tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77817428796592283642024-03-06T01:35:35.257+01:00David HembrowMy occasional blog about things generally not to do with cycling.David Hembrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14543024940730663645noreply@blogger.comBlogger63125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7781742879659228364.post-37412603563472050972024-01-11T15:41:00.009+01:002024-01-12T10:56:26.961+01:00Effect of heat pump and electric water heating on our electricity bill in December 2023<p>Since <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2023/03/having-gas-disconnected.html">we had our gas supply removed</a> last year we've used electricity for both our <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2023/02/electric-water-heating-finally-got-rid.html">water heating</a> and our <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2023/08/an-all-electric-home-with-air.html">home heating</a>. Unsurprisingly, this means we're using more electricity, especially in winter months as we no longer burn gas for heating.</p>
<p>We consumed 222 kWh more electricity from the grid in December 2023 than we did in December 2022.</p>
<p>Our heat pump consumed 168 kWh of electricity in December and the water heater used about 70 kWh. It's been a bit chilly upstairs sometimes so we've also used some small electric heaters occasionally, but clearly we also managed to reduce our consumption of electricity elsewhere as otherwise the numbers don't quite add up.<br /></p>
<p>We had hoped to compensate at least some of the increased electrical consumption by <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/search/label/solar">expanding our solar power system</a>. Unfortunately, due to the last quarter of 2023 being incredibly grey and rainy (a <a href="https://www.knmi.nl/over-het-knmi/nieuws/weeroverzicht-2023" target="_blank">new record for rainfall was set</a>, largely due to rainfall in the last three months of the year), the expanded system produced just 42 kWh in December, vs 60 kWh from the smaller system a year before.</p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC6ciHN3Vy41fFt8ydp5WnXV0mL-mZTA_oSNm7yMMksFomLOz6bmJZxXRZOVspdm6YgfuAw6F4MnG7y8YbmHGunU_AGbHxVWEpD15UxYLp9FkOqf1oupaY9NSjIX12HBvuRNjwH8TxlpAFli44OzCglz1asZhgOrvJOuFoy_5yVf18XVkBGiJy6yRNfvws/s800/L1040153.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="601" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC6ciHN3Vy41fFt8ydp5WnXV0mL-mZTA_oSNm7yMMksFomLOz6bmJZxXRZOVspdm6YgfuAw6F4MnG7y8YbmHGunU_AGbHxVWEpD15UxYLp9FkOqf1oupaY9NSjIX12HBvuRNjwH8TxlpAFli44OzCglz1asZhgOrvJOuFoy_5yVf18XVkBGiJy6yRNfvws/w300-h400/L1040153.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Part way into January, waiting for ice to melt off the extra panels so that they could have full performance, if only the sun came out properly...<br /></td></tr></tbody></table>
<p><b>The gas we didn't burn, and the resulting CO2 emissions</b><br />In December 2022 we burnt 125 m3 of gas. That's less than an average apartment and well under half the average for a house like ours. This year we of course burnt no gas at all. 125 m3 of gas contains the equivalent of about 1250 kWh of energy, so the 222 kWh extra electrical energy that we drew from the grid was considerably less than that contained in the gas that we used to burn.<br /></p>
<p>The 125 m3 of gas which we burnt in December 2022 produced 223 kg of CO2 (<a href="https://english.rvo.nl/sites/default/files/2020/03/The-Netherlands-list-of-fuels-version-January-2020.pdf" target="_blank">factor of 1.78</a>). The average <a href="https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/daviz/co2-emission-intensity-14/#tab-googlechartid_chart_41" target="_blank">CO2 intensity of Dutch electricity</a> for 2022 was 321 g / kWh meaning that our extra 222 kWh of electricity consumption in December 2023 will have led to 71 kg of CO2 emissions if our electricity was of average CO2 intensity for the Netherlands. That's a worst case scenario as even in the exceptionally grey month which just passed, 8% of our electricity still came from our solar panels. We are of course also signed up to a tariff which claims to supply us with zero CO2 green electricity (despite this not always being possible to do).</p>
<p>Therefore in the worst case our emissions in December as a result of replacing the gas supply with electricity were less than a third of what they would have been if we'd continued to burn gas. In the best case we did a lot better than that, but we're then in the realm of guesswork based on where our electricity might really have come from. When a large proportion of Dutch electricity still comes from burning fossil fuels it's nonsense to ever claim that electricity has zero emissions.</p><p>An average Dutch household in a home like ours will have consumed around 300 m3 of gas in December, resulting in around 530 kg of CO2 being emitted so in the worst case we had around 1/7th of the emissions of an average household.</p>
<p>Update: Dutch emissions per kWh electricity may actually be much lower.<br />It's possible that emissions in 2023 per kWh were actually much lower than 321 g. A <a href="https://todon.eu/@BM_Visser@mastodon.energy/111742215544456097" target="_blank">smart guy on Mastodon</a> calculated that the true figure was actually around 223 g / kWh for the Netherlands in 2023. This would have the effect of reducing our worst case emissions for heating in December to just 50 kg, meaning that we emitted about a fifth so much CO2 this year compared to last, or around a tenth of the amount emitted by an average similar size household using gas for heating.<br /></p>
<p><b>Costs</b><br />It's difficult to work out exactly what the cost of gas would have been, but based on pretending to take a new contract out with our electricity supplier it appears that they would have charged us about €200 for the 125 m3 of gas had we used it in December. The cost of the extra electricity that we used is about €100.</p>
<p>But actually we deliver more electricity to the grid each year than we consume, so we only pay €5 a month for energy. At the moment our supplier says they still owe us about €260. This amount becomes due in mid February so we won't get quite that much returned to us because we expect to use more electricity than we produce for heating in January and February as well.</p>
<p><b>How well did the heat pump work in the cold ?</b><br />The lowest temperature in the morning that we've seen so far was about -7 C. There was plenty of heat from the heat pump. It does need to pause and defrost itself occasionally when it's cold outside.<br /></p>
<p><b>Onward and hopefully downward</b><br />December is the worst month of the year due to the short daylight hours. Let's hope we can take proper advantage of the sun in January, February and March as more sun means lower emissions.<br /></p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAncax67ftqy42Wp2uLSpnHLEYLAoO9VmF2ex468Y27d12kUaAdM9GpckmexJ2VuMmfFH0PlwoOXko0KXaaGZll5zle3vFSZnd3Ivep868bJvbiuHJkLCUTUefiduaKpBpTIe8DA3SicQj0xjyKmb1SFhcW6PUUc3QlSWSFyPc_vX5VMhmhJs38hcjYcN-/s800/L1040154.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAncax67ftqy42Wp2uLSpnHLEYLAoO9VmF2ex468Y27d12kUaAdM9GpckmexJ2VuMmfFH0PlwoOXko0KXaaGZll5zle3vFSZnd3Ivep868bJvbiuHJkLCUTUefiduaKpBpTIe8DA3SicQj0xjyKmb1SFhcW6PUUc3QlSWSFyPc_vX5VMhmhJs38hcjYcN-/w400-h300/L1040154.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This may look like a grey rectangle but it's an actual photo of the sky today. The sun is roughly in the centre (that's a guess as I couldn't see it). Not exactly ideal weather for solar power.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />
<a href="http://www.dutchbikebits.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.dutchbikebits.com/dbbdbb640.png" /></a>David Hembrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14543024940730663645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7781742879659228364.post-80049152740809969242023-08-23T19:09:00.016+02:002023-12-01T14:07:54.397+01:00An all-electric home with air conditioner (aka air-air heat pump) as heating<p>Regular readers will know that we had <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2023/03/having-gas-disconnected.html">the gas supply removed</a> from our home in April this year. This left us with no central heating in our home. We used a portable 400 W electric infra-red heater in he living room on some of the cooler days of March and April, which worked well enough for those months because our home is now <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/search/label/insulation">very well insulated</a>, but we knew that in the middle of winter we'd need a more effective form of heating. Having the gas supply taken out meant that we were working under a time constraint - we had to find a solution before next winter. We now have that solution.</p>
<p><b>Electrical heating</b><br />Electrical heating is 100% efficient. All the energy which goes into an electric heater will be turned into heat. Actually, the same thing applies to all other electrical appliances - some of the energy may turn into mechanical movement, calculations, light, sound etc. but it all becomes heat in the end. So everything electrical helps to heat your home at almost exactly 100% efficiency (we lose a tiny bit from light shining out of windows and other small effects).</p>
<p>But just because resistive electric heating is 100% efficient that doesn't mean it's actually a particularly good way of heating your home. Electricity costs more per kWh than gas. Also if gas is being burnt to generate electricity then due to inefficiencies of the power station and transmission lines more gas will be burnt in total to heat your home than would be the case if you had an efficient modern gas central heating boiler.</p><p>For a while, around 50 years ago when the future looked like it might be nuclear powered, the idea of storage heaters was popular as they would allow excess "too cheap to meter" electricity generated at night by non-throttle-able nuclear power stations to be used as heat during the day. Homes in the UK were built as "all electric" and I lived in some homes with that type of heating. It worked reasonably well. There was a logic to it, but nuclear is not a technology which is going to come along and quickly save us from ourselves right now. Many of those homes were later retrofitted with gas, which now looks rather unfortunate. Our home in the Netherlands has gone in the opposite direction. Built originally against a promise of cheap endless gas, we've transformed our home to be fully electric.</p>
<p><b>Heat pumps</b><br />Heat pumps on the other hand are popular now. They appear to do something magical in that they generate more heat energy in their output than they consume as electrical energy from their supply. There is of course no magic involved at all. In this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics and we're not creating something out of nothing. Heat pumps actually (mostly) just move heat around. When heating a home in the winter they take heat out of the already cold air, water or ground outdoors, making it even colder, so that that heat can be emitted indoors. It's a neat trick.</p>
<p>The problem with heat pumps sold to replace central heating boilers, providing hot water to flow through radiators or under-floor heating, is that they're very expensive and they're over-sized for many well insulated homes. When I <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2023/03/having-gas-disconnected.html">calculated how much gas we burnt last year</a> to heat our home it became obvious that the 28kW gas central heating boiler installed in our home had only burnt enough gas to have operated at full power for the equivalent of about three days in the whole year. The lowest output heat pumps are rated at around 7 kW so one of those would have to run for about 10 days in the year. It would still lose a little in efficiency because the boiler would be on the top floor and the hot water would still have to be piped two floors down to reach the living room, losing some of the heat along the way (even with well insulated pipes), but total energy consumption would be 400 kWh over the year. By comparison, direct electrical heating to provide the same amount of heat would consume about 2000 kWh of electricity in total.</p>
<p><b>Air conditioners</b><br />Air conditioners work in exactly the same way as a heat pump. Many models of air-conditioner can also operate as heaters and when so used they have the same high efficiency as heat pumps. i.e. they produce far more heat as output than they consume from the electricity supply. Even though they don't attract a subsidy they have a much lower price than a heat pump, so we decided to install an airconditioner as our source of heating in the winter.</p>
<p>We could have installed two air conditioners, one up and one down, but we're instead going to try to live with just one in our living room together with occasional use of a portable electrical heater upstairs should it prove to be necessary. We have rarely turned on the upstairs radiators in our home in the past so we clearly don't have much need for heating upstairs, but if it turns out to be necessary nothing excludes the installation of a second air conditioner upstairs. Two air conditioners still cost only about half the price of a heat pump.</p>
<p><b>The nasty environmental problem with air conditioning and heat pumps</b><br />One of the things that has put me off both heat pumps and air-conditioners in the past is the high environmental impact of florinated refrigerant gases. These not only have a disastrous effect on the ozone layer but that also can have a greenhouse effect greater than 10000x that of an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide (GWP = global warming potential). Even the R32 refrigerant often touted as environmentally friendly has about 670x the global warming potential of the same amount of CO2. </p><p>While it's supposed to be the case these days that refrigerant is recovered when airconditioning systems are taken out of use, does that actually happen in reality ? Photos showing destroyed airconditioning units dangling from buildings in war-zones and after natural disasters indicate that a considerable number of these units don't get decommissioned in a manner which is sympathetic to the environment, and even if they are, what do we do to ensure that those gases never escape once they are extracted from an old airconditioner? I'm not convinced that these gases can be contained for the rest of time and do all the old gases make their way safely to one of the few plants which can destroy them ? I don't think I'd like the answers to these questions. Luckily, there is an alternative:</p>
<p><b>The solution: R290</b><br />R290 is a refrigerant with a GWP of just three. Not three hundred or three thousand, just three. On release it has a greenhouse effect only three times as bad as CO2 and it has no no effect on the ozone layer. There is very little refrigerant in an airconditioner, less than half a kg. As such, the total harm than can be done by releasing this gas is very small. R290 is actually just propane, so not a florinated gas at all. As a result of this it's also legal for people to work on R290 systems themselves. No "f-gas certificate" is required for working with R290 here in the Netherlands because it is not an "f-gas". DIY is good - it should reduce the total cost and I like doing stuff.</p>
<p><b>Our choice of airconditioner</b><br />R290 split airconditioners have been promised for some years but they still seem to be new on the market. I picked the only model that I could find on the Dutch market earlier this year, a <a href="https://www.aircozonderstek.nl/product/midea-all-easy-blue-propaan-r290-split-airco-3-5kw/" target="_blank">Midea 3.5 kW air-conditioner</a>. This was the first model of airconditioner ever to win German <a href="https://www.blauer-engel.de/en/productworld/air-conditioners" target="_blank">Blue Angel environmental certification</a>. It took a while to find a supplier as seemingly not many people sell them, but I did find <a href="https://www.aircozonderstek.nl/webshop/" target="_blank">a supplier in the Netherlands</a>.</p>
<p>As this airconditioner has an SCOP of 5.2 it will in principle consume only about 400 kWh of electricity a year to provide as much heat directly in our living room as our old central heating boiler put into hot water which it then pumped around the house. It should operate efficiently down to -15 C which is almost as cold as it's ever been here. It's never been that cold for the entire day. But anyway, if it gets really cold I guess <a href="https://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2012/03/winter-how-did-we-cope-how-did-you-cope.html" target="_blank">we'll have to go out cycling for a bit to warm up</a>.</p>
<p>To provide power we already expanded our solar power installation with <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2023/04/more-more-solar-panels-do-we-now-have.html">two extra solar panels</a> which will produce about 700 kWh of electricity a year. In total we should easily generate enough electricity each year to supply the air conditioner as well as <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2023/02/electric-water-heating-finally-got-rid.html">the electric water heater</a> (for which we installed <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2022/09/lets-have-more-solar-power.html">another two solar panels</a>) and every other electrical device in our home. While in winter months even our <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/search/label/solar">over-sized solar setup</a> won't generate enough to run everything, the overcapacity should mean we are able to operate at least mostly on our own electricity for most months of the year.</p>
<p><b>Now some DIY</b><br />The airconditioner turned up a couple of days after ordering and then I ordered a few extra parts to complete the installation.</p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnMtlMPjGpgsKYUe3x-OBah6Ecg-WfrRAaNr7eByeU40Urasoo98pc9YB_Gn-tx6Y1JteZvAwBArXgtONdj9vewCx_z49SLvMzitZrHf10G6s4gHrz6q8glmOC6sTXcISV8lDhRfgXXR68_9sbK_0g4RwLS2GcKqSa7fEkdd_y05UwpR_4HZpYPwm3Lgck/s640/101_1541.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnMtlMPjGpgsKYUe3x-OBah6Ecg-WfrRAaNr7eByeU40Urasoo98pc9YB_Gn-tx6Y1JteZvAwBArXgtONdj9vewCx_z49SLvMzitZrHf10G6s4gHrz6q8glmOC6sTXcISV8lDhRfgXXR68_9sbK_0g4RwLS2GcKqSa7fEkdd_y05UwpR_4HZpYPwm3Lgck/w300-h400/101_1541.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The outdoor unit in a box. Clearly labelled R290 / Blue Angel. Quite heavy to move.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p>I needed refrigerant lines and electrical cable and I chose rubber feet for mounting the outdoor unit on the ground outside our home. We could have mounted it on the wall but I thought that brought a higher possibility of vibrations being carried into our home (the unit doesn't vibrate much and I now doubt this would have been an issue). Also the wall mounting brackets available didn't seem to be large enough to allow enough space. The outer unit is recommended to be installed 30 cm from a back wall for maximum efficiency.</p>
<p>The first thing was to determine the best place for the inner unit. I decided to place it half way along our living room wall and so high as possible. The instructions suggest a minimum of 15 cm between the unit and the ceiling and that's about the height at which it's mounted. I didn't want visible ducting inside our home so I drilled a single large hole through which all the pipes and wires had to run. This had to run downhill to the outside in order to make sure that the condensate would find its way out through the wall, and in my case I had to run it at a more extreme angle than I otherwise would have because the carport outside our home is attached to the outside wall at the same height as the inner unit of the air conditioner is on the inside wall.</p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTP1iolvSwaXAmxGb5kcrBUoXXhTkK-w3c2YEOfkRdkMxzX7s3qCjbimRjwcFmRJWTOeFJQ0HPP1YSjoh5neh8JqXKgfU4bUJzVzj_DY0AuRGoKNOXLOlnFMbX0DUc36GcjPZanvD65YKODSN_hZzjpERc-_H31nots-jnOEdQFNR-X0MTNzuDin9W65Md/s640/IMG_20230623_130046.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTP1iolvSwaXAmxGb5kcrBUoXXhTkK-w3c2YEOfkRdkMxzX7s3qCjbimRjwcFmRJWTOeFJQ0HPP1YSjoh5neh8JqXKgfU4bUJzVzj_DY0AuRGoKNOXLOlnFMbX0DUc36GcjPZanvD65YKODSN_hZzjpERc-_H31nots-jnOEdQFNR-X0MTNzuDin9W65Md/w300-h400/IMG_20230623_130046.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Drill with 70 mm attachment for drilling through concrete. This does not go through in one push. You have to work at it a bit, and stop to let it cool down quite often. You also have to pull out chunks of concrete and brick which fill the tool and stop it from working. It took more than an hour to drill the hole. I had to work from both sides as the wall is over 30 cm thick so I first drilled all the way through both layers of the wall with a long 12 mm drill bit.</td></tr></tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ5-zLouLFy7YSRDxarcESESSky61tsg0sUcPocun4CVvzIuNxR3f_FvXF47qSyLsOsG-FlnYMeJ-NAuzVWVNLb3MI79mrNh5KTgG8Z1obkE-IXG4-qIv8j3AytjGnNR1f6Xw5Ruc-9wJAyFEpeV4JJGu6hB6iKDZSiT1Bk6nBM7zKgrTN1LGmlxlpTRAG/s640/IMG_20230623_130056.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ5-zLouLFy7YSRDxarcESESSky61tsg0sUcPocun4CVvzIuNxR3f_FvXF47qSyLsOsG-FlnYMeJ-NAuzVWVNLb3MI79mrNh5KTgG8Z1obkE-IXG4-qIv8j3AytjGnNR1f6Xw5Ruc-9wJAyFEpeV4JJGu6hB6iKDZSiT1Bk6nBM7zKgrTN1LGmlxlpTRAG/w400-h300/IMG_20230623_130056.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hole in the wall, sloped downward to avoid the carport outside. I lined the hole with PVC pipe, cut lengthwise so that it could adjust to the right shape and sealed with PU foam. Note: a lot of concrete and brick turned into dust. I worked with a mask on as well as ear defenders and had a vacuum cleaner running continuously, which helped to avoid too much dust finding its way elsewhere in our home.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p>The refrigerant tubing comes as a reel of copper pipe with insulation already fitted. I was cautious of bending this copper tubing as I'd expect it to flatten if bent too sharply but it unwound without causing any harm to itself and could be poked through the wall to the other side also without harm. I could then attach the pipes on the outside to the external unit. In my case exactly three metres of pipe was required. This was supplied with the required flare to fit both units, making the job a bit easier.</p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv29Cf_ONqFRadPNFuBgQUqy4CyatQhZDjsD8vC_uGxP4_C_7eNmVdEqPf-B8FhtRsjWoVAEg44p62IqKxYOw_xWzV_KCrXlmkZXCs6FYlc9wKI2lkuI7skf_KOHcU5fqa4hPzkyCiIcG6eMrj2IMbDKCm-qkUqB_4SOhmI1EDRyyG6LxeQliJoi4omLR6/s640/101_1627.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv29Cf_ONqFRadPNFuBgQUqy4CyatQhZDjsD8vC_uGxP4_C_7eNmVdEqPf-B8FhtRsjWoVAEg44p62IqKxYOw_xWzV_KCrXlmkZXCs6FYlc9wKI2lkuI7skf_KOHcU5fqa4hPzkyCiIcG6eMrj2IMbDKCm-qkUqB_4SOhmI1EDRyyG6LxeQliJoi4omLR6/s320/101_1627.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Black plastic covers on the piping of the indoor unit. The indoor unit has high pressure nitrogen inside so there is a hissing noise when they are loosened. <i>That does not mean that refrigerant is leaking</i> - the refrigerant is in the outdoor unit. However it's important that there should be a hissing noise as that indicates that the indoor unit has held pressure, also that it's not been contaminated with damp air. This didn't seem to be written down anywhere so I thought I'd add it here.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p>By this stage I'd put everything together so that in theory it was ready to go, I then tried to find a contractor to carry out the final step: Before you can set an airconditioner into operation it's necessary to draw a vacuum in the pipes so that there is no air in the system. Only after that has been done is it possible to release the refrigerant from the outdoor unit into the system. Some people don't bother with this step and I assume that their airconditioners don't operate to their full potential as a result.</p><p>I didn't have a vacuum pump and I thought it reasonable to let someone with experience do this part of the job for me. I even thought it might save a bit of time. However that turned out not to be the case at all. This was the most time consuming part of the whole project ! I waited over a month for more than ten different contractors to get back to me. They either said they would only with a certain manufacturer's airconditioner, or they wouldn't check other people's work, or they said they were too busy. Eventually, one guy said he'd come and do it. He made an appointment for two weeks in the future... and then he didn't turn up. So this was also to be a DIY job.</p>
