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Archive for 'Driving off the grid'

Here is how we got our heat pump

This is a short piece on how we went about the changes we needed to make to ensure we were eligible for the boiler upgrade scheme (BUS). Ideally, we would have got a ground sourced heat pump (GSHP), but it is much more expensive to do that once the house has been built. When we […]

I remember when…

My beloved husband has got to an age when he prefaces statements with, “I remember a time when…” Which freaks me out a little. I know there is a 7 years, 2 days, age gap, but just recently, it has felt like a big thing. Only to find myself doing that very thing today! Not […]

Come on and get going!

I have rearranged my pre-planned publishing list to squeeze this in, because I think it’s pertinent to our time. Which contradicts the subject of this post: procrastination. There are all things we procrastinate about and research actually shows this isn’t necessarily a bad thing (unless you have a time limit on anything). Waiting to or […]

My Eddi is finally setup.

What on earth is an Eddi? Good question – it is a solar diverter and to be fair, it was setup’ish, it’s just now talking to the internet. Why, oh why… Hey, this is my thing. Everyone needs a hobby! A solar diverter is something we have had since we first got our solar panels […]

Sorry guys, but size does matter

Get your minds out of the gutter, I’m talking about solar generation and battery size. When we first bought our system, we were recommended to get 27kWh of battery. We didn’t have the spare cash when we bought our initial system, so we bought half of that. Having just shelled out for the heat pump, […]

St Swithin’s day, mixed weather for the next forty days.

Today is the 15th July, and I am writing this as I have a brief moment of perkiness which will wipe me out for the rest of the day. Stop writing then! I’m chronically bored. Every movement is painful and I’ve not been able to work since last week. Having signed myself out last week, […]

Number crunching part 1

Can I be honest here? Although I had “done the numbers” and figured out that we would indeed be: Reducing our annual carbon footprint. From 1.2 tonnes per annum to 0,3 tonnes. Making the most of the energy we were generating. Paying off a big up-front payment for the batteries and heat pump. I didn’t […]

Every precious drop.

It’s the last day of May and as I was lazing in bed this fine Saturday, I heard the Radio 4 programme of the time telling me hose pipe bans were likely to be introduced as much of the country is “in drought”. I live in the part of England that is declared as “semi-arid”. […]

First day, almost off grid

The week 28th April to 4th May has had some brilliant solar collection days in our little part of the world. Indeed, April itself was the sunniest we’ve ever had, with a whopping 524.5 kWh being generated by our grid – and the thing about solar is that everyone whose cells were orientated in the […]

Everyday, it’s a getting closer

As I type this at 07:45 British summer time, we have only just stopped using our battery to supply our power and yesterday we used just 0.6kWh of electricity sourced from the grid.  At 26p a unit (I know, I know), that’s a whole £0.16 bought electricity.  Which beats Friday, which was a whole £0.25 […]