Ground/solar/wind/water power

[Curly green finger's]

Enjoy wood burning when you can still do it..

Likely to be banned.

Enjoy wood burning when you can still do it..

Likely to be banned.

And coal , I read somewhere that by 2029 solid fuels for house holds will be no more .
Not sure if that's true I use both wood and coal .

I'm at the present looking at ground heat , solar and water / hydro as we've a stream running past the house.

And coal , I read somewhere that by 2029 solid fuels for house holds will be no more .
Not sure if that's true I use both wood and coal .

I'm at the present looking at ground heat , solar and water / hydro as we've a stream running past the house.

I would recommend a heat pump (ground source is very efficient but expensive to install) solar is good and simple if you can use all the generated power. But we never installed a hydro system because we could never make it pay on a small scale as you have to pay for an abstraction licence!

I would recommend a heat pump (ground source is very efficient but expensive to install) solar is good and simple if you can use all the generated power. But we never installed a hydro system because we could never make it pay on a small scale as you have to pay for an abstraction licence!

Do you have to pay for an abstraction license if the stream is on your land?

The stream starts as a spring on our land and comes down past the house .
We also use another spring as our water source for the house, boar hole .
I'm looking at options at the moment do you have any links or more info on heat pumps pls .

Pm me if you like .

Cheers

Curly I have air source heat pump, solar panels, in my present house and in the one in Shropshire we had thermal water and panels and like you had our own spring water. I looked at hydro electric but you need quite a large quantity of water that falls from quite a height to make it work. We could just do it but the motor would have had to be right by the house and would have been noisy so we didn't bother. Air source heat pump is the way to go. Depending on your epc, the worse it is the more you get, I get £110 a month, every month for running mine. It more than pays for all of my electricity and we are a total electric house. That lasts for seven years. On the panels the FIT is not much but you still get paid 50% for feeding back into the grid and on hydro it is 75%. I am a bit geeky about the whole thing so can probably answer most questions you have.
E

Do you have to pay for an abstraction license if the stream is on your land?

Cheers

I may be wrong but I think that yes you would need an abstration licence even if it is on your own land. There are regions of the UK that don't need to worry about licences (Okehampton- for our borehole for example) but most of the rest of the UK they do apply.

 

[tonyofarr]

We have friends living on the banks of the River Tamar who were not allowed an extraction licence for water to go through a leat and run the water mill that they were restoring. They run the mill one day a year on Mill's Day using water that has been collected from rainfall using a lake they have dug out. Incidentally there was a mill on that site mentioned in the Domesday Book, but it had not been used for about 50 years before they bought it. I guess with these extraction licences it prob depends on which water authority and who you are dealing with.

 

[Erichalfbee]

We have friends living on the banks of the River Tamar who were not allowed an extraction licence for water to go through a leat and run the water mill that they were restoring. They run the mill one day a year on Mill's Day using water that has been collected from rainfall using a lake they have dug out. Incidentally there was a mill on that site mentioned in the Domesday Book, but it had not been used for about 50 years before they bought it. I guess with these extraction licences it prob depends on which water authority and who you are dealing with.

That’s crazy
Where does the water go after it’s been through the mill?

 

[Newbeeneil]

That’s crazy
Where does the water go after it’s been through the mill?

No doubt back in the river!

I agree the EA's policy on abstraction of water for small scale hydro is crazy as there must be thousands of potential sites all over the country that could produce small scale locally generated electricity 24 hrs a day but no one will install them as the ongoing cost of licences is prohibitive.

I have the same system of Solar and air source heat pump as Enrico ..... I installed mine as I used to own a small renewables company and I felt that if I was selling these bits of equipment I should know the pitfalls. New installations are all about using as much of your generated power as possible as the FIT payments are now being fazed out. Storage in batteries is now the way to go.
A cheaper way to ensure maximum consumption is to install a Solar iBoost or similar device which diverts any potentially exported energy directly into the hot water tank via an immersion heater. I'm producing 0.5kwh at present in the winter sun which is heating water rather than going back to the electricity company, but I'm still being paid for it! I worked out I use approximately 85% of my generated electricity whereas it's generally accepted that most with solar installed only use about 30%.

