Affordable DIY Wind Turbines- Produce your own affordable electricity

xonencentral

Bill2,

From my talking to Surface Power, there full system when used in full off the grid format has the additional option of a 6.5 KW bio-diesel silent generator.

This is used to run heavy loads which are normal in Irish households but you might only need to run it in the evening for 3-4 hours, and your wind/solar does the rest all day.

Agree 100% with air, the best way to get heat is with solar water panels and lots of insulation, (Duncan Stewart reckons, 80-90% reduction in normal energy usage to get an "A" label on your home next year.) Wow solar panels are amazing, my local swimming pool in Enniscrone has been draining hot water over 80 degrees away for the last 3 months to keep temperatures down.

Talk to Surface Power, I'm aiming that direction to get off-grid before 2011 when the carbon taxation comes in, but I'm not a 100% sure about their whole solution as it was a while ago I asked, but I remember I was impressed.

And the govenment today have announced the duty on Bio-diesel is to be removed, finally they do something right, BUT WHY SO LONG HAVE WE WAITED, our farmers could be growing these crops ?

air

If you want to go home brew, I think that a great home brew solution for total independence is a single cylinder lister type diesel engine that can be used for CHP.
This way when solar is at it's worst (in the winter) you can use the generator to provide electricity to charge your batteries for a few hours a day (best done at times of peak load). The real bonus is that at this time of year your need for heat is at its highest aswell and you can harvest another 30-40% of the energy in your fuel by removing the engines radiator and diverting the cooling water through a heat exchanger into your home heating system.
This type of system can get up to 90% of the energy out of your fuel, as against using mains electricity where you are likely seeing well under 30%.
These engines can run on waste motor oil, waste vegetable oil, diesel, bio diesel etc and they last in the order of 50+ years with simple maintenance.
The only downside is that they are noisy but people have solved this by using vibration isolation mountings and car silencers on the exhaust.

Greenman

I take it you were sitting pretty Xonecentral http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/0805/esb.htmlESB probing cause of power failure

05 August 2005 15:55[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]

200,000 Irish households and businesses were left without electricity this morning.

The power cut, which began shortly after 10am and lasted almost two hours in some areas, affected all parts of the country.

The ESB says the majority of subscribers involved had no electricity for up to an hour and power was restored to all households by midday.

The company has apologised for any inconvenience caused by the fault, which it says was caused by a problem on the electricity system on both sides of the border.

A spokesman for the ESB said the exact cause of the power cut is unknown and they are currently investigating the incident.

He added that a problem like this has not occurred in Ireland in a number of years and that immediate action is being taken to ensure there is no recurrence.

[/font]

CJhaughey

Not being paranoid or anything but, is this the start of further powercuts?
It isn't exactly unknown for rolling stoppages to occur when demand exceeds supply, as in the USA and New Zealand in the last few years.

xonencentral

Greenman,

All my low energy stuff like satellite, alarm, clocks, etc that would tell me if there was an outage are on my green system so I'm not sure if I was effected.

But I did read a report about this potential for ad-hoc power outages as in the US and the UK but I wasn't convinced that we would ever experience it.

Now I am really worried, how can you lose power nationwide without any knowledge and the ESN are totally surprised ??? I'm not buying it, I'm sorry.

If we can get zapped today when we have no pressures on the grid, then it's an eye opener for when things do get tight and problematic.

One of the reasons I went green was the sense of "what I was going to do" every time we had a power cut/strike in the past and I swore when I got my own house I was going to take steps, slowly but surely and I'm glad to say reading the news, that I'm thrilled I have started the journey.

I have two network outages in the coming weeks due to upgrades, but thankfully I'll be conserving by battery bank in case they last longer than the letter stated.

xonencentral

Just got my second full ESB bill using my SP turbine and we ran all our hot water using the emersion and our new bill is 84 Euros.

Thats old bills 160 Euros:

2nd month with turbine : 84 Euros.

Looks like my bills will now be all around the 80 euro mark.

First years savings approx 1000 euros plus all the battery's I know recharge as well, another few hundred.

