Daydream thread... without the rose-tinted specs

rhiwfield

CTC/Rozee, check out Cyd Cymru. I suspect this will be a moneysaver

alfie_1

i think when any of us feel feally chuffed about something and feel the need to tell evry one ....often..;) we become a member of the "BARF ROOM CLUB"..........:D

p.s. did i mention i was right re water leak :D

Rummer

:j Alfie :j I think you should remind us frequently about your good news

Dave/LIR I know absolutely nothing about these systems but I am reading with interest for the future.

Rozee Shame the pigs did not work out at the moment, what a great experience though and maybe in the future the timing will be better.

I want to hear all about the bit Day Dreamer meet up! What an exciting day it will be

Davesnave

Thanks for the details lir. The name of the heat pump manufacturer was clear, as they only do the one brand.

Rhiwfield, thanks for your thoughts too. I keep coming back to the PV. I was wondering if electric rads in the bedroom end would be best for us, as two of them are only used intermittently and all the pipework/rads existing there need replacement.

Alfie, why would we want to hide the solar stuff on the barn? The barn's roof is a good 'un, but tis 150' from the house. We do have leccy there, but it's a separate circuit and meter.

alfie_1

Davesnave wrote: »

Thanks for the details lir. The name of the heat pump manufacturer was clear, as they only do the one brand.

Rhiwfield, thanks for your thoughts too. I keep coming back to the PV. I was wondering if electric rads in the bedroom end would be best for us, as two of them are only used intermittently and all the pipework/rads existing there need replacement.

Alfie, why would we want to hide the solar stuff on the barn? The barn's roof is a good 'un, but tis 150' from the house. We do have leccy there, but it's a separate circuit and meter.

i wasnt meaning to HIDE it , just thought the tin roof would keep the heat in the units and you could have lots

Davesnave

alfie_1 wrote: »

i wasnt meaning to HIDE it , just thought the tin roof would keep the heat in the units and you could have lots

Well, although the technology isn't with us yet, you have an idea there. The big barn roof just hangs about, doing its rain-keeping-off thing and not much else, but it must absorb oodles of energy in the course of a year.....which just drifts off again, totally wasted. We just need some (cheap) way to grab it.

Rhiwfield was alluding to the same thing really when talking about solar air heating, meaning some kind of mass which is heated during the day, which then wafts this heat into the house at night.

So not a idea at all.

rhiwfield

The trouble with the sun reliant systems is that they are least effective when most needed. A cold dull winter day wont see much solar gain and air source heat pumps performance can crash and become very expensive to run. I think that is where my mix of standalones thoughts were headed. Is it better to acknowledge that at some times we do need to rely on direct leccy heat or wood/oil/gas appliances.

At other times, when solar energy is sufficient, maximise solar energy input and use daylight hours to preheat the house and top up as needed during the evening. If generating surplus leccy either use to heat direct via a simple electric rad, heat deferred by heating a storage rad, or heat direct at higher performance by using an air to air heat pump. Of course solar thermal is also an option.

There are too many stories out there of full house systems that dont work properly even in new builds. So for a retrofit I'd want to keep the tech manageable and have back up in case of need. But even a bivalent ASHP system using my existing oil boiler would cost a small fortune to retrofit

So i'd probably try an approach that took as much lowish tech (lowish cost) energy from the sun as possible to cut down the need to import reliable but higher cost energy.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

morning all:j:j

Dark outside this morning.

We so want to minimise the amount of money we pay for utilities etc..

I am in my mid to later 40's and hubby is 51 in 2 weeks, I am slowly getting worried about the cost of living in the future.. not only for the smallholder, but for everyone in general.

over the last 5 years, does anyone know what percentages food, energy etc has gone up by? do you think that type of prices increases will carry on indefinitely or will they slow down in a year or so??

Davesnave

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

morning all:j:j

Dark outside this morning.

We so want to minimise the amount of money we pay for utilities etc..

I am in my mid to later 40's and hubby is 51 in 2 weeks, I am slowly getting worried about the cost of living in the future.. not only for the smallholder, but for everyone in general.

over the last 5 years, does anyone know what percentages food, energy etc has gone up by? do you think that type of prices increases will carry on indefinitely or will they slow down in a year or so??

I think your generation and mine had the benefits of relatively cheap food and energy, but now, with resources running low and many more people in the world chasing them, there's only one way prices are going to go.

The renewable energy thing used to be marginal, with the returns rarely justifying the effort and set up costs, but prices have changed the balance, though the government still have to subsidise through the RHI and similar to encourage people to take the plunge.

With food, most of us are used to having a great choice and the majority eat some meat and/or fish daily, but it was never like that in much of the world. Since we don't produce enough in the UK to feed ourselves, we have to buy in, but as people in other places get a taste for 'our' sort of food, and better wages to pay for it, we have to compete and pay more for imports.

Luckily, British people have developed new tastes too, so it's not an imposition nowadays for us to use recipes that make protein go a long way - think chilli con carne or spaghetti Bolognese.

Anyway, during WW2 Britons stayed pretty healthy on ration diets, though I'm not saying that was fun or that it would be OK to return to those....yet!

Itismehonest

Which direction(s) does the barn roof face, Dave, & the house? Depending on this, it may even be that the barn would be better for panels. They use barns around here.

I think the art is to have as many alternative energy sources as possible - in the same way as one would normally rely on electric lighting but would have a stock of candles, torches & oil lamps.

Many modern appliances, even if not strictly electric, require electricity to work. Range cookers for instance which need electricity to fire the jets &, obviously to pump around a CH system. That's why we stuck with the old Rayburn which we converted from solid to gravity fed oil. It heats the water, excess going to a radiator in one of the bathrooms &, of course, is there for cooking & warming the old kitchen - all without need for any electric at all.
Those without that sort of alternative have to have a gennie, where a gennie for us is an option not a necessity.