<p>The standard price for setting an airconditioner in action is €200. That's what everyone who said they could do the job said they'd charge me, though none of them seemed to need the money. In the end I bought a vacuum pump for €115 expecting to need adaptors and pump oil in addition, but it turned out that everything I needed was in the box with the vacuum pump. This was a very simple and quick job to do, apart from the waiting around. No more than half an hour of actual work.</p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVEZYVGVbcvcJnXzkKXsBN0ZUaLHEDi_M8wp2uEt7icaAcAEFIzI9Oi5ZEiawm1GMz20wAlbj_Rn1YpwFP6aRHDcasaA-y9CjpZ2yxVY2tjMB83Q6Bemjk4FHlHebFkGIZoVG75f8zq0ltsU_kdSgP94q9JmIVEfOHemt8IT6638R1eWxg0f7a84euiG1b/s640/P1080886.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="404" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVEZYVGVbcvcJnXzkKXsBN0ZUaLHEDi_M8wp2uEt7icaAcAEFIzI9Oi5ZEiawm1GMz20wAlbj_Rn1YpwFP6aRHDcasaA-y9CjpZ2yxVY2tjMB83Q6Bemjk4FHlHebFkGIZoVG75f8zq0ltsU_kdSgP94q9JmIVEfOHemt8IT6638R1eWxg0f7a84euiG1b/w253-h400/P1080886.JPG" width="253" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vacuum pump pulling the air out of the tubing. After half an hour I turned off the blue tap and disconnected the yellow hose.<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWXABEqdQw5DDRPfwTvWaTTxfwsIhV5M97XqeHe5ibv_fLNvx8WXqzld7T_ls2b_x9d-c6SFzNDf6K2qeeyhj1HjiaUjcz3XKtmn2UXPAlsyqXeY1fJ4nyK5RG22Mmrit9ssB1CKH-uNoNfFU6nJLP0HUMuD4R26lR0hCJRfMT9L6pr0ZxIEQJSQxa0C_B/s640/P1080887.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="640" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWXABEqdQw5DDRPfwTvWaTTxfwsIhV5M97XqeHe5ibv_fLNvx8WXqzld7T_ls2b_x9d-c6SFzNDf6K2qeeyhj1HjiaUjcz3XKtmn2UXPAlsyqXeY1fJ4nyK5RG22Mmrit9ssB1CKH-uNoNfFU6nJLP0HUMuD4R26lR0hCJRfMT9L6pr0ZxIEQJSQxa0C_B/w400-h225/P1080887.JPG" width="400" />, which was never an option <br /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The next morning we still have "-1 bar" relative to ambient air pressure so it didn't leak (i.e. close to 0 bar in reality negative pressures can't exist)<br /></td></tr></tbody></table>
<p>So the pump was set up and drew a vacuum for half an hour. I then I disconnected the pump, leaving the pressure gauge displaying -1 bar overnight. After that I let some of the gas into the system, the pressure rising to about two bar so that I could check my connections to the pipework with soapy water to see if there were any leaks (which I'd have to tighten up before going further). There were no bubbles forming so I let the rest of the gas into the system, still no bubbles, then I removed the meter from the outdoor unit, fitted all the covers and switched on. The airconditioner works.</p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHP2kyYpIgM2RkDsHjQiP3pwCDSHDtt8FYAZU72tgtxnfYOTp0MNFMyCo4sarzWrlSZowszQ6N1wH9C2kgS55M1-N1LiyguRCRJTOkHexMldUeQyqldDCIHmap88R64nmtGU0JReWqrBzqs3fOy96_plUBy8HZCLK9o-8kpqSoiMp10cgrQ6bbihcjKJ47/s640/101_1726.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHP2kyYpIgM2RkDsHjQiP3pwCDSHDtt8FYAZU72tgtxnfYOTp0MNFMyCo4sarzWrlSZowszQ6N1wH9C2kgS55M1-N1LiyguRCRJTOkHexMldUeQyqldDCIHmap88R64nmtGU0JReWqrBzqs3fOy96_plUBy8HZCLK9o-8kpqSoiMp10cgrQ6bbihcjKJ47/w300-h400/101_1726.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Outdoor unit. The white cover over the cables and tubes goes to just slightly underneath the carport. The inner unit is on the other side of the wall a few cm higher. The switch on the wall is a legal necessity. The watering can catches the condensate so that we can use it in the garden. If the air conditioner is set on cool mode for an hour it produces a surprising amount of water.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_kfZDUNYvxS5kHDjHk24z77lDlLuHpG1w1VwPzFeKb_UFkMzKnEP2tQn1BP6dWUKd31kM146Tbeooffp57A20l4BqylFCG1oNwTA3cm4roiu3k6bIGLPSdIXi8JK7ttr8ZgS5tpXOshn2eTYSiJ94pSWy-n4d6rsUbu0sdZRHNSRWRFzgNknRVucpM7iE/s640/101_1728.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_kfZDUNYvxS5kHDjHk24z77lDlLuHpG1w1VwPzFeKb_UFkMzKnEP2tQn1BP6dWUKd31kM146Tbeooffp57A20l4BqylFCG1oNwTA3cm4roiu3k6bIGLPSdIXi8JK7ttr8ZgS5tpXOshn2eTYSiJ94pSWy-n4d6rsUbu0sdZRHNSRWRFzgNknRVucpM7iE/w300-h400/101_1728.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The inner unit on the wall in operation. No visible wires or tubes. Everything works. We've used it to cool a couple of times and it's very effective. Heating has been tried only momentarily because it's summer and we really do not need heating yet. Hopefully this will work as effectively as we need it to in winter. It's very quiet in operation. Almost nothing to hear at all, certainly much less noisy than a table fan even on a low setting. The displayed temperature is what we were cooling to in the summer, not what we heat to in the winter.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p><b>We have a heating solution!</b><br />So we now have a heating solution for next winter. It will consume less electricity than a heat pump but hopefully provide us with enough heat. It's a bit of an experiment for us to say that we're only going to heat the ground floor, so wish us luck. The kitchen is a bit of a worry because it's around the corner from the living room and dining room. But the kitchen also has other heaters in it, such as a small water heater under the sink, the refrigerator etc. The extra insulation job that I did <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2023/08/two-small-insulation-jobs.html">on the kitchen door</a> a few days ago was specifically intended to try to keep the kitchen warm when we are heating just the living room. We have other plans and there are more things that can still be done. Watch this space.</p><p>Did I forget to mention summer ? We installed this air conditioner primarily to provide heat in the winter, but obviously an air conditioner can also be used as an air conditioner. We have done that for a couple of afternoons when it was very hot and I have to say that it's very pleasant to have a cooler home when it's hot outdoors. Luckily these times also coincide with our having excess solar power and the grid being quite full due to the amount of sun beating down on everyone's homes, so we find ourselves still exporting electricity while the airco runs. I don't see a downside to using the air conditioner in this way sometimes. With weather becoming more extreme we might well use it more often. But we don't intend to live in a permanently air conditioned home. When the weather allows, it's much nicer to open the windows.</p><p><b>Getting rid of the radiators and central heating boiler</b><br />A job that I've not yet done is to get rid of the radiators and central heating boiler from our home. There's a lot of metal involved, a lot of heavy work. They take up a surprising amount of space. We didn't get rid of these things when we first had the gas removed because that would mean burning a lot of bridges. We might have decided to install a heat pump instead of air conditioning, and that could have worked with our existing radiators (which are oversized to suit our originally under-insulated home). While I'm quite confident, this also means that if the air conditioner doesn't work out this winter, we could still make use of the radiators next year with a heat pump. There's no need for us to rush this.</p>
<p><b>Car airconditioners</b><br />What's the deal with car air conditioners ? From what I can tell these leak all the time and drivers respond by having them "topped up" with more refrigerant, sometimes annually. If there's a crash (and <a href="https://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2010/02/this-must-never-happen-again.html" target="_blank">there are always crashes</a>) then the refrigerant is released and having its awful effects on our climate and the ozone layer. Air conditioning in cars really should not be allowed, certainly not with use of refrigerants which are more destructive to the environment than R290.</p><p><a href="https://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/search/label/cars" target="_blank">Cars make everything worse</a>.</p>
<p><b>Update: The first cold month - November 2023</b><br /> November this year was colder than usual. We had snow and persistent freezing temperatures which we've not had in November for many years. There was also very little sun. So how well did the heat pump work ?</p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDjvP2aLQN_ccbuqeRX0OQgE3-7CKUjYtGs10OC3iypGopsqgaxxQTUMnq9ihp1x99PFUiHflG24QjfGvk8d1hGX2x5OgL-OQdiv5-dkUdmW3-Ygxifn31ghQpf0aMHFcDBcjjOoNL25JhHPBGQOPKC7g-JoMFhsycIni5pGJ9YMMmro5OZnio2vC0foyh/s353/Screenshot%20from%202023-12-01%2010-59-32.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="327" data-original-width="353" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDjvP2aLQN_ccbuqeRX0OQgE3-7CKUjYtGs10OC3iypGopsqgaxxQTUMnq9ihp1x99PFUiHflG24QjfGvk8d1hGX2x5OgL-OQdiv5-dkUdmW3-Ygxifn31ghQpf0aMHFcDBcjjOoNL25JhHPBGQOPKC7g-JoMFhsycIni5pGJ9YMMmro5OZnio2vC0foyh/s16000/Screenshot%20from%202023-12-01%2010-59-32.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gas usage November 2022. We consumed 52 m3 of gas, compared with 119 m3 for an average apartment and 217 m3 for an average house like ours.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table>
<p>In November 2022, which was warmer than this year, we used 52 m3 of gas for heating. That was less than half the amount used by an average apartment in the Netherlands. This year we substituted 105 kWh of electricity consumed by the heat pump. 105 kWh of electricity is equivalent to the energy released by burning about 10 m3 of gas so we're now heating our four bedroom semi-detached home with about 1/10 of the energy required to heat an apartment.</p>
<p>And the CO2 footprint ? Burning 52 m3 of gas results in the release of 92 kg of CO2. The <a href="https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/daviz/co2-emission-intensity-14/#tab-googlechartid_chart_41" target="_blank">average gCO2/kWh for the Netherlands in 2022</a> is 321 g so consuming 105 kWh of electricity results in the release of 33.8 kg of CO2 on average. That's about a third of what we produced last year with gas. But even with the particularly grey weather that we've had for the last month we still generated 1/4 of the electricity that we used from our solar panels (and we used 80% of that directly, not relying on the grid too much as a "battery"), which brings us down to around 25kg, or not far from a quarter of last year. We're signed up to an energy contract which promises "100% green" electricity but while that provides a stimulus for green energy producers it doesn't really change what comes from the grid. I hope of course that we're at least providing a push towards producing greener electricity.</p>
<p>But even in the worst case we're looking at a far lower CO2 output than the 386 kg which an average semi-detached house like ours produced last November.</p>
<a href="http://www.dutchbikebits.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.dutchbikebits.com/dbbdbb640.png" /></a>David Hembrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14543024940730663645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7781742879659228364.post-75006148887043723082023-08-15T14:53:00.002+02:002023-08-15T14:53:35.724+02:00Two small insulation jobs<p>We've make improvements to the efficiency of <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/search/label/house">our home</a> every year that we've lived here. Over time there are of course fewer large jobs left to do, but there's always something that can be improved. While <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/search/label/solar">installing solar panels</a> or <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/search/label/gas">getting rid of the gas supply</a> are more dramatic, the small jobs also reduce our energy usage and help to make the larger improvements more effective. The same small improvements will reduce energy usage in any home.</p><p>Over the last 12 months we've done two small jobs. Both of them were as a result of measuring indoor temperatures on outside walls or doors. The aim of these jobs was to improve the insulation of a small section of our outside wall and the rear door which leads from our kitchen directly into the garden.</p><p><b>Adding cavity wall insulation</b></p><p>We had <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2009/02/cavity-wall-insulation-effectiveness.html">cavity wall insulation installed</a> in our home in 2008. It was one of the first things that we had done after moving into our new home because we knew from past experience in other homes that it was a very effective type of insulation. Unfortunately, the installers missed a bit: While they were concentrating on the large area of cavity wall at the end of our home, there was a roughly 2 m tall by 0.75 m wide piece of cavity wall on the other side of our living room next to our front door which they didn't treat at all. Measuring the temperature of the inner wall in winter revealed it to be easily the coldest spot in our living room. As a result some condensation occurred there and there was sometimes a little mildew to wipe away. I asked many companies to come and do this small job, but none of them were interested. They'd either just say no, or they would quote the same price as for a whole house, which is not only ridiculous for a half hour job that they could have done at the end of a working day, but also not cost effective. So this had to be a DIY job and I finally got around to doing it in September 2022.</p><p>Obviously I don't have access to a professional machine which can inject insulation at high pressure so I would need the holes to be closer together. I decided to use expanding polyurethane insulation. To begin I drilled a couple of holes just a few cm apart to see if the foam was expanding sideways in the cavity and when this was confirmed I started drilling holes about 15 cm apart in a zip-zag pattern. It took about three hole cans of polyurethane foam to do the job. Much cheaper than the quotes I'd received. The holes were filled with mortar and there's now no sign at all that that was done to the wall.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0qa6QjNW5Rb865Xa4VsJPk2dqvmkhAQwHVpU9ddnDtwHoTE6oNPP9JXpmjqEaYczXBUOMIxfcbwOdNmDhqjHQnOzwX9OzrPaVbs7heEcJjnndkjxckgb2FVp-2Pt9_Yxj6ooBA8IqjO43fA8UvkDFChPbL0ao3kSV7BvRZHc-h0PlFsszLCYk5RxkcKqZ/s640/IMG_20220924_142135.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0qa6QjNW5Rb865Xa4VsJPk2dqvmkhAQwHVpU9ddnDtwHoTE6oNPP9JXpmjqEaYczXBUOMIxfcbwOdNmDhqjHQnOzwX9OzrPaVbs7heEcJjnndkjxckgb2FVp-2Pt9_Yxj6ooBA8IqjO43fA8UvkDFChPbL0ao3kSV7BvRZHc-h0PlFsszLCYk5RxkcKqZ/w300-h400/IMG_20220924_142135.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The two holes near the centre were the first test holes. I then drilled holes in a zig-zag pattern up the wall and squirted in insulation until it was visible in the next hole along.</td></tr></tbody></table><p>During winter 2022/2023 I could measure an obvious change. The interior wall was no longer cold, but actually slightly warmer than the opposite wall with the professionally applied insulation. We no longer have a condensation problem anywhere in our living room. So this is a definitely improvement. I can't say how much heating energy it saves as that's almost impossible to measure, but it will mean that we require at least a little less heating.</p><p><b>Insulating the back door</b></p><p>The wooden panel under the window in the back door from our kitchen to the garage is the coldest spot in the whole house. As a result it attracts a lot of condensation in the winter and has to be kept clean, and we also lose quite a lot of heat through it even though it's a relatively small area. The door was on the list of things that I intended to replace, but when I came to look for a more efficient replacement I couldn't find one. No-one seems to sell doors like this with insulation inside them. There are plenty of front doors with insulation, but the back door options all have glass right down to floor level, which is not an advantage for us with dogs which will respond to birds or (worse) cats in the back garden. So I decided instead to try to insulate the door that we already have. It's the least expensive and the least disruptive way of insulating our back door.</p><p>For this job I made wooden boxes of nearly the width and height of the wooden panel on the door, one to install inside and the other outside. The outer shell of each box is 3 mm thick marine grade plywood while I used 1 cm square wood to make the box form.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM_-na4mJjT_EpP1v3zwUrUIQ_onhpvKFMArASapLh0otXaCVvulaQPe-XwlDekW6OK_mc_mHkpaTyuGmp1spRLHkH9diA55l2vNZ5zW31B-_C41qNs9-L8tTPwZ22E8tyQPgtUFBH129p1r7Lbd8dIF1oI2uO12aiZiPSYN3c1k9pWVEE2FQHD-9nx25Z/s640/101_1594.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM_-na4mJjT_EpP1v3zwUrUIQ_onhpvKFMArASapLh0otXaCVvulaQPe-XwlDekW6OK_mc_mHkpaTyuGmp1spRLHkH9diA55l2vNZ5zW31B-_C41qNs9-L8tTPwZ22E8tyQPgtUFBH129p1r7Lbd8dIF1oI2uO12aiZiPSYN3c1k9pWVEE2FQHD-9nx25Z/w300-h400/101_1594.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Boxes under construction. Marine ply, one cm square section wood and wood glue.</td></tr></tbody></table><p>Each box is filled with two layers of aluminized bubble-wrap material. This is not the best insulating material, but I could fit two layers in each box, so there are four layers in total. I also wanted to use a material which would form a moisture barrier and which should reflect some heat.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwhkPk83_Wbu7JnslNaeOhh4qh1gN1xzqR_4PsW5Qnf2rg7GcWzMwcrUFrkaUYzmHg-09wmmeu_88BzRtBG3ajSxX9tu_Hm5_uxpbKGr9VMtuStIcoJvMg00uArHSBDoDKFiGIRSdZU0oRBjlYBuTUN4fLxBG9FxgNB4mUdXfBnexbaXBOlZHwclVNf_Zp/s640/101_1601.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwhkPk83_Wbu7JnslNaeOhh4qh1gN1xzqR_4PsW5Qnf2rg7GcWzMwcrUFrkaUYzmHg-09wmmeu_88BzRtBG3ajSxX9tu_Hm5_uxpbKGr9VMtuStIcoJvMg00uArHSBDoDKFiGIRSdZU0oRBjlYBuTUN4fLxBG9FxgNB4mUdXfBnexbaXBOlZHwclVNf_Zp/w400-h300/101_1601.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Two layers of aluminized bubble-wrap type material fit inside each of the boxes. That's four layers in total either side of the existing wooden door. Opinions seem to vary widely about how good an insulating material this is, but four layers of it will of course work better than one. In this case it was selected because it's clean to work with and I'll be able to easily remove these panels from the door if they turn out to be a problem for some reason.</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Each panel is nailed in place, with a layer of sealant between the box and the existing door.<br /><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw76uu_pHy_1_w47QaEMK3pAN2qak6p_TRq_rQVtFBmsIm-f1LxqumP3F7XV896Hn6btxiOENplG2-z2lot-gba3KmZCmBLF2xumJ9xMsgNlY0KB_ffbO4MM8KINZmzvPj-4XyHk_cY-fTK16iDbTF-EbnscOd5qieKDgqlvDvJ-6MsgSG7TCiozkQ6fjQ/s640/101_1602.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw76uu_pHy_1_w47QaEMK3pAN2qak6p_TRq_rQVtFBmsIm-f1LxqumP3F7XV896Hn6btxiOENplG2-z2lot-gba3KmZCmBLF2xumJ9xMsgNlY0KB_ffbO4MM8KINZmzvPj-4XyHk_cY-fTK16iDbTF-EbnscOd5qieKDgqlvDvJ-6MsgSG7TCiozkQ6fjQ/w400-h300/101_1602.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Plenty of nails to make sure that the sealant really does seal. I don't want moisture getting inside.</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p>After fitting the inner and outer panels they were both painted to match the door.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXvC_IDdASSycoLtOzwZI3eox4Mhn9qS9HvuDbIuSz8fh-zYYl05wtMyN_uDSCBHQ3PuVagc_TskqWaCOxSZg0nSXWx5Zen4rtSnaPzWVd1r_9G4hRGK-xxUwfDnD5kgFD1Edgxb8Ma0KuJyftL6iEIii_4hgBUKlj9fPsAn3kZmHEX23vYT7hrPsNWAec/s1280/backdoor.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="1280" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXvC_IDdASSycoLtOzwZI3eox4Mhn9qS9HvuDbIuSz8fh-zYYl05wtMyN_uDSCBHQ3PuVagc_TskqWaCOxSZg0nSXWx5Zen4rtSnaPzWVd1r_9G4hRGK-xxUwfDnD5kgFD1Edgxb8Ma0KuJyftL6iEIii_4hgBUKlj9fPsAn3kZmHEX23vYT7hrPsNWAec/w640-h320/backdoor.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Before and after. The existing door was not in perfect shape, but most of the damage is now under the new panel so it should be more resistant to the weather than it was before. We will see.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>So now I wait to see how well this works. In the summer when the door is in full sun I've been able to measure a 10 C difference in temperature on the inside of the door between the outer part of the door not covered by the new panels and the inner part of the door which is covered so it must already be helping to reduce the temperature of our home during the summer months. I'll make measurements during winter and add them here.</p><p>I wouldn't have done this to a new door, but our door was showing its age already so I'm hoping this will extend its useful life. While there is no rotten wood (there was some on the inside but I fixed that problem several years ago) there were gaps between the panels into which rain could penetrate. I'm hoping that the new outdoor panel will stop this from occurring, but of course if rain gets inside the panel that could create a problem. It's an experiment.</p><p>As with the cavity insulation job, I don't think it will ever be possible to measure exactly how much energy is saved by insulating this door, but it should mean that we need a little less heat next winter. As the next job is to change the way we heat our home, this will be important.</p><p><br /></p><p>A previous blog post covered <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2017/12/more-insulation-for-our-walls-and-roof.html">other small insulation jobs</a>.</p><p><br /></p>