Greenman

xonencentral wrote:

Just got my second full ESB bill using my SP turbine and we ran all our hot water using the emersion and our new bill is 84 Euros.

Thats old bills 160 Euros:

2nd month with turbine : 84 Euros.

Looks like my bills will now be all around the 80 euro mark.

First years savings approx 1000 euros plus all the battery's I know recharge as well, another few hundred.

Congrats and I think a real sence of satisfaction!!!

What was your total financial outlay to achieve this?

xonencentral

Sorry on holidays again, that time of year.

My investment to date has been approx Eur3,500-5,000 I think, I can't even remember properly as I bought the system in stages so i suppose thats good as I haven't noticed the cost.

Had a power outage last night, and didn't even effect us, first power cut I have experienced at night time, looked very wierd to see my house lite up and the whole area in darkness.

I'm still on a high...

towbar

Is that monthly or bi monthly billing?

160 per month would seem very high for ESB?

If it is bi-monthly the annual savings would be about 500. Not trying to knock it and expect to go this route myself but keen to get the figures right. Can you clarify?

Thanks.

CJhaughey

xonencentral wrote:

Just got my second full ESB bill using my SP turbine and we ran all our hot water using the emersion and our new bill is 84 Euros.

I have decided to fit a Solar hot water system, cost is around ~5000 fitted but i expect that it should dramatically reduce the bills.
I don't expect it to provide anywhere near all the hot water all year but if it produces even 70% of what we require than happy days!
I just feel that when dealing with a new build I would be mad not to fit it now.

xonencentral

Sorry, Yes, bi-monthly, got carried away with the excitement and miscalculated.

xonencentral

Same here, doing my homework on these as well and I know my local leisure centre uses them very successfully.

teesee

Regarding Heat Pumps, mine is 14kw out using a 3.8kw motor. I don't think any of the micro systems could run this monster.

xonencentral

There are a few certain things in life the way I see it:

a) We'll die.
b) Anyone using heat pumps will be customers of the ESB for LIFE.
c) We'll die.

Am I missing something?; in the pub last week, one of my friends who works for the ESB told us that they wet themselves everytime somebody tells them they are installing heatpumps, he said it is the single biggest growth contributor to the ESB income in the last 3 years. Why would somebody lock themselves into "Gas" produced energy which will attract substantial carbon taxation in 2011 ?

I just don't get it?; when solar vacuum evacuated tubes cost less to install than heat pumps and cost nothing to run ?

teesee

How do you figure I will have to pay a carbon tax because I've got 4000 ft of piping buried in a bog at the side of my house? I'm not whinging about the price so much because I run the heat pump during off-peak which does a great job with underfloor heating and hot water at this time. I 've got it installed two years now and at that time I was buying kerosene at 18 cent a litre, Today I believe it is 68 cent.

xonencentral

I think the lack of information is a big issue and everybody in the powers that be seem to know about it but Joe Public seems to be in the dark.

THere is an EU directive around the Kyoto protocols which Ireland has signed up to, thanks FF.

What this means is that anything or anybody which contributes Co2 into the atmosphere will be taxed. You seen it in the last weeks with the environmental charge on white goods. (Note: the energy label on white goods came first)
THe energy label for houses starts Jan 1 and it will work out how much Co2 your house caused to be produced into the environment to run it.

THis means that in 2011 when the Kyoto directive becomes punishable under the "polluter pays principle" in Ireland, ESB whom produces 2/3 rd's of our Co2 will be heavily taxed, hence anybody who is a customer will pay carbon taxes per the energy they use as the ESB is going "GAS" - Fossil Fuel.

Its really that simple, and heatpumps can't be run without the ESB at the moment as you won't get planning permission for the large renewable installation that would be required even if you could afford it?. It isn't the consumption that will be taxed but the source of the energy used, hence heat from solar, electricity from wind/solar and water from harvesting are the way to go before 2011 as they are all free sources of energy and will attract no carbon taxes.

