How about a small heads up for the coming winter powercuts .

Robmac said:
I'll be stocking up on wood for the logburner all summer.
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Heating oil tripled in price but firewood still grows on trees. We have 2 stoves and a good supply of wood. We were out for nearly a week after storm Arwen hit us and managed no problem.
80854D8D-DD68-4598-9821-08D1C239A6AC.jpeg
 
pure scaremongerng....

.last week they told us theres plenty of spare leccy to charge leccy cars.

weve downsized to an all electric south coast leasehold flat for our retirement , log burners or generators are non starters here but heating doesnt worry us overmuch as we rarely turn it on , appropriate clothes and duvets will suffice. lighting we can get by with solar charged torches and lanterns. cooking we can work round planned short term power outages easily or use a portable gas hob , only minor problem is tv ,perhaps we can work round by streaming to a laptop via hotspot on a moble phone, or just raid the charity shops for dvds that we can watch on the laptop. all in all we arnt worried about short term power cuts. when we were out in the sticks bad weather an poles blown down could mean days without power, after a bad spell in the seventies we got a tractor driven genny and recently sold it with never having to actually use it for a long power cut.
 
Is solar worth while in winter ? Or even in summer , is a power wall a good idea using off peak cheap lekky at night to top up battery and power the house in high rate peak times . I have no idea of installation and power wall cost . Any comments on heat pumps , looked to me if you want massive fuel bills and a cold house gp for a heat pump .
 
My youngest SiL, a real petrolhead, was given a 7kW generator by a client, as he'd mistakenly bought two! I allow SiL to keep his Caterham car-trailer in the garden and we often get power cuts so he gave it to me, after trying it but finding it difficult to keep going for some unknown reason.

It transpired that there was no oil in the generator and the bearings had seized! So much for him being good with motors. :rolleyes:

Fortunately we were able to resurrect it and it now sits ready for use, having already powered my electric chainsaw at the bottom of the garden (because the bearing in the petrol one had seized). :oops:

However, it is bl**dy heavy so I don't know quite where to site it nor how to run a power supply from outside to inside in a sensible manner. A switch to disconnect from the grid might be a good idea, as 7kW should supply all of our needs. I don't know how long the petrol tank would remain full.

Last year my son and his family were living in a touring caravan in the garden. A large awning gave them extra space but it was cold, so he bought a diesel heater (and used my oil). He now has a house and I have his heater but finding a way of getting rid of the exhaust fumes is another problem which needs to be solved before winter. We used scaffold pipe to get it out of the awning.

As for wood, I used to buy 2.25T of firewood for £125 approx 5y ago. This year it is £285 AND it isn't kiln dried (but don't tell anyone). ;)

Gordon
 
We have gas bottles to fuel the hob and a wood-burner. Our lovely local tree surgeon took down a large ash with die-back a couple of weeks ago and that has been added to our firewood stash. We also have a friend with 6 acres of woodland who can't give it away (except to us).
I get a free swim on a Tuesday in Abergavenny, plus the ones I pay for, so that's the shower sorted too.
Of course if we can't be bothered to light the wood-burner, the pub with their larger wood-burner is only 50 metres away.
 
ricc said:
pure scaremongerng....

.last week they told us theres plenty of spare leccy to charge leccy cars.

weve downsized to an all electric south coast leasehold flat for our retirement , log burners or generators are non starters here but heating doesnt worry us overmuch as we rarely turn it on , appropriate clothes and duvets will suffice. lighting we can get by with solar charged torches and lanterns. cooking we can work round planned short term power outages easily or use a portable gas hob , only minor problem is tv ,perhaps we can work round by streaming to a laptop via hotspot on a moble phone, or just raid the charity shops for dvds that we can watch on the laptop. all in all we arnt worried about short term power cuts. when we were out in the sticks bad weather an poles blown down could mean days without power, after a bad spell in the seventies we got a tractor driven genny and recently sold it with never having to actually use it for a long power cut.
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How you going to run laptops without lecy to charge them. 🤔
 
