The Shed

Cheers Steve - if we were so worried about accuracy, we'd no doubt spend long hours arguing why Theakstons can't spell Peculiar correctly; someone would then come in & argue that in certain dialectical fringes of our society, it is actually spelled Peculier, no doubt providing a link to spurious (or preferably debatable) proof, thereby splitting The Shed into two factions (plus me sitting on the fence as usual), the result of which would be the creation of two completely new beers, Old Peculier and Old Peculiar-Related, and then...



What was the question again?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7589291.stm

Thought this might generate some discussion.

mystic fred wrote: we're in for a rough ride

Y'know, Steve, I think you could be right.

We've been using energy saving bulbs & actually unplugging all our kit, as opposed to leaving them on standby, for quite a while, but it's the heating one I always forget about (I take it this is the idea you will use more fuel to heat your house to the required temperature every day than if you keep the temperature constant )... may try that one this winter.

One way or another, I forsee a winter of discontent...

mystic fred wrote: energy savings -   1. never leave AV equipment on standby, switch it off at the mains 2. always stick to the speed limits - ignore that idiot up your backside, he doesn't pay for his fuel his company does. 3. keep the heating on its lowest setting in the winter instead of switching it on and off. 4. those funny looking energy saving lightbulbs arn't bright but your eyes adjust to them so you don't  need bright lights. 5. sell one of the cars - you don't need two, take turns to have the car. 6. cut out foreign holidays, they are a shocking waste of money and you can make the most of the opportunity to explore your own country. 7. share a bath or shower with your partner - it will save water and make you look forward to bath time   we're in for a rough ride

Dean, et al.,

How efficient is to get solar panels and a small turbine on the roof?  I realise it's expensive but I gather there's a deal with the National Grid that saves money too, because they pay for some of it, apparently.

I wonder how much money is saves over all?

I think it's about £1000 for a wind turbine for the roof and I'm not sure if it needs planning permission or not... but it's enough to power a family home, I gather and of course, it stores energy too, so when it's not windy (unlike today, which is), then you can still power the house.


Edited by James - September 01 2008 at 10:07

I think I'll stick to bathing with a friend for my energy saving feel good then! ;-)

James wrote: Dean, et al., How efficient is to get solar panels and a small turbine on the roof?  I realise it's expensive but I gather there's a deal with the National Grid that saves money too, because they pay for some of it, apparently. I wonder how much money is saves over all? I think it's about £1000 for a wind turbine for the roof and I'm not sure if it needs planning permission or not... but it's enough to power a family home, I gather and of course, it stores energy too, so when it's not windy (unlike today, which is), then you can still power the house.

Dean wrote: Switching off modern AV equipment will save you on average less than a penny a day and will shorten the life of your equipment, which wil ultimately result in a net loss and greater carbon footprint because you will have to replace it more often.

Very interesting claim, Dean - our living room electricals used to be on standby all the time (usual stuff - hi-fi, DVD/TV/Hard-disc DVD recorder/Digibox); are you saying this all only costs about about a penny a day? I was always under the impression the power drain was considerably higher than that.

Dean wrote: Energy efficient light bulbs are more expensive to make, buy and do not last anything like as long as the makers would have you think - what starts off being quite dim gets even dimmer with age - your eyes may become accustom to reading by the glow of a fag-end, mine don't   - the newer plug-in replacement halogen lamps are an improvement, but their running costs are higher than florescent. I have replaced all teh low-energy bulbs in my home with good old fashioned tungsten and halogen after Debs fell down stairs - the extra cost by far outweighs the cost of having a broken wife

I'm not 100% convinced on that one - I use these all around the house & can honestly say I don't see them as being significantly dimmer than regular bulbs (which I seem to remember being told once are in fact more energy efficient as heaters, than light sources ); as for longevity, we do have two in the house which were in there when we moved in 17 years ago.

At the risk of being an irritating git, I'm confused.com - bottom line, I just want to save money

^^^
'The Economic Crisis'

It's all a cynical government ploy to make us 'greener' by default.

Well I leave my laptop on all the time... I know I shouldn't but I'm on this thing all the time and the energy used from power-ups and power-downs maybe quite big, I don't know.

Besides, it goes into hibernate mode too... but it's unpredictable.

Re: turbines... I may have got the figures wrong but I know it's a viable option and the turbine does go on the roof, I'm pretty sure it does... my brother is involved with the big turbines at Watchfield and knows about these things, plus he's a Civil Engineer.

I know that the National Grid will pay back some of the bill though, if you do have one.

It's still expensive at the moment but the prices may come down in the future.