Cycling UK Forum

al_yrpal wrote: ↑5 Dec 2023, 4:25pm

wasn't as inexpensive as Primark pyjamas, mind.

Tell us what its all cost and then we can work out what the ACTUAL cost really is... , and we can decide what makes more sense?

Al

Even if you were told the installation cost I doubt you could work out the Actual Cost, there are a lot of factors involved.

Our panels & battery, installed 18 months ago cost us a fair bit of our savings. But our location and the way we use energy mean they are working very well for us.

Payback should be around 8 years, which isn't too long in the grand scheme of things.

In the meantime our energy bills have reduced by 75%, a big saving on our monthly outgoings which is really helpful for our current circumstances.

Left in savings accounts the capital would be slowly loosing value, instead we have something that saves us some money, and makes us a little bit more ecologically friendly.

Of course no one is compelling you to get Solar Panels, but I'm confused as to why you want to criticise others for making that choice?

S68 wrote: ↑23 Sep 2023, 5:26pm

simonhill wrote: ↑23 Sep 2023, 4:01pm
These are probably the most dangerous drivers on the road. If their schedule is so tight then they will take risks and endanger themselves and others.

You'll get no argument from me about that. I ran my own logistics business once and did some of the collection/delivery work myself and even though I set my own targets to be realistic within timings (unlike what happens to some parcel couriers who are given too many jobs per day and dictated silly time frames for each job) it was always a problem dealing with traffic and delays and achieving every job on time. I was always belting up the motorways at 80-90, overtaking in 40-50 zones to do 60-70 on roads I knew, pushing that extra final second to get through a red light, and being rude and aggressive with customers if they slowed me down complaining I was late when I eventually arrived after all the risks I had just taken for them etc, but to my credit I was always sensible in the 30 zones.

I think you might be posting on the wrong forum

Pretty much standard for FB. I've reported comments which are abusive or threatening towards cyclists on numerous occassions, always with the same result "This does not contravene our community standards".

On the other hand I recently attempeted to place an advert for some Nerf Gun Accessories (Childrens toy) on FB Marketplace only to have the advert removed and a threat that I would be banned from Marketplace.

It would appear

Threaten to kill cyclists with a motor vehicle - acceptable

Selling foam cover darts - unacceptable

Jdsk wrote: ↑5 May 2023, 5:37pm

Vitara wrote: ↑5 May 2023, 8:57am Last night I opted to use a section of lit road rather than the unlit shared path beside it.

Day time it's fairly busy with two way traffic and the cycle path is a more pleasant experience than having cars sitting on my back wheel unable to pass. 10pm at night with light traffic the only two cars going in my direction were able to pass wide with no difficulty.

Then the Motorcyclist, who of course had no problem passing either, for some reason felt he needed to slow down to tell me I should be using the Shared Path. It's a level of ignorance and stupidity I find difficult to comprehend?

Is it possible that he thought that you might not have seen the path and that he was drawing it to your attention as an option?

Thanks

Jonathan

I think you’re being far too generous regarding the m/cyclists intentions.

The reality was that I was moving at 26Km, he slowed and shouted something at me as he passed them accelerated away. After checking my rear lights were turned on and working I deciphered the “Cycle Path” part of what he was saying.

Do you really think they thought “Oh dear that poor cyclist hasn’t realised there’s a shared path he could be using, perhaps I better slow down and point it to him”?

Even only hearing part of what he said, the message was a very clear anti-cyclist rant that I should get off the road.

mattheus wrote: ↑5 May 2023, 9:55am

Vitara wrote: ↑5 May 2023, 8:49am no power supply needed if it's being taken on trips.

Wow!!! That WOULD be useful!

Okay, no bulky mains PSU needed, just a USB lead, and of course a USB outlet to plug it into. Meaning you just need the one USB adapter for battery charger, phone, lights, etc.

Last night I opted to use a section of lit road rather than the unlit shared path beside it.

Day time it's fairly busy with two way traffic and the cycle path is a more pleasant experience than having cars sitting on my back wheel unable to pass. 10pm at night with light traffic the only two cars going in my direction were able to pass wide with no difficulty.

Then the Motorcyclist, who of course had no problem passing either, for some reason felt he needed to slow down to tell me I should be using the Shared Path. It's a level of ignorance and stupidity I find difficult to comprehend?

As already said Smart Chargers keep your batteries in good condition and serviceable for a lot longer than conventional paired battery chargers.

In addition to the ones suggested have a look at the Youshiko YC5500 of YV6500. It's USB powered, which I find more practical & no power supply needed if it's being taken on trips.

[XAP]Bob wrote: ↑4 May 2023, 11:44am

Sounds like Octopus Flux would be a great tariff for you then... You'll rapidly get negative bills.
(Octopus referral code available - gets you a £50 credit on your bill, and gets me the same)


I am also wondering whether I should have added some east facing panels to the front roof of the house - Oh well, a second string in a few years maybe.
As it is I only imported (according to the meter) 8.7kWh of peak electricity during April, but I was pulling 10-15kWh a day off peak. I'm using the granny charger to use excess solar for the car at the moment... I'd love to get hold of the new GivEnergy car charger, but it's still vapourware at the moment as far as I can tell.

It’s luck rather than judgement that we are south facing and 30 deg slope, it gives us fairly optimal yield.

I’m already with Octopus. A recent switch after OVO spent 8 months actively ignoring our SEG application, something I’ve now learnt is their Modus Operandi. In comparison Octopus sorted the SEG quickly, with less documentation required, and are paying a higher rate.

