Energy Matters Global and Domestic

[NewcastleFalcon]

If things got that bad I'd move to Spain and stay with Ken for the winter!!

Could be your best idea yet Mick! but would the whole hog not be going to the Southern Hemisphere...if only you had some connections!

Now if you headed to New Zealand for 6 Months end of September, back end of March you could live in perpetual spring and summer, and beat the energy crisis hands down.

Regards Neil

[bobins]

The owner of Octopus energy says that if you only do one thing to reduce your energy consumption, you should turn down the flow temperature of your gas boiler*
I have to be careful here at home as Mrs Bobins could claim hypothermia even if she worked in an iron foundry. Anyhting below about 15°C is classed as arctic.

*- assuming you have a gas boiler, and don't turn it down so far that it's not effective.

One thing I need to question about your propositions, Mick, is:

Only iron essential items - no more unnecessary sheets and towels etc (She wasn't keen on that one! )

...what's an iron ?

[mickthemaverick]

...what's an iron ?

As I intimated in that statement not ironing shirts and blouses to SWMBO would be equivalent to 10° C in your house bobins

[mickthemaverick]

If things got that bad I'd move to Spain and stay with Ken for the winter!!

Could be your best idea yet Mick! but would the whole hog not be going to the Southern Hemisphere...if only you had some connections!

Now if you headed to New Zealand for 6 Months end of September, back end of March you could live in perpetual spring and summer, and beat the energy crisis hands down.

Regards Neil

Nice idea Neil but fundamentally flawed in two ways: the cost of the return flights would outweigh the increased cost of energy if we just stayed put, and secondly we would be contributing to the pollution created by aircraft for no really necessary reason!!

[Peter.N.]

I must have the house warm Mick. I'm uncomfortable at anything less than 25c but we have been collecting fallen wood which is usually fairly dry and shall be collecting more and keeping the stove in.

We have implemented some economy's i,e switching all unnecessary light off, there will be more!! I have a 70w sodium light for the yard, that will be replaced with an LED lamp with a sensor, the problem being its a bit dark up here for anyone arriving at night as you will appreciate.

I am seriously considering installing a second solar system for the lighting and fridges and anything else essential. There are a few on ebay reasonably priced but they are mostly in places like Chester, transporting them will be difficult, the only way is probably my sons truck plus the trailer but that's going to cost a fortune in diesel.

Peter

[mickthemaverick]

I must have the house warm Mick. I'm uncomfortable at anything less than 25c but we have been collecting fallen wood which is usually fairly dry and shall be collecting more and keeping the stove in.

I am seriously considering installing a second solar system for the lighting and fridges and anything else essential. There are a few on ebay reasonably priced but they are mostly in places like Chester, transporting them will be difficult, the only way is probably my sons truck plus the trailer but that's going to cost a fortune in diesel.

Peter

I'm with you on keeping the house warm at any cost Peter, although we are quite happy around the 21-22° area. We already have maximum insulation and keeping the house at that temperature is a very easy operation. Fortunately the global warming that is 'responsible to an extent' for the energy crisis may also mean a warmer winter and less energy needed to maintain the ambient as we want it.

I too have looked at a separate off grid solar option from ebay for essential services but the cosmetic limitations imposed by SWMBO make it a pretty impossible task to achieve at our house!! So my principle route will be to minimise consumption while seeing if I can get more funds into the pot to pay for what we do use by increasing my buying and selling activities!! At least I enjoy doing it so not really a hardship!

[NewcastleFalcon]

On the evolution of V2G, which has to be an obvious role for underused large batteries in electric vehicles, developments small and large are taking place. Up to now the building in of V2G into the hardware and software in the car, only covers a few models. VW are be building it into their models, as will the rest, it will become standard, and then the fun will begin on a large scale. Embryonic stage just now, but set to be very much the norm, and quickly as the jigsaw pieces fit into place.

One piece of the jigsaw in the article is one of the German players Mobility House is getting itself connected. Individual vehicle users would neither have the required volume, or the connection to allow such trading.

Story from Electrive, Original in German

The Mobility House trades with power from car batteries

The Mobility House have started trading the flexibilities of 4,500 electric car batteries on EPEX SPOT SE. For this purpose, the company has its own connection to the European power exchange.