<center><a href="http://www.dutchbikebits.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://dutchbikebits.com/dbbavtcp640.png" style="border: 0px;" /></a></center>
David Hembrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14543024940730663645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7781742879659228364.post-26057459746880043072023-04-17T17:05:00.003+02:002023-08-23T20:32:00.260+02:00More more solar panels. Do we now have enough energy for a gas free home?<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO7wf0wFNA7wYQBezA6W-Oha8BchNzX0WW-bWDr58UeOBFKzUlVYsqRD6o8p31aRQ1BSOD8qc76Uv7eWIEFC_1RUoIca5q0zAI_1L-UFyb2DGK-7sXkJ_Gn6DWHuC7ojDX064dLaQfUOmTi63vsueX4skJIfCgY-bOwNs23ZOs_fI9Hf8UigV1GWaZjg/s800/101_1262.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="741" data-original-width="800" height="592" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO7wf0wFNA7wYQBezA6W-Oha8BchNzX0WW-bWDr58UeOBFKzUlVYsqRD6o8p31aRQ1BSOD8qc76Uv7eWIEFC_1RUoIca5q0zAI_1L-UFyb2DGK-7sXkJ_Gn6DWHuC7ojDX064dLaQfUOmTi63vsueX4skJIfCgY-bOwNs23ZOs_fI9Hf8UigV1GWaZjg/w640-h592/101_1262.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We now have four solar panels on our garage roof. They're at an angle so that they face exactly toward the south.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p>Today with help from a friend we installed two more solar panels on our garage roof. This means we have four 400 W panels on the garage roof to work alongside the sixteen 235 W panels which are on the roof of our home.</p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAmpq-4_iYbunNepgAxTeJ0_dvs1BIaCnXrDGm4IaYCgiwxFYs5dRGSaPYUEwrDHUTl1vKXi0gY42eGnmBoKcQZoYBlOU0LaPET8MlXs4o2oIR8DzB6flciew5yl6Nx2r0hGaDabbJEIH5BtDPuPdX_31I7nqIcCrGe32sKocDXFOfjJkMG-LpnbqYtQ/s600/Proportion%20of%20maximum%20output%20over%20time.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="371" data-original-width="600" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAmpq-4_iYbunNepgAxTeJ0_dvs1BIaCnXrDGm4IaYCgiwxFYs5dRGSaPYUEwrDHUTl1vKXi0gY42eGnmBoKcQZoYBlOU0LaPET8MlXs4o2oIR8DzB6flciew5yl6Nx2r0hGaDabbJEIH5BtDPuPdX_31I7nqIcCrGe32sKocDXFOfjJkMG-LpnbqYtQ/w640-h396/Proportion%20of%20maximum%20output%20over%20time.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The original two garage mounted panels were in the shade until about 9 am so you can see from this graph that they suddenly "wake up" at that time. The new panels placed today do better a few minutes earlier as they'll be earlier out of the shade.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p>The roof of our home is oriented south west, while the panels on the garage are oriented directly toward the south so as discussed a few days ago they compliment each other. The garage is shaded by our neighbour's home early in the morning but as the new panels are further to the south and will be shaded less (even though to arrange this we had to push the older pair slightly further north) we're hoping that we see a little bit more electricity early in the morning than was previously the case.</p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPIzHeSwPGXP96LOQJCtBT7d_Zn0RSjmYJeIdy9jwCIkmnIOu6ABH1VTqSYHZL-r2XPLRsqVldUnFK7gbrGpvC-djYQ3RyP5gST-FEZNIWmIQFWJGknNRNofKJjtxUS7ID0g2q6wm94RGugvADCcqmwEpacKqR_Bj47I6F4HqUM7ZK2lqEgcgSxWDFeQ/s800/101_1265.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="584" data-original-width="800" height="468" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPIzHeSwPGXP96LOQJCtBT7d_Zn0RSjmYJeIdy9jwCIkmnIOu6ABH1VTqSYHZL-r2XPLRsqVldUnFK7gbrGpvC-djYQ3RyP5gST-FEZNIWmIQFWJGknNRNofKJjtxUS7ID0g2q6wm94RGugvADCcqmwEpacKqR_Bj47I6F4HqUM7ZK2lqEgcgSxWDFeQ/w640-h468/101_1265.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The new set of panels, closer to the camera, are mounted at just 12 degrees, vs. the 24 degrees of <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2022/09/lets-have-more-solar-power.html">the set which we put up last year</a>. This will mean they have slightly lower output overall, but they will shade the older set behind them less often due to being lower at the back and they will catch the morning sun from the east a bit better due to their lower angle creating less of a self-shadow.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiraHh2CvVw-xErIVnp0WS1eu3oEDLyFiiHN7oeZiA_xQDsSv5jrvE23FDFVDriIFP6pIfQKO99nbzC_Xos-gP6aoKe1EBLEDBgumyTzWbTLCQ1DQfTi0EnwdqDFuQAFmCavwQT0yYeh8AU4WJTTpv1jyGxMKl1TNNGsC17QJzCiGLZOxJwmHmH_TBAjA/s800/101_1267.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="571" data-original-width="800" height="456" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiraHh2CvVw-xErIVnp0WS1eu3oEDLyFiiHN7oeZiA_xQDsSv5jrvE23FDFVDriIFP6pIfQKO99nbzC_Xos-gP6aoKe1EBLEDBgumyTzWbTLCQ1DQfTi0EnwdqDFuQAFmCavwQT0yYeh8AU4WJTTpv1jyGxMKl1TNNGsC17QJzCiGLZOxJwmHmH_TBAjA/w640-h456/101_1267.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The usual "back of an envelope" design process</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p><a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2022/09/lets-have-more-solar-power.html">Last time</a> I couldn't get commercially made hooks as everything seemed to be sold out everywhere. This time I used commercially made hooks to hold the solar panels in place as they were available inexpensively. Otherwise the frame which these panels are mounted on is very similar to that of the last pair of solar panels except that they're at 12 degrees from horizontal this time instead of 24 degrees. This is to decrease the chance of the new set of panels putting the slightly older set behind them in shade and to hopefully increase their output early in the morning when the sun comes from the east. We'll see if that works out.</p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK3oVNgr3qEQFl9RiWWqOkRS8mD44CWcVRjkpzkr0uuAbkpkcUO9o2graKDyYqCyYfabqjmjqZkhC-zdggtpp39p8Wllmx2A7E9L0K9sLKlx0gfGWQ--vsA18H1GG3cdHe5u5fRK_AXHX2u9uCTB57REDr9xy6EduQ-sVYLtGscp-X0DDt6536VLXSkw/s800/IMG_20230407_154112.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK3oVNgr3qEQFl9RiWWqOkRS8mD44CWcVRjkpzkr0uuAbkpkcUO9o2graKDyYqCyYfabqjmjqZkhC-zdggtpp39p8Wllmx2A7E9L0K9sLKlx0gfGWQ--vsA18H1GG3cdHe5u5fRK_AXHX2u9uCTB57REDr9xy6EduQ-sVYLtGscp-X0DDt6536VLXSkw/w640-h480/IMG_20230407_154112.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">So far as possible I collected the parts required for this job by bike. Three meter long pieces of wood do make for a slightly unusual sight on the cycle-path.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p>In total the bill for the two new panels, all the parts required to make the brackets and all the parts required to make a safe connection to our electricity supply added up to about €550.</p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg79rFraN-PEFpfU7jFR4BNKBVGTyFysVBYU71X6EUi0FSMZv9PfZHQV9L8g5uyCtvlLDfMM6V9fyQYopFpA-KrfcPK25Syxm-yQT0PHhUFc_RQmZnuHhPEGigRyuJ45VLzBS-uUbuPquPZwHpc33x2_oVZHKPxkShPyXQPBgzS8sIp1r89SKom9iQnpw/s800/IMG_20230329_131911.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="600" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg79rFraN-PEFpfU7jFR4BNKBVGTyFysVBYU71X6EUi0FSMZv9PfZHQV9L8g5uyCtvlLDfMM6V9fyQYopFpA-KrfcPK25Syxm-yQT0PHhUFc_RQmZnuHhPEGigRyuJ45VLzBS-uUbuPquPZwHpc33x2_oVZHKPxkShPyXQPBgzS8sIp1r89SKom9iQnpw/w480-h640/IMG_20230329_131911.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Helping a friend with his installation a few days ago. He then helped me today. Doing things for each other certainly helps to keep costs down !</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p><b>We now should have enough energy</b></p><p>Our <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/search/label/gas">gas supply was removed last week</a> so we need to have a heating solution for next winter which does not involve gas. As discussed a couple of weeks ago, we actually <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2023/03/having-gas-disconnected.html">didn't use much gas at all</a>, so replacing it shouldn't require too much electricity. Added to the overproduction of electricity which we already had before they were installed, the new panels ought to be enough to make our net electricity consumption very close to zero for the year.</p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv06gG64DI5BElw3sLeS_9pKrEHqRLIHn1VQusp3RvFWOZAMNQOfJg3fUsxVOQr0Xx7U_fGlGrIfdnJLr1DHuheg7iQvzngc7nYjtrvzysrVroxPVhyU2XM-c1IQJNXEwG5H38xqf4AQGNMOizRm_HbvDgADU4-KGaaUWPlwBGd4JL1opzF4J3w9dA0Q/s538/screentermijnbedrag.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="538" data-original-width="440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv06gG64DI5BElw3sLeS_9pKrEHqRLIHn1VQusp3RvFWOZAMNQOfJg3fUsxVOQr0Xx7U_fGlGrIfdnJLr1DHuheg7iQvzngc7nYjtrvzysrVroxPVhyU2XM-c1IQJNXEwG5H38xqf4AQGNMOizRm_HbvDgADU4-KGaaUWPlwBGd4JL1opzF4J3w9dA0Q/s16000/screentermijnbedrag.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">As it stands right now, our energy company is asking us to pay €5 a month for energy, with an expectation that we will have overpaid by €290 at the end of the year. That seems to be working out quite well !</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p>Over the summer we installed the heating system which the two extra solar panels will supply, <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2023/08/an-all-electric-home-with-air.html">a poor man's heatpump</a>. This was too inexpensive to attract a subsidy but it should be enough for us.</p>
<center><a href="http://www.dutchbikebits.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://dutchbikebits.com/dbbavtcp640.png" style="border: 0px;" /></a></center>
David Hembrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14543024940730663645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7781742879659228364.post-26276705235594100842023-04-05T16:38:00.014+02:002023-04-05T17:00:30.331+02:00Eleven years of rooftop solar power - and it's a new record year<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw5LMJ8vZpPz64FbvzocUhWQCqA-n1EQJ0l6uiustA0xj2u7LAAI_o242UQmBNx3gAaGesloxGNnputg9KZ0mu8VCsMAHeIr3-XMJ5E0XPZQnolOEJKR68Q26CNsqcfYJqjdQOXX45uqt4NGqoTCi85qdmEeYKIT6iXqP2K7i87mLPQtT0wo-HhLSnWw/s600/Solar%20power%20annual%20production.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="371" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw5LMJ8vZpPz64FbvzocUhWQCqA-n1EQJ0l6uiustA0xj2u7LAAI_o242UQmBNx3gAaGesloxGNnputg9KZ0mu8VCsMAHeIr3-XMJ5E0XPZQnolOEJKR68Q26CNsqcfYJqjdQOXX45uqt4NGqoTCi85qdmEeYKIT6iXqP2K7i87mLPQtT0wo-HhLSnWw/s16000/Solar%20power%20annual%20production.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our rooftop solar panels have been in place for eleven years, and the highest output year was the most recent. In total the rooftop panels have delivered 37591 kWh to date.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p>When we had our rooftop solar panel system <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2012/04/we-now-have-our-own-solar-power.html">installed in April 2012</a> we were told to expect an output of no more than 3150 kWh per year due to the angle of the panels and the direction they face on our roof. We were also warned that output would drop slowly over time. In practice we actually saw an average of 3357 kWh over the first ten years. Until now the highest output year was the second year after they were installed with 3516 kWh, but that record was broken in this last year, 2022-2023, which is year eleven for our system. No less than 3614 kWh of electricity came from our panels last year, which is nearly 3% more than the previous record.</p><p>We actually generated a little more than this because we added <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2022/09/lets-have-more-solar-power.html">a couple of extra panels</a> in September. But because these have only been operating through the darker months until now, they've only added slightly to the total, bringing it to 3780 kWh.</p>
<p>The new peak output wasn't the result of a particularly sunny winter. March, was particularly cold and dark, with snow and hail and produced the third lowest amount of solar power from our roof top panels since they were installed. Luckily, April has brought far more pleasant weather so far.</p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV9TTeurHXN-IIpHvOqoLDdczgTJYMV7BgTFN6XsZgDxtMqyawKfh-GL9F7FLj1KCJRpLKJGEKhbBC2z1nXhvxaWCyTqQiVN2lNETifIrKvq53Bz5-LWdTmxqV0YG48K8E8NkExvIbXgZQpZL9gOPN8kQCahhyVXbV5Sr3eHtbOXhW7BQia85pp1VqqQ/s600/Solar%20power%20in%20March.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="371" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV9TTeurHXN-IIpHvOqoLDdczgTJYMV7BgTFN6XsZgDxtMqyawKfh-GL9F7FLj1KCJRpLKJGEKhbBC2z1nXhvxaWCyTqQiVN2lNETifIrKvq53Bz5-LWdTmxqV0YG48K8E8NkExvIbXgZQpZL9gOPN8kQCahhyVXbV5Sr3eHtbOXhW7BQia85pp1VqqQ/s16000/Solar%20power%20in%20March.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">March 2023 was one of the darkest ever and even the extra panels didn't bring our total for the month to a total which was as high as the average over the ten previous years</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p><b>The effect of panels facing in different directions</b></p><p>The extra panels on the garage face are installed facing directly south while those on the top of the house face south-west as that's how our house is built. This means that the sun hits the extra panels on the garage earlier than those on top of the house and that we have significantly more solar power earlier in the day now than was the case when we only had the panels on the top of the house.</p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1GGWzS16838Nf14EXC1gQPlqJ4NFaEZaip8EVXv4d6CUa5OiE0VsqEY9Q-JiizOqDYJ2UW7opGMxCg1TqAZ6XnW-tgcm4GGnT8-VSBeX56Sgdz0bEFM_zJNYhunjfIC8buxuMFcAugZIHNdc4crO0jHhWoLIHxWJmMlt6h3EudBFZbbGdUAcKkCCtOg/s600/Proportion%20of%20maximum%20output%20over%20time.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="371" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1GGWzS16838Nf14EXC1gQPlqJ4NFaEZaip8EVXv4d6CUa5OiE0VsqEY9Q-JiizOqDYJ2UW7opGMxCg1TqAZ6XnW-tgcm4GGnT8-VSBeX56Sgdz0bEFM_zJNYhunjfIC8buxuMFcAugZIHNdc4crO0jHhWoLIHxWJmMlt6h3EudBFZbbGdUAcKkCCtOg/s16000/Proportion%20of%20maximum%20output%20over%20time.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Proportion of theoretical maximum output achieved by the solar panels on our house roof and those on the garage roof on the day of writing. Having panels facing in different directions flattens out the production curve meaning that we can cover our own usage for a larger proportion of the day.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p>Early in the morning all our solar panels are in shade, only receiving indirect light. The output of the panels on the garage suddenly come out of the shade of our neighbour's home at about 9:15, giving a rapid rise in output, today seen as a rise from from 5% to 22% of their potential. On the other hand, the panels on the roof of the house don't see a sharp rise due to an obvious shadow, but because of the angle of the roof they don't reach 22% of their potential on the same day until more than an hour later, around 10:30. This difference means that while on a day like this the output of the roof top system alone wouldn't reach 1 kW until nearly 10:45, adding two extra panels on the garage have brought that forward by more than half an hour.</p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUqZRMdY2S3W9tr9dvIQtCv84uZd6me7e-tGEbSpvl9_QjoGBeuAQ0olpbvb4JgSlqE7ambxP3fylhL6vOH3MB1lEDRMVsBLsiejrL00gofGWMTV4HxRBSggkRfSrXowgZAxndDWpq5q-VGOe9wfQ49quS2Ic4ujfufbR5tGdAO6NSqU0K3qK1E90zvQ/s800/P1080714.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUqZRMdY2S3W9tr9dvIQtCv84uZd6me7e-tGEbSpvl9_QjoGBeuAQ0olpbvb4JgSlqE7ambxP3fylhL6vOH3MB1lEDRMVsBLsiejrL00gofGWMTV4HxRBSggkRfSrXowgZAxndDWpq5q-VGOe9wfQ49quS2Ic4ujfufbR5tGdAO6NSqU0K3qK1E90zvQ/w640-h480/P1080714.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our garage roof at just after 09:00 this morning. These panels are at a 45 degree angle because that means they face directly toward the south. The sharp shadow line is due to our neighbour's home. The sun has melted the ice off of most of one panel and output is increasing rapidly as the panels receive direct sunlight. When we install two extra panels these two will be pulled back by about half the width of a panel and the two new panels will see the sun slightly earlier each morning than these do.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p>Doubling the size of the installation on the garage should mean on a day like this we can reach an output level of 1 kW by about 9:45 and 2 kW by just after 10:30. As such, two extra panels will address a source of slight annoyance - ever since the roof top system was installed we've observed that turning on appliances like our washing machine in the morning meant that we drew energy predominantly from the grid instead of from our solar panels, but with four panels facing south on the garage to take up the slack while the larger array on the roof "wakes up" this will no longer be the case - at least in summer.</p><p><b>No more gas so we will probably need more electricity than before</b></p><p>Our <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2023/03/having-gas-disconnected.html">gas supply is being removed</a> next week. We've already not used it for some time. In the future we'll probably need a bit more electricity than now so extra capacity is of course helpful.</p><p><b>Effect on a possible future battery installation</b></p>
<p>If we install a battery in the future, which we are considering in the future, it will have less to do because we will already have improved our autonomy by covering more of our morning electricity usage directly with solar power, thus reducing stress on a battery as it won't have to cover such a large proportion of our energy usage during mornings. I had hoped to have figures for the year so far showing improved autonomy compared with last year, but due to the very dark winter it hasn't been possible to produce those, so that's something for a future blog post.</p>
<center><a href="http://www.dutchbikebits.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://dutchbikebits.com/dbbavtcp640.png" style="border: 0px;" /></a></center>David Hembrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14543024940730663645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7781742879659228364.post-66082310903597271752023-03-21T12:12:00.012+01:002023-11-30T14:56:51.947+01:00Having the gas disconnected<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzESaoGYmaSLE0ckLxSOSL6605psVicURifXtuSGiUfHhd2x7TWK-EJc1dA2y7ClLO7abuK3KOKz-T-ocpfk2YX-I0LXtmm6G7qwsALzTsrogL8BQuyWaOeLSN0FRjVw6PsakQlNQvurNdkQ4qDivxa4WX8fzrXUB2g996YUS-0aZgBB1ZFeFpB3dO0A/s648/screen-2023-03-21-09-59-24.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="372" data-original-width="648" height="368" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzESaoGYmaSLE0ckLxSOSL6605psVicURifXtuSGiUfHhd2x7TWK-EJc1dA2y7ClLO7abuK3KOKz-T-ocpfk2YX-I0LXtmm6G7qwsALzTsrogL8BQuyWaOeLSN0FRjVw6PsakQlNQvurNdkQ4qDivxa4WX8fzrXUB2g996YUS-0aZgBB1ZFeFpB3dO0A/w640-h368/screen-2023-03-21-09-59-24.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Having the gas connection removed from a home in the Netherlands costs €869, except that it's subsidized at the moment so costs nothing at all. What better time can there be to remove fossil fuels from your home ? Our gas supply will be cut off in a few weeks time.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p>It's taken us a bit longer than I'd hoped to get to this point but in a few days our gas supply will finally be cut off. We stopped cooking with gas many years ago, but we still had gas central heating and a gas hot water heater for our shower. It was the latter which stood in the way of getting rid of gas altogether as having no hot water in our bathroom at all, especially over winter, was not at all appealing. However <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2023/02/electric-water-heating-finally-got-rid.html">we installed an electric water heater last month</a> which then meant we no longer had a good reason to still have a gas supply to our home.</p><p><b>How much gas, how much CO2 ?</b><br />For some odd reason our energy company decided that our annual summary of energy usage should be over a period of February 23rd 2022 to March 11th 2023 this year. That's two weeks longer than a year and includes more of the cold days. The summary shows that we consumed 540 m3 of gas. That's considered to be quite low, but it's still a lot. 540 m3 of gas emits almost a whole ton of CO2 when it's burnt (multiply cubic metres of gas by a <a href="https://english.rvo.nl/sites/default/files/2020/03/The-Netherlands-list-of-fuels-version-January-2020.pdf" target="_blank">factor of 1.78</a> to find how many kg of CO2 are produced), and that's something that we really do not want to do.</p>
<p><b>An absurdly over-sized boiler</b><br /></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUsfTZl1QylNoELHfDjlC5JWQKFco6xLkGLQFRFSEy57EjC0KLm5Is0esym74PF1HO_AeQvrVBJTEGmGs494Xv47_ls4L43ydGR9EhXvNFVd0Ted0WWaba4FZ7GoLPehvLk-NNd9Dt1_2TMAfsWUhsbxKR1LjMA0P-vdfVUkcOdrgnRTSohRZgs1Fp_w/s355/screen-2023-03-21-12-09-51.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="324" data-original-width="355" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUsfTZl1QylNoELHfDjlC5JWQKFco6xLkGLQFRFSEy57EjC0KLm5Is0esym74PF1HO_AeQvrVBJTEGmGs494Xv47_ls4L43ydGR9EhXvNFVd0Ted0WWaba4FZ7GoLPehvLk-NNd9Dt1_2TMAfsWUhsbxKR1LjMA0P-vdfVUkcOdrgnRTSohRZgs1Fp_w/s320/screen-2023-03-21-12-09-51.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In February we used 48 m3 of gas, about a third of an average<br />apartment or under a fifth of an average "2 onder 1 kap" (semi-<br />detached) home similar to ours.</td></tr></tbody></table>This morning I worked out that the water heater which we removed last month actually accounted for slightly more than half of our total gas consumption for the year. Subtracting the equivalent of 12 summer months (when the central heating is turned completely off) from the entire years gas consumption suggests that only about 245 m3 of gas was used by the central heating boiler last year.<p></p><p>Burning 245 m3 of Dutch gas (at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_of_combustion#Higher_heating_values_of_natural_gases_from_various_sources" target="_blank">33.32 MJ/Sm3</a>) releases about 8163 MJ or 2270 kWh of energy. Our gas heating boiler is a Radson EHRE 240 from 1993 with a rated output of 28 kW. It's been obvious for years that it was grossly over-sized - I had to take action a couple of years ago <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2021/12/modifying-thermostat-to-make-our.html">to make it shut down sooner</a> to stop us from getting too hot - but it wasn't until now that I calculated how absurdly powerful it was. A 28 kW output with consumption of 245 m3 of gas suggests that over the whole year this thing only actually operated for the equivalent of about 3 days at full power, spread over the colder five months of the year when we needed heating. i.e. On average it was used for less than half an hour a day.</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzA1485PVl1YO100zX0WWd_PpOps-9plwJSa9oalSAgRDUPxOsNKRpTBoATYGBA4ARpS1A92rOH1vCFZ0IpKOH1xZ6xUuAGzxNqOwSxB3QWCo1_BwDCjt8tVmoNTEEvxJ2aW3v8hT8mUqPbs2ytwz2G6OXY2K9xssG69SINhFRrI5BBBM6pxtD88GTyQ/s640/101_1164.JPG" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzA1485PVl1YO100zX0WWd_PpOps-9plwJSa9oalSAgRDUPxOsNKRpTBoATYGBA4ARpS1A92rOH1vCFZ0IpKOH1xZ6xUuAGzxNqOwSxB3QWCo1_BwDCjt8tVmoNTEEvxJ2aW3v8hT8mUqPbs2ytwz2G6OXY2K9xssG69SINhFRrI5BBBM6pxtD88GTyQ/w150-h200/101_1164.JPG" width="150" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The beast awaiting removal</td></tr></tbody></table>Because we put <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/search/label/insulation">a lot of effort into insulating our home</a>, we can now make our living room and dining room (i.e. most of the ground floor of our home) heat up slowly with nothing more than a 400 W IR electric heater even on very cold days. Clearly we don't need anything like 28 kW !<p></p><p>The boiler dates from before condensing boilers were common-place. Its rated efficiency is 83%. It also doesn't have a balanced flue but instead takes air from the boiler room in which it sits (getting rid of it means we can insulate that room properly and gain a small storage room on the top floor) and as the heated water we receive from it on the ground floor has travelled two floors down to reach our living room and slowly gurgle around the radiators we clearly don't get the benefit of much of the 2270 kWh of energy released by the gas as heat in our living room.</p><p><b>So what now ?</b><br />We have decisions to make. Even a few small resistive electric heaters switched on when we're near them would be a more efficient way to hear our home. A friend of ours has reported good results from using an air conditioning unit to heat his living room this winter, and that's definitely more efficient than a resistive heater, but it does make a bit of noise. We will also need some heat upstairs, in the bathroom, bedrooms, work room etc. We've also been working on improving ventilation in our home so fitting a ventilation system with heat exchanger where the old boiler used to sit on the top floor would probably be beneficial. We have decisions to make over the coming months: By December it'll be cold again. </p>