Flux looks interesting, but I think the E7 tariff we’re on is probably better overall with our storage heaters. We are getting 15p/kWh SEG.
I’m also planning to set our battery to charge from Off Peak when we get to the winter months, which will effectively give us Off Peak Rates through most of Day.

From a 4 kWp array we've produced:

August 645 kWh
September 438 kWh
October 368 kWh
November 174 kWh
December 137 kWh
January 170 kWh
Feb 239 kWh
March 320 kWh
April 561 kWh

With the storage heaters turned off and a battery now installed we're only needing 1-3 kWh from the grid each day.

We're making maximum use of our own electricity but still sending a lot back, so with our SEG payments now sorted there should be days when we earn more than we are being charged. I've yet to see how that will look on our energy bill?

sizbut wrote: ↑14 Apr 2023, 1:14pm You missed the point Vitara - I was testing potential effect/effectiveness of the solution by doing it manually. I wasn't proposing to that every day, though it wouldn't be too ridiculous until I get a proper control system in place, since I work from home.

I've already twigged doing things like running the dishwasher and washing machine during the daytime, taking off the chill in my home office this morning using an electric heater rather than the central heating, dusted off the slow-cooker. Though with only myself in the house, there are limits to how much power I can absorb into useful things before still being left with some to go to the grid.

Fortunately, the installers have now provided the certificate and other details needed to register for payback with a supplier for anything sent to the grid.

No I understood you were experimenting manually. You can of course operate the immersion heater this way, and it will work, but only up to a point.

As you say there are several things you can (should) do to maximize the benefit of solar panels. I'm repeating myself here, but the solar diverter is a great bit of kit, esssentially scavenging unused solar electricity and putting it to use for you rather than sending it back to the grid.

Being relatively cheap , in comparison to the main system, and easy to fit, I'm suprised installers don't recommend it automatically.

rjb wrote: ↑15 Apr 2023, 8:14am Another tip if you use PV to heat your immersion is to increase the thermoset setting on the immersion heating element to max. In my case that's 70°C. This ensures I have enough hot water to carry me through a non sunny day, without swmbo muttering about a cold bath.
BTW our gas is now off until next winter.

I like that idea, but would worry about the scalding risk. How do you manage this?

sizbut wrote: ↑14 Apr 2023, 7:36am Cheers. The no brainer was actually remembering that there's a manual switch on the current immersion. So did an experiment of switching off the gas heating and using up all the hot water, then yesterday when the batteries hit 100% again I simply switched it on for an hour to see the results.

The current immersion pulls more than the panels and batteries can supply, so it did use more from the grid than has been usual for the last few weeks, but that was still only an the smallest part with most coming from the panels and batteries.

I assume that picking the right immersion (heat slower but for longer) would solve that, so certainly will be looking at tying it into that and linking it into automatic control rather than me flicking a switch.

I'm not sure you can effectively do the diverters job manually. Yes you could turn the immersion on when the batteries are full and you have full output from the Panels. Then a cloud comes over, the panel output drops, but your still pulling 4Kwh into your immersion heater.

With a diverter our system charges the battery to 100%
(using the battery to supplement the panels at anytime if needed & then topping up again)
Once the battery is charged anything the panels produce is diverted to the immersion heater
This may be 0.5Kwh if output is low to 4Kwh if it's sunny, so the water will heat up at a rate dependent on what's available
Even at 0.5Kwh we can have hot water by the evening
Only when are water is fully heated do we start sending anything back to the grid.
So all fully automated, all we need to do is a quick check of the tanks outflow pipe to check it's hot before running a bath or shower.

A shower tap on our bath allows us to make us of this "free" hot water
The 10Kwh electric shower, which we still need to use if the tank is not hot, costs around 15p-35p a shower, depending on what rate we're on and how long we stay under it.
Ball park figure of two of us showering twice daily, means the diverter will pay for itself in less than a year.

sizbut wrote: ↑6 Apr 2023, 9:05pm I looked at the immersion options yesterday, something I didn't know about. They seem to have progressed to using the same method as the batteries by being linked directly to and controlled by the inverters. Didn't go far enough to see if you can have both immersion and batteries or whether its mainly one or the other at the moment.

Meanwhile it can't be helped, I will be a data junky for a few weeks at least. Already from midday today when they fixed the system, it has provided 6kWh, half of which went to the batteries. And now at 9pm, those batteries are outputting 300W for my tele and other late evening distractions.

I think the solar diverter for hot water is a no brainer, cost is small percentage of the overall system cost, circa £250-£300 & will use any surplus electricty to heat your hot water from the PV system. A far better use than sending it back to the grid.

We're set up to charge the battery first, then heat water. On any day with a bit of sunshine our battery will be charged sometime after midday and not long after we'll have a full tank of hot water. If I get in from a ride during the afternoon and take a shower there's usually enough sunshine to heat the tank up again before sunset.

We haven't needed to use grid power to heat our hot water since our system was installed in August. The diverter will pay for itself very quickly,

i've got these on my SS, currently 32mm, just measured the width and its 32mm. I usually use them in 35mm and would say they are also appear to be as wide as they are tall.

They have been the tyre of choice for winter riding single speed over the last few years. As MJR says, heavy and rolling resistance is poor. What they are is cheap, cheerful and reliable for winter miles, where avoiding punctures in the wet, cold and dark might be more important than speed. They've taken me round more than a few 200Km Audax events without me worrying about them being slugglish.

Hummers Lumpy End to End

1900km in 190hrs

https://www.audax.uk/event-details/3522