Drax a green washing 'con'?

[GarethM]

8-10kw even on 3 phase ?.

[Muddy42]

2 hours ago, GarethM said:

8-10kw even on 3 phase ?.

I'm not on three phase, that was someone else in the thread.  The grid in our area will only let us export 8kw, so even though we have 10kw installed its currently limited to 8kw.  I did apply for a bigger grid connection but was rejected.

[openspaceman]

15 minutes ago, Muddy42 said:

I'm not on three phase, that was someone else in the thread.  The grid in our area will only let us export 8kw, so even though we have 10kw installed its currently limited to 8kw.  I did apply for a bigger grid connection but was rejected.

The type of inverter will influence whether a battery is the best course (it normally is).

 

Also your electricity tariff and whether you have an EV makes a difference.

[Steven P]

8kw is instant power - any more than that and I guess the cables could overheat and go bang, however over a day that is about 190kwH you can supply..... just got to hold back some of what you generate till it gets dark?

 

If it was me and had the budget I'd go batteries and see what kit there is with a timer to export 'out of hours' if needed - in the summer, less demand for hot water but more solar power, holidays and so on, you can export what you store above the 8kw instant power when it gets darker, In the winter the batteries can still supply the hot water heating on demand

[GarethM]

8kw is only 35A on an average 100A supply, I'd personally be asking for a three phase supply, not a larger supply.

 

Plus not touching batteries with a barge pole, maybe some old lead acid but not any of the new ones.

 

If they won't do 3 phase I'd say hot tub for summer time relaxing 🙂.

 

But obviously fit as large a hot water tank as possible but that's not going to eat much of the unused power.

Edited January 18 by GarethM

[AHPP]

On 17/01/2024 at 15:24, Whoppa Choppa said:

Interesting thread. I used to work in Power Station Industry before I retired. I think Hartlepool and Heysham are both offline atm for steam valve checks - unscheduled. Ratcliffe on Soar (currently at 65% output) needs to stay - that is seriously obvious.

 

Interesting sounding career. What did you do?

[daveatdave]

i would think battery storage for yourself to use on a night is the way to go as it costs a lot more to buy the electric compared to what you sell it for  

[openspaceman]

11 hours ago, daveatdave said:

i would think battery storage for yourself to use on a night is the way to go as it costs a lot more to buy the electric compared to what you sell it for  

Yes, on a personal domestic level the battery made all the difference as we no longer bought electricity in the evenings for nearly 8 months of the year.

 

That was two years ago and since then there have been significant changes, the first one being the costs have dropped, such that for £2000/kW I got a full battery and PV kit at my daughter's which is outperforming my 12 year old system by 50% though it is about the same size at 6kW rooftop PV.

 

She is too cautious to try the best tariffs available but even so she only pays 11p/kWh for all her electricity for the EV and home, even if you allow an 85% battery loss and ~7P/kWh amortising the battery  that is 30% below current prices.

 

If she were a little more daring she could buy cheaper as EV owners are being touted by special deals which make it better to buy cheap offpeak and sell back at double for the PV generated during the day. Some people gaming the system are ending up with free electricity and an income from the electricity provider.

 

The economics favouring batteries and solar PV seem to be because we pay more for our electricity than other countries.

[richyrich]

World’s largest carbon capture plant is UK’s ‘next big white elephant’

THENEXTWEB.COM

---

The UK has approved controversial plans to install carbon capture technology at Britain's biggest...

 

[Steven P]

Carbon capture is a bit like putting a sticking plaster onto a cut while the knife is still in the wound. Far better to remove the 'knife'

 

 

£2 billion in the article could be wind power for 2 billion units of electricity generation (2 GWh), something like that. That would make as much difference I think