Don't forget, ESB this year bought Euro 170m worth of carbon credits to avoid fines, this will be gone in 2011 and the polluter will pay under EU law, and you can be sure your already paying the 170m anyway in your bill, but the directive will target users directly after 2011 instead of just the ESB. (Polluter pays)

Heatpumps might sound great today but you need to insure yourself against what could be enormous charges in the future.

xonencentral

Anyone have any views on the threatened ESB strike next week.

I have a feeling it's going to be a long winter, my area was going through these so called network upgrades last month and not one ESB worker was invloved, all were UK reg Alfred McAlpine contractors.

Keeks

The ESB strike won't (shouldn't) affect the power supply, since it involves the Technicans in the Distribution and Transmission sections rather than Power Generation. It will more than likely only affect the ESBs own NRP (Network Renewal Program) and the ESBs sub-contractors.

CJhaughey

It may well affect my connection to the network, I will be looking for a temporary supply from October onwards.
If the distribution technicians are on strike....
*looks around worriedly* where is the number for that surfacepower crowd?

Lissavane

unfortunately, this is distracting genuine internet users.it seems this brennan guy from mayo is allegedly ? trying to encourage? mugs to buy stuff from him.

xonencentral

Lissavane, seems like your back again with your paranoia, did the tablets not work the first time round, if want to push agendas, please go somewhere else, you only made 3 posts and 2 of them are nothing to do with our discussions. Everyone can go back and see your posts and the responses by people on this forum;

Now back to the conversation.

I think one of those small geni's might be a wise decision for anyone without a renewable system. It's no fun being without power when you have oil fired central heating.

Haven't read it yet but I hear the ESB thing in todays paper is only getting more vicious.

I think we will see problems sooner rather than later, an if anyone remembers the strikes of old with the ESB, they used to shut down things purely because of safety reasons, with "nobody on the ground", Don't forget if nobody loses power, then there is no point in striking ?

We always loose power in my experience, I am always amazed at how timely breakdowns are when ESB workers are out on strike.

Thinking of the fond old days of a few candles and several flagons of bulmers "we were posh".

Gaothfar

Hi,
I've been following this thread for some time and am now going to get up off the backside and get myself a wind turbine. I contacted Surface Power but didn't get a very positive response but I'll keep after them.
As regards rain-water, I have been using it for 10 years. I got a central-heating oil tank and a pump and then deflected a downpipe from the roof into the tank.
Talking to the local agent of the council's polluted main supply one day, he said 'what about the bird-****?' To which I replied: 'Do birds not fly over your reservoir?' Game, set and match.
Thanks to Xonecentral for doing all my research for me. This is a brilliant thread. Maybe it should be published in book form?

Eve1

I went to see surface powers wind turbine at the weekend and I have to admit even though I am dubious about them, their turbine was pretty quite. I emailed them and was told that I would be relying on the esb for life if I got a heatpump. I then rang them to ask a few questions and the person I was talking to didn't know who the person who emailed me was, they basically told me that there was no such person. I know I'll be murdered and I don't want to offend anyone but I was lead to believe that they are pretending to have more people working for them than they actually have. They really should change their sales technique as meeting them put me off buying their product. Their product should speak for itself without the hard sell. I do believe however that it is a good product.

Eve

Voyager II

Hi all been snooping around here for a while

Eve1 I would agree with your assesment of the surface power sales crew in galway last saturday, I was not impressed myself after travelling from cork .I too left Feeling that something was not quite wright with the whole sales thing. the guy I was talking to did not have much technical knowledge just the sale pitch.As you say the turbine was quite, but it was not very windy on the day and it did look like a quality tool.Between two minds wether Ill buy of them or not.

Don't even mention the euro10 a head entrance fee :eek:

Eve1

I felt like I was paying in to an event that Rodney Trotter would be right at home at, I might as well have been at a two-card trick exhibition. What a difference between that and the self build show.

