Energy Matters Global and Domestic

[mickthemaverick]

Today's readings show that we have started the year with the lowest January figure for 5 years!! Quite pleased with that. The line takes a dive down to zero for February for obvious reasons!!

Own work

[myglaren]

Turning everything off and living in a tent is cheating.

I should do a similar comparison. Lots of data gathered but no more than that.

[Paul-R]

Turning everything off and living in a tent...

You'd still be billed for the bloody standing charges.

[Peter.N.]

I have been looking into the relative cost of generating you own power, I have a small but very noisy diesel generator which I must say is good on fuel, whether its cheaper than the mains supply I am still investigating. What you need for more efficiency is a slow running generator, I found one on Ebay a 1500 rpm Petter with an output of 3kw, it weighs about a quarter of a ton which is why most of the new ones run at 3000 rpm.

I went to a Travelodge near on the A1 near Grantham on sunday night which took me about 2 hours to find, went and booked myself in then returned to the car for my luggage, on the way I tripped over a kerbstone in a poorly lit area and did some serious damage to my face as well as breaking my glasses. I went back to reception, dripping blood all over the floor and ended up in Peterborough hospital for the night. They cleaned me up and took X-rays and bound me up, I looked like the invisible man.

In the morning they fitted me with about 20 stitches and said I was free to leave. I had to get a taxi back to Grantham to collect my car and then spent another couple of hours trying to find the seller, eventually I met up with him in Peterborough and went back to some industrial estate. The generator was duly tested and found good and was loaded into my car by him and his three burly sons he then asked for payment. I told him I had already paid the money to Paypal but he said he hadn't received it and indeed it wasn't shown as paid on Paypal or my bank statement so I gave him the cash, rather stupid I know but with the effort of getting it into the car I couldn't see him taking it out again and I was still a bit muzzy form the events of the previous night. When I got home I checked for the payment which still hadn't been made - on Tuesday morning it had, I am now in the process of trying to get it back, chap doesn't answer his phone of course.

So be wary of what can happen to you by trying to save money!

Peter

[CitroJim]

Oh gosh! Poor you Peter. What a terrible set of events

I really do hope you're well on the mend now and the payment hassle was resolved satisfactorily...

That's quite some generator

[mickthemaverick]

I echo Jim's comments there Peter. I hope the generator works out as a worthwhile project, and you do not suffer any further consequences!

[Gibbo2286]

There was a period when our 'traveller' friends were selling dodgy Chinese fakes of generators here and all over Europe. A bit on the story here:
https://www.thelooker.co.uk/warning-ove ... nerators/

[Paul-R]

Gosh Peter, I can only join in and wish you a speedy recovery and hope everything else works out well.

[myglaren]

Terrible turn of events for you Peter.
I hope you manage to recover the outlay through PayPal.

[RichardW]

Hope you are on the mend, Peter!

Roughly... A diesel engine specific efficiency is about 35%. So to produce 3kWh of electricity takes approx 10kWh of diesel. This is about 1 litre - so at current prices of around £1 / litre of red diesel you are at about 33p / kWh, or pretty much the same as grid power. If you have to run on white, at £1.70/l, then you are at nearer 57p/kWh. The big gain would be if you could recover the waste heat from the engine, as then you would be at say 90% efficiency, which would give an overall energy cost of 11p/kWh (Red) or 19p/kWh (white).

[myglaren]

Interesting bit about wasting energy and an unwanted side effect.

"And remember that light pollution is wasted energy. We're continuing to put that light energy into the atmosphere, and maybe that's not what we should be doing."

BBC News

[Peter.N.]

Thank you all for your kind comments, I am healing but slowly but wake up with a headache - but could have been a lot worse.

Richard

Thanks for that, I knew about the 10kw per litre as I have worked that my oil fired boiler is giving me 8.5kw per litre which even at present oil prices is considerably less than the 40p we are paying the electricity company.

The 35% diesel efficiency is interesting though, I am led to believe that the slower speed generators are more efficient, less friction loss and so on, this one is 1500 rpm, I already have a small Chinese 3000 rpm one which is very good on fuel but also very noisy, this one sounded quieter even when started in his yard.

This isn't meant to be a full time supply but a standby should we get power cuts. The Petter engines are still made so spares are obtainable but there don't seem to be any for the Chinese one. It's the same engine as practically all of them use but only about 2.5kw, most of them now seem to be around 6kw, plenty of spares for those.

Peter

[bobins]

Put that light out !!

"Three UK coal plants have been ordered to begin warming up in case they are needed as the cold snap continues.
National Grid ESO said it had asked power station operator Drax to prepare two coal-fired units and EDF to warm up its West Burton plant.
A scheme that offers discounts for households who cut peak-time energy use is also set to be triggered.
National Grid ESO said the measures were "precautionary" and it did not mean electricity supplies were at risk.
The company said that it expected electricity supply margins to be "tighter than normal" on Monday evening.
However, it added that "people should not be worried" by the measures.
The cold weather means demand for energy rises as more people heat their homes, but a lack of wind has reduced the amount of renewable energy available.
A similar request to warm up coal plants was made in December last year, although in the event they were not used."

More at the Beeb: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64367504

People should not be worried....... but they should be concerned.

[myglaren]

Are diamond transistors the answer?

Researchers at Arizona State University and Northrop Grumman are working on a new project to create power transistors from diamond. The results could yield efficiencies that significantly shrink the size of electrical grid substations and potentially drop the cost of cell phone towers.

Power transistors have traditionally been made with silicon. But the ASU Advanced Materials team, working with Northrop Grumman Mission Systems, is investigating diamond because it dissipates heat 8 to 10 times more efficiently than current materials. This means harnessing diamond to its full potential could reduce the size of power transistors by 90 percent.

Diamond also has a high breakdown field, meaning it can handle a large amount of voltage relative to most other materials, before failure. A high breakdown field is ideal for applications that handle large amounts of power, which could make these new transistors vital to advancing our transition to renewable energy and electrification of the transportation sector.

Tech Briefs

[CitroJim]

Thanks for that Steve, most interesting

Some diamonds are natural semiconductors and with their very high heat conductivity and very good insulation properties, when not being semiconductors, it all makes good sense...

Wonder what took them so long? Cant imagine them being cheap though...