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the daydream fund challenge thread

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  • rhiwfield
    rhiwfield Posts: 2,482 Forumite
    I can't see pv working for Alfie at ground level.....she's got loads of trees, she's in a beautiful little clearing. Its chook paradise, but wretched for ground panels I'd have thought!

    Or another tree maybe! :D
  • Lotus-eater
    Lotus-eater Posts: 10,789 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    rhiwfield wrote: »
    I can't understand why they didn't make the panels moveable to track the sun, that would have been a decent uni project I would have thought. Wasted opportunity.
    Unless I'm missing something.
    Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.
  • Lotus-eater
    Lotus-eater Posts: 10,789 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    rhiwfield wrote: »
    Racked my brains on this before as I think you have a long run from the nearest mains supply and you will also have to meet National Park rules and presumably get other landowner permissions to cross their land with poles or underground cabling. I recall you had a quote from your leccy supplier at well over £16k, though cant remember exact figure.

    As I understand several companies will quote for new connections, not just your own supplier. Google new electricity connections or go to C E Electric or perhaps R&D Network Design to get competitive quotes. Trouble is connection is very expensive so not sure you'll get it done any cheaper than your initial quote.

    Then you could go for off grid renewable energy BUT National Park rules may make this impractical. I'd doubt whether a wind turbine would be either allowed or that you have sufficient average wind speed anyway (latter needs to be measured for a year if you want to assess potential after checking desktop calcs). I dont think you have hydroelectric possibility which leaves solar pv with back up batteries and a genny for supplementary supply. But again NP rules may stop or restrict you so its well worth a chat with them to see just what is possible. (Call 01590 646600. The New Forest National Park Authority is the Planning Authority for the National Park area. Planning advisors will be happy to discuss possible renewable energy schemes with you)

    The new advantage of renewables are FITs giving a payback of 8-15% pa. To some people pv panels are unsightly and they are unlikley to be allowed to detract from visibility of listed or conservation area buildings. So they either have to be tucked away out of sight or seamlessly blend in to building:

    Out of sight: if you have adjacent land consider a mini solar farm, ground mounted, with hedging to preserve Park visual amenity, linked by underground cable to your leccy system and battery back-up. I'd guess this would be your best pv option.

    Blend in: Options include roof tile solar pv or the emerging thin film pv that can be applied to windows (I think). Costs of this approach are probably prohibitive and technology more on the edge.

    Recall that you dont have a large leccy load so frugal approaches (e.g. root cellar for storage etc) are probably in place.
    I'm not great on solar power, but have been looking into it for us.
    To get the FITS, she would have to be connected to the grid anyway? So very very expensive.

    As you say hydro is an option if she has the water. 12v lighting system and batteries with solar is probably the most reasonable option. Depends what alfie needs to run on electric.

    If you have been quoted £16k for installing a grid option alfie, does that include you doing the trenching? That can bring down the cost massively.
    Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.
  • rhiwfield
    rhiwfield Posts: 2,482 Forumite
    edited 20 September 2011 at 11:29AM
    To get the FITS, she would have to be connected to the grid anyway?

    No, you get FITs for what you generate off grid but you dont get any export payment. So still well worthwhile.

    Re the tree, take your point on tracking systems, but at a local solar array with tracking, the tracking system is the vulnerable part of the set up.

    And a couple of links for emerging window based pv
    Pythagorus
    Solarwindow
    Ensol
  • Lotus-eater
    Lotus-eater Posts: 10,789 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    rhiwfield wrote: »
    No, you get FITs for what you generate off grid but you dont get any export payment. So still well worthwhile.

    Re the tree, take your point on tracking systems, but at a local solar array with tracking, the tracking system is the vulnerable part of the set up.
    Wow, you get FITs for offgrid generating as well! That's bonkers.
    Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.
  • lostinrates
    lostinrates Posts: 55,283 Forumite
    I've been Money Tipped!
    well, I have good news and bad news.

    The good news is that Big dog might actually ot be as guilty as I thought....she might just have found cuckoo dead, because I just found my new RIRed dead. :(:(. she was broody on a golf ball, which was fine, atm the golf balls for encouraging them to lay in the right place are more important than the risk of broodiness. but anyway, I found her just off her nest, dead and stiff, almost squashed looking. :( .

    No obvious sign of disease in anyone, no scratching, nice red combs, and no sign of anything amiss. :(

    Plus, we have wasp problems still and I thik we might lose our hive at this rate.
  • Davesnave
    Davesnave Posts: 34,741 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    No obvious sign of disease in anyone, no scratching, nice red combs, and no sign of anything amiss. :(

    Plus, we have wasp problems still and I thik we might lose our hive at this rate.

    As you know, we had this with one of our Welsummers. Present & correct for corn at 5pm. Dead as a dodo by 9pm, and not a mark on her. But two in 24 hrs?

    Wasps were non-existent here till the fruit ripened. I hope your bees find a bit of oomph to fight them off.

    We have someone coming here to look at our orchard with a view to siting a hive or two. Are there any down-sides? I can only imagine that brushcutting around the hive might get a bit er, 'interesting.'
  • lostinrates
    lostinrates Posts: 55,283 Forumite
    I've been Money Tipped!
    edited 20 September 2011 at 3:25PM
    Davesnave wrote: »
    As you know, we had this with one of our Welsummers. Present & correct for corn at 5pm. Dead as a dodo by 9pm, and not a mark on her. But two in 24 hrs?

    Wasps were non-existent here till the fruit ripened. I hope your bees find a bit of oomph to fight them off.

    We have someone coming here to look at our orchard with a view to siting a hive or two. Are there any down-sides? I can only imagine that brushcutting around the hive might get a bit er, 'interesting.'


    I know...it seems odd. I'll just have to wait and see.

    Bees, well...as you know I am not the expert.

    Cutting around the area, we are told, is a no go. We put down weed mebrane and gravel immediately around.

    They donb't like the wind, so ours are between two barns.

    We went for a very docile strain. They are so docile that when I help at weekends I have NEVER suited up and never been stung. In retrospect, I'd rather have fiesty bees more able to fight off wasps....particularly in an orchard!

    If you are only siting the hives there, not getting your own, most of it isn't your problem! But I would be preppared to let a bit of a wild area develop around them rather than aggravate them with the mower/strimmer.

    edit: if you do get a gentle strai you can sit/stand quite close to the hive and watch them return as a break from work. The sound is heavenly, unbelievably relaxing, and the site of them coming home with pollen is incredibly exciting.

    They are beautiful, and the hives are too, unles they are polystyrene/plastic ones, which we don't want because we feel they are too ''man made'' ad like wood!

    I'd really like to try one of these hives
    http://www.fragile-planet.co.uk/sp.php?Key=15

    but we might just go for a national next time..more available second hand and thus a bit of a saving: nthing is cheap :(. (we have two wbcs, which are the classically pretty ones and ancient so have needed a bit of patching up)
  • lostinrates
    lostinrates Posts: 55,283 Forumite
    I've been Money Tipped!
    I wonder if RAS is reading?

    RAS IIRC you acquired local swarms...not ''named strains'' of bees. I'm guessing they are more resiliant.

    Also, what hives are you using? Nationals?

    davesnave, forgot to say, we don't have a wasp ANYWHERE around the trees, neither the plums that were ripe nor the apples now......they all seem to have made a beeline :( for the bees.
  • alfie_1
    alfie_1 Posts: 5,837 Forumite
    1,000 Posts
    rhiwfield wrote: »
    now that is interesting.... in mabels little paddock [behind her fence] ?? bet they are expensive tho.....
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