Eve

Gaothfar

I think they're gone. I can't get an answer from them. They do say that they want to be the Ryanair of alternative energy - I suppose that means disregarding the customer.

yop

Just been into them there and have felt very impressed but unimpressed if u know what I mean.
We are looking at a Geothermal heatpump, I explained this and he said "Oh you are moving from the oil companies to the ESB" and that your bills will be 200% for ur ESB.

I know what he says about it been higher for ESB but that it will increase ur ESB about 200 notes per 2 month is a bit extreme?

Also he states that your average ESB is 130 per 2 month, so he reckons the life of the unit is 25 years, so ur saving is 13k as your Surface power unit is 6k. so take the 130 * 6 * 25 then take the cost of the unit u are talking about 13k euro.
I thought about this later and realised that this 6k does not take u off the grid and that u are still left with ur standing charges.

So what do ye think?

CJhaughey

Talking to a few tradesmen mates, they tell me that there is serious current draw from a lot of the pumps used to circulate the Brine solution in GSHP setups.
It may pay to check the specs on the pumps as this will give you a good idea of the likely draw.
AFAIK this is the reason that ASHP although less efficient are much cheaper to run, same as a fridge.

Keeks

CJhaughey wrote:

Talking to a few tradesmen mates, they tell me that there is serious current draw from a lot of the pumps used to circulate the Brine solution in GSHP setups.

It makes sense because you are pumping the solution through a longer distance. Or rather there are two pumping stages in the GSHP. One with the brine solution outside in you ground loop to collect the heat, and the other to pump the hot water around your house. With the ASHP it just pumping the hot water around your house.

CJhaughey

Yep, plus if you look at the amount of ground loop needed to heat an average - ie inefficient house you are looking at 100m plus of fairly large diameter pipe. That is a lot of water to shift.
Water is heavy stuff and pumps to move heavy stuff are powerful.
I have heard anecdotally of several people that have been very dissappointed with GSHP and the return for the power input.
It is not the free heat source that many people imagine.

Keeks

CJhaughey wrote:

It is not the free heat source that many people imagine.

Its just like anything else when building a house. If its not thought out properly its gonna cost a hell of a lot of money. What type of system you want might not be the best option for your site.

yop

So I take it that ye are not fans, it is the refrigerant version we are looking at. This requires less pipes so will be more efficent.

CJhaughey

It is not that I am not a fan, I think that heat pumps are great, when they are setup correctly.
Like anything if you jump in with both feet and do not research the system that you need you are at risk of some cowboy selling you something that won't work.

xonencentral

Gaothfar wrote:

I think they're gone. I can't get an answer from them. They do say that they want to be the Ryanair of alternative energy - I suppose that means disregarding the customer.

WHooo Boy: I don't think this is fair comment, based on my own experience, I think I should stand up for them here, go to their website, loads of names and all their phone numbers and they always answer the phone for me. I have made 5 purchases, battery's, etc from them and first class is all I could describe the experience including the technical staff who gave me loads of support as I wanted to install my own system. I have a couple of friends who have also purchased, (wonder is there commission available), and they have the same experiences. NEVER MIND THE AMAZING PRICES, Have you seen the alternatives, Eddie Hobbs, where are you.

People who come on here to knock and not learn have no intention of participating or have a vested alterior motive in putting out rubbish information potentially on what is a popular thread which a lot of genuine people are contributing to. If you recognise yourself, please stay away.

You can't get over the excitment of producing your own energy to run your own electrical items, its like a drug. Jump, go for it, you'll even stop going to the pub, I'm currently building my solar radiators for heat as well, but I attaching a photo just taken of my 9 KW battery bank, and its bursting at the seams, another night of free big ass TV, dimplex heating (save the oil), and lighting ahead and I only have a turbine up yet. I'll wait for the SSIA to get the solar bit.