<p><b>Hoping to reduce our energy bill further</b><br />Last year a quarter of the total gas bill of €1051 was the connection charge. This year our gas bill will be much lower but it won't be zero as we'll still have to pay the connection charge for however long it takes to be disconnected. While gas cost us €1051 last year, our total energy bill for the year was only €587 once we took off the amount that the energy company paid us for nearly 900 kWh of excess electricity that we generated with our solar panels, as well as various other compensations and apparently random things that I've never understood which always appear on energy bills.</p><p>Anyway, the energy company decided that we had overpaid by €180 so they're sending us money, which is of course welcome. Then they set our monthly payments this year to be a bit higher than they were last year, which doesn't seem very logical under the circumstances, but they did this last year as well so I'll again have to argue it down this year.</p><p>We already added two extra solar panels at the end of last year to roughly cover the water heater's consumption and our plan now is to add a couple more panels again which should leave us with about 1600 kWh per year free compared with last year which we can use for heating. Hopefully that will be about enough. If we end up generating about as much extra electricity as the heating consumes, then not only will we no longer have any fossil fuels in our home but our bills should also be well on the way to zero.</p><p>Of course it's impossible to work out exactly what anything will cost because energy bills are absurdly complicated. While we work out how to reduce our energy consumption and CO2 output, perhaps the energy company can put some effort into making their bills understandable.</p><p><b>Job completed earlier than expected</b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHLFUrewPZ4S4F07GIB2LjgzteqUEMQlac31PUXNjq0PsHAowqEk8xti0evddihcThZH6IPeCZNkBg2mg7mg1FZJAtkWoomNGrkoGxlmfB3OaQlL2fGmYcX_skzxnupZyx2esWLgvUqWSPz0aIrz6pL-V0NROPJ397YyF6bhMhsPgdd16vu2cdWVXYkQ/s800/IMG_20230411_111133.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="600" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHLFUrewPZ4S4F07GIB2LjgzteqUEMQlac31PUXNjq0PsHAowqEk8xti0evddihcThZH6IPeCZNkBg2mg7mg1FZJAtkWoomNGrkoGxlmfB3OaQlL2fGmYcX_skzxnupZyx2esWLgvUqWSPz0aIrz6pL-V0NROPJ397YyF6bhMhsPgdd16vu2cdWVXYkQ/w480-h640/IMG_20230411_111133.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><br />Update 11th April: Our gas supply was removed this morning. Two gentlemen turned up with a digger and made a huge hole in the front garden, removed the supply pipe and the meter from indoors, and then they made everything neat again. So that's it - we no longer have any fossil fuel to burn.<p></p><p>In other news, I took delivery of two more solar panels a couple of days ago. So in a little while I'll write something more about <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/search/label/solar">our solar power system</a>.</p><p>Over the summer we installed our heating system, <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2023/08/an-all-electric-home-with-air.html">a poor man's heatpump</a>. This was too inexpensive to attract a subsidy but it should be enough for us.</p><p><b>Update: Someone was wrong on the internet. Me. So I fixed it.</b><br />Somehow I initially made a calculation suggesting that the gas boiler ran for only five minutes last year. This should not have got past my own internal 'smell test'. The boiler actually ran for the equivalent for about three continuous days and the blog above has been updated to reflect this. The other calculations were correct.</p><center><a href="http://www.dutchbikebits.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://dutchbikebits.com/dbbavtcp640.png" style="border: 0px;" /></a></center>David Hembrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14543024940730663645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7781742879659228364.post-47075322486484008962023-02-08T18:15:00.009+01:002023-11-30T14:57:41.278+01:00Electric water heating - finally got rid of the pilot light !<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSNBBpmmCc-DSBYKX_kT-naTGo47YrjhuxtkjQT3XnqZ_p8tQtgdLjiNa1ZWo23bFJnzp0wSTyYi66tF_mQZj64Kq5rZx8Ix6oNLLG0DCNllprFwQVMfCoLuI-T9WCGxIuCdvvNfUGhdzJnH6M2W_ZIdOjn_w0rFj9lgAms6Oqvl58x5qA1cxpwbE8_Q/s800/101_0961.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="608" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSNBBpmmCc-DSBYKX_kT-naTGo47YrjhuxtkjQT3XnqZ_p8tQtgdLjiNa1ZWo23bFJnzp0wSTyYi66tF_mQZj64Kq5rZx8Ix6oNLLG0DCNllprFwQVMfCoLuI-T9WCGxIuCdvvNfUGhdzJnH6M2W_ZIdOjn_w0rFj9lgAms6Oqvl58x5qA1cxpwbE8_Q/w304-h400/101_0961.JPG" width="304" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">There's nothing much more boring than a photo of a cylindrical water heater hanging on the wall, but there it is boringly getting on with its job, heating the water for our shower and bathroom using solar power from our roof and our showers definitely don't mean burning gas any more !</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p>Over three years have passed since <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-surprising-cost-of-pilot-light.html">I calculated how much gas the pilot light</a> in our water heating system was consuming. It was a bit frightening. 134 cubic metres a year, That means the pilot light wasted almost twice as much gas each year as we just used for heating our home for the whole of January. What's more, 134 m3 at the current price of around €1.80 per m3 works out as about €240, which due to everything else we've already done to reduce our energy consumption is about half of our total annual energy bill for electric and gas combined (we've paid €40 a month for the last year, and the energy company currently owes us money). It's been at the back of my mind literally since I first made that calculation that I had to do something about it, but there are always other things to do and it took until this week until it happened.</p><p>Of course I went through all options, including such things as heat pump water heaters. These appear to only be available in absurdly huge sizes meaning more waste, with costs that are simply too high, and with unknown reliability compared with a simple resistive heater. I also considered complete heating systems including water, but most of the year we unplug our heating system so this seemed less than optimal. Eventually I decided that a simple hot water tank, was the best option so long as it could be well insulated and with some kind of control to stop it wasting energy when we didn't need the hot water.</p>
<p>I should have been able to write this last year. I ordered a water heater in September which got delayed due to covid and then didn't turn up at all. After sitting on a waiting list for several months I eventually asked the company I'd ordered it from for a refund which they sent promptly, so I can't really complain about that. Anyway, I then ordered <a href="https://elektrischeboiler.eu/winkel/dat-arca-80-liter-anti-kalk-elektrische-boiler/" target="_blank">another type</a> which arrived less than 48 hours after I'd ordered it. It's supposed to be a "DAT Arca 80 litre anti-kalk" (anti calcium) boiler, but for some reason what turned up has "GOT" written on it instead. Before ordering I tried to work out whether I'd be able to buy spare parts, and it seems I can. Not that there's much in this thing to go wrong.</p>
<p>Between the two orders I did a bit of extra research which led me to prioritize buying a boiler with a dry heating element which should last longer.</p><p><b>Smart vs dumb boilers</b></p><p>Some boilers are "smart". The main reason why smart boilers are claimed to use less electricity every year than the boilers with dumb controllers is simply that the dumb boilers are typically switched on 24 hours a day, consuming electricity to make warm water when no-one will use it. Smart boilers include such features as analysing your use for the first week and then only warming water when it thinks you'll need it. That's not a bad idea, but we don't really have a fixed weekly pattern of use so I'd have had to use it as a time switch instead.</p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ2b39qLw_2C7nXxi-zrOj8_3PwKETGiR6Stv6jNYomiCJCBQuauwOhkLKEHx7i7oNYHN_Eb8UbZshjqL_uZXpPpPkZfcTTLgwwJlhzSkZfqh_tTXwAMtlyUBtZkUBx3yHn4p2HMO9yXbRcgokDc0wY5Ai51Ce3RJmLMs8OyMDhvHkHGDsLqPAFMw8Fg/s800/101_0960.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="637" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ2b39qLw_2C7nXxi-zrOj8_3PwKETGiR6Stv6jNYomiCJCBQuauwOhkLKEHx7i7oNYHN_Eb8UbZshjqL_uZXpPpPkZfcTTLgwwJlhzSkZfqh_tTXwAMtlyUBtZkUBx3yHn4p2HMO9yXbRcgokDc0wY5Ai51Ce3RJmLMs8OyMDhvHkHGDsLqPAFMw8Fg/w319-h400/101_0960.JPG" width="319" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At the moment the controller consists of a simple analogue clock style time switch and I've also got an energy meter connected up to let me measure electrical consumption over time.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p>I have no interest in any "smart" IoT product as connecting things like this to the internet means yet another thing to worry about with potential spyware and software updates (if they happen at all they'll be phased out before the lifespan of the product) so I never had any intention of connecting the boiler to the internet. However the company who made the first product only sold the model of their boilers which had thick insulation alongside the smart controller so that forced the issue. Luckily I found an alternative product that combined 30 mm of polyurethane insulation with a simple dumb thermostat. Perfect for us. I think I would have ended up using the smart controller as nothing more than a time switch anyway, and a cheap analogue time switch for then €5 does the same job.</p><p><b>Matching consumption to available solar power</b></p><p>I also found that some companies were offering "anti-salderings" boilers at extra cost. These come with lower power elements than usual as a better match to <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/search/label/solar">domestic solar power installations</a>.</p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRD8edS9mCzp3gCDuwhiNWyTCk_QKLutHfBVmI_CwL4H77D3tLFJHC9_KWfjKVxQR_zwfDqhlWxENAeaEOu3cjK3Y5-yGLV66DjcDVvHYFhyCuMfOgp3frTLv8lrJl3xiuGyx3YReQ_a_MNIxgw7nBeiP39u9dcRNJcw085LYTj1QMIShSO_zGBb0eFA/s800/101_0959.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="671" data-original-width="800" height="335" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRD8edS9mCzp3gCDuwhiNWyTCk_QKLutHfBVmI_CwL4H77D3tLFJHC9_KWfjKVxQR_zwfDqhlWxENAeaEOu3cjK3Y5-yGLV66DjcDVvHYFhyCuMfOgp3frTLv8lrJl3xiuGyx3YReQ_a_MNIxgw7nBeiP39u9dcRNJcw085LYTj1QMIShSO_zGBb0eFA/w400-h335/101_0959.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Underneath the easily removed plastic base of the boiler is this mess of wires. Disconnecting the two white wires from the second element halves the energy consumption, making it more compatible with using excess solar power.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p>The idea of this is to ensure that to the greatest extent possible you only use your own electricity. This is because Dutch energy companies don't give you very much for any extra kWh that you export to the grid, and no-one is quite sure what will happen in the future to the existing rules around this. So when I found it was possible to buy a 1500 W boiler which actually has two 750 W elements wired in parallel, that's what I chose because this can also be run as a 750 W boiler which happens to come with a free spare element. The company that we bought our boiler from also offers an anti-salderings version of the same boiler for €50 more. Does this differ in any way other than only having one element wired up ? I don't know.</p><p><b>Size</b></p><p>The size of the boiler was a topic of much discussion. I'd have been happy with a 30 l boiler, but my wife insisted on 80 l.</p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwhJWnJOVesUbiNKO4pKl72oZkfzc1ZXQglI2NmKdmZv84eVJYz8aZzwjO0728Q0InsU9oZHnMDDf438oXyIKRzpiD_dLNhLIUzDc0PH5WoM02Zx_XJ0L3KJyhCYmm_62vCZ4Y5WLx1s4wWJ5FECc8IEafFJwJIaGvxJQonMQ3ac--WFIjoO3IA6TBsA/s800/IMG_20230204_162709.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="679" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwhJWnJOVesUbiNKO4pKl72oZkfzc1ZXQglI2NmKdmZv84eVJYz8aZzwjO0728Q0InsU9oZHnMDDf438oXyIKRzpiD_dLNhLIUzDc0PH5WoM02Zx_XJ0L3KJyhCYmm_62vCZ4Y5WLx1s4wWJ5FECc8IEafFJwJIaGvxJQonMQ3ac--WFIjoO3IA6TBsA/w340-h400/IMG_20230204_162709.jpg" width="340" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The biggest problem with buying a fairly large boiler was the weight. This thing weighs 32 kg. Holding up there above my head over the stairs while Judy helped push it into place to hook it onto the supports that I'd already fitted in the wall took a lot of effort. The bathroom is just behind the wall on the right. This was the closest place to the bathroom where we could install the water heater. This means less loss due to long pipes than was the case with the gas water heater. As you can see, I'd not yet done the plumbing or electrical work when this photo was taken.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p>I'm almost totally bald while Judy has long hair so it's no surprise that she thought a larger boiler would be necessary. I've done calculations which I think reliably indicate that 50 litres would be more enough for Judy, but as we're grandparents now we might actually need to run a bath for our favourite visitor at some point and that could mean needing more water. The extra large boiler will cost a bit of extra energy, but we can compensate by running it slightly cooler and letting the shower mix in less cold water. But in any case we should have solar power to spare - I <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2022/09/lets-have-more-solar-power.html">expanded the solar installation in September</a> when I ordered the first water boiler specifically in order to cope with this.</p><p><b>Tidying up</b></p><p>The water pipes to the gas heater have been removed but the heater is still in place in the boiler room alongside the central heating boiler (which doesn't get used much, but . I'll get rid of it when the gas central heating boiler is removed, a job which I will probably have to get someone else to do so they can do both at once. Until that day it's doing us no harm and it's perfectly safe - the gas pipe the gas boiler has a tap on it which which is now switched off.</p><p><b>How much energy does it use ?</b></p><p>After three weeks of operation, with us having showers as frequently as usual, the water heater had consumed 44 kWh of electricity. That works out as an expected consumption of about 770 kWh per year to cover all our hot water usage, which would cost about €300 at today's electricity prices. By comparison, the consumption of our old gas water heater's pilot light was 134 m3 per year. At today's price that amount of gas would cost over €400 per year, and remember that that was just for the pilot light. i.e. it didn't include the gas used for actually making hot water that we washed with. So all else being equal, replacing the gas water heater with electric would save us about €10 a month. i.e. it would take about three years before the new water heater has paid for itself in reduced cost.</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTZ2MQULv6OSUSWzuPqmcoEdCOzDpdwaPPwPDwDxtfYmKCb2XUp1Z2dDTWSDHrBr6BdO_XvtG4BOHuQ7Y6QbrA2Slv9g4niOOYdnNkt0CLtwZFGHv2W9_BWgtoSQb0_8SfzTbbjCdPfYLonOfpYfKv3Rx4a9j-mgmam1OIcJURYl6ygn7w3x35BD_l0A/s800/L1030878.JPG" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTZ2MQULv6OSUSWzuPqmcoEdCOzDpdwaPPwPDwDxtfYmKCb2XUp1Z2dDTWSDHrBr6BdO_XvtG4BOHuQ7Y6QbrA2Slv9g4niOOYdnNkt0CLtwZFGHv2W9_BWgtoSQb0_8SfzTbbjCdPfYLonOfpYfKv3Rx4a9j-mgmam1OIcJURYl6ygn7w3x35BD_l0A/s320/L1030878.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We expect these <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2022/09/lets-have-more-solar-power.html">extra solar panels installed in September</a> to<br />generate about the same amount of electricity as the water heater uses<br /></td></tr></tbody></table>But all else isn't equal: <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2022/09/lets-have-more-solar-power.html">The extra 800 W of additional solar panels which we added to our rooftop system</a> a few months ago should generate approximately the same amount of energy each year as the water heater consumes. As a result, our annual energy cost should just drop by the price of the gas that the water heater burnt, which worked out as about €40 a month. That's quite a significant number for us because €40 a month just happens to be exactly the same amount as we've paid for our electricity and gas together over the last year.<p></p><p>So as we stand right now our energy bills ought to be very close to zero in future even if we do nothing more to improve efficiency of our home. But that's not the plan. We will of course continue to do more to make our home more efficient, and there will be more blog posts about it.</p><p><b>It's also a battery / storage heater</b></p><p>An instant water heater would consume electricity when it is used. i.e. nighttime showers could not be powered by our solar panels. But with this hot water tank our showers can be powered by our solar panels even if we shower when the sun isn't shining. Another effect of having a tank of hot water heated from solar power during the day to warm our water is that small amount of heat leaking from the water tank is released 24 hours a day. i.e. some of the energy stored by the water heater during the day is released at night, keeping the upstairs of our home slightly warmer in winter.</p><p><b>Why not install solar thermal water heating ?</b></p><p>A perfectly reasonable question, which someone asked on social media. My answer is as follows:</p><p>In total the panels, the boiler and all the parts needed to install everything cost less than €1400. It would have cost at least twice as much to install a thermal solar water heater. Also, we'd still have needed to buy the electric boiler (a more expensive version of it with pipes as well as electric heating) because if we'd gone with solar thermal that would almost certainly not heat the water sufficiently in winter. By doing it this way, all the solar panels on our house & garage combined can contribute to water heating, not just a smaller area so it's likely to work better on darker days.</p><p>In addition, the extra solar panels are on the garage roof were easily to reach safely at a low work height while thermal solar panels would have had to be installed on the much higher roof of our home. So in addition to this being a cheaper way of heating water than thermal solar, I also did not have to clamber about on the roof of my house (nor pay anyone to do that dangerous job for me), didn't have to make holes in the roof for pipes which could leak, and there's no risk at all of leakage due to pipes being frozen in winter.</p><p>And think of future maintenance. The water heater and solar panels function completely separately from each other. i.e. either can be replaced without affecting the other component of the system.</p><p>I don't think that thermal solar makes much sense these days. It did in the past when PV panels were far more expensive than they are now. My father-in-law made his own solar water heating panels in the 1980s. This was an interesting project, they were made of copper sheeting with copper pipes soldered on, all painted black, in an insulated wooden box with glass in front. They were very effective and I enjoyed a few nice warm showers from that system in the summer. But it worked out in large part because they built a home around the system so the panels could be larger than commercial systems and ideally located to work with gravity. Around the same time I was experimenting with my first solar electric panels on my roof, but they produced very little electricity for their size and cost and it would have been completely impractical to use them for heating water. For many years I thought we'd end up with solar thermal water heating, but they were always difficult to install on a standard home, and this is now a better way of doing it.</p><p><br /></p><p>Anyway, that's another DIY job finished, and we've taken another step in the direction of complete independence from fossil fuel.</p>
