Microgeneration

[Drago]

None that I've detected. I'm a radio ham so that was of concern to me, but even HF seems pretty good for QRM.

 

[Tiger10]

Does your qth have a reasonably low noise floor? You are in a semi rural area aren't you.

 

[Drago]

About as rural as it gets without going to the Highlands or a National Park. Yeah, fairly low here. In fact the day before yesterday when all the bands were closed it was so low on HF ispt was subterranean. Was barely registering on SDR#.

 

[Tiger10]

Great thanks.

 

[screenman]

About as rural as it gets without going to the Highlands or a National Park. Yeah, fairly low here. In fact the day before yesterday when all the bands were closed it was so low on HF ispt was subterranean. Was barely registering on SDR#.

Whoosh! straight over my head.

 

[Yellow Fang]

I'd like to have microgeneration, but living in a flat and a listed building, it's not really viable. Therefore I signed up with Green Energy for renewable electricity and biogas. And I rarely switch any heating on.

 

[Ganymede]

We have a full array of solar panels. Used to have a water panel on our old house, used to love that free hot water pouring out of the tap! (yeah, I know, we paid for the panel...)

I have an interest in this company http://www.powervault.co.uk/ which is making domestic batteries for those with solar. They are "smart" in that they can be used to smooth out demand, ie the grid can take your surplus when the sun isn't shining instead of just during the day. Thus the dirtiest power stations can be used less or even switched off completely during times of high demand. You can also use it to store Economy 7 cheap lecky if you have access to it.

I'm very excited with how much work is being done on renewables now. Battery tech is improving all the time.

 

[Piemaster]

I'm of the opinion house builders could do a lot more for 'eco' homes with respect to generation with a bit more planning. Firstly actually have houses orientated so that the roof is optimised for the sun and preferably without an apex - a single slope type roof. Rainwater harvesting would be a lot easier to install if planned from new instead of a retrofit. Probably won't happen as its more about getting as many houses as possible onto the smallest area for developers.

Locally newbuilds that were being touted as 'eco', as far as I can tell just conform to the latest building regulations on insulation and not anything I'd regard as extra.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Oh. I wasted ten minutes on that post. Should have read the OP more carefully.

Not wasted time in my eyes - I found it very interesting.

I agree, sorry if it came over that way, all I meant was my interest was more electricity as I have a combi boiler & logistically nowhere to house a tank & cylinder.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

I've not looked at the figures since the FIT was lowered for new claimants last year,

That I think is the BIG issue, your FIT payment is probably the 46p+ amount (forget the exact amount) it is now only 4.07p which makes it uneconomic

 

[Drago]

I'm on then look out for some kind of motor for my windmill project.

 

[classic33]

I'm on then look out for some kind of motor for my windmill project.

How big a motor?

 

[Drago]

Depends what's about. I'll make voltage converters/droppers/rectifiers as required. 32v DC motors are quite popular, but they're pricy because of the demand for wind turbine projects.

 

[slowmotion]

I'm on then look out for some kind of motor for my windmill project.

Have a look on YouTube for "wind turbine". There are loads of clips about making and modifying electrical components, aerofoil blades etc

 

[Drago]

I haven't, but will do. Cheers.