Just on the heatpump issue, why are the country's where it was invented for (scandanavia and germany, etc) moving to deep well thermal (no pump). We seem to have a lot of GSHP installations here in east Mayo/west sligo and the story's are all about big ESB bills. Is it just that their sales people are convincing people all the way to their cheque book ? Its the fact that it uses ESB and when you have a power cut, you have no hot water/heating that is my main problem, even though I currently have oil, at least in a power cut I have hot water and heating. Am I not looking at this correctly ? I just don't get it. THose yellow vans drive me mad :eek:

See my picture, all my free energy, be jealous, be very jealous ..

yop

Xonencentral,
thanks for all the info, u are really getting into it!!
2 questions you might answer for me, how much are the batteries and how long do they last that they provide?

Also does ur setup run your oil boiler, if it does and I know there is a power difference, why can't the surface power unit run the Heat Pumps.

On the GSHP, what example can you give us on the big ESB bills based on the before and after bills. I know a number of people who have both the DX and brine systems installed and none are complainin that their bills are hugh, what they are saying is that they have plenty of hot water, and that they even though their ESB is higher than their previuos bills that they are not firing 1k euro plus of oil through their boilers.

I don;t know, if Surface power could give a straight answer as to why they cannot give me a solution that I want, A) to power my heatpump and the house, or if they cannot manage the heatpump, then power the rest of the house, but as of yet and after talking to 2 people (3 after talking to urself) all I am getting is not the answers but that a GSHP is crap. If they can give me a full working alternative then I will be very interested, as of yet they can give me no alternative to a heatpump but just sales jargon on why they think we should not get one.

A good solution they have, but straight answers they don't seem to want to give us. Worrys me that.

xonencentral

Yop,

Oil boiler is easy, the pump is only 30 watts and the boiler is only about 6 watts, (36 watts in total), but it does use oil which is where I get my heat from so in a power cut I am bullet proofed. Thats a big difference as I see it from a heat pump (and I'm no expert) but all I hear about is 6 KW, 10 KW, etc and that the pumps need to run pretty much all the time.

No renewable energy system (only a huge huge one) would run that and thats what I am refering to. I know its a case of jumping from Oil to Gas (ESB is going 80% gas according to their website), if oil/gas prices keep going up which I have no doubt they will and carbon taxes come in which they will obi wan, I think the risk of going heatpump must be big as you have no alternative.

I have heard of people installing solar panels in situ with heatpumps, (not sure if this is a reality) but if it is, wouldn't it be better to put in loads of solar water panels and get at least some of the year free. i.e. Go Solar Vacuum evacuated panel instead of heatpump and I think its even cheaper to buy than the HP. (not 100% sure but I think so)

THe ESB start their talks in Oct about the future restructuring of the organisation and their are loads of rumours about 4000 job cuts with a 700 million pension deficit, call me sceptical but I think we'll be buying a lot of candles over the next couple of years.

For high ESB bills info, ring the energy agency's, the stories are all over the place and some scary ones including one where the heatpump was installed upside down. My local agency has identified that there are loads of cowboys who don't understand the science and install them incorrectly, they think its just another boiler.

But my issue is that I want to go green and become independent, green energy will never run large refridgerators (heatpumps) and when solar water systems can be boosted in winter by oil, solid fuel, etc are available and will all work using a green system, it just makes the best sense to me. I fear the HP under the new energy label (which starts in 12 weeks time) could be very negative from a Co2 point of view as its run by ESB and a lot of ESB.

Not sure about your straight answer issue but from my own perspective, it is impossible to determine if a green solution will run your house as it depends on what you run, how you use your energy, etc. All green energy does is gives your the ability to harvest your own energy. What you harvest you are free to use whatever way you want and from my own experience, the end result is not as I imagined it, but much better than I imagined. Just go for it, and grow your system over time. You'll not regret it. I expect that my bill will drop to Eur 40-50 during the winter as I won't be using my imersion and thats not bad for 2500 sq ft house and I'm less than 6 months into my journey.

Me fears Obi Wan that you chase the impossible dream of big ass 6KW Heat-pump run by renewable energy system and the reality is not the answer you want to hear.

I don't think SP do heating systems so you need to talk to others for your alternative heating solution. Talk to your local energy agency (county council), I found them excellent.

