> Thanks, Ken, but electricity is not a great source of energy in the UK. It's
> expensive (I use a wind-hatpower source) and I have not heard of an electric
> boiler. I pay 14p per Kwh during the day, 7p at night (0000-0700). If I
> don't go with the heat pump, I'll be considering connecting to gas.
We also use peak/offpeak rates. The advantage is that during the
winter months, we use MUCH more energy at night than the day. In the
summer time, when the air-conditioner is running a lot, we are usually
not around home anyway, so we set the temperature higher. Then in our
case, the off-peak hours also apply to weekends too. We were on target
(after doing some additional energy saving changes) to saving over a
thousand dollars a year by using the peak/offpeak billing.
In our solar house, we're still trying to get a handle on the energy
needs. If the temp is around freezing and the sun is shining, the
furnace will do its first run somewhere around 1AM. Even on cloudy
days there is just enough free energy to keep the furnace from
running, but the downstairs does get a little cooler than we like
because the thermal mass is working against us and pouring cooler air
down the stairs.The airflow in the house kinda reverses and the
downstairs suffers. We have to close the door and "window" to stop
this flow. We do need to get some insulating shades or blinds for the
atrium windows to keep the heat in at night.
What is really sad/unfortunate is that we have really good solar
energy potential here, but in this community of around 9000 people,
there are no more than three purpose-built solar houses and ours was
built as a demo house so it's a little bit more purpose-built than the
average bear. I've always wanted a true solar house and I'm not
disappointed.
But in the UK, I understand that solar isn't that good of an option.
Maybe converting the house to a "passive house" might be more logical.
--
Ken Norton
ken@xxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.zone-10.com
--
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