the daydream fund challenge thread

lostinrates

Davesnave wrote: »

Our sales area is intended to be mainly self-service, though we'll have a bell if they want help. A lot of things run on honesty boxes around here, and it works.....mostly! :rotfl:

Can I ask what you are doing about money...and honesty box? I'm really worried this will attract opportunist people, who might stop for the small change in a box but leave with guttering and scrap metal if they feel unwatched....:o:o otherwise I'd be selling eggs now...

rhiwfield

Wet, wet, wet!

Nothing to be done outside today, will sow a few seeds indoors and varnish a couple of drawers.

Surveyor from Dwr Cymru coming round later to assess the site for (and fit?) water meter. I'm hoping we can save about £400 a year, hippos already in the cisterns and extra water butt waiting connection. It'll link to garage butt by a low level connection so both butts fill/empty together and we dont get stagnant water. Then site a new tap at main garden level linked to butts by hose. Still, with the weather atm it shouldn't be needed for a long time!

CTC, while it feels good to generate renewable energy the real kicker is the govt payback scheme.

Currently you get charged about 11p per kWh from your electricity supplier. Generate leccy yourself with solar and under FITs you'll get on average 42.8p per kWh and you can use what you generate for nowt.

Your heating costs per kWh (an average semi might use 15,000 kWh a year for space and water heating) range from 4p for mains gas to 11p for leccy with oil about 7p and rising. Use a renewable source in future (e.g. heat pumps, wood boiler, solar thermal) and government will pay you for each kWh generated e.g. Air source heat pump 7.5p per kWh (proposed) for 18 years. So for the average semi thats £1125 a year for a system that will cost you maybe £7-8,000.

lostinrates

rhiwfield wrote: »

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CTC, while it feels good to generate renewable energy the real kicker is the govt payback scheme.

Currently you get charged about 11p per kWh from your electricity supplier. Generate leccy yourself with solar and under FITs you'll get on average 42.8p per kWh and you can use what you generate for nowt.

They quoted me at the energy saving trust41.4p this morning.....going down?

Its just so confusing. we THINK we'll go for solar (two systems...for electricity AND for water) and ground source heat pump to underfloor heating. we also want heated towel rails in the bathrooms if possible, a warm bathroom is more important than a warm bedroom for example. I understand this is likely not to be sufficient though. I'm getting a pack sent through and we'll get soe local fitters out and see.

alfie_1

lostinrates wrote: »

They quoted me at the energy saving trust41.4p this morning.....going down?

Its just so confusing. we THINK we'll go for solar (two systems...for electricity AND for water) and ground source heat pump to underfloor heating. we also want heated towel rails in the bathrooms if possible, a warm bathroom is more important than a warm bedroom for example. I understand this is likely not to be sufficient though. I'm getting a pack sent through and we'll get soe local fitters out and see.

i applied to this new ecovision thing that installs free but cos im grade 2 i couldnt get it. if you go to thier site, you just fill in your postcode etc and they give you instant reply if you qualify...youve maybe done this already tho....

rhiwfield

Lir, the generation payment for a sub 4kw retrofit is 41.3p and you'll get 3p for export as well (usually agreed at 50% of generation unless you have an export meter installed), hence total of 42.8p.

If we had room we'd consider a GSHP instead of ASHP, but they are a lot more expensive to install.

I'm not sure about solar thermal, but only because we dont use that much hot water in summer, when it would be most plentiful, as our appliances (showers, washing machine, dishwasher) all are cold water supplied.

Alfie, several firms are offering the free solar pv, you'll no doubt have seen the various threads on MSE debating whether its a good idea or not. Not sure if it will still be allowed after the review now underway, but I'd rather keep the FITs and export payment anyhow.

No water meter installed, surveyor not sure whether pipework supplies next door as well

lostinrates

rhiwfield...how do you understand this...it just makes no sense to me. I'm going crazy trying to understand it. I think its going to be a cold winter, that's what I think!

