Home energy saving tips /ideas...

[felstedrider]

Anybody got views or experience of ripple energy which seems to be a co-op for erecting wind farms.
If the Co-op owns the wind farm are they responsible for repairs? Is it like owning a flat where you have to pay for any repairs? How long do wind farms last?
The website looks interesting but lacking substance.

https://rippleenergy.com/

I did wonder why they weren't a licensed supplier but it looks like they are using other suppliers facilities (Co-op, Eon and SO mentioned).

[DuncanM]

Our Mk 1 Victorian Terrace (and others we've lived in before it) has an almost permanent temperature differential between upstairs and downstairs, and I've often wondered about the practicalities of moving the heat from one to the other.

The closest I've seen to a commercial product are the reversible split-unit air conditioning systems which support multiple room units.  Some of them can heat one room while cooling the other by switching appropriate valves in the refrigerant circuit.  When they're doing this, it can effectively pump heat from one room to the other.

We could really do with one of those, but it would have to go 2 floors (townhouse - office on ground floor is freezing in winter and cold in summer, bedrooms at the top are somewhere between warm and roasting). And yes, we have Tado thermostats and the bedroom ones are basically set to off for a big chunk of the year).
Can't we just install a big tube between the 2 and flip gravity in it? Anti-convection would be ace.

[Mr Larrington]

(Sings)
Heat won't pass from a cooler to a hotter
You can try it if you like but you far better notter

(Waits for audience applause not a sossidge )

[rogerzilla]

One of my fellow students at university, who got a first despite being clueless, designed a system where condensate was returned to the boiler without a pump.  And no, she didn't use an injector either.  I spent about 20 minutes fruitlessly trying to mansplain that water doesn't flow uphill and nor does it flow from condenser vacuum to 150psi.

[pcolbeck]

(Sings)
Heat won't pass from a cooler to a hotter
You can try it if you like but you far better notter

(Waits for audience applause not a sossidge )

Well it will but only statistically tiny amounts. The average will always go from hotter to colder

[mrcharly-YHT]

(Sings)
Heat won't pass from a cooler to a hotter
You can try it if you like but you far better notter

(Waits for audience applause not a sossidge )

You'd better send that ditty to the makers of air source heat pumps, quick.

[rogerzilla]

(Sings)
Heat won't pass from a cooler to a hotter
You can try it if you like but you far better notter

(Waits for audience applause not a sossidge )

Well it will but only statistically tiny amounts. The average will always go from hotter to colder

You missed the emoji for that 

[HTFB]

(Sings)
Heat won't pass from a cooler to a hotter
You can try it if you like but you far better notter

(Waits for audience applause not a sossidge )

You'd better send that ditty to the makers of air source heat pumps, quick.

Heat cannot of itself pass from a cold body to a hotter body. But you don't need to pass heat to make a body hotter,  you just need to squeeze it the right way. I have always found.

[Mrs Pingu]

Well, I FINALLY applied for a Home Energy Scotland loan for insulation today. Fingers crossed.

[aidan.f]

Quote from Kim « Reply #438 on: 07 May, 2022, 01:44:41 pm »

I signed up for Ripple, because it's one of the few things we can actually do as Generation Rent.

The shares pay for the construction of the wind farm,  its expected life is 25 years (but it may last longer, in which case more cheap electricity).  It's insured against the unexpected (by which I assume things like freak tornadoes and BEAR attack, rather than shoddy turbines or government policy).  At the end of life they'd expect to have to replace the turbines ("re-powering") or retire the wind farm (eg. because technology has moved on, and it's now uneconomical compared to offshore wind or superconducting solar from the Sahara or cold fusion or something).

The information is there, but mostly in videos.  This is what happens when Young People try to market something subtle and unintuitive.

I presume that ones n-Kw is supplied only 'when the wind blows' so a BEV or Flattery storage maximises ROI.

[sojournermike]

Blockchain is definitely the best solution to all the problems no one actually has.

I always make sure to suggest to my IT team that they architect with blockchain;)


The CEO means it when he says it and then they get to explain why not…

[Kim]

I presume that ones n-Kw is supplied only 'when the wind blows' so a BEV or Flattery storage maximises ROI.

In financial terms it's all about aggregate numbers of kilowatt-hours, so the grid takes care of that for you.  Obviously if the wind isn't blowing your electrons are as dirty as everyone else's, so battery storage allows you to reduce fossil fuel demand.

[DuncanM]

Recently we got the smart meter hooked up to the monitor screen that can tell us how much electricity we are using.  It's vaguely illuminating, and I have been going around turning off things. The monitor device runs of 3 AAA batteries, or off a micro usb connector, the lead for which has an adapter for the main socket on it. The Adapter emits a low volume high pitched whine, and sometimes I can hear it when I'm trying to sleep, so I figured I'd just run it off batteries. They last a couple of hours, at which point, the low battery warning alarm sounds and wakes you up! WTF?
And how much juice does it use - have they sent me something that consumes 10W to tell me how to save electricity?
I assume there's no harm in turning the damn thing off all the time that no-one is going to care about what it says?

[mrcharly-YHT]

Sounds like a really cheap sh!tty wall wart.

Try running the monitor off a phone power pack, or a different usb outlet.