<center><a href="http://www.dutchbikebits.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://dutchbikebits.com/dbbavtcp640.png" style="border: 0px;" /></a></center>David Hembrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14543024940730663645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7781742879659228364.post-89832924011143805032022-09-09T19:11:00.006+02:002023-02-08T18:15:47.381+01:00Let's have more solar power<p>On Wednesday we brought home some solar panels and an inverter and we finished installing them on the roof of our garage today.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBfK6VnDFT5hTl_sawGDtOMgUHHZglk8N9XSHEU01O1ixtDafp7ZuJLfhiQhwr52rm4Apif-Iyko5FinOsJMGTnJ6jhG2-50U7mlrqAP5nm80wFiPKj1tAwSx1MeLvODbGtwnBSZaw8gD_hrIpWjIWdcIs_RfJtsdTig1BsUWoQhiIAsXd2WvgtF9FgA/s800/L1030878.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBfK6VnDFT5hTl_sawGDtOMgUHHZglk8N9XSHEU01O1ixtDafp7ZuJLfhiQhwr52rm4Apif-Iyko5FinOsJMGTnJ6jhG2-50U7mlrqAP5nm80wFiPKj1tAwSx1MeLvODbGtwnBSZaw8gD_hrIpWjIWdcIs_RfJtsdTig1BsUWoQhiIAsXd2WvgtF9FgA/w640-h480/L1030878.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">These panels are aimed to the south to try to pick up the maximum sun that they can over the whole day, but nearby trees will cause some shading.</td></tr></tbody></table><p>We bought this set of parts from a local supplier, <a href="https://webshop.cedel.nl/" target="_blank">Cedel</a>, so that we could pick them up. The panels aren't extremely heavy, at about 18 kg each, but they are large at 1.8 m x 1.1 m each and of course they're made of glass so quite delicate. As a result, this turned out to be one of the <a href="https://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/search/label/car-free" target="_blank">very rare jobs which couldn't be done by bicycle</a> but luckily our son-in-law volunteered to drive with a trailer to collect the panels. Cedel sells <a href="https://webshop.cedel.nl/plug-and-play-solar-set-2" target="_blank">a set</a> of two 400 Wp panels with a Hoymiles HM-800 micro-inverter for €800, including a plug and play cable which can simply be connected to an electrical outlet, but I paid an extra €50 for an HM-1500 which can run four panels so that we can expand this system economically in the future. An expanded system will require wiring directly to the meter cupboard so that's another thing that I'll had to do if we decide to add those extra panels</p><p>Due to supply chain issues, standard mounting parts were not available. However, that's not really a difficult job. A quick bit of SohCahToa remembered from school and some literally back of the envelope calculations allowed me to work out dimensions for the substantial impregnated fence posts which I'd decided to use to construct the supports.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRAmMILrGM4EYUIdOJ0E3gzyw3cyDhITSvocIYPEvZQLlGKFtGzs9hANPInyB3fWU3g36j-g39yayX1e0prcWHUArcoGA_yhpKQgsxZnOptPV7mQB8JPpaFNIv57HyGiDhuEfto2NFNoa0_M5X7Lnicwu0WYNyAQHlf91PDBIZRaRyGtWmdsUcdqnHYg/s800/L1030883.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRAmMILrGM4EYUIdOJ0E3gzyw3cyDhITSvocIYPEvZQLlGKFtGzs9hANPInyB3fWU3g36j-g39yayX1e0prcWHUArcoGA_yhpKQgsxZnOptPV7mQB8JPpaFNIv57HyGiDhuEfto2NFNoa0_M5X7Lnicwu0WYNyAQHlf91PDBIZRaRyGtWmdsUcdqnHYg/w300-h400/L1030883.JPG" width="300" /></a></div><p>It turned out that when I included the 68 mm width of the posts in the calculation I could make the entire support with wooden parts of 1 m in length for all the horizontal parts and 0.4 m in length for all the vertical parts, dimensions which resulted in the minimum of waste from fence posts of a standard 2.4 m length.</p><p>Our garden fence consists of 4 m2 panels each of which is held up by two fence posts of the same type shared with the next panel. i.e. there's about one post per 4 m2. This has stayed intact through every kind of storm for at least 20 years, and the only work I've had to do was to re-enforce a few panels which gone rotten at the base where they're buried in soil. So I think the same type of wood is certainly strong and resilient enough in much shorter lengths when holding a 2 m2 panel at a 22 degree angle from horizontal.</p><p>It's recommended that 22 kg of ballast be used for each panel in our location and at the height of our garage roof. These supports much heavier than the commercial systems, already weighing nearly 20 kg for each panel, and I've added quite a lot of tiles from the garden, each of which weighs about 8 kg so in total including the supports we have about 70 kg of ballast per panel. This should be adequate. Note that while that sounds like a heavy thing to put on the roof, I weigh nearly as much as the ballast and panel combined and when I walk on the garage roof all the weight is concentrated in the area of one of my feet. The solar panels mounted in this way spread their similar weight over about 4 times the area that I do when I walk.</p><p>This took about two days to do, including all the measuring, lifting, cutting etc. We were also delayed by rain. It's a fairly easy DIY job. And if the panels generate around 800 kWh per year, then at next year's 60 cent per kWh price it'll take less than two years for them to earn back what they cost.</p><p>The parts were ordered last Friday and ready for collection on Monday. It then took me two days to arrange collection and today I finished installing this setup on the roof of our garage. It's almost impossible to get anything done quickly by someone else at the moment due to covid related staff shortages, but if you're willing to do some DIY most things can still be done quite quickly.</p><p><b>That's not all</b></p><p>These aren't our first solar panels. Actually, we had 16 235 Wp panels <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2012/04/we-now-have-our-own-solar-power.html">installed on our roof ten years ago</a> which still operate perfectly.</p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDyBD8DL0CjG0-wANx_Fmy880OvS1ROwz8AUmLsIi3M2r-YAjNzZo0VwXSD1KaUyoz2QC27CKC18rb-3RerfBUGRZzz2fSmwV5EmhFt4ERA1SO6k0XCGhfaYTuydmO-g0c6mKcOxunfMhf4M7uWY6pMrQ4qEktnZuEEAtbGfQQxi8RSvjvlOMpzH_6Ww/s800/IMG_20210824_160128.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="206" data-original-width="800" height="164" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDyBD8DL0CjG0-wANx_Fmy880OvS1ROwz8AUmLsIi3M2r-YAjNzZo0VwXSD1KaUyoz2QC27CKC18rb-3RerfBUGRZzz2fSmwV5EmhFt4ERA1SO6k0XCGhfaYTuydmO-g0c6mKcOxunfMhf4M7uWY6pMrQ4qEktnZuEEAtbGfQQxi8RSvjvlOMpzH_6Ww/w640-h164/IMG_20210824_160128.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our original 16 panels oriented south-west and still working as well as when they were first installed 10 years ago.</td></tr></tbody></table><p>When the 16 panels were originally installed we expected that they'd fall a little short of covering our annual consumption of electricity, but actually they turned out to produce more than had been estimated and almost exactly the same amount as we used. Over time, our consumption has dropped quite a lot while <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2022/04/ten-years-of-rooftop-solar-power-no.html">production of the panels has stayed exactly the same</a> for ten years, so for the last few years we've exported more electricity to the grid than we have taken from it. The only problem we've had with that system in the last ten years is that the inverter failed four years ago, but even though the manufacturer wasn't co-operative at all <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2018/07/fixing-abbsolar-one-aurora-uno-inverter.html">I fixed it at minimal cost</a> and it's operated perfectly since then.</p><p>So you might wonder why we are now installing more panels. The answer of course is that we want to get rid of all our gas appliances. It's been known for many years that fossil fuels are <a href="https://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2018/12/daddy-what-did-you-do-in-climate-war.html" target="_blank">endangering all life on the planet</a>. This has to stop. We can't control everything, but <a href="https://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2020/02/who-are-one-percent-super-polluters.html" target="_blank">we can control our own consumption</a>. By continuing to buy fossil fuel we empower the companies that produce it and we just can't keep doing that. <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/search/label/insulation">Insulating our home</a> has already reduced our gas consumption for heating to less than an average small apartment, and we now cook entirely with electricity (the cooker only ever used a fraction of the gas that heating uses). We didn't replace our central heating boiler, which is old and inefficient, because buying a new boiler would lock us in to continued gas usage. Our low consumption is entirely the result of it not having much to do any more because the house is so well insulated. That means we could now economically replace our gas central heating with electrical heating, and that's even more true as of today with the extra pair of solar panels.</p><p>Heat pumps which could replace the central heating and heat the entire house in winter are still quite expensive and a bit hard to justify on price grounds, but we could install a small air conditioning unit which can produce heat with about the same efficiency as a heat pump in the living room as that's relatively inexpensive so that may be what we choose. We barely use any heating in the upstairs anyway.</p><p><b>A third smaller, experimental system</b></p><p>We've also been experimenting with smaller scale solar power system. One of our daughters lives in a flat in Assen. Unfortunately we can't fit solar panels anywhere on the outside. The balcony might have been an option but it faces north west so only receives sun just before sun-down which means it's quite a pleasant place to sit on a summer evening, but doesn't make any sense at all for solar panels. The rear windows face south east, but there's no place outside on that side of the building. As there are no really good options I decided to experiment with mounting solar panels inside the double glazed windows. After all, if you don't try it you don't know how well it works.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimsFRQozWs8AP5ENRtfRAGi1_r3pF07-7BdFVX2FuS6G1-Nx0epnnLlfTZxZSKu_BUUebXYRfmzP4aag_6nS9y7QhnEYam-bcacX5Pndx6Vd38jl6FDOMafYzblFDFuxjXUaAh9WzK4QecH4k3DXBLQRy_OC2xxXxZAQr3zwaupuCUDSPlXV_GwgMMqA/s800/IMG_20220901_130957.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="599" data-original-width="800" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimsFRQozWs8AP5ENRtfRAGi1_r3pF07-7BdFVX2FuS6G1-Nx0epnnLlfTZxZSKu_BUUebXYRfmzP4aag_6nS9y7QhnEYam-bcacX5Pndx6Vd38jl6FDOMafYzblFDFuxjXUaAh9WzK4QecH4k3DXBLQRy_OC2xxXxZAQr3zwaupuCUDSPlXV_GwgMMqA/w640-h480/IMG_20220901_130957.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From the outside it's quite difficult to tell which window is full of solar panels.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCqRgjkgywGEwzP77IiM7li7QAxpYGKE_IYBLMJA83Ri4JRf8-nk0D3fdckXvOr5E0P5cq6weFqA_1Je93BQ-T-2QJHrEmMwORVM67wO73BSJY1uvYaKW5pO1K9sw2A2kJDSkxnJWlJO58CEyV6CBYDL05iQFpZ_zA-Hu1AosvXhXueTcojt1w3_4DDg/s800/IMG_20220831_151106.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCqRgjkgywGEwzP77IiM7li7QAxpYGKE_IYBLMJA83Ri4JRf8-nk0D3fdckXvOr5E0P5cq6weFqA_1Je93BQ-T-2QJHrEmMwORVM67wO73BSJY1uvYaKW5pO1K9sw2A2kJDSkxnJWlJO58CEyV6CBYDL05iQFpZ_zA-Hu1AosvXhXueTcojt1w3_4DDg/w640-h480/IMG_20220831_151106.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">They're just the right size to fill this window. Luckily there are other windows in this flat so this doesn't block all light.</td></tr></tbody></table><p>The panels for the flat are a flexible type ordered from Aliexpress. I couldn't find them anywhere else. Luckily, one supplier has a depot in Poland which because it's inside the EU meant they were delivered to us promptly and without any unpleasant customs related surprises. These panels are a quarter of the size of the new panels that we've installed on the garage, just 1050 mm long by 550 mm wide. They're also really light in weight. As a result they're <b>much</b> easier to transport, I took both of these panels to the flat packed in their cardboard box by riding my bike with the box wedged under one arm. The inverter in this case is a Hoymiles HM-400, which operates quite well with two of these panels connected in series, though as it's rated for 400 W it's working well under maximum capacity.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD0Y4WH7rJNYdaO5uXXApA7_WUyzviUouj3o85yM2w4Nya1hPhm5q7o7t581eIuZ9OIq1Dlx05OQzgbMSm1atk0gEKypZQdpA10E5fPJeSKoU9gZremYPIp0FoOm-uZHT7ylu7OUwlG_mE-H36Tk6TFDnZzNqt4QaTKxUP4Qx8yqVsLZjxohgYniZtCg/s800/IMG_20220830_162112.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD0Y4WH7rJNYdaO5uXXApA7_WUyzviUouj3o85yM2w4Nya1hPhm5q7o7t581eIuZ9OIq1Dlx05OQzgbMSm1atk0gEKypZQdpA10E5fPJeSKoU9gZremYPIp0FoOm-uZHT7ylu7OUwlG_mE-H36Tk6TFDnZzNqt4QaTKxUP4Qx8yqVsLZjxohgYniZtCg/w640-h480/IMG_20220830_162112.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">These panels are nominally rated at 100 W each. Two of them connected in series and propped up in our garden roughly aimed at the sun on the reasonably sunny day when they arrived together produced 140 W, which seems quite reasonable. In the window of the flat we've not yet seen more than 90 W due to losses caused by the glass and the requirement to mount them vertically. Update later in September: we've now seen over 100 W on several occasions from the panels in the flat window. This might make them more worthwhile.</td></tr></tbody></table><p>It's still an experiment. We want to help our daughter with the ever rising energy costs, but will this be worth doing given that the output is quite low ? It seems that mounting the panels inside roughly halves their output. This will vary depending on the glass, of course, and also on the panels due to different panels reacting to different frequencies of light. One smaller 12 V / 20 W panel that I have at home loses only about 20% due to being held inside a double glazed window, but unfortunately these panels are affected to a larger degree.</p><p>In total this system cost about €360. Half of the price was for the solar panels and the other half for the inverter. In the first week that they were connected, in September, we saw about 0.25 kWh per day from the panels mounted inside the flat. At the end of the year my daughter's electricity will cost over 60 cents per kWh, so that's worth about 15 cents per day. If we estimate that the average over a year is about half that much the electricity generated by these panels will be worth about €27 a year, which means a payback period of over thirteen years which I think is too long by any way of looking at it.</p><p>How about if we add two more panels (connected serial/parallel - making the equivalent of one 400 Wp panel which is still within the specs for the HM-400) ? Obviously this would block another window. It would also increase the cost of the system by 50%, but output would increase by 100%, or perhaps even slightly more if the inverter wakes up earlier due to the increased output of four panels. The result is a would be a payback period of almost exactly ten years, if the electricity price stays at 60 cents per kWh, which is still not great, but it's not far off what I originally expected from the roof-top system. Of course if prices continue to rise then the payback period will become shorter, but they may also drop.</p><p>For now I don't desperately need these panels for another purpose so they can stay put for a longer experimental period, or until my daughter says she wants rid of them. They'd perhaps be more effectively deployed on the south west facing wall of our home where they'd pick up the early morning light without their output being reduced by being mounted behind glass, and pay for themselves in about 7 years. I think a set of four of these would make a fairly good easily transportable system for someone who lives in a rented apartment and has a south facing balcony as they'd then pay for themselves in about five years.</p><p><b>Another really small system</b></p><p>I've had a small flexible solar panel on my velomobile for over ten years. In summer it's kept the battery charged so everyday use didn't require plugging in a charger. Unfortunately, the circuit got damaged and I had to replace it. I decided that this time I'd use a much simpler circuit - a shunt regulator with a zener and a single transistor to limit the voltage to about 7 V. Current is limited by the panel itself, the internal resistance of the battery and because once the voltage gets close to the maximum the shunt starts to conduct a bit. This circuit does a reasonable job of keeping a NiMH battery pack topped up and it can't damage that kind of battery. Don't even think about trying this with a lithium battery. I built two of these so that Judy no longer has to charge the battery for her velomobile either:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwWsTZoDZ-ZEeqp1m9KpVXgvfMCt-Xzz4Nwg2bH-q7rFuFY-hZ_sU0m4v_hgFn7VbK2Fg9mZL3EGi59y1nPYr22vkNTrZwqRg4-N4iNoBVnEsbdLtkJ5B7H4wlJaP1LGSwgBgPOCIt5J8AraLJSulxsc6hkmq6GDPyOGwrvRwtgpBUwc7vVUKjkvu8zg/s800/L1030852.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwWsTZoDZ-ZEeqp1m9KpVXgvfMCt-Xzz4Nwg2bH-q7rFuFY-hZ_sU0m4v_hgFn7VbK2Fg9mZL3EGi59y1nPYr22vkNTrZwqRg4-N4iNoBVnEsbdLtkJ5B7H4wlJaP1LGSwgBgPOCIt5J8AraLJSulxsc6hkmq6GDPyOGwrvRwtgpBUwc7vVUKjkvu8zg/w640-h480/L1030852.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6XO6H3KkDh9J0_K3erRQxFa0E06kE2gISVN5WSnqrTI7PxjRqLf2pA7OjmNrV0wWOzqndQksWjLC1fK-D4QnrThYT-xn6jfXvsHNEhNKMvfeXcIgFUL0wwU2yec97boedhdvy00_CCuNeEuuBsNgU-Te_sISbRapsm83SkAGz5tl4aFUdoHFOj6du_Q/s640/L1030894.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="346" data-original-width="640" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6XO6H3KkDh9J0_K3erRQxFa0E06kE2gISVN5WSnqrTI7PxjRqLf2pA7OjmNrV0wWOzqndQksWjLC1fK-D4QnrThYT-xn6jfXvsHNEhNKMvfeXcIgFUL0wwU2yec97boedhdvy00_CCuNeEuuBsNgU-Te_sISbRapsm83SkAGz5tl4aFUdoHFOj6du_Q/w640-h346/L1030894.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2gaKui1MBvrLJAwZV7CsicP_0FWHYBLkPmCZF2uB4zXds_IEbEIKpOosoTFx5C-30JEWS-MDHbjmLl9YxtLOxti5Qayzpm20dOtaRoF5ANtVFUIcHcBuSr5r5rCZXER_rNtYKy2bB5EStUs24cXhWjVh5jbIh5SZejRGebaKJs5EIHRqOx6C9J06E5w/s800/101_0653.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="599" data-original-width="800" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2gaKui1MBvrLJAwZV7CsicP_0FWHYBLkPmCZF2uB4zXds_IEbEIKpOosoTFx5C-30JEWS-MDHbjmLl9YxtLOxti5Qayzpm20dOtaRoF5ANtVFUIcHcBuSr5r5rCZXER_rNtYKy2bB5EStUs24cXhWjVh5jbIh5SZejRGebaKJs5EIHRqOx6C9J06E5w/w640-h480/101_0653.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Velomobiles are the most efficient vehicles on the planet, maximising the potential of human muscle power. Judy's now has a small solar panel, just like that on my velomobile, which keeps the battery used for lighting and indicators topped up.</td></tr></tbody></table><p>Of course I've not even tried to work out whether this is economical compared with charging from the mains. I had the parts and it's convenient for us.</p>
<center><a href="http://www.dutchbikebits.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://dutchbikebits.com/dbbavtcp640.png" style="border: 0px;" /></a></center>
David Hembrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14543024940730663645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7781742879659228364.post-42695518470802812592022-08-24T17:52:00.009+02:002023-08-15T16:55:24.022+02:00Repairing and improving a vacuum cleaner. Samsung SC4580/SC4581 motor replacement and leak fix<p> A few days ago our vacuum cleaner stopped working. What actually happened is that it made a rather unpleasant burning electronics smell, accompanied by a significant reduction in suction. I took it apart, and the first thing that was required was a good clean. Clearly the dust which went into this vacuum cleaner did not all end up being collected, but was instead swirling around all the internal parts because there were so many leaks. So the first thing I did was take everything into the garden for a wash.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2Q_udAwy8qdAHGplCuivGHutCJv5RzqNICH37n9kGuGb0xcUdkCg_c8xcpWL-dKNfwL_mE61kfUx44Dto-1UYef6zgMR0gPowFHCCy1IkGXsJd6HA1dtygLqMGD4LEyCjvb6IK2MEkv0xs4XijmaswlandQTzriedK2L8tNJBJExB018K7RLtzWERnA/s640/signal-2022-08-21-181648_002.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="521" data-original-width="640" height="521" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2Q_udAwy8qdAHGplCuivGHutCJv5RzqNICH37n9kGuGb0xcUdkCg_c8xcpWL-dKNfwL_mE61kfUx44Dto-1UYef6zgMR0gPowFHCCy1IkGXsJd6HA1dtygLqMGD4LEyCjvb6IK2MEkv0xs4XijmaswlandQTzriedK2L8tNJBJExB018K7RLtzWERnA/w640-h521/signal-2022-08-21-181648_002.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p>By connecting the mains electricity directly to the motor instead of running it through the electronic speed controller I could confirm that it was indeed the motor itself which was faulty. The motor is combined with an impeller and put together without any easily removable fasteners. They are not separable or easily maintainable. The bearing seemed to be fine, but it was obvious that the coils had become rather hot and that the insulation on them was no working properly</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXdqHj9LlU8h-WIx3TSNQa0DUKm-8htzA58iLIkn6diBOKG3kilplihRy4IYoBifmTC2tL8EhJ8nl6kajNULT2P1CwvCCRZyS40abltnCjFfXUhVsSmuIwMvrKv3HxPRTejfP5L04bHZIauI_ZZJdFVpvRdOLU8btwo9ec0S6emu3XalgTBe5AGqegEg/s640/signal-2022-08-21-153609_002.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="580" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXdqHj9LlU8h-WIx3TSNQa0DUKm-8htzA58iLIkn6diBOKG3kilplihRy4IYoBifmTC2tL8EhJ8nl6kajNULT2P1CwvCCRZyS40abltnCjFfXUhVsSmuIwMvrKv3HxPRTejfP5L04bHZIauI_ZZJdFVpvRdOLU8btwo9ec0S6emu3XalgTBe5AGqegEg/w580-h640/signal-2022-08-21-153609_002.jpg" width="580" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIbReb6T1kHIUdM9lgFf20JnPyA28es1KUbVZwgyMDxThKCWX67xd65qSbN1vuE9oVnVFBuHIHYBdGzHk6mvGI2E6zMKpFM9YPJ6vBmlIoMXyrL-nMIN4XdhgmZ7fH6dlUPEmdZx9gHGTi9kdfItUCnDOikX5AIMTtGP6n4myJZ3ZHko8IfVLaOkJoKg/s640/signal-2022-08-21-153609_003.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="587" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIbReb6T1kHIUdM9lgFf20JnPyA28es1KUbVZwgyMDxThKCWX67xd65qSbN1vuE9oVnVFBuHIHYBdGzHk6mvGI2E6zMKpFM9YPJ6vBmlIoMXyrL-nMIN4XdhgmZ7fH6dlUPEmdZx9gHGTi9kdfItUCnDOikX5AIMTtGP6n4myJZ3ZHko8IfVLaOkJoKg/s16000/signal-2022-08-21-153609_003.jpg" /></a></div><p>A direct replacement motor is available from Samsung, but this costs about €90. On the other hand a generic replacement motor with the same dimensions (130 mm diameter, 110 mm height), described as suitable for Samsung / Dyson / AEG and other makes, cost only €30. So that's what I ordered as a replacement. Note that this suggests that all these vacuum cleaners have essentially the same parts inside apart from the plastic mouldings around the motor.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuskfGppRoMvtFfsGlDl8OdZAjdsvqlyVGW8HZ0Fse0XqqQ7D7m6bBq-Sub4x31JHnkz7mWnsl0_fEm4iBJDhgNuVyOrGP7kGmq_6ck_cgd9XR4G30rde74JtpCSnoGqd-PVey25VOSFINidHegdDWKCDcP8f-_BzvYDI6ih9uEOLuNS3sLeQwxg2lLg/s480/L1030866.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="253" data-original-width="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuskfGppRoMvtFfsGlDl8OdZAjdsvqlyVGW8HZ0Fse0XqqQ7D7m6bBq-Sub4x31JHnkz7mWnsl0_fEm4iBJDhgNuVyOrGP7kGmq_6ck_cgd9XR4G30rde74JtpCSnoGqd-PVey25VOSFINidHegdDWKCDcP8f-_BzvYDI6ih9uEOLuNS3sLeQwxg2lLg/s16000/L1030866.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Label on the generic replacement motor. Little information other than diameter, height and wattage.</td></tr></tbody></table><p>The generic motor was the same size, but not identical in all ways. In particular, the two holes on the top of the motor must line up with two plastic studs inside the plastic housing which hold in place a piece of rubber which absorbs shock and stops the motor from rotating:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdQJ9Z35vq-m_VwAp77ujfnoWl_dsMvMqei1XCOEIRbL3ysKvQKe1Yh1Sk-cbvKqyW1pVAoCA-JYNL6aA80ywVBxHCcijZ86jAO6vDZvOdqUG-IpOdtXK1Ju3ob2JJSvXhFQYnSfrN8EjNTqVGbkAKoYAz4rBYuavW01WGkHsmjekd_ARANIaINIsXWQ/s800/101_0642.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdQJ9Z35vq-m_VwAp77ujfnoWl_dsMvMqei1XCOEIRbL3ysKvQKe1Yh1Sk-cbvKqyW1pVAoCA-JYNL6aA80ywVBxHCcijZ86jAO6vDZvOdqUG-IpOdtXK1Ju3ob2JJSvXhFQYnSfrN8EjNTqVGbkAKoYAz4rBYuavW01WGkHsmjekd_ARANIaINIsXWQ/w640-h480/101_0642.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDvxP35_IcMv3VqGKZHsHONcA8UxdB_ErR12MhWiaS3gWzENNDngiAN6LJzGUrgwLTkl2mKmp7XaUM1rjJfp-pNhDVPfOQN_GReDcjgDWDHkVxnPG_IPUdF7gQ-B5ZTbLSd_U_vPt0dAGolT4_bMleG3jKmTutI_u23nKaCVCh3ZOr6QyC7s5GnDprZQ/s800/101_0643.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="600" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDvxP35_IcMv3VqGKZHsHONcA8UxdB_ErR12MhWiaS3gWzENNDngiAN6LJzGUrgwLTkl2mKmp7XaUM1rjJfp-pNhDVPfOQN_GReDcjgDWDHkVxnPG_IPUdF7gQ-B5ZTbLSd_U_vPt0dAGolT4_bMleG3jKmTutI_u23nKaCVCh3ZOr6QyC7s5GnDprZQ/w480-h640/101_0643.JPG" width="480" /></a></div><p>This, of course could be fixed. I cut off the plastic studs, drilled holes in the correct place for the replacement motor and glued some wooden dowels into place with epoxy:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-2-8EF_WadPxlVNTnciZb4-lguPS1vilItaZzi3PPXtVMQ-pJfLPHfGU2-Jherakno56ibOhKYPcNF74d3iO6wA5yLUuV8y2netzNh0BbkQwbTuGVdnIRJpplLWdMUWR7sa63aXEJ91cLSZmqSv61hmU9-GtiUteMLjrMp3HzZK1g6ARs6okTgc28Yg/s800/101_0646.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="601" data-original-width="800" height="481" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-2-8EF_WadPxlVNTnciZb4-lguPS1vilItaZzi3PPXtVMQ-pJfLPHfGU2-Jherakno56ibOhKYPcNF74d3iO6wA5yLUuV8y2netzNh0BbkQwbTuGVdnIRJpplLWdMUWR7sa63aXEJ91cLSZmqSv61hmU9-GtiUteMLjrMp3HzZK1g6ARs6okTgc28Yg/w640-h481/101_0646.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p>Another small issue was the power connectors were a different place on the replacement motor and the housing didn't provide space for them. I found that they could be bent slightly to fit and then I had to solder wire directly to the terminals instead of using push-on connectors. The parts could then be re-assembled.</p><p>While looking for information about these vacuum cleaners I came across <a href="https://josbertlonnee.wordpress.com/2015/11/20/improving-the-samsung-sc4580/" target="_blank">an interesting blog from someone who had eliminated the leaks</a>. While re-assembling I followed his suggestions in the hope that this would improve performance.</p>
