Life off grid
Gas, not electricity.
Four weeks ago, we noticed that our boiler light was red and the unit was
definitively not heating anything: not the floor or the water which (during the
summer) is its sole raison d’etre.
Oh dear, we said, how annoying or words to that effect 😮
Still, the sun was shining and we had a chance to fix it afore autumn arrived.
Afore?!!
Sorry, I’ve done many, many crosswords during lockdown. My vocab is wide, my spelling and typing still bad…
Any way, We had some time, only it did become much colder after the plumber turned up and said it would either be a case of swapping out a sensor or needing a new boiler.
The plumber who did the first and final fit of the house chose an unusual boiler for the UK, so parts are not easy to find. No worries, there’s a bit of space and after all, we have the solar electric heating the water during the summer when we have more power than we can usefully use.
Now my husband has his shower in the morning and the first week, got up at 5am to turn on the emersion heater!!!
We had a power cut in the area that weekend and the clock on the box that turned on the electric heater in the hot water tank when we have a great deal of energy being generated needed to be reset. I had a quick work through the menus and not only set the clock but it has two “automatic” timers – we now have a programmable heater in the hot water tank – one first thing in the morning and one in the evening for a bath and washing up.
How civilised and now we had a chance to get the sensor fixed in the boiler.
Only, time was ticking by and still no sensor! Phoning our plumber on Monday to chase it up we found that they hadn’t received it and had started to chase it up only to find the order had been fluffed 🙁
Could they pop round and check the part numbers. Of course, please do.
They came today and disabled the sensor which allowed the boiler to start – so that’s great news and they’ve got the right part and it’s in stock.
Hopefully, we’ll have a working boiler by this time next week.
OK, so what?
Two main things. Obviously, we’ve not used any gas since the first week of August which has saved about £15 just in heating the hot water.
But we have been using electricity to do that instead. And indeed we are spending a bit more, but that’s being offset by the money we’re earning from the vehicle to grid and the solar generation.
Of course, it’s significantly better for the environment being carbon neutral at that point and all the convenience of gas…
Sounds goodish
The modern alternative to a gas boiler is a heat pump: the options being air or ground source.
Living in the UK, air heat pumps are OK during the summer but not so good during the winter. Leaving a ground source heat pump.
Now, cost wise these are £3-4k pounds more than a gas boiler and teamed with solar and v2g, which cost in.
Only installation is significantly more than a gas boiler or air pump.
Ouch. We’d better get saving.
Posted: September 24th, 2020 under Driving off the grid.