EPEX SPOT SE (European Power Exchange) – an exchange for short-term wholesale power trading in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Static Battery Virtual Power Plants(VPP) like Tesla's based on their Powerwall customers, are up and running and trading in the UK and the US. The Energy Suppliers buying home solar generation feeding into the grid, at a knock down price from householders, and profiting from trading it on is well established. V2G is very much on its way too, and with enormous World players like VW involved, V2G is highly likely to happen, is happening now at small scale, and it would be a complete waste of resources if it doesn't happen.

Regards Neil

[myglaren]

From what I can see from recording use of gas and electric, the solar panels seem to take care of the daytime electric and most from the grid is at night. Fridge/freezer, vivarium heaters and light (40W), lights and computers) microwave and kettle, plus various chargers, timers etc.
Turned the bathroom fan off, runs from a transformer that has a constant low hum so is slurping up electrons, never use the fan, not in summer anyway.
In two weeks I have used 1 ft³ of gas and 46 kWh electric.

[bobins]

It seems a bit odd to me that V2G can be used to deplete someone's car battery in one location to enable someone else's car battery to be recharged somewhere else. I suppose that's progress, but I can help thinking something's broken in the concept somewhere

[Gibbo2286]

I think a bit too much emphasis is being paid to the price of solar to grid Neil, of course the antis are telling us that the wicked energy companies are only paying 5p then selling it back for 50p or whatever but they seem to forget that what's being sold to the grid is surplus to the homeowners requirements and if not taken by the energy companies would simply go to waste

The energy companies might not even want that surplus if it comes at the wrong time of day off peak when they already have their own surplus going to waste.

When battery storage comes up to scratch a lot of the waste will be avoided and energy from whichever source will be stored for use when it's needed.

In the meantime the idea of using car owners batteries as a back up to the grid seems a pretty good idea if they pay for the use and don't overdo the take, a petrol or diesel car sitting on the drive for fourteen hours is useless an EV not so.

[mickthemaverick]

I can just imagine my answer if my neighbour came over to me one day and said "Can I syphon off 2 gallons of petrol from your car which you are not using so I can go and mow my lawn, I'll pay you 25p a litre for it" !!

[Peter.N.]

[myglaren]

[NewcastleFalcon]

In the meantime the idea of using car owners batteries as a back up to the grid seems a pretty good idea if they pay for the use and don't overdo the take, a petrol or diesel car sitting on the drive for fourteen hours is useless an EV not so.

The video's earlier in the thread gave some idea of the parameters which V2G participants could specify, yes through an app and gave them a fair degree of option as to how much or how little they wished to participate. I presume there would be a sliding scale of fair recompense for their level of participation. In the recent Tesla VPP intervention in California, users were asked to confirm whether they wanted to participate or not. Most did participate with a carrot of higher payments.

V2G will be very much commercially driven, rather than an altruistic desire to "help the grid". Its purpose is the buying and selling of electricity. When drivers make their vehicle battery available for V2G use, the battery is available to be used for "trading" by the V2G Companies who aggregate a network of individual participants adding up to a critical mass of storage capacity. Electricity can be bought and sold utilising the aggregated storage many times over in the course of a day.

Vids regurgitated in the spoiler if anyone wants to watch

Spoiler: show

As reported previously

2. Volkswagen aims for terawatt scale Vehicle to Grid (V2G)

Not just TESLA, VW want to make money out of "their" batteries, and not just from powering their electric cars.

Volkswagen aims for terawatt scale Vehicle to Grid (V2G)

Hyundai and Renault and Sono participating in this project in Utrecht

Don't think we have had this video about vehicle to grid. Bit wordy but gives some idea of the potential of a large number of large storage batteries in Electric Vehicles, being utilised for more than just powering electric motors to convey you from A to B, and sitting idle for the rest of each day. Of course its a revenue stream for those buying and selling and making use of the storage capacity of the battery, just like the Powerwall2. I expect the EV driver will have little to do with this actively, but will be compensated for their V2G consent, but not as much of course as the robotic traders will generate.



on a much smaller scale we have had this before


Regards Neil

Regards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

Interesting video Steve but I think I prefer the TWR I grew up with !!

BFTW