Storage Heaters

[Moxi]

The duct under the road will be the ultimate end point as it allows me to get water over to the garden as well as harvested power back to the house, but in the immediate timeframe and based on current consumption figures popping back and forth from the shed (or is that the MoxGen power station?) with a sack barrow or trolley loaded with some sort of battery should not be too big of an ask. We cant be using much more than 2.67kWh through a night.

If I do go with pylontech bats I still need to find a safe and secure IP65 kiosk to lodge them external to the cottage - then theres a new power cable to run from the kiosk to the consumer unit in the living room.

oh god - the consumer unit - theres a whole world of wonder - never really looked at it till this week and there seems to be as many disconnected cables hanging around in there as there are connected so I need to figure out whats been disconnected and if I can re-use cables already run inside the fabric of the cottage and whats got to be tidied up/ removed.

Moxi

[Stinsy]

Ha Ha!

A single US3000C battery provides 3.5kWh (3.3kWh usable) and weighs 32kg so too heavy to carry any distance but perfect for some kind of "barrow" arrangement. You could wheel it across to the solar array first thing in the morning, and wheel it back again in the evening!

This is very much a "fun" not "profit" arrangement that you would be undertaking to embrace your own eccentricity rather than anything that is genuinely "sensible".

[Gareth J]

If the road is small and off the radar, a company with a mole will sneak a conduit under and no one will be any the wiser.

[Stinsy]

If the road is small and off the radar, a company with a mole will sneak a conduit under and no one will be any the wiser.

This would be my solution...

[Moxi]

Its a B road but sadly auguring / mole wouldn't work as theres no landing on the cottage side without digging up a reasonable area of the hard landscaped patio to provide a reception pit, even had a chap in with to look in to that as well as a chat to SSP to see if i can use their telegraph pole that on my land to add a carrier cable - he smiled and apologised but the answer was no.

Moxi

[Moxi]

Stinsey

I was thinking of something like the power cart that Will Prowse has presented on ooh-tube - only needed in bad solar months where a larger solar array in the "front" garden would benefit my other generation. Everything I do is for personal consumption - my ambition is to reduce/ eliminate our reliance on the grid as much as reasonably possible within my limited financial means.

Moxi

[Joeboy]

Ahh yes I remember the thread now, wasn’t there some discussion as to whether the magnets and coils in those VAWTs was up to the job as well ?

I was watching some HAWTs on Amazon before Xmas that had dropped to 65 quid! Wish I had chanced my arm now as they’re all back up to three figures and although I haven’t much space around the house there’s enough for a micro turbine and we are blessed with regular 20mph plus winds and often 40 to 50mph so the potential to leach some energy from the wind for background here seems good.

It would be lovely to compliment the solar - my other problem is the main garden where I could do more solar and WT stuff is across the lane and presently no way of being the power back to the cottage - it was discussed in the other place about getting the council to permit me to place a duct across the road - not got that far yet but it’s either that or mobile battery modules and a charge station over the way ?

What sort of power have you had from the VAWT when it has produced ?

Moxi

Very little Moxi, maybe see 15.5V output and forward that to a LA leisure battery. Never did run consistently enough to be worth my while. Realised within a couple of days that it wasn't going to be a winner here and just enjoyed seeing it spin now and then, Such a shame.

[Joeboy]

A cracking morning here, 0 deg outdoors with some ice and the storage heaters have kept the house at 16.7 deg lower zone and 16.8 deg upper zone. Hive trigger for gas is anything below 16.5 degs. Looks like this will be a genuine no gas day instead of only a reduction day! Unheard of in this house in January. That is a milestone! WS is now on recharging its thermal store and i'll be cooking on it later. Finally living it! Woohoo!

[Moxi]

Morning Joeboy,

5 degrees here with some frost on the grass in the fields so it must have been cooler in the wee small hours, quite clear skies and the promise of some PV later fingers crossed, kids taken to school and the boss is walking the dogs down the lane while I get on with my work.

WBS will be going on later to give the house a little lift as we are at 19.2C at present. SWMBO has the GCH timed to come on at 06.30 for twenty minutes to warm the rooms for the little ones before they get out of bed so sadly we dip in to the lpg most days at this time of year.

Perhaps thats an area where batteries would help in the future as we find that we don't need much energy to make the rooms feel comfy, I have a selection of 20, 40 and 80 watt tube heaters which get deployed to use up some of the meagre PV power at this time of year and our experience from this activity is that they really make a noticeable change to the feel of an otherwise cool room in a very short space of time.

Moxi

[Joeboy]

Morning Joeboy,

5 degrees here with some frost on the grass in the fields so it must have been cooler in the wee small hours, quite clear skies and the promise of some PV later fingers crossed, kids taken to school and the boss is walking the dogs down the lane while I get on with my work.

WBS will be going on later to give the house a little lift as we are at 19.2C at present. SWMBO has the GCH timed to come on at 06.30 for twenty minutes to warm the rooms for the little ones before they get out of bed so sadly we dip in to the lpg most days at this time of year.

Perhaps thats an area where batteries would help in the future as we find that we don't need much energy to make the rooms feel comfy, I have a selection of 20, 40 and 80 watt tube heaters which get deployed to use up some of the meagre PV power at this time of year and our experience from this activity is that they really make a noticeable change to the feel of an otherwise cool room in a very short space of time.

Moxi

You could do a lot worse than try a thermal store jacket on the WS? It most assuredly makes a difference and helps cross the middle of the night cold bridge. Our one cost literally nothing apart from a couple of tubs of fire cement.