Fracking good or bad?

Completely agree @shiney
They estimate that the first of the new power stations will come online in about 5 years time, haa, delays, strikes and general blundering will add to that time scale considerably.

 

There is no need, surely? just reduce usage. We changed Incandescent to Fluorescent / CFL, and used less Watts (and saved money ) Now we are changing everything to LED - more savings - only downside is that the Incandescents lasted a few months, so came up for replacement (with CFLs, say) pretty quickly. CFLs last years - so "wasteful" to replace them with LEDs in the meantime ... and LEDs will last a "lifetime" so when the next technology comes who's going to change to that?

We've reduced our Electricity bill by 50% over the last 7 or 8 years. Only thing on standby is the TV Record box. Everything else has a 4-way extension so there is one simple switch to switch off Screen, HiFi, etc. ditto with computers, switch all the peripherals off with one switch and not rely on Standby for screens etc. We don't have the outside lighting (front door and gate lantern lights) on all night any more.

We've replaced central heating pumps (and surprised myself making a recordable difference). We have timers on everything that can have them - mobile phone chargers for example - plug in, start the timer and it doesn't get left on for days by mistake - or even all night if only a few hours is needed. Timers for immersion, including a "dial a boost" timer, and a second low-tank economy-7 immersion. We use immersion in favour of boiler in summer as it is more energy efficient (we have solar-thermal, so most of the summer we use no energy to heat water). We have max PV (4kW I think) and I am considering a wind turbine. We have replaced two oil-burning boilers here with a log burner using locally sourced wood (that cost a fortune to install, and I thought it was a seriously badly timed investment, heating oil then doubled in price over a couple of years so lady luck had shined on me). My heating cost is now only 20% of what it would be on Oil. We have changed cars from 25mpg to 60mpg - and I am disappointed that I cannot drive them at 70mpg like the salesman told me I would be able to :( We are looking at insulating the outside of our house (cost is definitely horrific ...) because partly, like you Shiney, we want to be comfortable in our dotage and not have to worry about increasing fuel bills to keep warm.

I have no idea if I am getting my money back on the things I have done, probably "more or less". I do know that when this comes up in discussion with my mates they are amazed at how little I spend on fuel etc. But it has to be done, somehow the nation has to be persuaded that whinging about increasing fuel costs is not the way, saving or using less energy is.

 

Two words, big business.
By this I mean there is tons of money to be made by some people by awarding these contracts.
(In the case of the UK, "those people" are the ones sitting in that big building next to the river) then of course there are the big multinational manufacturing corporations that can't reduce power consumption because they have huge smelters and machinery running 24/7 that consume huge amounts of power and put a huge strain on supply.

Here we have lots of mines, refineries and metal processing plants and they have been on the governments back for ages to get them to upgrade the national grid and get more power stations built.

 

Sure, we have that lobbying pressure too - whilst reassuring ourselves that we live in a democracy free from corruption!

But the People can vote with their feet. To remove the need for new power stations the whole nation would have to use less - bit hard to Crowd Source that solution I expect?! I'm open to ideas though!

But for individuals they can invest-some to save-some, and feel virtuous too .

If "mines, refineries and metal processing plants" need more power, and infrastructure not available, why don't they generate their own? Not quite sure of my facts, but here Sugar Refining (from Sugar Beet which is grown locally) needs a lot of energy, so the companies generate their own and sell excess (and I suppose "out of season" as they only process Sugar Beet for 4 [Winter] months or so) back to the national grid.

Once you get to Size-X it must be possible to generate your own as cheaply as you can buy it? (unless someone will sell to you at a, presumably subsided, loss?)

 

You hit the nail on the head.

 

As you conclude, government can solve that. Government gives the elderly (and via The Social the disadvantaged too) a hand-out to pay for their fuel, even so those folk probably don't keep properly warm as they spend the money on other essentials - or Lottery Tickets for all I know.

A "Bold" government would have, IMHO, decided that whilst the building trade was on its knees during the recession to just send them out to insulate houses. Start with anyone "worthy" but just doing all lousy housing stock would have done. Then you could stop giving fuel handouts to people in those houses - and you never have to do it again. Not ever. And you've helped your balance of payments problem too ...

How the hell we get people elected who will just get on with the job?

No. Electricity bill now 50% fewer units than 7 or 8 years ago. But I do rather take the view that even one Watt saved is oil that is not converted into power, and is left in the ground. Once burnt we can't un-use that energy. People say unplugging a 1-Watt device is pointless, and I see their argument, but there are 60 million people in the UK ...

Drax (if I have my calculations correct) generates 66 watts for every person in the UK. Everyone save 66 watts and we can turn that off - or use it for other essential energy growth requirements.

I wish I had the answer to all these really difficult retro-fit-upgrade questions. You are likely to find that an LED replacement would be small enough - whether it will have the same connectors I don't know.

Well .. you could spend-some to save-some and put movement detectors on them, or some other sort of trip-switch. Doubt you would get your money back, but you would reduce the nation's energy consumption (assuming scaled up to everyone doing it ... )

Yes, I agree. Although I wonder if burglars are bothered by always-on-at-same-time lights? It does stop them lurking in the shadows ... but movement detectors, that bring lights on, should do that too.

CCTV wouldn't hurt either ... that also has the feel-good factor of giving Plod some nice photos with which to be able to apprehend the scum, instead of just giving you a crime number so you can claim on your insurance ...

I'd hate you to think I have strong opinions on these matters but it interesting to compare the decrease in the number of invitations to dinner with friends and correlate it with the rate at with I have managed to save energy over time, and my increasing evangelism!

 

History suggests that Riots in the Streets are next, probably accompanied by some vigilante behaviour. That would focus their thinking ...

 

Not tried them yet (installing soon) but LED Floodlights exist, and they use 90% less power (so fit a 50w in place of a 500W). The old halogens typically used 300W-500W, which as you say is a lot.

This is part of my gripe Shiney. Rubbish / cheap components. Bit like the power supplies in most computers - built to a (minimum) price point, rather than an energy efficiency standpoint. I've managed to persuade my company to do a cost-benefit calculation for new computers which includes lifetime use of electricity. 10 quid more spent on a model with a higher quality power supply easily saved during lifetime.

You might need a different trip then - breaking a "beam" when driving in through your entrance? more, significant, retro-fit install cost of course ...

 

True, SA has always been a curious mix of first and third world.

 

Very true, even had a few blow up on me due to the under rated components used.
Of course the fact that the mains supply here (by law) may not fluctuate more than one or two percent from the nominal 220V 50Hz is hardly ever adhered to, does not help either.