Daydream thread continues.....

rhiwfield

Itsme, while I share your reservations on woodchip boilers, and for Lir its turning out to be a nightmare, I've got to say my experience of PV has been very positive, and I dont regret making the decision to be an early adopter which cost me more to install but attracted grants and FITs at initial levels. I'm happy to have my roof used that way, others may not be.

Importantly, the technology is reliable and well understood.

A wood burner is also an attractive addition to our energy mix, even though log prices have shot up.

Jury is out on bio (tends to be small commercial upwards) and wind power is probably a project for a community rather than an individual home

Itismehonest

A wood burner isn't really new technology, rhiw.
As you will see from the article I linked to, woodburners are not included in such schemes.
Most people in rural areas will already have an open fire or a woodburner. It's only a novelty in more suburban or urban areas.
I'm talking about the new things which get sold on without the long-term testing in our own environments which may not match those where the technology came from.

rhiwfield

Itismehonest wrote: »

A wood burner isn't really new technology, rhiw.
As you will see from the article I linked to, woodburners are not included in such schemes.
Most people in rural areas will already have an open fire or a woodburner. It's only a novelty in more suburban or urban areas.
I'm talking about the new things which get sold on without the long-term testing in our own environments which may not match those where the technology came from.

Agree woodburners are not new tech but they are more efficient than early models.

ASHPs/Domestic wind, and to a lesser extent GSHPs are overhyped in my view but I was making the contrary point mainly about PV which is reliable and whose UK performance can be assessed in advance of installation.

There was (and still is) good reason for reliance on tried and tested rural heating by oil and LPG, but the future of such systems is under threat without adequate alternatives atm

Davesnave

We'd still look at woodchip as a possible part of a mix. The tech is hardly new, but the plumbing community is still behind the curve, especially when it comes to integrating several sources.

I'm not sure that even ordinary gas fired systems are set up correctly in many cases. For many years ours wasn't wired correctly in the last house.

Our architect recently told us of one local installer to avoid; he put the flue in upside down on the architect's listed house, causing all sorts of problems when it came to rectification. Kinda basic, you'd have thought! :rotfl:

Itismehonest

rhiwfield wrote: »

Agree woodburners are not new tech but they are more efficient than early models.

ASHPs/Domestic wind, and to a lesser extent GSHPs are overhyped in my view but I was making the contrary point mainly about PV which is reliable and whose UK performance can be assessed in advance of installation.

There was (and still is) good reason for reliance on tried and tested rural heating by oil and LPG, but the future of such systems is under threat without adequate alternatives atm

Agree there need to be adequate alternatives but far from sure that, as a country, we go about that in the right way.

I'm not convinced by PV, either.
In most instances it seems to me it's been installed for financial savings rather than ecological reasons & I'm far from sure that, as the years go by, savings will prove as good as expected.
Those that installed early (as with most new things) paid highly & will have to sit tight for many years to recoup. Those installing now pay less but receive less.

As a nation we appear to live somewhere too windy for wind, too dismal for PV, too lacking in sustainable woodland for wood & too unwilling to cough up for tidal. We'd probably have more impact by tearing most of our housing down & rebuilding in a more efficient way.

If I wanted to save a few hundred pounds a year on my energy bill I'd find that easier to do living somewhere smaller, more efficiently built & much further S & E where the weather is better

rhiwfield

Itismehonest wrote: »

I'm not convinced by PV, either.
In most instances it seems to me it's been installed for financial savings rather than ecological reasons & I'm far from sure that, as the years go by, savings will prove as good as expected.
Those that installed early (as with most new things) paid highly & will have to sit tight for many years to recoup. Those installing now pay less but receive less.

As a nation we appear to live somewhere too windy for wind, too dismal for PV, too lacking in sustainable woodland for wood & too unwilling to cough up for tidal. We'd probably have more impact by tearing most of our housing down & rebuilding in a more efficient way.

If I wanted to save a few hundred pounds a year on my energy bill I'd find that easier to do living somewhere smaller, more efficiently built & much further S & E where the weather is better

Yup, if I lived in a one up , one down I'd save a fortune in energy bills

Still cant agree with you on PV, our mini power station has generated 7500 kwh in about 33 months, about 3,500 of which we've used ourselves, the rest exported to the grid. It gives us the capability to be less dependent on externally generated electricity AND I'm very happy with the personal economic return.

If the argument is that there could be more economic methods of generation as a nation, that may be. And as a nation I think we'll end up with a mix of technologies, which should start with insulation and energy efficient measures and encompass solar, wind, ashps/gshps, biomass and nuclear (in the absence of clean coal/oil/gas) though shale gas is almost certain to proceeed apace with the lobbying power of the oil and gas sector.

Demand management atm is in its infancy, but I'd expect it to mushroom to cope with erratic generation.

lostinrates

Fwiw, ATM I am feeling torn between open fires or roman heating system and ruddy calor gas!

On the plus side, while plumbing is so ething we were on shaky ground dealing with dispute resolution and the legal process is putting the ball firmly back in our court of understanding and strength, so while we didn't want it to go this way now it has we are on much easier ground for us.

lucielle

Ordered 500L of heating oil today managed to get it for 55.5ppl. Should be here beginning of next week. Hoping that'll see us until it comes warmer and I'll fill up then.
L

Itismehonest

lucielle wrote: »

Ordered 500L of heating oil today managed to get it for 55.5ppl. Should be here beginning of next week. Hoping that'll see us until it comes warmer and I'll fill up then.
L

:j That sounds like a good deal, lucielle. The average price in England today is given as 64ppl.

lostinrates wrote: »

Fwiw, ATM I am feeling torn between open fires or roman heating system and ruddy calor gas!

On the plus side, while plumbing is so ething we were on shaky ground dealing with dispute resolution and the legal process is putting the ball firmly back in our court of understanding and strength, so while we didn't want it to go this way now it has we are on much easier ground for us.

A hypocaust. I'd go with that, LIR

lucielle

Yes feel quite pleased with the price as normally I end up buying it when its at its peak.
L