GWAYGWAY said:
It seems that the government are promising power outages in the winter, they will be at peak times when the kids and parents come home . 4-9pm etc. sothe the power out will mean no power for the central heating although gas is going to be there it cannot work without a small current for the pump , timer, and fans etc.
We have another source able to cover that small load with an inverter and a leisure battery, using a small chrger when the power is on again, most of us have these already so it might be wise to have a provision to run the heating off a three pin plug into the inverter.
Just a suggestion that might save some lives. We know what they are up to with the present sodabouts that are going on at the moment.
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We are going to move into the camper over winter, diesel heater fitted a couple of years ago, shouldbe toaty - Only problem and something that no one ever mentions it the STANDING CHARGES - what a con,just look and see how much these are increasing.I see that the mega saleriesand pensions for allthe energy company execs is always MEGA way too high........................................................................
 
My husband says that you get too much condensation from the calor gas heaters so you would need to open the windows thus letting out all the heat. This didn't matter when old houses had air gaps everywhere but modern houses are now hermetically sealed and tested for air gaps
 
We rented an old Farm Cottage with no electricity, gas or mains water. We managed fine for a long time and this was long before solar panels were invented.

I dragged an old 1937 3.5 KvA genny out of the middle of a forest and rigged it up. I went to all that bother so the Wife and kids could have a full size 240 volt TV. Anyway, I was sick of humping huge Tractor batteries down to the farm to charge them up. 😁
 
trevskoda said:
About a 600w to cover the heating, this should cover the start spike, for all of the house a 3 kw one and a very large bank of batteries.
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Like this!

Been living off grid for 5 years now and the system is still evolving - few more changes since this pic.... Needs help from the generator during December and January maybe a couple of times a week, but apart from that everything runs from the two banks of solar panels.

Woodburner for winter warmth

No power cut worries here 👍

Screenshot_20220608-164756.png
 
clarkpeacock said:
Like this!

Been living off grid for 5 years now and the system is still evolving - few more changes since this pic.... Needs help from the generator during December and January maybe a couple of times a week, but apart from that everything runs from the two banks of solar panels.

Woodburner for winter warmth

No power cut worries here 👍

View attachment 109381
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Excellent. I would like that at mine.
 
My old boss on Isle of Eigg. This has been posted before. I wonder what improvements have been done since 2011.


 
molly 2 said:
Is solar worth while in winter ? Or even in summer , is a power wall a good idea using off peak cheap lekky at night to top up battery and power the house in high rate peak times . I have no idea of installation and power wall cost . Any comments on heat pumps , looked to me if you want massive fuel bills and a cold house gp for a heat pump .
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IF you can get enough panels then yes solar can work all year round. It all depends what you want to do though, if you want all the mod cons and gadgets running then costs of panels, equipment and battery bank may be a bit eye watering.
Caz was saying yesterday there is a new scheme from the Government (something 3) but i havent heard about it or checked myself yet. I thought they had closed off tariff feed in rates to new customers but Caz says you can get Solar installed that feeds into grid again for no cost but installer keeps tariff rebates for ten years, if they are it may be worth a look then get yourself a battery bank you could connect essentials to thats charged for when power goes off. Of course it would be easy to charge a battery bank from a generator if needed as well.
Not sure of the legality of fitting change over switches unless contractor installed and ok with utility company these days. Hearsay again but ii was told they also dont like you connecting a genny when you are on a normal house mains system. Not sure if thats just until you make suitable mods though as lots of places do have genny backup but ones i am thinking of are commercial or business so probably specifically built in to do this.
We have people in this thread who have connected gennies though so maybe that can put me straight on that?
In summer solar is definitely good Baz, more so presently with LPG prices around a £1 a litre but again you need the infrastructure to power what you want to. If looking at all cooking and heating it wont be cheap.

EDIT: all my comments here are aimed at national grid connected property not off grid
 
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