Re: Modern Home Servers - Power Savings

["Simon Coates" <simon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I installed Rayotec solar collectors about 6 years ago - there are OK,
but =
I'm in two minds about them now - expensive and a bit ugly! Most have lost
=
their vacuum now - so efficiency has dropped.

http://www.rayotec.com/solar_heating/

As for wind turbines, where I live it is very rare to see any of the
turbin=
es not spinning.  I was thinking of something around 20kW @ approx. 12m at
=
the top of our garden.
A friend is currently making a Babington waste oil burner (free oil) to
pow=
er a Stirling engine..  Very interesting stuff - google or wiki the terms
-=
warning, you might get hooked! :o)

Ground source heat pump system would be good for us, but our garden mainly
=
slopes north - do you think that would be and issue?  If we were south
faci=
ng I would have looked into it more seriously.

Regards

Simon


----- Original Message -----=20
From: Piers Kittel=20
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx=20
Sent: 24 April 2008 14:31
Subject: Re: [ukha_d] Modern Home Servers - Power Savings


Simon,

> Looking at replacing our boiler with a condensing gas boiler at the=20
> moment,
> but our current boiler is a small commercial boiler - a new=20
> equivalent is
> very expensive. You can buy a lot of gas for =A36,000.
> I've been seriously looking at a wind turbine powering a heat store.
> Planning is an issue at the moment - even though there is a=20
> commmercial
> windfarm with 23 x 350kW turbines nearby and just last week the=20
> local school
> stuck one up.
>>

I've done a fair bit of research on wind turbines and other micro-=20
generation. I've come to the conclusion that only solar heating (not=20
solar PV) and ground source heat pumps are worth it - everything else=20
is a waste of time. Wind turbines are only useful for large=20
commercial farms, and solar panels are only useful for extremely small=20
or extremely large scale projects (small projects - such as the=20
flashing sign telling you to slow down when driving). One report I=20
found finally convinced me of the futility:

http://www.timhunkin.com/a125_arch-windpower.htm

> One thing I do is leave the bath water to cool down before emptying!!!
> There's a lot of heat there, which would otherwise go down the=20
> drain. Yeah,
> I'm *that* tight!

Problem with this kind of heat (along with condensing dryers) is that=20
it's very very humid, and need to open windows to dry out the room. I=20
still do the bath thing anyway, although I don't have a condensing=20
dryer - I hate the things, they take forever to dry clothes.

Cheers - Piers


=20=20=20

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