Energy Matters Global and Domestic

[myglaren]

Always a lot of sceptics.
I confess to being one of them.
But hope that they can make it work.

[myglaren]

[myglaren]

[myglaren]

British Steel hydrogen plans on Teesside.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Smallish Village Hall sized Air-Source Heat Pump looking a bit grubby and solar panels.

Ingram Village Hall

Air Source Heat Pump

Another larger village hall at Etal had a ground source Heat Pump and Solar Panels as shown on the board.

Ground Source Heat Pump and Solar Panels

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Amazon have fingers in many pies including an onshore windfarm in Kintyre. It has contracted under a PPA a Power Purchase Agreement, to take all of the output of Scottish Power's Beinn an Tuirc 3, which is located on the Kintyre peninsular in western Scotland, and has been constructed without needing a government support scheme.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/29/amazon- ... tions.html

Regards Neil

[myglaren]

Sand Battery.

Not quite what it would first seem.

[Rp0thejester]

That's quite interesting using sand to heat homes. But I thought mud and grass was a good insulater to keep heat in. In which case could we use a compost heap as a form of heating as temperatures get quite high during decomposition?

[NewcastleFalcon]

Wiki even has a page on it!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compost_h ... %20circuit.

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Nevermind Global for a little while

Domestic is the focus of our attention right now.

Scottish Power's fixed tariffs are ridiculous. I'd rather have self-imposed power cut days 3 days a week than pay what they are asking. Is the standard variable tariff the best option, perhaps its the only option, that's the one that is supposedly protected by the price cap.

Just hit home now seeing as our fixed deal is coming to an end from the end of August.

What are the great and the good of the forum doing. I will definitely looking at our consumption and trying to bring it down. Looks like there's only one tariff in town if you want to stay connected to electricity and gas.

Spoiler: show

What a complete failure of managing energy generation and supply, as we blow in the wind and have no control whatsoever over energy production and supply in the UK, and we continue to follow the same model.

Sell licences day 1 for relatively next to nothing, to private, publicly-listed, and foreign state-owned oil gas, wind, wave, solar, nuclear, and yes fracking companies then are surprised that they sell the energy they produce at world market price and discover that there is no independence, or security of supply from however much wind, gas/oil, solar nuclear wave tide resources are on the shores or land mass of the entire United Kingdom.

Regards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

What are the great and the good of the forum doing. I will definitely looking at our consumption and trying to bring it down.

Regards Neil

I came to similar conclusions about 6 weeks ago and we have made three significant changes to our energy usage:

1. I have turned off the electric towel rail completely which was programmed to run for one hour in the morning after our shower times and one hour at midnight. We now simply rely on an extra towel each in the bathroom thereby giving alternate towels 23 hours drying time between uses.
2. We have adopted a fill the kettle with the number of mugs actually needed each time and thereby reduce the total time that it is switched on.
3. We no longer use our electric 9.5kW shower, using the domestic hot water supply with shampoo spray over the bath instead. I have cold showers anyway so it doesn't really affect me.

I took our monthly meter readings today, the first full month after our changes and I am glad to say that the electricity consumption is 29 units below the July average over the last 12 years which I have records for, and the gas is only 2 units, despite the shower change, against a 12 year average of 3.3 units for July.

No doubt we will review this usage pattern as the seasons change but the main aim is not to heat any water we aren't going to use immediately as we used to do, boiling a half full kettle for a single cup of tea and then allowing the unused water to cool down again!!

[myglaren]

I am with Scottish Power and haven't a grump with them. I probably do pay too much though.

[NewcastleFalcon]

I am with Scottish Power and haven't a grump with them. I probably do pay too much though.

Are you on an existing fixed deal? If so prepare for a shock when it ends.
We have been with Scottish Power for years and years and years. Never done the switching palaver, never made that much difference, and currently on a soon to expire fixed deal which was OK.

They came up with a "what are your options following expiry", and seem to think that paying £450/month direct debit for a fixed price deal....with all sorts of ifs and buts in the smaller print is a viable option.

I will have to see what Martin Lewis says, but in general this is not the time to gamble on a fixed price deal. If any action is taken it will be in relation to the thing that is supposed to regulate the prices the Energy Price Cap. On a less than thorough look through, a standard variable tariff is pretty much the only sensible choice now.

So plan of action
Buy a washing line, and ponder whether to ceremoniously cut the plug off the tumble drier

Regards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

So plan of action
Buy a washing line, and ponder whether to drastically cut the plug off the tumble drier

Regards Neil

Not to mention the plug off the dishwasher! We don't have one of those as we consider ourselves fully capable of washing up unaided! We don't have a tumble drier at all or any other 'modern' kitchen gadgets.

[NewcastleFalcon]

So plan of action
Buy a washing line, and ponder whether to drastically cut the plug off the tumble drier

Regards Neil

Not to mention the plug off the dishwasher! We don't have one of those as we consider ourselves fully capable of washing up unaided! We don't have a tumble drier at all or any other 'modern' kitchen gadgets.

Thanks Mick...adds a bit of back up to the negotiations phase!

Regards Neil