Garuf
Member
Hello all, I was just wondering if anyone has any experience with any of the new "alternative" technologies, my parents have just had their electricity bill and are considering going for a turbine and solar panels as well as potentially a ground source heat pump. We looked into paying people to fit the required solar but were quoted 10k when we asked what panels they'd be using we looked them up and found them available for 4k, that's 6k instillation which I find insane and could potentially mean 150% more power for the same money. Reading around on instructables mainly it seems that installing solar is actually very easy with a bit of electrical know how which we have, I was just wondering if anyone knew who were best and where would be the place to find out how to do it all yourself would be? The same goes for a turbine, we have had the windiest summer I can remember and our location on the top of a hill on what's essentially moorland means we get relatively strong winds all year round, presumably a turbine is plug and play? Again we're looking to find out who makes the best and how to best attach this to the house.
The geothermal thing is a bit of a long shot, we figured that for the relatively modest outlay it was the best bet for year round hot water? At the minute we'd have to light a fire to get the water up to temperature, not really all the practical in the middle of summer. Reading around lots of people seem to be having good results with it but I just wondered what the practical limitations are and what the true cost of it is as the few I've seen seem to be complete kits for around 900 or so pounds. Does anyone know much about these?
For my parents getting off grid with regards to electricity is pretty much the number one priority as electricity bills have gone from a few hundred to nearly 2 thousand despite fitting energy saving bulbs everywhere, replacing halogens with fluorescent tubes and having tv's and the like on timers to cut off automatically during the time people are unlikely to be using them, I wouldn't even say that as a family we're all the power hungry compared to the average council house we use probably half the amount of electricity.
Also any information that I can use when I go back to renting on getting off grid myself would be mighty helpful even if it's just enough to offset my tanks electricity.
So, I throw it over to you lot, who knows what?
The geothermal thing is a bit of a long shot, we figured that for the relatively modest outlay it was the best bet for year round hot water? At the minute we'd have to light a fire to get the water up to temperature, not really all the practical in the middle of summer. Reading around lots of people seem to be having good results with it but I just wondered what the practical limitations are and what the true cost of it is as the few I've seen seem to be complete kits for around 900 or so pounds. Does anyone know much about these?
For my parents getting off grid with regards to electricity is pretty much the number one priority as electricity bills have gone from a few hundred to nearly 2 thousand despite fitting energy saving bulbs everywhere, replacing halogens with fluorescent tubes and having tv's and the like on timers to cut off automatically during the time people are unlikely to be using them, I wouldn't even say that as a family we're all the power hungry compared to the average council house we use probably half the amount of electricity.
Also any information that I can use when I go back to renting on getting off grid myself would be mighty helpful even if it's just enough to offset my tanks electricity.
So, I throw it over to you lot, who knows what?