Oh ya, Batteries are 400 euros new and come with a 5 year warranty (not bad for a 3KW battery), and searching around the internet tells you 20-25 years life with longer life if solar attached possible 30 years. (it is also a fact that you look after them, put in distilled water, etc). This is what Sp and the battery manufacturer state as well.

Attaching my battery bank voltage this morning (14.86v which is basically full again-9KW's available), and this is after a night of 2 TV's, dimplex heating and lighting, phone chargers, etc, etc. My turbine happilly spinning away silently in a SW prevailing breeze.

Not to repeat myself, Be Jealous, Be very jealous, Oh what a buzz.

yop

Thats for the info lad, appreciated, I am the same as you but I do admit that my motive is , maybe ashamidly!, is to for financial purposes, is to come as self sufficent as possible.

I definately agree there are a LOT of cowboys installing heatpumps out there, some of the setups are funny and I have spent maybe 12 -18 months researching the different heat pumps.

If we go with the HP, which will run on nite rate, this will keep the costings down.
We have a timber frame and even with us not in the house yet and doors opening and closing, with the amount of insulation and the reduced spacing between the pipes I think this house willl be very cheap to run.

Now, your advice please, what sort of setup might u suggest we or can we possible get to supplement our "domestic" electricity if we leave the heatpump to give us our heating and hotwater.
Would surface power, with their 6k solution be any good to us do you think or are we looking at a bigger investment.

We have no shed, (well we have a timber crap one!!) to store the batteries but if we put one of them turbines would that on its own be any good do you think?

Sure you can come down to castlebar and set it up for me!!
cheers

xonencentral

I would just go for it, you'll have great fun and you'll drive the missus round the bend with your new exciting knowledge of watts and current and "did you know stuff", don't worry about the kids, they come home with all sorts of ideas on energy saving which they are learning in school.
So they'll sign up to your new energy awareness regime early on.

I'm still not sure about a heatpump, just listened to Pat Kenny and the Minister where he grilled him about renewables and our lack of action, what a waste of space FF are.

He lighted my intrinsic worry about heatpumps and the fact that you buy into the ESB for the life of the system. Does this not worry you from an energy label and the value of your house. If you went solar panel instead of heatpump, your house will be worth more if you sell it due to the better energy label. Even wood stove supplimenting in the winter is carbon neutral and will be OK.

Thats the way I see it, the energy label issue is where I come at it from.

I think the 6K system and I'm nearly there albiet in a round about way except for the panels is fantastic value, I got a quote for a similar spec for nearly 30 grand, the turbine from Proven was nearly 18 thousand installed all on its own (600 watt unit which needed planning permission which I was told there was more chance of me winning the lotto).

I sorry but I could not have afforded a green energy system until these guys came and kicked the prices in the ass and I am having an excellent experience with their stuff so fair is fair, I can't fault them or what they supplied me.

The installation is the best bit, great excuse to get your mates around and "of course" you need to fill them with beer every time (and yourself of course)

Seen as I'm from Ballina (the rightful capital of Mayo), I am oblidged to spit at the border of Castlebar in mutual disgust with my fellow north mayoians.

P.S. For anybody who occasionally sends me private messages, please be aware i can't go on at work anymore, the internet police are watching :cool: so there will be gaps of a week sometimes when I go back on shift.

xonencentral

Update again,

I'm at home today, on the computer, listening to the TV and radio, sorry watching the TV and listening to radio (in case I miss anything), and I have the dimplex oil heater running nice and hot to keep me warm for free since I posted my battery bank voltage earlier at 14.86 volts, this is my current voltage and even eveything I am running, my turbine is still adding energy to my battery bank.

Current voltage is 15.1 volts and climbing. I can't even use the power I'm creating. There is an awesome buzz with this green energy lark.

towbar

Not sure you can base battery status on the voltage measured while charging. I think the turbine works like a car alternator so voltage while charging will be different to the voltage when the turbine stops. Also I thought the batteries and invertors worked at 12v and they would probably support up to maybe 13.5\14v - wonder what happens if voltage rises too high - there must be some sort of cutout on the turbine to prevent over charging? If not surely it would damage the batteries.