<p><b>Result: Our vacuum cleaner now works perfectly again</b></p><p>It's as good as new. Actually it's better than new in three ways:</p>
<ol style="text-align: left;"><li>It sucks better than ever</li><li>It is much quieter than it used to be</li><li>It uses uses less electricity than before</li></ol>
<p>The replacement motor is rated at 1200 W instead of the 2000 W originally fitted so power consumption is lower (this obviously depends on the power setting), but it's sucking better because sealing the leaks means that less of the effort put in by the motor is wasted. Meanwhile, getting rid of the leaks also means that most of the wind noise that the machine made has now gone away.</p>
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David Hembrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14543024940730663645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7781742879659228364.post-69649723751362807222022-04-05T16:35:00.004+02:002022-11-09T14:43:50.849+01:00Ten years of rooftop solar power - no decline in output can be seen<p>Today is the tenth anniversary of the installation of our mains connected rooftop solar panels. In total the inverter reports that 33935 kWh of electricity have been generated in ten years, an average of 3394 kWh per year since they were installed.</p><h2 style="text-align: left;">After ten years we still can't see any decline in output</h2>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga78O0ZJS512QseSWoTsw6SqqPdwCvk1Wu2rKIG_3bCNBKcyy04oJJqnU2puxRWRq0tPbteA0AA7rtmrG0sBJnQRVloKSA-K6y9dtlrHagA6dygk2BAe0OQctzXs87Q1VQc01CwAm4if0ukTxgB2Yl3eCZ_v006SvQaHH8-ANouR_LdhrNVByTS-1m2Q/s600/Solar%20array%20output%20per%20year%20in%20kWh.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="371" data-original-width="600" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga78O0ZJS512QseSWoTsw6SqqPdwCvk1Wu2rKIG_3bCNBKcyy04oJJqnU2puxRWRq0tPbteA0AA7rtmrG0sBJnQRVloKSA-K6y9dtlrHagA6dygk2BAe0OQctzXs87Q1VQc01CwAm4if0ukTxgB2Yl3eCZ_v006SvQaHH8-ANouR_LdhrNVByTS-1m2Q/w640-h396/Solar%20array%20output%20per%20year%20in%20kWh.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Output in kWh per year. Note that there's considerable variation depending on the weather. The lowest output was 3126 kWh in 2018-2019 and the highest 3516 kWh in the second year. Last year was also higher than average, within 0.1% of the highest.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p>A rough calculation before installation suggested that we could expect around 3478 kWh of electricity each year under ideal circumstances, but our supplier suggested that in practice given the angle of our roof we should expect around 3150 kWh per year. The guarantee with the panels said that a decline in performance of 10% over the first 10 years was within normal bounds. This year's 3392 kWh is only slightly under the ten year average, but as it's higher than four of the previous years (<a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2013/04/one-whole-year-of-solar-power-and-what.html">including the first year</a>) it's also far from abnormal. I don't see evidence of a decline in output due to aging.</p><h2 style="text-align: left;">We still produce more electricity than we consume</h2>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKt5VTGO-0VrRrpwe6GZ90FTV1JFBRR_E-bPpvhArU-pogX1CqvKzvZT0-gVpbOAK14cUex3JxM2qnF8P6Ta7kULlwx4xBlCcE7LTRb-a_7txMzwVxCtXvqwU39gEaodUDFKihknyPHng0zxeZ2CP1blQc2I9Z_l7e4WYMx1Jt5WHCvoj86ZjJ9R2wLA/s868/Solar%20Generation%20vs.%20consumption.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="537" data-original-width="868" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKt5VTGO-0VrRrpwe6GZ90FTV1JFBRR_E-bPpvhArU-pogX1CqvKzvZT0-gVpbOAK14cUex3JxM2qnF8P6Ta7kULlwx4xBlCcE7LTRb-a_7txMzwVxCtXvqwU39gEaodUDFKihknyPHng0zxeZ2CP1blQc2I9Z_l7e4WYMx1Jt5WHCvoj86ZjJ9R2wLA/w640-h396/Solar%20Generation%20vs.%20consumption.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Blue and red bars show production and consumption per month. The yellow line shows the cumulative difference which we've exported to the grid. We started consuming less electricity five years ago, but over the last year we've consumed slightly more than the previous four years.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi905QugxTBrmilLyEnqdpzL5U88Hr3rHoP8FbNMKytEn9DOFOckX5gZrswbbk1cjXC1VjFff-kvLkSghc0wZzBMcYvB1YpxjlGpJiPg2xtqiUSIZOeIgrOXsix_i2I4Z_8mIvAtIwGh3ka2pFgC7H0qVSBTF-N4UXSP5Ag6oMWLHrehAyGGImDwBFUGg/s800/signal-2021-08-31-180819_003.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="598" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi905QugxTBrmilLyEnqdpzL5U88Hr3rHoP8FbNMKytEn9DOFOckX5gZrswbbk1cjXC1VjFff-kvLkSghc0wZzBMcYvB1YpxjlGpJiPg2xtqiUSIZOeIgrOXsix_i2I4Z_8mIvAtIwGh3ka2pFgC7H0qVSBTF-N4UXSP5Ag6oMWLHrehAyGGImDwBFUGg/s320/signal-2021-08-31-180819_003.jpg" width="239" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I painted our house last year, but I didn't clean<br />the solar panels. That doesn't seem to matter at all</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Over the ten year period we've produced about 10% more electricity than we've consumed, but actually for the first five years our consumption was close to the production (for reasons <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2018/04/six-year-solar-power-anniversary-were.html">explained previously</a>) so it's more accurate to say that we've produced about 20% "too much" over the last five years. In other words, our overproduction over five years is roughly the same as the annual consumption of a household like ours.<p></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Cooking with electricity changes the pattern</h2>
<p>You'll notice that the graph showing the cumulative difference between our production and consumption has actually leveled off a bit over the last year. The reason for this is that we've switched to cooking with electricity instead of gas, this being one of the ways we've been trying to further reduce <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/search/label/cooking">the footprint of our already low carbon diet</a>. There's no new kitchen, that'll have to wait for a while. We've been using a small portable electric hob resting on top of the gas appliance as an experiment, which has worked out very well. An induction hob would probably work better. Anyway, it's nice to see that despite this increase in electricity consumption the yellow line is still heading upward at a faster rate than it did on any year before 2016.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">Thoughts about home storage</h2>
<p>A smart meter was installed four years ago so we now have three full years of smart meter readings. Though we have a single tariff contract so pay the same for electricity any time night or day, the smart meter nevertheless separates out the low and high rates of electricity which roughly correspond to day and night. Overall through the year, 39% of the electricity that we use comes directly from our own panels while 61% comes from the grid and we use 38% of what is generated by our panels while exporting 62%. Obviously a battery comes to mind immediately when looking at these figures, but I'm still not convinced that it's worth the investment. How much could it change these figures ? I think by less than we might hope:</p>
<p>Home storage batteries have capacities of around half of a day to a whole day of typical usage. It's enough to reliably keep your refrigerator going overnight during summer, but not remotely enough to span the seasons.</p>
<p>In the summer months such a battery would fill up in the first couple of days and then it would stay nearly full for weeks. The battery would allow us to consume our own electricity overnight, so that for periods of nice weather all of the electricity we use would be "our" electricity from our panels, which is of course an attractive idea. During that best case scenario we would increase from the average 60% of our electricity that currently comes from our own panels during summer to 100%. For the six best months each year we produce on average between 1.7x and 2.1x as much electricity as we consume so even with a battery working as well as it possibly could we could still only capture some of our own electricity for our usage and doing this would only actually increase the percentage of our own electricity that we consumed from the current still 30-35%% to about 50-60%. Also, this is Northern Europe. There are periods even during the nicest Northern European summers when the solar panels don't produce as much as we'd like, so the battery will run down and we would still have to buy some of our electricity from the grid.</p>
<p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHtTuAgd-vkvrpu-VvoWbeIszrnfvEGel4ywrlO5VWXEOm6BnA4aDg0pnFQcv5X9Jen8bYJbd8l94fTHKIbufGUIDQigL6Q_foDeLRNSHlRaQfTQu7_QlDSEiscdNIe5h6gN4GKcrTrg2rryyf805aWagViusnUHAmgoBJBkq_SzTpmU1a1zW83xrTzw/s800/P1070572.JPG" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="450" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHtTuAgd-vkvrpu-VvoWbeIszrnfvEGel4ywrlO5VWXEOm6BnA4aDg0pnFQcv5X9Jen8bYJbd8l94fTHKIbufGUIDQigL6Q_foDeLRNSHlRaQfTQu7_QlDSEiscdNIe5h6gN4GKcrTrg2rryyf805aWagViusnUHAmgoBJBkq_SzTpmU1a1zW83xrTzw/s320/P1070572.JPG" width="180" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">New, huge, windturbine in Drenthe</td></tr></tbody></table>And then there's winter: In the winter months there's far less sunlight falling on our panels and we possibly produce enough electricity to cover our own usage without annexing our neighbours' roofs. Because there's so little sun in the winter what comes from our panels currently covers only about 10-15% of our consumption and during these dark months that means we are already consuming 70-80% of our own electricity just with normal daytime usage. During the winter a battery would therefore be empty or near empty most of the time. While a battery would mean we would reliably consume all of our "own" electricity during winter it wouldn't win us much because there's not much to store: It would reduce the proportion of our electricity that we buy from the grid from the approximately 90% during winter now to around 85% with a battery.<p></p><p>Financially I don't see the benefit of a battery at all. It's an expensive gadget which will change very little. Let's also remember that the electricity leaving our home is not wasted. It's used elsewhere, reducing demand for other, on average less green, generation. So what exactly is gained by trying to keep our electricity to ourselves ? It seems more likely to benefit the ego than the environment.</p><p>So to summarise, I'm still not convinced that there is actually any real point in home storage using batteries. I think we'd possibly get some real benefit from installing a few more panels on the roof as while these could of course not do anything about our nighttime usage they would mean that we'd cover more of our own consumption during the day and if we get around to installing an electrical heat-pump for heating (instead of <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/search/label/gas">the old gas boiler</a>) then balancing the resultant greater electricity consumption with more panels would make sense. I also have doubts about how wise it is to encourage people to install large and potentially highly flammable lithium batteries in their homes. They might be fine when new, but what happens in 20 years time when they've not seen maintenance engineers in many years and they're failing in various unexpected ways? I think it is a better idea to install batteries as large scale devices at substations or next to large solar parks or wind turbines.</p>
<center><a href="http://www.dutchbikebits.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://dutchbikebits.com/dbbavtcp640_2.png" style="border: 0px;" /></a></center><br />
<small><small>Our <a href="https://www.dutchbikebits.com/" target="_blank">business</a> is also powered by these solar panels. We sell <a href="https://www.dutchbikebits.com/practical-parts-for-upright-bicycles" target="_blank">practical bike parts</a> which help people, especially those in other countries where such parts are not so easy to find, to reduce their impact by cycling. Bicycles are <a href="http://www.hembrow.eu/cycling/2017odeaangaia.html#slide15" target="_blank">the most efficient vehicles on the planet</a>. We don't use motor vehicles so every shipment begins with at least the first few km on my bicycle, using nothing but human power.</small></small>David Hembrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14543024940730663645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7781742879659228364.post-63416619042884315552021-12-02T14:41:00.012+01:002023-11-30T14:57:11.201+01:00Modifying a thermostat to make our heating more efficient<p>It's December 2nd and it snowed today. That was the first time that it snowed this winter, and it reminded me to write about a very cheap modification to our thermostat which made our heating system both more efficient (using less gas) as well as giving us better control of the temperature in our home.</p>
<p>Our central heating system is quite old and inefficient, dating from the 1990s. I've been meaning to replace it since we moved in, but first we did quite a bit of <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/search/label/insulation">insulating</a>, including the <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2009/02/cavity-wall-insulation-effectiveness.html">walls</a>, <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2017/12/more-insulation-for-our-walls-and-roof.html">roof</a>, <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2012/10/insulating-floor.html">floor</a> and <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/search/label/windows">triple glazed windows</a>. All of this dramatically reduced the energy input required to stay warm and as a result we've gone from a home which was expensive to run in winter even while we were still cold to one which is very efficient so the heating doesn't come on very often. Much of our gas usage now is actually due to our even more inefficient and old <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-surprising-cost-of-pilot-light.html">water heater</a>. We now burn far less gas than average because even though our central heating boiler remains old and inefficient it doesn't come on very often and last December we used less than half the amount of gas that average homes of our size required for heating, less even than an average apartment. Insulation works.</p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix_wd4V_HgkaO_wEfXXnkMhRlSi1B4vovWzKuzrZUTqq-S3YzVSEPW2bAoVI7w5sy3E6eOqp8VuBq0ZhWMPD7P3W1PA93vF-J5Nbt-hwYOnWXXUMdgX4ukSB2NOAfquuu4JJm43WAV1Vwl/s347/screengas.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="315" data-original-width="347" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix_wd4V_HgkaO_wEfXXnkMhRlSi1B4vovWzKuzrZUTqq-S3YzVSEPW2bAoVI7w5sy3E6eOqp8VuBq0ZhWMPD7P3W1PA93vF-J5Nbt-hwYOnWXXUMdgX4ukSB2NOAfquuu4JJm43WAV1Vwl/s16000/screengas.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This shows gas usage last December. Our bill for electricity and gas together averages around €45 per month over the year. In part this is because the energy company pays us for our excess <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/search/label/solar">solar power</a>.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p>One of the things that put me off buying newer gas appliances was wanting to get rid of them altogether. Unfortunately, when I first looked into doing this I was getting five figure quotes for heat pumps which made it impossible to justify them on economic grounds. Insulating saved us more money more quickly, and the <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/search/label/solar">solar panels</a> were also far easier to justify economically. But the price of heat pumps has come down and I do now want to switch. Unfortunately, the absolutely awful government which this country currently has has ensured that the <a href="https://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/search/label/covid19" target="_blank">covid pandemic</a> has already gone on for nearly two years and it'll probably go on for a while yet. I'm not keen on having people come into our home while this disease is spreading so the heat pump will have to wait. However I did think of a way of making our existing system more efficient:</p>
<p><b>Uneven temperature due to too much insulation and an overenthusiastic central heating system</b></p>
<p>Our boiler and radiators were designed for a leaky house. The radiators are large and the boiler likes to generate lots of really hot water. I turned down the temperature setting on the boiler a very long while ago and there's no problem with the house heating up (this bodes well for replacing it with a heat pump which will produce cooler warm water) but we still had a problem with excessive heat.</p>
<p>What happens is that thermostat switches on, the radiators heat up and because it takes quite a long time for convection to transport heat from radiator to the thermostat the heating would continue to push out heat for far too long resulting in the temperature overshooting sometimes by 3 C over our selected temperature. Setting the thermostat at a lower temperature doesn't fix this problem because that means that the lower temperature has to be reached before we get any heating at all. We were a victim of our good insulation.</p>
<p>My first thought was to replace the thermostat with an Arduino programmed to turn the heating on only for short bursts and I started working on doing this before I realised I was overthinking it: Couldn't I instead do something to convince the existing thermostat to switch for short bursts ? At first I thought perhaps this could be done by adding something like a 555 timer circuit which would change the state of the relay in the thermostat more often, but then I thought of an even simpler solution:</p>
<p><b>The solution which costs just a few cents</b></p>