Alfi, we're listed too, but what about your stables....are their rooves in the right place? We have a small bit of roof near house we are applying for a panel on...we think its worth a try for one on the house roof, even small, where it can't be seen fromroad and where roof is currently a material they might want to see replaced in any case. Otherwise we are looking at the barn rooves. we have a lot of south facing barn roof...we think we could put panels up as we could afford them .....wish we could get a whole load up NOW and start collecting sun to sell.

My dogs just saw of a young chap. Not before they'd got a bit of his jeans.

choille

CTC - Thanks for the tips. I do watch some stuff & it's a learning curve indeedy. The caravan looks like a clothing shop explosion. I'm getting rid of stuff - but not fast, but stuff I really don't wear & don't use. I'm not big on make up so I'm getting rid of the few mis buys etc.
Last night was at a hearing locally - quite a thing here but really heavy on the heart.

UKMaggie - many thanks for the link - wow. We've had so many occurances of this in the last few months it's been amazing - I wonder if it is yet another sign of climate change. We have seen such strange things with it that folks wouldn't believe you unless you've seen it too - the noise of the thunder is incredible in the caravan. The cats cower right down. It's always been at night. Today the temp is up down & the rain yet again is horrendous.
The winds bad - really strong & not forecast.

Like your door handles Maggie - Good for you - you're really getting there now. I do hope we can get on a bit quicker this year. I really feel out of energy though, really unfit & lazy with the Winter.


We got our windows - some of them - delivered today. Not that we are ready to fit them yet but that was pretty exciting especially when we had to try & fit them in a shed that is stuffed to the gun'els.

alfie_1

lostinrates wrote: »

rhiwfield...how do you understand this...it just makes no sense to me. I'm going crazy trying to understand it. I think its going to be a cold winter, that's what I think!

Alfi, we're listed too, but what about your stables....are their rooves in the right place? We have a small bit of roof near house we are applying for a panel on...we think its worth a try for one on the house roof, even small, where it can't be seen fromroad and where roof is currently a material they might want to see replaced in any case. Otherwise we are looking at the barn rooves. we have a lot of south facing barn roof...we think we could put panels up as we could afford them .....wish we could get a whole load up NOW and start collecting sun to sell.

My dogs just saw of a young chap. Not before they'd got a bit of his jeans.

with the ecovision it was with the pay back offer and i discussed it with lady who rang and it was def set up and maintained free. cant put it on stables as they are not here at house. complicated...

rhiwfield

And here's a little bit of nice news hiding an awful lot of work

You may recall that villagers here have been restoring and managing 3 acres of old wildflower grassland for the last 9 years.

Yesterday, Countryside Council for Wales notified its designation as a Site of Special Scientific Interest :j

lostinrates

rhiwfield wrote: »

And here's a little bit of nice news hiding an awful lot of work

You may recall that villagers here have been restoring and managing 3 acres of old wildflower grassland for the last 9 years.

Yesterday, Countryside Council for Wales notified its designation as a Site of Special Scientific Interest :j

Hurrah! Congratulations. Somewhere I lived had a bridle way going through a small, young SSSI wildflower meadow. Although it was just about 40 metres through the end, it was great to get to go through there and though created damage at that end that it was a well used track got lots of support for it...



I've been wondering...how to people manage time away....can you ever go anyher with your spouse for a couple of days, do you all have standby cover for holidays or emergencies?

when we go away its tortuous. My very kind dad has smallholding sat for us twice, and needs a daily list. He panics if any criter does anything he hasn't seen before...and he doesn't watch critters that much and the cats get REALLY fit because he plays with them for HOURS with their toys. Everything is done but I panic that if something not usual happened he wouldn't know how to deal with it, and frankly, he doesn't have much initiative with the animals. a friend does the horses (and checks up on my dad ). I should have a list up in case of emergency...accident or something.