Your results sound good and your making savings, it would be interesting if you could measure the current draw off the battery pack or on the supply side of the invertor as this would give you the exact value of your savings (if you wanted that). Even better I wonder could you buy an old esb type meter that would measure your usage in kw\h!!!!

xonencentral

Towbar, you are correct on the altenators,but I have to get technical from my notes and I'll probably get this only half right but the system has an automatic controller which only allows the voltage to rise ahead of the voltage of the battery's so the voltage actually reflects the amount of energy in the bank, pretty much. (which is very handy as you can use a voltage graph to see how full your battery's are)

There are several excellent technical reasons why this is the case and I can't remember any of them.

Regarding voltages, over/under all that other stuff, this is all managed by the microprocessor including the electromagnetic braking system. It really has been designed for idiots like me. You just forget about the whole thing and I have been very succesful at the forgetting part.

I have been looking around for something to measure voltage/current and xantrax do one for $ a gazillion dollars but SP have told me in a conversation way back that they have one coming out sometime which will even show how many euros you are saving among other things and it will go inside you house as a small monitor.

Hopefully it will be priced like the rest of there stuff, but for now the meter will do.

CJhaughey

I remember a while back Lidl had an energy meter that plugged in in front of anything that was connected to the socket.
measured current draw, total Kwh etc etc etc
.

Cuauhtemoc

Maybe slightly o/t but..

Anyone know the cost of a brand new ESB connection to a self build in a rural area?(Wicklow if it makes any difference)

I've seen €2000 mentioned but not totally sure.
€2000 would go nicely toward an off grid solution if we planned to go off grid straight from the start.(As i'd like to)
Only researching atm as we havn't found a site yet but surface power €10,000 option doesn't look too bad if incorporated from the start with Solar water heaters, wood pellet burners as they suggest.
Anyone have any thoughts on that?
Cheers.

C.

xonencentral

http://www.esb.ie/esbnetworks/downloads/connection_charges_june_2004.pdf

THis is the current status on charges but I have seen (I think) an approval by the regulator for it to go from the current Eur 1350 to Eur 2650 from next Jan 1. (and thats only if you can bang your head off an ESB pole already from your front door.)

I think your idea makes sense provided you have a backup generator, and make sure you are buying AAA rated white goods, avoid the current sales, none of the fridges, washing machines that I have seen in these "bargain" sales even have an energy label, me thinks the rest of europe has found somewhere to get rid of all the products they don't want because of the energy label that is coming in on houses.

By the way, the genie is for your builders in the first instance so they can build your house and your backup in the second.

Found this as well. http://www.mtprog.com/ApprovedBriefingNotes/BriefingNoteTemplate.aspx?intBriefingNoteID=377

davidoco

xonencentral wrote:

Electrician said integration through timed contactors into my fuse board was straight forward.

By integration do you mean

he stripped out certain circuits from the Board and now runs the wind generated power through them?

Should you run out of power through lack of wind or sun that the ESB automatically kicks back in?

Is the wind and solar reliable enough to take out the light and other low use circuits permanently?

Thanks. I know I should ask the SP people but I just wanted to get a users opinion.

CJhaughey

davidoco wrote:

Thanks. I know I should ask the SF people but I just wanted to get a users opinion.

:eek: What do ye want to ask them?I didn't realise that Shinners were big windpower fans!

xonencentral

Its all turned out much easier than I originally expected, I was overcomplicating things and my electrician was as well.

Thanks to SP for this; (so can't claim any credit)

You simply place a second trip box (consumer unit, they call it) beside your current one and transfer over the circuits you wish to use through green. The bigger your system, the more you can transfer accross. Then place a "manual" switchover box underneath (80 Euros), "Auto" (a gazillion dollars) and feed in the ESB form your first tripbox and the output of your renewable system into the other, this allows you to change back if necassary.
In the three months, (bar last week), I haven't even checked or looked at my system, in my garage and its doing all its supposed to be doing so I'm quite happy. I also have every second socket in each room on my green power and I haven't switched back in a long time (I have adjusted to what I can run on it, although when the monitoring device for the house is available, thyis will help me exploit it more).