<p>The thermostat operates by closing a relay contact between two contacts attached to wires from the central heating boiler. Those wires have 24 V AC on them when they're open. When they are shorted that powers something within the central heating boiler which turns on the gas and the pump. I found that a dead short wasn't required. Actually, any low value resistor across the two wires worked just as well as a dead short to make the boiler start up. Trying different values allowed me to calculate that the boiler consumes a constant current of about 80 mA for any low value of resistor across the contacts. A 47 ohm resistor drops about 3.7 V and consumes about a third of a watt itself which is enough to make it slowly warm up. I realised that if I installed this small "heater" inside the thermostat next to the temperature sensor it would give just the desired effect of short bursts of heat from the system before the thermostat thought the room had warmed up and would switch off again.</p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCgzX5cT61V35j80Cse32FlGNxcykhAt5naqP9FU4uZQ9EIyDxmxa2a5i7A8agIiqRAAP3QlCb_PlMxZs4wssa6xxN8_6FrVtBPEgvPBJOfo6Bjgf9gfHFirY5Hg3Cc_Lb42NDrgC2Gy2d/s640/L1030753.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="481" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCgzX5cT61V35j80Cse32FlGNxcykhAt5naqP9FU4uZQ9EIyDxmxa2a5i7A8agIiqRAAP3QlCb_PlMxZs4wssa6xxN8_6FrVtBPEgvPBJOfo6Bjgf9gfHFirY5Hg3Cc_Lb42NDrgC2Gy2d/s16000/L1030753.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The temperature sensor is easy to spot. It's mounted such that ambient air can easily influence its temperature.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p>It was easy to find the temperature sensor inside the thermostat and easy to confirm that that is what it was because holding it between your fingers results in the temperature on the front panel of the thermostat rising quickly.</p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKCNY6Vlm8mTAktbQBRBJwAKFku9Pz92UuYJ4rwKvHK07bER9Hcant0Ru7scYbGEasBsy7UhSxqYC0QBJBi8WMFuTYSjBT6PdNg6IvHzOTYmxMH1TbXDxutxXI6d0njoTV2PQwbjR8ozlv/s640/IMG_20211202_105117.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKCNY6Vlm8mTAktbQBRBJwAKFku9Pz92UuYJ4rwKvHK07bER9Hcant0Ru7scYbGEasBsy7UhSxqYC0QBJBi8WMFuTYSjBT6PdNg6IvHzOTYmxMH1TbXDxutxXI6d0njoTV2PQwbjR8ozlv/s16000/IMG_20211202_105117.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A 47 ohm resistor wrapped in self-amalgamating tape. This is now installed inside the thermostat next to the temperature sensor in the photo above</td></tr></tbody></table><p>I attached a couple of wires to a 5 W 47 ohm resistor from my collection of parts, wrapped it in self-amalgamating tape to ensure that it doesn't cause a short and have installed this next to the temperature sensor in the thermostat. As I didn't need to actually buy anything to make this modification it cost more or less nothing to make it. If I'd had to buy the parts the most expensive thing would have been the roll of tape.</p><p><b>It works !</b></p><p>Now the thermostat can turn on the heating only for a couple of minutes before the resistor has warmed up enough that it thinks the target temperature has been reached. It then switches off again and the thermostat slowly returns to room temperature. If this is still below the target temperature then the heating will switch back on again for a few minutes. It takes a little longer than before to warm from a cold room, but we never overshoot by more than a fraction of a degree. Though the radiators never really get hot any more, there is enough energy in them to heat the room without burning more gas. This results in much more consistent and comfortable temperatures in the room and we hope also to see a lower gas bill due to less gas being burnt.</p><p>Next year perhaps we'll look again at replacing our central heating boiler with a heat pump. It's <a href="https://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2018/12/daddy-what-did-you-do-in-climate-war.html">important that we all stop using fossil fuels</a> but for now, with covid raging, the step of using a bit less is still worthwhile.</p><p><b>The result</b></p><p>We consumed 148 m3 of gas in December 2021 vs. 147 m3 in both December 2019 and 2020, the two previous winters with <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/search/label/windows">full triple glazing downstairs</a>. Clearly there's no dramatic change there. January, February and March looked a lot better: We consumed 183 m3, 144 m3 and 107 m3 in Jan, Feb and March 2021 vs. 130 m3, 107m3 and 50m3 in 2022. There's still little data and this could be because those months in 2022 were milder. As more time passes there will be more data. But even if this makes no difference to gas consumption it does at least make our home more comfortable.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkeRcrsvbnnvkaDbcyQj-_9FSYQqJQmjGLsVW0aAe3qGxYCxpvVWbvRqiDP2SIJJu7ouh53XX1i7wwDqOBPqjndFFk5Jjd5L95nrrma5wihaPG4rXlMvM2QrUVfdI_4_LgKcy3KL0HCexsq8TmROFlmX7YirlJmtzKKxnUMSkLY_VVAeWuhuojysnCRQ/s348/Screenshot%20from%202022-04-06%2010-04-45.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="316" data-original-width="348" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkeRcrsvbnnvkaDbcyQj-_9FSYQqJQmjGLsVW0aAe3qGxYCxpvVWbvRqiDP2SIJJu7ouh53XX1i7wwDqOBPqjndFFk5Jjd5L95nrrma5wihaPG4rXlMvM2QrUVfdI_4_LgKcy3KL0HCexsq8TmROFlmX7YirlJmtzKKxnUMSkLY_VVAeWuhuojysnCRQ/s16000/Screenshot%20from%202022-04-06%2010-04-45.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our gas consumption in March was really low. Our home is a "2 Onder 1 kap" type so we used under a quarter of the average Dutch home, not only because of <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/search/label/insulation">the other measures we've taken</a> but also because we turned the thermostat to an even lower temperature than usual in order to <a href="http://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2022/02/the-patriotic-act-of-riding-bicycle.html" target="_blank">avoid funding Putin's war in Ukraine</a>. March was also unusually sunny so the energy company owes us €100 for <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/search/label/solar">the electricity that we supplied to the grid</a> in March.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<a href="http://www.dutchbikebits.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://dutchbikebits.com/dbbavtcp640.png" style="border: 0px;" /></a>David Hembrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14543024940730663645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7781742879659228364.post-14866144302599556372021-04-05T17:42:00.002+02:002021-04-05T17:52:30.666+02:00Nine years of solar power. 30 MWh generated.<p>Today is an anniversary. Our rooftop solar power setup was installed on <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2012/04/we-now-have-our-own-solar-power.html">this day nine years ago</a>. When the system was first installed I had two concerns, about the inverter and about the panels themselves.</p><p><b>Inverter</b><br />The biggest concern was about the inverter. I expected that this would have a limited life because an inverter is inevitably a box of power electronics which has to work quite hard. Power supplies, especially in my experience switched mode supplies, can be quite unreliable after a few years. I've fixed quite a few of them in the past, and switched mode supplies can be quite tedious to work on. An inverter is like a large switched mode power supply which works in reverse so I didn't have huge expectations for longevity and sadly the inverter has actually <a href="http://www.hembrow.eu/electronics/abbpoweroneaurorainverter.html" target="_blank">failed twice</a>, first in 2018 and then in 2020. In both cases it was quite simple to fix and because I know which end of a soldering iron to hold onto <a href="http://www.hembrow.eu/electronics/abbpoweroneaurorainverter.html" target="_blank">I did that myself</a>.</p><p><b>Panels</b><br />The other concern was the less well known longevity of the solar panels. There are two main ways in which solar panels degrade. The first is due to corrosion should they become damp and the second due to the sun light falling on the panels degrading them. I've had solar panels on homes that I lived in since the mid 1980s, starting with several 30 cm x 30 cm panels which I used to charge batteries. Those panels were not sealed from the weather so they got damp, there was visible corrosion in some places, and their output dropped markedly over time. But around the turn of the century I bought a <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2010/11/solar-power-in-winter-there-isnt-much.html">12 V sealed panel</a> to replace them. I still have that on my garage roof and it's output is still close to the specification so I hoped that the panels for the roof be similarly long lasting.</p><p>The guarantee said that the output of the rooftop panels would still be at 90% of the initial level after 10 years of use. I realised soon after the panels were installed that their peak output was significantly higher than it the specification suggested. The rated peak output for the installation was 3760 W and the installers suggested that we'd probably not see more than about 3600 W because of the angle of our roof. But within a few days I was seeing ~3990 W. I had some concerns at that time that perhaps there had been a little slight of hand on the part of the manufacturer, who perhaps under specified the panels in order to protect themselves from guarantee claims. i.e. Perhaps we'd see the panels degrade by more than 10% over ten years but that they'd still be within 10% of 3760 W or even within 10% of 3600 W in ten years time, meaning that a loss of almost 20% of output would be possible without being able to claim on the guarantee. But this has not turned out to be the case at all. There is no degradation. I can happily report that the observed peaks last summer were still around 3990 W. What's more, we're not quite at ten years yet, but the total output from the system also seems not to have dropped even slightly. After the first three years passed I noted that <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2015/04/three-year-solar-anniversary-10.html">the system had generated 10200 kWh</a> in total. Six years further on the total is almost exactly three times this, at 30556 kWh. What's more, if not for the inverter glitch in 2018 which costs us about 250 kWh of output, we'd actually be ahead of the first three years by now.</p><p><b>Graph of output over time</b></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFu7P6AdWGE5aP1qnG2_fdohYmKi2Cx2Va54THDqy7PlKV9RVyGFtcQAGXWQW3eXCQxkjyt6YLoV48Ej-2yJr6qnElNtZ2tqgLhbvnLjzCC1BoUXecn1P6jJ8EqFGiHaP8PmYA-rHXn_2X/s868/chart.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="537" data-original-width="868" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFu7P6AdWGE5aP1qnG2_fdohYmKi2Cx2Va54THDqy7PlKV9RVyGFtcQAGXWQW3eXCQxkjyt6YLoV48Ej-2yJr6qnElNtZ2tqgLhbvnLjzCC1BoUXecn1P6jJ8EqFGiHaP8PmYA-rHXn_2X/w640-h396/chart.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The orange line shows our excess production over time. It goes up in summer and down in winter, and by March we just about break even which is why the last part looks flat. When the panels were installed we had teenage children at home and our consumption was similar to our rate of generation. You can tell how long ago our children left home from this graph (some lower power appliances also made a difference). The glitch three summers ago was caused by the inverter failing and my taking a few days to fix it. The second failure was a year ago in February and lost only one day's winter output so that isn't visible on the graph.</td></tr></tbody></table><b>Finance</b><br>When the panels were installed I estimated that it'd take about ten years for them to pay for themselves. Because electricity prices change, we've changed our electricity meter once and supplier more than once, it's quite difficult to work out <i>exactly</i> where we are now so far as the return on investment is concerned. However it's quite easy to make an approximate calculation so that's what I'll do. I know that we'd generated 30442kWh up to the end of March, and of that we'd consumed 27767 kWh and exported 2589 kWh. Electricity costs us just under 20c per kWh so we've saved about €5300 from our electricity bill. With our current tariff we get pretty much the same for what we export so that's worth about €500. This leaves us with about €5800 of our original €8000 investment returned, and at the same rate the system will have paid for itself in about 13-14 years after installation. This is about the same result as I came to <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2018/04/six-year-solar-power-anniversary-were.html">about three years ago</a>. Just four or five more years to wait, then.<br /><br>Note that in reality over a whole year we use about 40% of our own generation directly from the panels and export the rest of what we produce. The electricity company doesn't bill based on this, though, so for a purely financial calculation we don't need to take that into account.<br><br />
<b>Conclusion</b><br>I'm happy with the system. The inverter fault was disappointing and the manufacturer's response even more so, but I fixed that. The panels are faultless. Solar panels with lower performance were much more expensive when I first started experimenting with them in the 1980s but when we installed this system it was clear that they'd pay back within a reasonable amount of time. They're now not far from half the price that they were then so someone considering installation these days can expect to see their money back very quickly indeed.<br>
<a href="http://www.dutchbikebits.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://dutchbikebits.com/dbbavtcp640.png" style="border: 0px;" /></a>David Hembrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14543024940730663645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7781742879659228364.post-89985158412022482772020-04-05T17:33:00.000+02:002020-04-09T10:12:38.565+02:00Eight years of solar power. How much of our own generation do we consume ?As of today our rooftop solar panels are eight years old. Here's the latest graph of electrical generation vs. consumption. You can see the eight years which have passed, the data neatly making sinusoidal shapes due to changing seasons caused by the rotation of our planet around the sun:<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUkv97HPoF0D3FQET7x7_Jbku7g4c8RZWgzJ4iXt0pNentgYo3wqae6oLJwhPJIceljYuD5LWmM3DUT8MRAD2rNZZYXBbkywRhX-D40TGphA__HqhPKiJCg8wZTE9Mo_q3zWGm6FcyRFGB/s1600/chart.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="537" data-original-width="868" height="394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUkv97HPoF0D3FQET7x7_Jbku7g4c8RZWgzJ4iXt0pNentgYo3wqae6oLJwhPJIceljYuD5LWmM3DUT8MRAD2rNZZYXBbkywRhX-D40TGphA__HqhPKiJCg8wZTE9Mo_q3zWGm6FcyRFGB/s640/chart.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The blip in the graph is due to <a href="http://www.hembrow.eu/electronics/abbpoweroneaurorainverter.html" target="_blank">the inverter failing in 2018</a>. It also failed in January but <a href="http://www.hembrow.eu/electronics/abbpoweroneaurorainverter.html#secondrepair" target="_blank">I got my soldering iron out sooner</a> this time and because it was January and not the middle of summer far less was lost. Therefore no visible second blip.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The red bars show our consumption of electricity each month. The blue bars show the generation of electricity from our solar panels each month and the yellow line shows our total generation vs. consumption. Since the beginning we've generated more electricity each year than we used and in the last four years we've reduced our consumption making this difference between generation and use much greater. This led to the yellow line rising steadily higher. If you live in the Netherlands or anywhere in Europe connected to the same grid then it's possible that during the last eight years you've used some of the electricity generated on our roof as what we don't use goes into the grid.<br />
<br />
Over the last eight years the system has produced 27039 kWh of electricity. That's 3380 kWh per year, very close to the estimated 3478 kWh per year predicted before they were installed. But this total over eight years was impacted quite severely by the period when the inverter failed two years ago. Over just the last 12 months we generated 3438 kWh, which is remarkably close to the prediction.<br />
<br />
But while it's nice to see that we generate much more electricity than we use and the system is working very nicely, the graph also exposes an obvious problem. We never manage to generate even close to enough electricity in the winter, and of course there's never any output from our panels over night, which is exactly when we turn on our light bulbs. The <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2019/04/seven-years-of-solar-power-how-valuable.html">installation of a smart meter a year ago</a> has given me more data to work with and so now I can see how much of the electricity that we use ourselves comes from our panels and how much of our own electricity we use (these are not the same thing...). When we're not using our own electricity we're using what comes from the grid, and the Dutch grid is far from 100% renewable (we have of course signed up to a 100% renewable contract, but the effect of that is mostly only to make the paperwork say its renewable).<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg57ODcIggkVhfIeZF8WvI2qJSY8eVfOyC3MXp1J8elL-JLCyrIFNKtPvsZ6uSU6HCWWZwNMKcOc267n_pK3EGa4Dxb8qT70qDAK5rxZRuumSml4O_x7rHXrThyphenhyphenaOtRY2CK8ZFqfju7LIrD/s1600/Generation+vs.+usage.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="491" data-original-width="795" height="394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg57ODcIggkVhfIeZF8WvI2qJSY8eVfOyC3MXp1J8elL-JLCyrIFNKtPvsZ6uSU6HCWWZwNMKcOc267n_pK3EGa4Dxb8qT70qDAK5rxZRuumSml4O_x7rHXrThyphenhyphenaOtRY2CK8ZFqfju7LIrD/s640/Generation+vs.+usage.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Data from the beginning of January 2019 until the end of March 2020.<br />
Blue: our generation vs. consumption. Any month where this is above one we generated more electricity than we consumed.<br />
Red: the proportion of our consumption which was from our panels, varying between 0.12 in winter and 0.6 in summer.<br />
Yellow: proportion of our generation which we consume, varying between 0.25 in summer and 0.75 in the winter.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This new graph which makes use of the smartmeter data shows a more complicated picture. Though each year we generate far more electricity than we consume (blue bars are often well above 1), our pattern of usage doesn't match the generation very well. We over-produce in summer, under-produce in winter and we keep putting our lights on when it's dark outside rather than in the middle of the day. We come closest to being independent of the grid in the summer when our panels generate more than twice what we consume, and though we don't use much of our own electricity (yellow bars) it does make up nearly 2/3rds of our consumption (red bars). On the other hand, while in the winter we consume most of the electricity that we generate, there is very little of it so it accounts for only about an eight of our consumption, the other 7/8th coming from the grid.<br />
<br />
As you can see, having solar panels on the roof, even if they generate far more electricity than we use, does not make us even close to being independent from the grid. What's more, there's no way we could make ourselves so.<br />
<br />
<b>Batteries</b><br />
It is of course possible to buy a relatively small domestic battery which has enough capacity to store about one day's supply. If we had one of those it would allow us to consume exclusively our own electricity for March through to September, pushing the red bars for those months up to 1. However in the winter months it would be nearly idle because we then generate on average only about a quarter of our consumption, falling to a sixth in the worst month, and we are already using a high proportion of our generation (the yellow bars reach as high as 0.9), so the battery could do almost nothing to help in winter.<br />
<br />
To be independent from the grid through the winter we'd need to store electricity from June, July, August and September to fill the trough in our production between October and February and there is no possible storage system which could do this. At present we could buy a small unit which we could fit into our garage, costing a not inconsiderable sum, to cover ~24 hours usage but to store enough to go through winter we'd need something about 120 times as large and 120 times as expensive. It's just not a sensible idea on any level.<br />
<br />
Quite apart from the cost and I have reservations about the reliability of batteries for home storage. We already know that, as I expected in advance, <a href="http://www.hembrow.eu/electronics/abbpoweroneaurorainverter.html" target="_blank">inverters are not entirely reliable</a>. It's a box of power electronics which works hard and so we should expect less than perfect reliability. A domestic back-up battery adds far more complication and is almost certainly less reliable. Why ? Because such a battery installation would require not only its own inverter circuitry similar to what we already have in association with the solar panels, but also a battery charger and the battery itself. More power electronics means more to go wrong.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz9B6y0HPUNMegxktNN-JCbV56hLunaozr-TQraAIflXU-jjyTywzwnM9Hlsp63Xe629fpHAEncnRZMg4kwVGA2Kbo8RTG8XTJW_gfB1VMKSBt1xacaR2AZ-LQ96e-htMF7y_xV_Dxv8gg/s1600/100_9758.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="197" data-original-width="640" height="98" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz9B6y0HPUNMegxktNN-JCbV56hLunaozr-TQraAIflXU-jjyTywzwnM9Hlsp63Xe629fpHAEncnRZMg4kwVGA2Kbo8RTG8XTJW_gfB1VMKSBt1xacaR2AZ-LQ96e-htMF7y_xV_Dxv8gg/s320/100_9758.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Doubling the number of panels on our already full south facing<br />
roof isn't an option. North facing panels won't work so well.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Such a battery would more than double the price of the solar panel system, more than double the embedded carbon cost, more than double the chance of it going wrong and requiring costly maintenance or replacement as a result. None of that is good news for us or for the planet. Even given all those constraints, it seems that the manufacturers' somewhat optimistic assumptions still suggest that a battery could only provide us 100% usage of our own solar power if we also at least doubled the number of solar panels that we have. As our roof is already almost full this would require us to annex our neighbour's roof entirely for our own use. That's not going to happen.<br />
<br />
Let us remember that the excess that we generate and do not use is not lost. Investing too much in trying to use our own electricity ourselves is almost certainly counterproductive. A good proportion of our excess is consumed by other electricity users, both domestic and industrial. This leads to those consumers having lower emissions from their electricity consumption.<br />
<br />
<b>Reduce consumption!</b><br />
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A domestic battery makes no practical sense and doesn't necessarily make sense for our environment either. The best thing for us to do, and I would suggest for everyone else as well, is to reduce energy <i>consumption</i> as much as possible. We're continuing on that path, <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/search/label/insulation">making our home more efficient every year</a>. The less we consume, the easier it will be for our grid to operate without fossil fuel input. Any additional loads will keep the fossil fuels burning for longer.<br />
<br />
<b>Domestic and commercial</b><br />
Our domestic solar panel setup is not actually 100% domestic. We operate our business, <a href="https://www.dutchbikebits.com/" target="_blank">Dutch Bike Bits</a>, out of our home, so the business is also powered from our solar panels. We try to run our business in the most ethical way we can. Therefore there is no extra energy consumption in another building and we don't use any form of motorized transport so our parcels, all of which contain goods to support people who cycle and are therefore assisting other to also use the most efficient vehicles on the planet, begin their journeys by bicycle.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.dutchbikebits.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://dutchbikebits.com/dbbavtcp640.png" style="border: 0px;" /></a>David Hembrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14543024940730663645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7781742879659228364.post-58649204062200295292020-03-23T15:00:00.003+01:002020-03-23T15:36:53.698+01:00Low carbon footprint hummus (super fast and economical to make)<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJIOMjq4uD0Jw48MoxK_cbxPOYwSnZA05I_cYKQC3rT-nszMb-7DzjoZtZDg8eQazoga4fDitO-ss35wnv-07ugVFXXc52rATsQYTdwt9ZNCW2IUIKHSMUQ_wLqUNhMJi5uzR_SkccJ85U/s1600/P1130881.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="559" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJIOMjq4uD0Jw48MoxK_cbxPOYwSnZA05I_cYKQC3rT-nszMb-7DzjoZtZDg8eQazoga4fDitO-ss35wnv-07ugVFXXc52rATsQYTdwt9ZNCW2IUIKHSMUQ_wLqUNhMJi5uzR_SkccJ85U/s320/P1130881.JPG" width="223" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ingredients: Chick peas, garlic, tahini,<br />
lemon juice, salt</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Hummus is one of the tastiest things to eat for lunch on bread. It's also super easy to make yourself, even from a store cupboard if you're trying not to go outdoors (the COVID-19 pandemic is a very big problem at the moment in the Netherlands).
