Renewables: "talking 'bout my generation"

EricMears

In (very) round terms, annual rainfall anywhere in UK is approx. 1000mms.


A typical garage might be 6m long x 3m wide so would collect 18 cu metres of rain per year. A typical water butt holds around 200 litres so would on average get filled in a couple of weeks - though in practice it will probably get filled in an hour, overspill for three days then not collect any more for a couple of weeks


Without actual location or sizes of roof, butt etc I can't be more specific but annual rainfall varies from around half a metre in parts of E Anglia to over 2m in Lake District or Scottish Highlands.

Oscargrouch

edwink wrote: »

Not brilliant here!!! 3.04kWh........1.26 O's
Water tanks full so not moaning and the veg has had a good soaking as have the hens and Bertie the cockerel!!!!
Edwink

I have had a good soaking this week; 'butt' my name isn't Bertie...:D

2.84000 O's today. 69.52 O's above annual prediction on install. To date 7% up on PVGIS. 48.19% of investment recovered in 2.75 years ( excluding savings of Lecci). Prediction on install was 6.5 years; (including savings on Lecci) Am I happy, No; wish I had gone for the full monty of a 4 Kwp system.....:mad:

legoman62

Very similar weather to yesterday gives me 4.22 O's today:D

Should make Aug PVGIS....just:cool:

edwink

JimLad wrote: »

Was thinking of getting a water butt but the only roof with a down pipe thats close to my garden is my garage which is just a single one. Would it capture enough water do you think?

Any rainwater captured for watering your garden is better than none. We have a water butt attached to our hens feed store shed which is much smaller than the average single garage and that fills up nicely over a couple of weeks if we have more than several days of rain. So I would give it a go.


If you are unsure your garage roof will collect enough rain and do not want to chance buying an expensive water butt . One idea would be to join your local freecycle or freegle group on-line. Through them you can place a wanted ad and you may well get offered one. I have several in my garden through our local group. For example, often people move in to a house that has several water butts in the garden but they do not want them, so advertise them on Freecycle or Freegle to give them away for free to someone who does need them rather than take them to their local council tip!!! Just an idea so if they do not collect much rain you have not wasted money in buying them!!!


Oh nearly forgot 2.02 O's today!!!
237kWh target for month. Now at 213.00kWh with four days to go!!!!! Weather looks better for tomorrow so here's hoping!!!


Edwink

JimLad

3.7 O's for me yesterday!

Bad news! Our Immersion heater (connected to an iboost) has developed a leak which keeps tripping the immersion. The tank is only 3 years old so im gonna see if its covered under warranty. Fingers crossed!

Anyone any idea how much draining the tank and fitting a new immersion would cost?

edwink wrote: »

If you are unsure your garage roof will collect enough rain and do not want to chance buying an expensive water butt . One idea would be to join your local freecycle or freegle group on-line. Through them you can place a wanted ad and you may well get offered one. I have several in my garden through our local group. For example, often people move in to a house that has several water butts in the garden but they do not want them, so advertise them on Freecycle or Freegle to give them away for free to someone who does need them rather than take them to their local council tip!!! Just an idea so if they do not collect much rain you have not wasted money in buying them!!!

Thats a really good idea i will check them out!!

Martyn1981

JimLad wrote: »

Anyone any idea how much draining the tank and fitting a new immersion would cost?

Hiya Jim. A very long shot, but ....... I was at B&Q a couple of weeks ago looking through their clearance 'stuff'. The company is having a massive clearance, but it'll vary from branch to branch.

I only mention it as I spotted about half a dozen immersion heaters/elements. Brain strain now, but I think they were 3kW 27inch and £4.

Maybe, just worth a quick trip locally to see what's around/left. I got unbelievably lucky - my sister gave me 2 Velux windows (she's changing a loft conversion into a full dormer job) for a side extension I'm building. In the clearance were 2 flashing kits that matched the windows, £15 instead of ~£50 each.

Best of luck.

Mart.

legoman62

JimLad wrote: »

3.7 O's for me yesterday!

Bad news! Our Immersion heater (connected to an iboost) has developed a leak which keeps tripping the immersion. The tank is only 3 years old so im gonna see if its covered under warranty. Fingers crossed!

Anyone any idea how much draining the tank and fitting a new immersion would cost?



Thats a really good idea i will check them out!!

If you are a DIYer you could do it yourself. I did mine.

The hardest part is removing the old immersion...may not be too bad for you as it's only been in 3 yrs.

Dependent on where your immersion is, you may not have to drain the tank. Mine is situated in the top, so all I did was turn off the power and water supplies, crack the drain valve open and remove enough water to make sure the level of water in the cylinder was below the top of the immersion.

If the immersion is in the side obviously more water would have to be drained.:D

JimLad

legoman62 wrote: »

If you are a DIYer you could do it yourself. I did mine.

The hardest part is removing the old immersion...may not be too bad for you as it's only been in 3 yrs.

Dependent on where your immersion is, you may not have to drain the tank. Mine is situated in the top, so all I did was turn off the power and water supplies, crack the drain valve open and remove enough water to make sure the level of water in the cylinder was below the top of the immersion.

If the immersion is in the side obviously more water would have to be drained.:D

Ah i will look into that! Sadly the immersion is at the bottom so thats pretty much the whole tank that needs draining :mad:

Oscargrouch

3.76 O's today...

Martyn1981

Nice day yesterday, snuck 3.2 Os from somewhere. Was supposed to drizzle all day, but only a brief shower when I tried to do some blocklaying (but stopped as soon as I put all the kit away).

Looking back at August it seemed pretty rotten, but I guess the colder temps made up for the lower sunlight as after 4 weeks still predicting approx 106% for the month. That'll do pig, that'll do.

Mart.