Making the news today....

[openspaceman]

33 minutes ago, Squaredy said:

I am getting it specced out by a local firm, not sure of the details yet.  I think it will be AC though, and then of course converted back to DC by the car!

Yes that is probably the easy way, voltage from panels converted to AC by an off grid inverter and then charge car with a Zappi.

 

I suspect that will be a 15-20% poorer performance than if you could run DC straight from the panels and into the car battery via a MPPT charger.

[devon TWiG]

1 hour ago, Mark Bolam said:

Maybe free was the wrong word, but a pittance on to the cost of a £500k investment.

 

With the benefit of then not having a £3k leccy bill every year.

but no one new electricity would get that expensive , it , and gas were cheap , and no one knows what it will be in a year or two either ... forward planning is very difficult , also new builds have much better insulation than old properties ...

[sime42]

Expanding on the point about PV panels on new builds, a very good one..What a collosal missed opportunity. As well as that, what about mandating the installation of them on the roofs of new industrial/commercial buildings, distribution centres in particular.  There's loads of the buggers around these days, with more springing up every day.  A lot of them are immense, you're talking acres square of roof space, rather than feet. There must be a huge potential for solar energy capture there. Plus an economy of scale factor at play. It's got to be more efficient to do one big flat industrial roof install rather than hundreds of small pitched domestic ones.

 

In a similar vein; we ought to be mandating rainwater harvesting on all new builds as well, both domestic and industrial/commercial. Not a bad approach to the ever worsening issues of flooding and drought.

 

 

 

[Macpherson]

16 hours ago, Steve Bullman said:

Heard of these?

 

Virgin Pure Water Dispensers | Enjoy Crisp, Purified Water

VIRGINPURE.COM

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Enjoy triple-filtered, instantly boiling or chilled water with the Virgin Pure water system. Change the way you drink water at...

 

 

Thanks, and yes I know a few folk who use a device like this but luckily most of the time I have access to natural spring water of a high quality.

It's really only after drinking the real stuff for years that you notice how bad tap water can be and also how much it varies.

I don't know about other areas, but it would appear that Scottish water is more interested in protecting it's pipes than supplying untainted water, cheers.

[GarethM]

The chlorine they add isn't to protect the pipes, it's to prevent any bacterial growth.

 

Like any company they use as minimal amount as possible, just enough to get the job done and save money.

 

As I live in the north west, it's soft water so no limescale and about as pure as you can get. It's Buxton water without the bottle.

Edited August 28, 2022 by GarethM

[GarethM]

Regarding solar, I am against solar parks as why waste a good field when cities and towns have industrial estates, shopping centers and even tower blocks devoid of them!.

 

If it's so financially viable cover them first and seeing that IKEA have been selling solar panels, why aren't they covered in them ?.

[mr kipling]

13 hours ago, Mark Bolam said:

Why aren’t panels compulsory on new builds?

They are now, if you want to fit a gas boiler in a new build, however the push seems to be on ASHP.

[sime42]

15 hours ago, openspaceman said:

Everything is tracking the gas price as that is used for most of our electrcity so the wind farms and other generators with fixed costs must be doing well and yes but not by much.

 

I just hope the big players' shareholders will let them re invest in renewables with this windfall.

 

I still cannot fathom why, in this street of 100 dwellings almost all of which have available roof space like mine, no one else has invested in panels. I have just ordered 1.5kW more and that might extend my grid free season by a few days in March and November

Looks like you may soon be joined by some of your neighbours. ........

 

Solar panel sales boom as energy bills soar

WWW.BBC.CO.UK

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More people are turning to renewable energy as a way to cut energy costs.

 

[nepia]

2 hours ago, mr kipling said:

They are now

You sure?  There is a dearth of panels on the newbuilds I see popping up

[GarethM]

The new regs came into effect in June, but existing approved developments have a year.

 

Not read the regulation, but there is ventilation, vehicle charging and overheating.

 

Whilst solar isn't mandatory from what I've seen it does focus on insulation and air tightness.

 

Which logically makes sense as you can't write regulations to cover everything, you can't put 5kw solar for every home on a block of flats for example.

Edited August 28, 2022 by GarethM