Wind power

[Albannach]

If you build a wood burning plant (Mini CCGTs are the future IMHO, but they're not practical yet) and have enough land, you could also manage a small sustainable coppice for your fuel.

Wind turbines aren't really any use as a stand alone domestic power supply as there isn't always wind. There is however always some light in any 24 hour period.

Heat pumps are another thing to look at; if you have a nearby stream, think about sticking a turbine in it. There are lots of things that can be done.

Most energy self sufficient buildings have more than one sustainable energy source and at least one backup.

[jaky cakes]

any use????
http://www.bwea.com/onshore/index.html

been thinking along the same lines for when / if we decide to buy a local small holding - but on a bigger scale. basically thinking of installing large turbine and sell power back to the national grid.

heard something recently the the government (UK) are now giving huge grants to people who invest in home renewable energy sources - even if you use all the power you generate yourself.

[Albannach]

For hot water, most people here use some form of holding tank painted a dark colour up at roof height.

Some PVs have water heaters built in to them. Also, domestic radiators painted Matt Black work reasonably well.

[Albannach]

basically thinking of installing large turbine and sell power back to the national grid.

I'm not sure if that can happen yet, but even if it does, the sale price is a fraction of the wholesale price (which is a fraction of the selling price!).

[pops]

If you dont need much power why not just buy a small petrol generator
Job done

[jaky cakes]

Or buy a Lister CS diesel engine - run on almost any type of oil - another idea i had comtemplated - but very noisey - but free hot water / power

http://www.f1-rocketboy.com/lister.html

[Sancho]

Just to clear a few things up:

PVs don't have water heaters built in, but solar thermal is freely available, very reliable and pretty cheap. If you want genuine hot water, it's usual to boost it with gas but you can certainly get 'not cold' water from it.

The same with heat pumps - they are good but the temperature achieved normally need boosting for domestic use. They also need a fair bit of power to work and aren't, at present, the best way to generate hot water in an off-grid location as you end up using PVs to power the pump to make hot water, when it would have been easier just to use the sun to make the hot water in the first place.

Selling power back to the national grid is not a very easy thing to do, but you can use excess power to generate income from feed-in tariffs. Basically, the power companies need to generate a certain amount of power from renewable sources and will pay you for providing some.

Some basic information on the feed-in tariff and Renewable Heat Incentives ('huge grants') here. http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cm.../pn10_010.aspx

Energy Saving Trust are always a good starting point for information on grants etc for renewable energy in the UK.

Anyone looking at reducing fuel and carbon for domestic heating on the cheap, I would recommend looking at an Air Source Heat Pump. Until the techno greeny wizards came along, this was known as air conditioning, but now the Government will give you a grant to install it.

Baxi make a gas combi boiler with a built in stirling engine but the power output is pretty miserable. Micro CHP is also becoming more popular but you need at least two or three houses together to make it work. CCGT is better than CHP though because the big failing of CHP has always been getting enough power demand to justify the inefficiency of the heating system. CCGT is a heat-based approach so fires up when needed and generates power as a by-product - the right way around

But, anyway, for small scale off-grid power I think PVs and batteries is the way to go.

[Albannach]

Just to clear a few things up:

PVs don't have water heaters built in

But there are units available that have PV on the outside with wet liners behind them. I've never seen one used in the UK, but they do exist.

[che2318]

This I would love to have a crack at doing. Also i think Sancho is right about the solar panel, for now that would be a cheaper option than solar tiles.
I won't require much power, some lighting maybe and some music, heating can be taken care of with wood. and cooking/coffee etc can be sorted by bottled gas.
Wind power I have read isn't viable without an average wind speed of at least 15mph. This place is on the top of a hill overlooking the Danube so it should get some wind current but I'm not sure about 15mph average.
For hot water, most people here use some form of holding tank painted a dark colour up at roof height.
I suppose the cabin needs will be that of an average caravan. So a couple of leisure batteries should see me OK.

the wind turbine wouldnt be used for a constant energy source but as a means to charge up a store batteries and as a running charge while being used.
There may be some light in a 24 hour period but as with wind, this can be obscured by cloud cover the strength getting through to the panels reduced.

Wind is by means, the easier and cheaper one to use at the moment, since you can build it all yourself.