 

[enrico]

My hot water is sorted by the heat pump so I divert all my extra energy into a basic storage heater. It can reach max temperature easily and stays warm all night. That is the only electricity it gets, the extra that I don't use! Everyone said it couldn't be done but it works an absolute treat.
E

 

[Newbeeneil]

My heat pump heats my water to normal temperature also but the immersion heats it to much higher storage temperature.
The storage heater is a great idea enrico, I've never seen it done either, but do you need heating during the summer? I use hot water all year

 

[theeggman]

We are way off the topic here but. We have solar electric panels and export 50% to the grid,(measured not guessed as I'm ex QA and anal about gathering data to be in control of the process) over the last 8 years. I've looked into battery storage but the bought in power that could be replaced is £300 per year. Batteries come out at about £6000 and last about 10 years which is the warranty length so they would never pay back before dying. Our plan B would be an pre-loved electric car to utilise the "wasted" electricity.

Our solar array and inverter are 150 mts from the dwelling so heating our hot tank doen't make economic sense either.

 

[Bryang]

Do you have to pay for an abstraction license if the stream is on your land?

The stream starts as a spring on our land and comes down past the house .
We also use another spring as our water source for the house, boar hole .
I'm looking at options at the moment do you have any links or more info on heat pumps pls .

Pm me if you like .

Cheers

Some years ago the angling club I was the secretary/president of bought a area of land with a spring so that we could build a fish farm....We had to obtain an extraction licence...in those days the cost depended on the distance between the extraction point and the "return" point and the quantity, also on the cleanliness of the water at the point of return.
....The closer the 2 points the cheaper... In 2007 we paid £75 per annum for 2 Million gallons a day...

 

[enrico]

have a ’License of Right’ to have a borehole drilled, or use any other water source, which is on your own property, so long as it is for your own use and it does not exceed 10 m3/day. Above that, permission is required from the Environment Agency through your Local Authority. However, all private water supplies used for drinking, bathing or food preparation must be registered with the Local Authority. Revised regulations governing the control of private water supplies were introduced at the beginning of 2010, which detail the powers and responsibilities of the Local Authority in monitoring and authorising these supplies. The legal responsibilities are considerably more onerous where the private supply is serving more than one residence or is used in premises with public access
Quoted from legislation. I use a well
E

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

We are way off the topic here..

....and there's still loads of legs left in the discussion - maybe the mods could move it to another thread topic/section for the discussion to develop?

 

[Erichalfbee]

I’ve gathered a few posts cluttering up another thread

 

[enrico]

I’ve gathered a few posts cluttering up another thread

Well done
E

 

[Newbeeneil]

Yes well done Dani, I bet no one will add to this now

 

[Erichalfbee]

Yes well done Dani, I bet no one will add to this now

It depends how you look at the forum? Well before I was a moderator I clicked on the new posts button and looked at everything. Am I naively thinking that’s what most people do?

 

[enrico]

That's what i do. I only use the new posts button!
E

 

[Newbeeneil]

Hey..... I've just found the new posts button!

 

[theeggman]

Dani,


Well done. I was part of the off topic cluttering.
This is a subject that needs experiences sharing and mistakes made visible to help others avoid them. There are a lot of "salespersons" who share The Donald's take on the truth.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Wow I started a thread without even writing anything that's different? All relevant though !
Sorry for not replying had to deal with sheep getting out seems the new ewes don't want to be on the farm

 

[Newbeeneil]

Dani,


Well done. I was part of the off topic cluttering.
This is a subject that needs experiences sharing and mistakes made visible to help others avoid them. There are a lot of "salespersons" who share The Donald's take on the truth.

As said in a previous post I was that "salesperson" and I installed the technology on my house so I could give reasoned, relevant advice. I met many salespeople in the industry that had never seen the installation of these systems let alone lived with them.

 

[theeggman]

However, all private water supplies used for drinking, bathing or food preparation must be registered with the Local Authority. Revised regulations governing the control of private water supplies were introduced at the beginning of 2010, which detail the powers and responsibilities of the Local Authority in monitoring and authorising these supplies. The legal responsibilities are considerably more onerous where the private supply is serving more than one residence or is used in premises with public access
Quoted from legislation. I use a well
E

The Private Water Regs were tightened in 2016 re what tests are legally required. We use our local authority for the tests as they have nothing to sell and the results are logged against the property so when searches are done for the sale of said property the past and present state of the water supply is visible.