Rob
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Post by Rob on Jun 25, 2024 16:23:49 GMT
To really take advantage of the plunge pricing you need to do what Espada has done and install batteries. I reckon we could survive on not too large a set of batteries and charge them up at night. Not decided yet. Not been here that long.
Also for a store of energy using cheap/oversupplied electricity at night ... that's what Dinorwig has been doing for decades. Pump up water to a reservoir overnight and then discharge it when there is demand. Those wind farms I mention are not that far away from some mountains you know... Something could be done. Dolgarrog has hydro powered by a 'normal reservoir' supplied by rivers etc. It just surprises me there's enough water to keep it going.
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Jun 26, 2024 6:01:36 GMT
To really take advantage of the plunge pricing you need to do what Espada has done and install batteries. To really take advantage of the plunge pricing you need to do what Espada has done and get an EV. 🤓 Not sure about Esp’s setup (and of course you can install multiple batteries) but even a large domestic battery stores only 10kWh, which is a fraction of what a car battery can hold. What you really need is V2G, PV panels and a Smart Export Guarantee tariff that will (for a year anyway) pay you 40p for each kWh you can’t use. It’s just occurred to me that E.On’s list price for its 10kWh battery is nearly £7,000. Buy eight of those and you have installed 80kWh and spent £55,000. Buy the same capacity in a V2G EV and the car comes free! |
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bpg
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Post by bpg on Jun 26, 2024 8:16:14 GMT
That is the theory, the tech again is the limiter. V2G is where I want to be BUT (there's always a but) it's limited at the moment to ca.3.6kWh which means I can't use my 7+kWh induction hob nevermind run the background load of fridges, freezers etc...
Maybe that will never come and at least 1x10kWh wall mounted battery will be required for those spikes of use in addition to the V2G.
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Jun 26, 2024 8:42:55 GMT
…as well as the times when the car is elsewhere and you have urgent currywurst to warm up.
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bpg
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Post by bpg on Jun 26, 2024 9:30:26 GMT
That is never going to be a concern in my house. At least with mett you get an idea of what it once was, you have absolutely no idea what you're eating with currywurst. The German equivalent of chicken nuggets.
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Post by EspadaIII on Jun 26, 2024 10:41:13 GMT
I have 2x 8.2kWh batteries. The first was installed with the panels, the second about a year ago and cost £4,000. At the moment I supplement the solar charge with overnight electricity up to 50% capacity at sub 9p/kWh. In the winter I will raise that to a full overnight charge.
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Rob
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Post by Rob on Jun 26, 2024 17:16:58 GMT
At some point I'd be interested in a battery but maybe not solar. That's because of the shape of the roof of the house - you couldn't fit many panels because the main roof is the type that goes to a 'peak' if you know what I mean with four sides. Then the roof on the garage is quite big but the panels should be on the front of the house for max sun in the morning and the back in the evening. The garage is on the side but it might work. Wonder if you could replace a conservatory roof with solar panels because that gets very warm on a sunny afternoon.
With an off peak tarrif I could shift the cheap electric to the day with storage but it might not pay for itself in a long time. Assuming we use about the amount of electric the energy company thinks we do, 9p per kW might work out a saving of 21p (inclusive of VAT) per unit so I might save almost £1000 per annum. But I'd need more than one 8.2kWh battery to store the daily average. So basically going to cost quite a bit upfront to get a return.
Of course getting solar is good for the environment but we'd not use most of that in the day so would need to add some battery storage.
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bpg
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Post by bpg on Jun 26, 2024 17:56:00 GMT
Plunge pricing does shift the priority to in property battery storage with overnight load and relegate solar panels to a later install when plunge pricing is no longer a thing due to everyone using it.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 27, 2024 7:43:02 GMT
I've got a really big, shallow, south facing roof on one side. I can't afford solar panels though. And I'm moving in 6 years.
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bpg
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Post by bpg on Jun 27, 2024 8:27:55 GMT
Just been looking at the numbers for my EV over the last 30 days. 40.5MJ or 11.24kWh/100kms or 8.9kms/kWh or 5.5miles/kWh.
We really do need a standard for electric cars. l/100kms or mpg have been around forever with fossil fuel and now we have 5 for EV - I deliberately left out Tesla's Watt/mile number.
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Jun 27, 2024 8:44:17 GMT
The old measurements were only really useful for assessing range and cost. They used inconsistent volumetric measurements and treated petrol and diesel (and LPG - remember that?) as if they were energetically equivalent, which they’re not. (Although I doubt the motoring public, then or now, can really cope with megajoules, although they must have encountered them at school.)
Because our aim is (or should be!) to use less rather than to go farther, I prefer measures of consumption (MJ / km, say) to measures of efficiency like mpg. And I accept that in the consumer world, it makes sense to use kWh rather than MJ, as that’s the unit our electricity is costed in. And, in my corporate capacity, I’m getting to know gCO2e, because that’s how large-scale sustainability efforts are measured. But I’m not expecting to see that unit on my car’s display panel just yet.
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Post by dixinormus on Jun 27, 2024 9:04:52 GMT
I’m not sure that average Joe’s maths knowledge is up to the task for some of these measurements. Many folk just put 20 quid in a week 😂
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bpg
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Post by bpg on Jun 27, 2024 9:06:05 GMT
The issue, for me, is with fossil fuel each vehicle has been attributed a level of pollution. With EV that level of pollution has been erased while there is still a level of pollution and cost to the environment.
That varies by market and how clean or dirty the electricity generation is.
It's probably been called greenwashing at some stage. A level of, there is still some pollution, there is a cost to the environment at a global level but we don't want to talk about it. A bit like Brexit and the current general election campaigning. This is the first general election post separation and no party dare mention it.
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Post by EspadaIII on Jun 27, 2024 9:46:50 GMT
I do feel somewhat guilty that two years ago I took delivery of a brand new car which used much energy and natural resources to build, all for the sake of saving tax and driving around with zero tail pipe emmissions. In reality, a well built car from the last 15 years should last a very long time and use far less overall energy and resources over its lifetime than replacing it with a brand new EV. Certainly I could have easily kept the E350 for another five or six years or more. Bodily it had zero corrosion anywhere, the engine was running very well and it was no more polluting than the day it left the factory.
Presumably someone, somewhere (hopefully not Greta Thunberg) has done the calculation that mining rare metals and building an EV is better for the environment that keeping an existing car on the road. Or are we in the middle of the Gordon Brown - let's all drive diesels - cock up.
Don't get me wrong, I love my EV and frankly when I drive an ICE car now I get frustrated at the inability to regenerate energy, the lack of silence and the slow and hesitant acceleration away from a stop. But the fact that our bashed up 20 year old Punto is still driving fairly well, on basic maintenance must mean something?? Sure, if a car dies, then replace it with something which is non polluting and capable of being fuelled by sunlight etc but if a car is still capable of safely carrying passengers around....
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Post by Humph on Jun 27, 2024 10:14:59 GMT
Sort of where I am Esp. The one I have is fine. When it isn’t, I’ll replace it with whatever makes the most sense to me at the time.
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