[slobodan]

I installed an air source heat pump in my house just before the winter, and I am more than pleased with it. A coefficient of 3:1 is obtainable so for it's 5.7Kw output I'm paying for about 2.
I think I've been led up the path a bit about this bit of land. I was led to believe it was this bit in the picture.

But on investigation at the land registry, it's not. it's a bit down the hill, therefore not viable for wind power.
I haven't bought it yet, so I'll keep looking.
Thanks for the ideas.

[Nostromo]

Unless you are thinking of spending several thou and having a large wind turbine then give it a miss.
The solarium at Blackpool is almost self sufficient in energy. It consists of half a dozen offices using computers and a small cafe serving food cooked off site. so probably only uses a little over domestic consumption, maybe two houses worth of power.
It has 2 large turbines a a roof full of solar cells to power it and they have just had to do a shadow mapping exercise to see how they can access more sun as they still didnt have enough power. The only things casting a shadow are the two turbine masts in the pm as the solarium is on the sea front.

[che2318]

you dont need to spend several thousand pound to supply a house with 'wind' energy unless your paying to company to do it all for you. quite easy to do your self, friends have done it down in the valley near me and have all the energy they need.

if your wanting to have things powered up and on all day long...tv..computer..washing machine...drier....dish washer...lights...etc etc, then you need a source of energy like a diesel generator or mains electric.

your best bet is to buy some land which has a stream or spring on it, then you can utilise the water for energy.

[Twisted Instigator]

Wow you guys are more clued up than me & i work for this lot; www.res.co.uk. Our head office has a huge turbine, water resevior, solar panels with storage & last but not least a biomass boiler. The building has no carbon footprint.

The only other thing i could suggest for you if building from scratch would be ground source heating maybe.

[Sancho]

Wow you guys are more clued up than me & i work for this lot; www.res.co.uk. Our head office has a huge turbine, water resevior, solar panels with storage & last but not least a biomass boiler. The building has no carbon footprint.

The only other thing i could suggest for you if building from scratch would be ground source heating maybe.

Ooooh. What do they actually do? Design, install, manage or consult? It's not all that clear from looking at the website for ten seconds....

I'm looking for some to design, install, manage and maintain a biomass district heating system for about 80 homes and a bit of commercial space at the moment. May need to do some work around the PVs too.

[Nostromo]

I'm building a little weekend cabin, and they want about 2 grand for an electricity supply, so I'm thinking of perhaps wind or solar. I won't be needing much power.

Seriously, just spend the 2 grand. The toy town B&Q turbine was about 1400 and then you have the hassle of erecting and maintaining it. Plus its useless in terms of real output and yeah you could convert everything to low voltage etc but honestly the entire idea of everyone doing their bit and producing low cost renewable energy for themselves is just a myth. These diy products are useless. A colleague and myself have spent hours reserching this subject. You just want to get up to the cabin and turn the lights on and boil the kettle. Not arrive wondering if the power will work or will the turbine need fixing. As others have said, if you dont want to pay to have the power put on then the best alternative is a decent genny. Oh, how much is a good genny? If everyone where to have their own wind turbine and solar power and ground source heat pump blah blah, we would all have to have our own farms to put it all on.

I know you just want a power source for your cabin and maybe aren't even interested in the green issues thing but just the thought of it all gets me on a rant. The only way we will all have sufficient power for our ever increasing selfish needs in to have fussion and untill we invent it we're all stuffed. Its been proven.
If the world was to run off wind power we would have to build a wind farm every 15 minutes to supply our needs this very minute and our needs increase every day. The same goes for any other available power source, its an impossible task unless we have fussion. PROVEN FACT.
The only reason i'm even interested in 4X4's is that I think I will need a tough go anywhere vehicle for when the worlds society collapses due to lack of power, resources and food and unless we all stop breeding then unfortunately thats where we're going.

I'm sure there will be some expert somewhere on here ready to shoot me down on this but Hey Ho look around, things aren't getting any better.

DONT take my rantting to seriously fellas, as I've said on another forum, I just need a place to sound off and wish someone would build a none subject specific forum for sounding off on, the "Victor Meldew Forum" perhaps. Dont even get me started on Virgin Media. (pile o sh*te)

HEY Slobby, do what you think best mate but I have arranged power connections for loads of property all over the UK and 2K seems like a fair price given the remote location.