The great thing I didn't realise was that as I have added more batteries, etc to try and grow my system, I only needed the electrician for the initial connection work which only took him 3 hours and he was finished. All the additional solar, batteries, etc are just add ons to the system in my garage which means I can do it myself very easily.

My system runs all my lights, (this is no major strain), I charge battery's, lights, run my garden lights, radios, smaller TV's and when it breezy, I can run my large widescreen TV and my dimplex heater. I also run my laptop, my dect phone, doorbell, central heating system, phone chargers and in my garage, I use my tools, lights, etc as I have no ESB in the garage. (risky but has worked perfectly).

It means I always look at the wattage rating of appliances and we have just bought a new 1850 watt kettle which we also run of the system when its breezy (which will probably be all the time in winter), and we threw out our 3.3 KW kettle but we timed them against each other first (using ESB) and the 1850 watt kettle boiled quicker , so I'm not sure what lesson I learned there but that I was probaly wasting 1.45 KW every time we boiled the kettle.

Hope this helps.

CJhaughey

Xonen
What type and wattage of lights have you got in your place?
I will be fitting lighting soon and want to use as low energy as I can.
I have seen GU10 LED bulbs with 48 leds in them they are mad expensive though.
I have also seen the cold cathode GU10 bulbs but wasn't impressed with the light quality.
In our current rented accomodation I have CFL reflector style bulbs R80 size which actually are quite good and give a decent light.
Can you recommend any type of light and fitting in particular?

xonencentral

I have Philips Softtone CFL's which I find excellent in light fittings, lamps, etc. Beautiful light and I used to use the original filment softtone bulbs so I was an easy convert.
I have tried "cheap" stringy ones in my outside lights and one blew after about 6 months and then I had to buy a Philips stringy (ugly) at short notice and even though it was the same 20 watt (100 watt equiv), the Philips was twice as bright as the "other household brand" so I'm now only buying the best. Dunnes do the softtones for 6.60 I think, great value but there always in scare supply BUT I never blown one yet.

I also now have no security/safety lighting on any more at night. I use the small nightlights on a sensor from Argos which plug into several sockets in the halls and outside I use a couple of the PIR 150 watt halogens and I have the setting on short time.

I have also 15 of those GU10's 50 watts which drive me crazy and i have tried a few CFL and LED replacements which were "rubbish" and she overruled me anyhow, she's all for low energy but even "she who must be obeyed has limits" . I have however seen this SP LED GU10 in Ballina at a show lately which was 1.5 watts and uses those new ultra white LED technology that the car makers are using and the light looked very interesting and bright, but its still not available yet but I have to say, lining them up and down my driveway shining up in the air is something I would love to do AS WELL AS CHANGE MY 750 WATT MINI HEATER GU10's TO 22 WATTS TOTAL (What a saving) . I run a low voltage garden light system but its 250 watts (alledgedly although I'm not convinced) and I want to lower it.

Anyone know where I could get GU10 holders that would be waterproof so I could do that? 20 x 1.5 watts is only 30 watts.

Did anybody see the programme on satelite during the week on how the main EU country's are only buying AAA appliances. Does anybody know where you can get them here, I asked a friend in the ESB and he said people were buying them on Ebay from germany? I think he's lost the plot, buying a fridge on ebay from Germany ?

Although I do know someone who bought all there insulation and windows from germany.

CJhaughey

Xonencentral

We imported our whole house from Sweden, came on the back of a truck, including toilets and kitchen sink.
So I don't think that importing a houselot of white goods is that big a deal.
When you also factor in the WEEE charges that adds up to probably a large cost of the freight cost if you did import.
I have no problem with the WEEE charge per se however the way that this country has enacted it is just ripping the consumer off.
So I will look at A++ rated appliances and get then from wherever I can.
have a look at ultraleds.co.uk for powerful GU10 Led bulbs.