Energy

We're a bit on the ecofreak side (okay, being honest, we're A LOT on the eco-freak side). And energy usage is a big part of human impacts on the planet. So thinking global but acting micro-local, we spend a lot of time thinking about the energy usage in our own home. John even measures our weekly electricity usage, which means he knows quickly if somebody has been careless about leaving the immersion heater on or playing too many computer games.

We decided to live close to John's work to minimise energy expended in travel. As you might expect from an eco-freak family, we don't drive much, although we do have a car. I admit it's a luxury, we could manage without. At the end of the day advocating a hairshirt attitude isn't going to get the environmental movement anywhere, though; we all want some luxuries in life.

We have an oil-fired boiler at home -- the cost to get a gas connection would be prohibitive. So like everyone else using kerosene to heat their homes and water, we keep track of the price fluctuations.

Things we have done to try to minimise our oil usage include fully insulating cavity walls, increasing loft insulation to a depth of nearly 30 cm, and keeping the indoor thermostat at 15 degrees C. It tends to be warmer than that in much of the house, but that's the number we tune to on the central control dial. We don't have the heating on a timer; we only turn the heat on when we're at home. This seems to work well for us and our heating bills are below average for our type of house. We also have double glazed windows, and harangue the children to keep doors closed on cold days.

We have individual thermostats on each radiator; also, most of the time we only heat downstairs and not all the rooms downstairs, either -- just those we live in the most. If I turn the rads on upstairs, it's only briefly, for a little while after we wake up in the mornings or an hour or so before bedtime; this is plenty of time to get the rooms cozy warm before going to sleep. Keep the doors closed to any unheated rooms.

We have a small wood-burning stove which cost about £500 to buy and install. Most winter days it can do all the heating we need in the front of the house, but doesn't quite extend to warming up our large ground floor extension. A lot of the wood is scavenged -- ie, free. If we pay for wood that costs us about £4 to burn all day long -- for the amount of heat generated, using the stove to burn bought wood is much more expensive if arguably still much more environmentally kind than burning oil to heat the house. We don't burn coal mostly because it's such a pig to dispose of the ashes (very much not suitable for the compost heap!). John keeps a detailed diary of our experience with the stove.

We also have a roof-mounted wind turbine (the one advertised with B+Q). It also doesn't really pay its way, but at least it's easy to tell our house apart from any other.

We have considered Solar panels to heat water or generate electricity, but so far the maths just don't add up (they would be a lot more expensive follies than the wind turbine and stove!).

John keeps tabs of interesting climate change news tidbits here.

Combined Heating and Power (Co-generation)

Combined Heating and Power (Co-generation) This is actually a pretty old concept. It's immensely logical to be efficient in how one uses energy. Why use Energy source A) to heat your house and Energy Source B) to put electricity into ... (more)

Heating Oil Prices

Heating Oil Prices Reduce the amount you spend on your home heating oil. It's not too hard, provided you do a bit of homework and make a few changes. Understand Heating Oil Know how heating oil fits in your home; read the home heating ... (more)

Lower Energy Bills

Lower Energy Bills Hints and tips on reducing your monthly expenditure on home energy. (more)

UK Government backtracking on FiT cuts?

Has the Government backed down on its feed-in tariff cut? On 29 December 2011 it published a report (for the benefit of the EU) entitled "First Progress Report on the Promotion and Use of Energy from Renewable Sources for the United Kingdom ... (more)

Could oil be the magic ingredient for solar power?

In what seems to be an ironic twist of fate for that environment bad-boy, oil, the next big thing in solar cell production may depend on oil itself. Two US-based research teams - at Florida and at Texas - are applying plastic technologies ... (more)

Our Windsave Wind Turbine is No More

After four years being mounted on the end of our house, the Windsave 1kW wind turbine has finally been taken down. It was dismantled by crew that installed our solar PV system, and we took that opportunity to have it removed because of its ... (more)

How Good are Low Energy CFL Spotlights?

We have had all sorts of problems with a pair of B&Q low-energy kitchen lights that we bought back in February 2011. To save other people the bother of buying lights that keep failing on them, we're documenting the issues here. Light ... (more)

Solar PV expected and actual generation

Will update this section as the numbers roll in. For now, to get started, here is a plot of two sets of expected Solar PV generation compared to actual input, over the period 9 Nov 2011-8 November 2012. Notes: The graph displays daily expected ... (more)

Our Leap into Solar PV

After a lot of procrastinating and fretting over the initial costs, we decided to go for it and install solar electricity panels on the roof of our house. The prices of the solar panels had fallen considerably in the 18 months between quotes ... (more)

Checklist for a Solar PV Installation

Getting a solar electricity system installed in the UK is a fantastic idea, but there are many things you need to be aware of. Here is a checklist that you may find useful when evaluating the feasibility of solar micro-gen and when getting ... (more)

Free Solar PV: What's the Cost?

I had the great pleasure in receiving an unsolicited call from a UK company marketing their 'free solar panel' deal. Since I'm interested in solar PV I let the salesperson deliver their pitch, and then asked a number of questions. What follows ... (more)

Recent Updates:

04 Feb : Dodgy connection? Don't just blame your ISP
01 Feb : Cold weather alerts: be prepared!
29 Jan : How to make a cat tree
27 Jan : Be careful what you view on Facebook
26 Jan : Kittens in pose mode
25 Jan : Let the kittens play!
24 Jan : 22 January 2012: Mistley Cross
19 Jan : Bike Mileage Readings for John's Cyclocross Rides
18 Jan : Mavic Ksyrium SL Wheels
18 Jan : Park Tool Mini Chain Tool
04 Feb : About Us: Julii & John Swindells
04 Feb : Internet Access
01 Feb : Domestic Heating Oil Prices: Know the Market!
29 Jan : Cats
27 Jan : The Social Web
24 Jan : Cycling
19 Jan : My Bike Miles
18 Jan : Sports Gear: Under Test
16 Jan : Road Safety and Motoring
25 Nov : Piano for the Amateur
How to Produce Electricity
Best way to avoid an energy crisis?





Survey Results For US
 

Popular Searches: