| Joined: | Sun Apr 1st, 2012 |
| Location: | South Lakeland, UK |
| Posts: | 4066 |
| Status: |
Offline
|
Not thought of a small wind turbine to offset your bought electricity?
One of the people that lives in the beach front properties at Snettisham has a turbine and he claims he doesn't use mains electric at all. With so much wind in the Wash (theres a massive commercial turbine collection off shore) it apparently works for him completely.
You don't mention other domestic appliances ....fridge, freezer, washer. When we've been away on several weeks holidays in the caravan I was surprised how much electricity was still used....the only items left on while away were the fridge and freezer. In fairness we've now replaced the old freezer as its energy efficiency was off the scale...at the bottom.
I have!
But they are fraught with problems, solar is easier.
Wind is difficult and expensive to harness, the turbines are expensive to maintain and not 100% reliable, the rapid changes in delivery rate (gusts and lulls) and the nature of the power demands a more complex conversion and storage mechanism. Not to mention noise and planning permission issues.
Solar, while admittedly not 24 hr, being passive, is easier to tame and collect, even in the UK meaningful amounts of power can be had with relatively modest investment. I think it's entirely possible to power my computers with a relatively modest solar array. I am looking at some solar panels and an inverter to go on my flat bathroom roof about 10 sq. Metres. Doing it myself, the cost would be modest but I am not yet convinced it's worth the trouble.
As for other domestic appliances...
I do have all the detail.
Apart from my computer monitoring, I have ten accurate meters on most of my circuits, apart from my shower and the gas water boiler. I (almost) never use the shower and I am assuming the gas boiler uses very little electric. I will check one day...
I only recently added comprehensive metering, at the beginning of the month when I was given a bunch of ex household meters made redundant by the new 'smart' meters, the old meters have to go somewhere, and I managed to acquire nine of them!
____________________
Robert.