energy from braking that is normally lost as heat, I assume it is converted back into electrical energy and sent back to the battery. State-of-the-art electric buses are the way to go in towns and cities. All of them are connected by the internet so the location of the next or current bus stop is announced on the bus. Some of the bus stops have displays so you can see where the buses on your route are in real time. You can also transfer credit onto 'citizen cards' which are widely used instead of cash. Big data. The electric buses have superb acceleration.

[Stanley]

Regenerative power from braking has been around for a long time China but not widely used until now. I'm sure I have seen something somewhere about induced currents being used for energy transfer.