[robgul]

Recently we got the smart meter hooked up to the monitor screen that can tell us how much electricity we are using.  It's vaguely illuminating, and I have been going around turning off things. The monitor device runs of 3 AAA batteries, or off a micro usb connector, the lead for which has an adapter for the main socket on it. The Adapter emits a low volume high pitched whine, and sometimes I can hear it when I'm trying to sleep, so I figured I'd just run it off batteries. They last a couple of hours, at which point, the low battery warning alarm sounds and wakes you up! WTF?
And how much juice does it use - have they sent me something that consumes 10W to tell me how to save electricity?
I assume there's no harm in turning the damn thing off all the time that no-one is going to care about what it says?

Chuck the monitor away - they just don't work . . .  we've had 2 Smart meter installations (at 2 houses, both SMETS2) - monitors frequently read at ridiculous rates - £35,000.00!!!per hour is not uncommon.    The monitor doesn't tell you how to save electricity - your brain does that!

[Kim]

Whistling noises from switched-mode power supplies are common and not something to be concerned about (the clue's in the name - the regulation is achieved by means of switching on and off at high frequency, which can cause inductor coils to vibrate like a loudspeaker cone), but it can be annoying.

I'd class the monitor things as 'mildly useful'.  The one for our previous meters did at least allow you to access the raw meter reading without moving all the camping kit out of the way.  Our current one doesn't have this useful feature (which is a shame, since our provider stopped being able to access the gas meter some time ago), so it just functions as an whole-house instantaneous power meter (not even that, as it insists in reverting to displaying in pounds rather than Watts after a minute or so).  The main use for that, as far as I can see, is a way to notice that you've left something on.

As I already have the electricity consumption monitored by means of an Arduino counting the flashes of the meter's blinkenlight, which gives me much more useful time-series data, the monitor gathers dust in a box somewhere.

If you actually want to save electricity, going round with a plug-in power meter to scrutinise individual appliances is usually more useful...


A couple of hours on a set of batteries is piss-poor design, though.  Or a fault.  (Or perhaps fussiness about NiMH cell voltage?)

[fd3]

Had a quick look at ripple (not videos, because); I got stuck on the idea that I would invest 1.7k over 12 months and get 3.2k back over 25 years - with a 3% inflation (which is currently a low-ball estimate) that's a loss of £500 in return for a big short term investment. 
EDIT - I guess gas prices will rise with inflation, s maybe I'm being overly harsh - but it is a 14 year payback and 190% back on your investment over 25 years is not financially compettitive.

[fd3]

Our Mk 1 Victorian Terrace (and others we've lived in before it) has an almost permanent temperature differential between upstairs and downstairs, and I've often wondered about the practicalities of moving the heat from one to the other.

The closest I've seen to a commercial product are the reversible split-unit air conditioning systems which support multiple room units.  Some of them can heat one room while cooling the other by switching appropriate valves in the refrigerant circuit.  When they're doing this, it can effectively pump heat from one room to the other.

When you solve that, let us all know. 
We also have ice cold front room and boiling hot loft room.

[ian]

Upstairs in the Asbestos Palace is always degrees warmer (shows the loft insulation is effective, I suppose) to the point all the radiators are pretty much off (other than my wife's office, since she and the cats like to be toasty).

Given we have cavity wall insulation, double-glazing etc. I think marginal gains (it's a detached palace so every wall is external and we have big 2 metre-plus picture windows not the prison windows of modern houses).

[hubner]

So a house is south facing, in the warmer months it gets the full blast of the sun on it from morning to evening. The rooms at the front will be over 30 regardless of day or night even though the day time temp could even be in the low 20s. Especially in a share house or flat where you need to keep the doors closed.

Has this been a problem in the past, maybe you need a drafty house in the summer and an insulated one in the winter?

[felstedrider]

Had a quick look at ripple (not videos, because); I got stuck on the idea that I would invest 1.7k over 12 months and get 3.2k back over 25 years - with a 3% inflation (which is currently a low-ball estimate) that's a loss of £500 in return for a big short term investment. 
EDIT - I guess gas prices will rise with inflation, s maybe I'm being overly harsh - but it is a 14 year payback and 190% back on your investment over 25 years is not financially compettitive.

The forward curve for gas (and power) prices is backwardated*.   The further out you go the cheaper it gets.   The market seems to believe we will become less reliant on gas.


* This is just wholesale and the delivered consumer bill includes other costs but wholesale is the biggest driver.

[Wowbagger]

I thought about Ripple as well, but decided I would probably be dead within the proposed timescales.

[De Sisti]

I had my 11 year-old Worcester Bosch boiler serviced by a British Gas engineer last week.
He had nothing positive to say about heat pumps (but did say hydrogen would be a good
alternative to gas).

[Kim]

I had my 11 year-old Worcester Bosch boiler serviced by a British Gas engineer last week.
He had nothing positive to say about heat pumps (but did say hydrogen would be a good
alternative to gas).

Which is exactly what you'd expect him to say, given the amount of servicing and safety inspections a heat pump is likely to need.

[Kim]

I thought about Ripple as well, but decided I would probably be dead within the proposed timescales.

I'm working on the principle that if I die I probably won't need much electricity.  Similarly, if early-20s onshore wind becomes a horribly expensive method of generating electricity, and therefore a poor investment, I count that as a net win.