Random Renewables Thread

Maybe a good use for all the unwanted evs, park them up as backup battery. If you have a hybrid, the engine will kick in if you drain the battery too much. Even my 2018 hybrid lexus with a measly 1.1 kwh battery had the option of a power outlet when new, pity the original owner didn't specify it. My ageing generator went duff during the last three days of on/off power outages since Monday, I think the new E10 petrol has fkd all the seals in its carb.

A PHEV with a decent battery and V to G, everything is covered.

I've been following a few threads (Seplos/JKBMS/DIY Battery) on here with a rough plan to take this route. Is there a currently understood best route for this? E.g. a cost effective, straight forward combination of gear that people have had success with?

Bit of a "random one", and not strictly renewable, but does anyone know/have experience of how much a pilot light uses? It being summer the gas boiler hasn't been on since probably April for heating. I use the Eddi for hot water, and to the best of my knowledge I haven't used the hob in the kitchen (I was away for a good bit)

The only thing I'm aware of is the pilot light on the boiler. Yet the meter reading is 20m^3 over the reading two months ago. Meter readings taken by me by the way, so I know the numbers are correct.

So the only option I'm left with is a leak (which I'd assume I'd smell), or the pilot light.

Looking online I'm seeing various answers.

Just how much does the pilot light of a gas appliance consume exactly? – Energuide

My own case seems to be about €6-7/month. Seems crazy to be burning 10m^3 a month for something not needed. Anyone else out there noticed this

Can you shut off the gas feed to the boiler and then see if it stops going up for a day or two?

Yeah, it's an interesting one alright. I took a picture of the meter at 18:05 today and will take one tomorrow at 18:05 (or normalize it to 24 hrs if not exactly at 18:05) and see what the usage is for 24 hrs. Can't remember the heating being on in the gaff since April and it's only me, so no….shouldn't be any other usage that I can recall. Naturally I won't be using the heating/hob in the next 24 hrs to test.

Old boiler which pre-dates me buying the place in 2013 so I'm figuring it's 15-17 years old. Ballpark. One with an electronic ignition would be better of course, but it was here when I got the gaff.

Last summer I had the auld fella staying with me for a few days as I recall and he'd have the heating on - so can't compare.

The 24 hr test should be interesting though. Had I known that the pilot was using so much, I'd have been turning off the gas more often. I tend not to cook much myself (or if I do more oven based which is electric) Seems to be a general "thing" though with pilot lights which people should be made aware of…..

No smilie needed - I would actually, but €€€ a bit tight this year. So hoping the old boiler will struggle on for another year or two.

I'm sure this is a familiar story with many. I don't have underfloor heating, and it would be a bit pricey to get on board with bigger rads etc, but I'd definitely be keen on getting rid of the gas completely. Even if it ended up costing me an extra €100-200 or so a year to heat the house, I'd be ok with that and chalk it down to the price of stopping burning stuff.

I thought the same myself and got a ladder out and checked the exhaust earlier. Nothing. Least nothing I can tell.

I'd be pretty sure it's the pilot light. I'll know the usage rate better when the 24 hrs are up, but I went and checked it just now, some 5.25hrs later and I see the following stats. (Naturally no heating or hob on)

Should be easy enough to verify by killing the pilot light and performing the same tests. Might be useful to others out there though for the summer months to think about knocking off the pilot light. Not sure how many of us out there with old boilers, but I'm sure there's a few on the forums.

Sure, it won't be funding a weekend in Vegas anytime soon, but still it's a pointless waste of energy and money if it turns out to be the pilot light as I suspect.

Figures quoted elsewhere suggest 0.2 to 0.3 units per day, so 3 months would account for 20 m³ easily. I note that adjustment of the pilot is mentioned, someone mentions it being 'turned up too high. When was your boiler last serviced. A new condenser model could reduce your entire usage by 20%.

After thinking about it some more….that does knock me for six. ~120kWh/month on a pilot light. If anyone else out there has similar setup, I'd encourage you to do the same. I'd be well clued in on the electrics side and I'd have a pretty good idea where most watts are going in the house, but the gas I never really thought about much as there's not much to monitor there. On the electrics I'd all manner of do-das (CT clamps, Bluetooth sensors, etc) …. but the gas it's just really the meter and that's it.

it's only cause I knew I'd figured I'd zero usage that I noticed this when submitting a reading for Energia.

I assume you meant to post the link for people?

Household electricity bills to rise by €100 to fund investment in network | Irish Independent

Happy to pay it if they will upgrade my MIC for free or at least do away with the silly nc7 and just let people export as much as they can.

It might reduce the sweet tasting FIT but it certainly doesn't tear the arse out of it.

If anything it adds to the argument that I should possibly look to get a battery. If I can reduce my bill by a few hundred euro by installing a small 5kWh battery then the savings more than negate the additional charge.

However without doing the maths I suspect it would take additional interventions such as reduced FIT rates or increased infrastructure charges to convince me a battery makes financial sense.

What budget? ESBN sets the rates, CRU decides if the rates are justified for the proposed upgrades. The involvement of government is exactly zero

Politicians can do some grumbling, dispense a few hugs and grab an catchy sound bite or two. But they've no part in the decision making

As for charging the customers who need it, well how's about for every new house built we add €1000 per year onto the electricity bill to pay for the additional generation needed for that house

Sound about fair now?

Also, Ryanair levying passengers to pay for new aircraft is literally how it works. Okay, they get a loan to buy the planes or lease them, and then all the passengers pay the costs of servicing the loan or lease payment

I'm kind of OK with a single once off payments of say €100 to fund infrastructure upgrades. I don't like it, but I'm ok with it. Eirgrid are responsible for the network and if they need capital investment to future proof things in 5 years, that's fine. The alternative is that they go to the capital markets, secure funding and then have to spend €€€ supporting the interest and payback - which will then in turn mean higher electricity cost for consumers (me/you) in the longer term as they have to payback those loans. We're already one of the most expensive in Europe….

As for eating into FIT and taking the gloss off it, that's not the case. If what they are proposing goes ahead you are going to be paying for this charge irrespective of if you have solar export (or not), so I'd rather be in the position of having some income rather than nothing. In either case I'm €100 down - so it's not really got anything to do with FIT if you know what I mean?

I'm hoping a chunk of the additional fees goes to recruiting and training additional field engineers, and focusing on retaining the current ones (i.e. give them a salary competitive with the construction sector)

ESBN's list of grid upgrades is starting to look longer than my list of fixup jobs around the house, and between house building, data centers, industry growth and EV charging hubs it's only getting longer

They need more staff to clear the backlog of jobs as well as maintaining the expanded infrastructure