<br />
<br />
So if you're stuck for something tasty to put on bread for lunch, consider making hummus. It takes far less time than going to the shops, it's cheaper than commercial hummus and the result is tastier.<br />
<br />
The ingredients required as all easily stored except for the garlic. The only fresh ingredient needed is garlic, though you can use garlic from jars if required.<br />
<br />
In this example I used a 400 g tin of chick peas, one table-spoon of olive oil, a couple of tablespoons of tahini and small squirt of lemon juice, four cloves of garlic and a tea-spoon of salt.<br />
<br />
Drain the chick peas, but keep the liquid. You'll find you need to add some liquid while liquidizing and this is the best thing to use. Keep any which is left over for use as liquid in other recipes (it'll go off if left too long - I put seal on the tin and use within a day or so).<br />
<br />
The exact proportions of ingredients are not important. You can vary them to suit your taste buds and also to suit what you have in stock. Even the main ingredient, chick peas, isn't really necessary. OK, so real hummus may be a chick pea dish, but exactly the same procedure can be followed with any kind of tinned or pre-cooked bean and it you get a similar tasty result. So if you need something to spread on your bread and don't have any chick peas, try some other bean. For instance, black-eyed beans make a great spread as well.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhclE67mXdcMyHj0pYvKbx2zIQqeoQ1pWOeEzTEWO_Iad3QDFf_mn-f8kOyKBCsiJ3bnmgIin_Z-9SG88S9zY0TFqcpfz4t8MAx_hpOxNuSJopCPdye0cUky6v7oLolf91Rwb6P3m4zVlHd/s640/P1130882.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Super simple - just put everything in a liquidizer. No cooking is required. Note that everything is shown "dry" here. It's always necessary to add some of the liquid from the chick pea tin to make it liquidize properly. You can also vary that according to taste - some like their hummus to be more liquid than others. If you don't have a liquidizer you can simply mash all the ingredients together. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhclE67mXdcMyHj0pYvKbx2zIQqeoQ1pWOeEzTEWO_Iad3QDFf_mn-f8kOyKBCsiJ3bnmgIin_Z-9SG88S9zY0TFqcpfz4t8MAx_hpOxNuSJopCPdye0cUky6v7oLolf91Rwb6P3m4zVlHd/s1600/P1130882.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><br /></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhclE67mXdcMyHj0pYvKbx2zIQqeoQ1pWOeEzTEWO_Iad3QDFf_mn-f8kOyKBCsiJ3bnmgIin_Z-9SG88S9zY0TFqcpfz4t8MAx_hpOxNuSJopCPdye0cUky6v7oLolf91Rwb6P3m4zVlHd/s1600/P1130882.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwQIuRngHwao7dY3a02F12ptpZrq87ySF3-H4qqiXSqZyXn16QjoANDBs0NVZe-fAfik00HDJyxX-UiK7Dsxt_JFXl2TA0DD-9nXewpGC5whHrSAtpjA2gpafEJl4C_hi4d1YbG_ErSctz/s1600/P1130883.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwQIuRngHwao7dY3a02F12ptpZrq87ySF3-H4qqiXSqZyXn16QjoANDBs0NVZe-fAfik00HDJyxX-UiK7Dsxt_JFXl2TA0DD-9nXewpGC5whHrSAtpjA2gpafEJl4C_hi4d1YbG_ErSctz/s640/P1130883.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">After 30 seconds or so it'll look like this. Stop when you like the consistency. It's immediately ready to serve.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWtOhB38225MZWe5rWzNatPNtZYzrwEo56NdtBSf2CSzMH7Nm9ThkjBK3z0LUkgeDCmdoo-XNQn-BaHEnKJlrcruaqHUJDbibDb8z82B4g3BMN10MJcEJ5_RcIu7FicDZ_8lqyG7cUWitz/s1600/P1130884.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="551" data-original-width="800" height="440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWtOhB38225MZWe5rWzNatPNtZYzrwEo56NdtBSf2CSzMH7Nm9ThkjBK3z0LUkgeDCmdoo-XNQn-BaHEnKJlrcruaqHUJDbibDb8z82B4g3BMN10MJcEJ5_RcIu7FicDZ_8lqyG7cUWitz/s640/P1130884.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One 400 g tin of chickpeas and the other ingredients together make about enough hummus to fill two average commercial retail hummus containers. We buy these only occasionally and when we do that we keep the containers which can be re-used many times. The red specks are due to an optional extra ingredient - I included a red chilli this time around. Other spices or herbs can be added in the liquidizer at the start.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDHN-yhgyM8GvnH42RkeL6o0ojL6MHOYFiQ1cLkXsbFkZiaM44JukxtDJ2GCdTn-axrKI_7OwocdOVwxtKFJns5yqUKGPSvdCX2-Ue-SIAYtua2-00s_tyR-cAvqX6StF5JpNp3e7TakwR/s1600/P1130885.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="731" data-original-width="800" height="584" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDHN-yhgyM8GvnH42RkeL6o0ojL6MHOYFiQ1cLkXsbFkZiaM44JukxtDJ2GCdTn-axrKI_7OwocdOVwxtKFJns5yqUKGPSvdCX2-Ue-SIAYtua2-00s_tyR-cAvqX6StF5JpNp3e7TakwR/s640/P1130885.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lunch. This recipe always makes delicious hummus.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h3>
Carbon footprint</h3>
As before <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-forgotten-energy-saving-potential.html">when I made a pizza</a>, I wanted to calculate the carbon footprint of this meal. It won't be very high for the calories because vegan food never is. And in this case it'll last for a few days of lunches so the cost per day will be low anyway. Unfortunately, I couldn't find accurate figures for the chick peas or tahini, so I warn you in advance that the following figures are to a large extent guess work. Perhaps you can help with this.<br />
<br />
The first part is easy. The liquidizer consumes 1000 W but it's required for only a very short time. Less than 30 seconds in total. Therefore the total amount of energy consumed is very small. This works out as about about 8.3 Wh, or 0.0083 kWh. Due to the full sun today the only effect that it really had was to <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/search/label/solar">make our electricity meter run backward less quickly</a> but I've calculated here as if we were using the average carbon footprint for electricity across Europe. Even so, the liquidizer doesn't do much harm:<br />
<br />
<table style="width: 100%;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>Ingredient</th>
<th>Quantity (g)</th>
<th>CO2 equivalent (kg/kg)</th>
<th>Total CO2 (g)</th>
<th>kcal</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Electricity</td>
<td>0.0083 kW</td>
<td>500 g/W</td>
<td>4.2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Chick peas</td>
<td>400</td>
<td>0.7</td>
<td>280</td>
<td>468</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Tahini</td><td>30</td><td>2.3</td><td>69</td><td>170</td></tr>
<tr>
<td>Olive oil</td>
<td>10</td>
<td>1.5</td>
<td>15</td>
<td>80</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Lemon juice</td>
<td>10</td>
<td>0.5</td>
<td>5</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Salt</td><td>1</td><td>0</td><td>0</td></tr>
<tr><td><b>Total carbon footprint / calories</b></td><td></td><td></td><td><b>373.2 g</b></td><td><b>718 kcal</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
As explained before, I cannot claim this time that the figures above are in any way accurate. The carbon intensity of tinned chickpeas and of tahini are both based on figures that I found (<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/251236631_Inter-household_variations_in_environmental_impact_of_food_consumption_in_Finland" target="_blank">here</a>) for similar ingredients. I picked "ready to eat meals" for the chick peas and "Nuts and almonds" for tahini (which is ground up sesame seed). As those two items dominate the total this makes the entire result questionable. However I have picked replacement values which are on the high side so I would be surprised if the carbon footprint of hummus made this way is greater than what is shown above.<br />
<br />
I hope that readers can contribute better sources for those ingredients.<br />
<h3>
How much did it cost to make ?</h3>
<div>
These cheap chickpeas cost about 60 cents a tin, the small amount of Tahini is worth about 20 cents. The other ingredients perhaps 10 cents at most between them. That makes for a total cost of probably less than 90 cents for an equivalent amount of hummus as is found in two commercially made pre-prepared packs which cost about €2 each.</div>
<h3>
What about dried chickpeas ?</h3>
Dried chickpeas have a lower carbon footprint when sitting on your shelf than does an equivalent quantity of tinned chickpeas. However a lot of energy is required to boil them at home. I therefore would expect a higher carbon footprint for chickpeas that I boil myself than is the case for those bought in a tin where economies of scale will make the process more efficient, almost certainly more energy than is consumed in making the small amount of steel in a can. This seems to be confirmed by various sources.<br />
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<center>
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David Hembrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14543024940730663645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7781742879659228364.post-32553450853585396062019-10-30T16:22:00.000+01:002020-03-23T13:51:53.910+01:00The forgotten energy saving potential of the microwave oven (also quick low impact vegan pizza recipe)<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK1sG_xs_ZRLnsEjP6Du7PpdzfyWQKWqJysg_DVO-cBE6sBZo1FdWPb8usRjXzAKsQMc_zJTzuyQr6CHOBDcdkvS24iyRVHsb68HlzJOh8TiIPWTqn2JP0r7Y3f2TrLKt-n-MWXDAJhx1B/s1600/L1030380.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="742" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK1sG_xs_ZRLnsEjP6Du7PpdzfyWQKWqJysg_DVO-cBE6sBZo1FdWPb8usRjXzAKsQMc_zJTzuyQr6CHOBDcdkvS24iyRVHsb68HlzJOh8TiIPWTqn2JP0r7Y3f2TrLKt-n-MWXDAJhx1B/s320/L1030380.JPG" width="231" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The recipe book which came with my<br />
first microwave over in the 1980s</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i>Click these links for <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-forgotten-energy-saving-potential.html#quicklowimpactveganpizza">the recipe without the story</a>, to find out <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-forgotten-energy-saving-potential.html#alowcarbonmeal">how much CO2 was emitted</a>, or for <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-forgotten-energy-saving-potential.html#662kcal">how far you can cycle using only the energy in the pizza</a>.</i><br />
<br />
Back in the early 80s I bought a microwave oven for my mother with some of my earnings from my first job. Microwave ovens were not really a new invention but they were not entirely commonplace yet in the UK. I don't think my Mum really wanted a microwave at the time, but she became quite convinced by it and made quite good use of it because it allowed some recipes to be cooked just as well before, but in less time. A year or so afterwards I packed in the dead end job and became a student but my accommodation consisted of one room in a building with no shared kitchen. For several months I ate nothing but salad for my evening meal, which was healthy enough but ultimately not so varied, so I bought a second microwave oven and began to learn to cook with it.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiJ__e_6UGquUMbruMRQfFOCaQY5Yb-nbMJfVXtBbUaR1NJIloOJCUIJfgo5FUsMjx4VtOVf9y4_JuCw-pAIiUi2FdcLUyKA4DM2E39P44Ty0VrkGWBX1Xs_tq2BjIqc7G2w1CY8b9K_zZ/s1600/L1030388.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="845" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiJ__e_6UGquUMbruMRQfFOCaQY5Yb-nbMJfVXtBbUaR1NJIloOJCUIJfgo5FUsMjx4VtOVf9y4_JuCw-pAIiUi2FdcLUyKA4DM2E39P44Ty0VrkGWBX1Xs_tq2BjIqc7G2w1CY8b9K_zZ/s320/L1030388.JPG" width="264" /></a>
Microwave ready meals were not really a thing in the early 1980s so people didn't buy microwave ovens merely to warm up frozen pizzas. Because many owners had no previous experience with microwave ovens they were supplied with information about how the oven worked, what it was useful for, and complete recipe books. My first microwave oven was a Samsung and it came with this book.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8x7RdOF-FCO1mhc_pIWqeQmzp5l1le-LOdf_svGWzrzKKNBVqiE-Pm7Y4FMTviD5i11rHm2kVdGNpraDbBE-DfOd4N03lLNx9rSWlXwnlldxWvolbZ5Z-jpYi1J1aQXW1pBRosG-iboZe/s1600/L1030386.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="768" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8x7RdOF-FCO1mhc_pIWqeQmzp5l1le-LOdf_svGWzrzKKNBVqiE-Pm7Y4FMTviD5i11rHm2kVdGNpraDbBE-DfOd4N03lLNx9rSWlXwnlldxWvolbZ5Z-jpYi1J1aQXW1pBRosG-iboZe/s320/L1030386.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">They were both full of tempting looking meals,<br />
completely cooked by microwave</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Inside the Samsung book there were a wide range of recipes some of which became favourites during my student days. However this book was of course aimed at every potential buyer so it included a lot of non-vegetarian recipes which were of no use to me so I bought a second book which while not completely vegetarian did include a lot more recipes for things that I wanted to eat.<br />
<br />
I ate fairly healthy food when I was a student, and very nearly every evening for a period of years I prepared my meal in the microwave oven, everything cooked from fresh ingredients. The budget was small but the food was good.<br />
<br />
Microwave ovens are not the best way of cooking every type of food. Some of my experiments as a student were not total successes. For example, at that time I didn't understand about how bread was made and I once ended up making my lunch sandwiches out of incredibly dense lumps of dough for half a week because I couldn't afford to throw anything away. But microwaves have advantages for some kinds of cooking.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvrGachyphenhyphenG-uwLMKWC5A-XQmjZfvgx3yAHP9fe9aflyhV3U1DLvzJKeFk2MgfhuZ7LkhHmaSYE1i6XEJCsCA1ZOIa2eJcet4VBlQByOeXzZH3MMEZ0bP3tM5X6J09GCYWcC86SNGCjZbPBH/s1600/L1030381.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="867" data-original-width="1024" height="337" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvrGachyphenhyphenG-uwLMKWC5A-XQmjZfvgx3yAHP9fe9aflyhV3U1DLvzJKeFk2MgfhuZ7LkhHmaSYE1i6XEJCsCA1ZOIa2eJcet4VBlQByOeXzZH3MMEZ0bP3tM5X6J09GCYWcC86SNGCjZbPBH/s400/L1030381.JPG" width="400" /></a><b>The forgotten potential</b><br />
My old microwave cookbooks include short descriptions of why microwave cooking is advantageous. For instance, the microwave oven consumes far less energy than a conventional oven to achieve the same result, it saves time and it's less dangerous to use because it doesn't get hot in itself.<br />
<br />
Much of the potential seems to have been forgotten with microwave ovens now being seen by many people as useful only to warm up low quality frozen food.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjsL6rZvSt6ITyRgbOSE_VcVE9eZjKg0zW2gPnt62NKbyefPsj382iSHCm8y-mwoPY4UIGszkvS1pzK3dIhk7pHgtIU9V1-KQ5QYMSJTCrW8skoMdQn3AGrq_6niNEX5C9w274EDTvhNpH/s1600/L1030387.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="419" data-original-width="1024" height="130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjsL6rZvSt6ITyRgbOSE_VcVE9eZjKg0zW2gPnt62NKbyefPsj382iSHCm8y-mwoPY4UIGszkvS1pzK3dIhk7pHgtIU9V1-KQ5QYMSJTCrW8skoMdQn3AGrq_6niNEX5C9w274EDTvhNpH/s320/L1030387.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We've done this with our produce. Quick, easy and effective.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
There is more awareness now than there was 35 years ago that we <a href="http://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/search/label/environment" target="_blank">really should be trying to consume less energy</a>, but while we now have an image of ourselves as being "green", <a href="http://www.hembrow.eu/cycling/2017odeaangaia.html#slide5" target="_blank">we actually consume twice as much electricity now</a> as we did back then. The average person was actually <a href="http://www.hembrow.eu/cycling/2017odeaangaia.html#slide5" target="_blank">more frugal</a> before anyone had LED lighting in their home or solar panels on their roofs.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9val96pwTCO997ZH8CvOl2_VNmlaGC4GwcwXdMI9ZQt2HoJ87YpE3Gu4HhrQyiwT72pN5L0KthaeNexut3BY4flmG2dqGmdjoOOpSyOsi3rk0000uHE5PmMQ5ov5d6xatXPL-y5cOAAvr/s1600/L1030383.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="866" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9val96pwTCO997ZH8CvOl2_VNmlaGC4GwcwXdMI9ZQt2HoJ87YpE3Gu4HhrQyiwT72pN5L0KthaeNexut3BY4flmG2dqGmdjoOOpSyOsi3rk0000uHE5PmMQ5ov5d6xatXPL-y5cOAAvr/s320/L1030383.JPG" width="270" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">These books are full of recipes for proper food.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Now, more than ever, we need to address our excessive energy consumption and enormous CO2 emissions. We can start in the kitchen. Switching to a vegan diet is of course enormously beneficial because a plant-based diet produces far lower emissions than does a meat and dairy based diet. But we can go beyond just the savings due to the ingredients we use by changing how we cook.<br />
<br />
An online discussion a few days ago revealed how remarkably energy and carbon intensive a pizza can be if it is a frozen pizza, warmed up and delivered to your home. There's no obvious reason why a pizza should be so damaging. It is, after all, basically just tomatoes on toast. However this prompted me to think about one of my favourite dishes when I was a student: microwave quick pizza. This took no time to make and included no exotic ingredients so surely had a low footprint.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="quicklowimpactveganpizza"></a><br />
<h3>
Quick low impact inexpensive vegan pizza</h3>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWS9HI4HVjxQmT4OqDtMIF5m-9z6NRKMeJMAwQ1l_7mSzy2J2pBcvnArmZhiSjT4f_J1FoNpBHXN5XuTfsmyjYNEtstzMqzVrCrqtg0DSE89zax1gHo5TU0XSRXnmCI9HeZRxpQs1jQfRg/s1600/L1030379.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="751" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWS9HI4HVjxQmT4OqDtMIF5m-9z6NRKMeJMAwQ1l_7mSzy2J2pBcvnArmZhiSjT4f_J1FoNpBHXN5XuTfsmyjYNEtstzMqzVrCrqtg0DSE89zax1gHo5TU0XSRXnmCI9HeZRxpQs1jQfRg/s320/L1030379.JPG" width="233" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I clearly referred to this page quite often<br />
when I was a student.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
When I was a student, one of my favourite recipes was a basic microwave pizza. This took less than 15 minutes to cook from scratch, it was very simple, it was tasty and it was nutritious.<br />
<br />
The original quick pizza recipe which I used as a student of course used cheese as a topping, but I've been vegan for decades now and so I always substitute something else. There are many commercial cheese substitutes. I've tried most of them in the past, some are better than others and you may well find one that you really like. However we cook from basic ingredients every day so we don't usually have things like "vegan cheese" in our refrigerator. For the pizza which I've made for my lunch today I've used nuts as a substitute for cheese. That may sound a bit, well, nuts, but it's not actually a bad substitute. Nuts contrast with the tomato, they provide protein and oil as does cheese and in any case many commercial vegan "cheeses" are made at least in part of nuts.
<br />
<b>Ingredients for the base (makes one pizza)</b><br />
120 g self rising flour<br />
20 ml olive oil<br />
35-45 ml water<br />
pinch of salt<br />
<br />
<b>Ingredients for the topping</b><br />
100 g tinned tomatoes, drained.<br />
10 g peanuts, crushed.<br />
1/2 small onion.<br />
2 cloves garlic.<br />
Basil, oregano, salt and pepper, nutritional yeast to taste.<br />
<br />
<b>Instructions</b><br />
Mix all the base ingredients together into a dough. Add the water slowly as you want a nice dough and not something too sticky.<br />
<br />
Slightly oil a plate and spread the pizza dough on it. It's not a bad idea to make sure that the sides are slightly high to contain the topping, but the topping shouldn't really be wet so this isn't actually very important.<br />
<br />
Microwave on full power for about 3 minutes. The pizza base will become puffy and rise slightly.<br />
<br />
While the base is in the microwave you have time to drain the tomatoes (if they're too wet then the entire pizza will be too wet), chop them, crush the peanuts in a mortar and pestle and also finely chop the onion and garlic.<br />
<br />
When the pizza base is ready, spread the onion and garlic on top and microwave for two more minutes. This softens the onion a bit, which doesn't happen so readily if you put it in with the tomato already on top.<br />
<br />
Now add the tomato, herbs and crushed nuts and microwave for another 3-4 minutes.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
Add salt, pepper, nutritional yeast to taste.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2wCZlIXKDJp7HIjnpYennOHgjhrI9WeeD_DBDP6VomA8-q9ZC4eLw2vpm_lDYw07_ukPGSzk-bM5U9J7NPu_EBFgPqHRR1r-jkI-_tQiVEqdktLBivmJcyVyA3pFk3Re-aY5LAZwxOf8l/s1600/L1030376.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="713" data-original-width="1024" height="444" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2wCZlIXKDJp7HIjnpYennOHgjhrI9WeeD_DBDP6VomA8-q9ZC4eLw2vpm_lDYw07_ukPGSzk-bM5U9J7NPu_EBFgPqHRR1r-jkI-_tQiVEqdktLBivmJcyVyA3pFk3Re-aY5LAZwxOf8l/s640/L1030376.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Perhaps not the best pizza in the world. Perhaps some people wouldn't even consider it to be a "true" pizza. I don't much care. It's tasty, nutritious, quick to prepare from scratch and it's all I've got for lunch today.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I like cabbage, perhaps more than most people, so I added some of that to the topping as well at the same time as the onions and garlic. I also added capers before the last microwave step and I topped it off at the very end with a few small tomatoes from our garden (it's nearly November but we still have the last of the fresh tomatoes) and a few basil leaves also from the garden. You can add anything you like.<br />
<br />
Obviously if you're alergic to peanuts you should substitute something else. Nothing is very critical. It will probably also work with gluten free flour.<br />
<br />
Note: This isn't a real bread recipe. It's more like a recipe for a scone (you can make good scones in the microwave). The rising action in this case is the result of a chemical reaction with the sodium bicarbonate in the self rising flour. This chemical is all that distinguishes self rising flour from normal flour and you can just add a tiny quantity yourself (its sold as baking powder) to normal flour if you want. Baking with yeast is different. If I had know about that difference when I was a student I wouldn't have had to eat solid bread for a week (see story above).<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnkjh-I_JdxVdpJEncnEwqgYuUe9u-32c7MZ1OG0UWwcnWcIC2gPD79Y4b_rMGUDynmVCZfNC7PQzsxDvrtGDKvilGLQUlJUrI8zV4RHWAOKGWk2UTMg9WVAciZaONBppQp2lcMK6r-Ddi/s1600/L1030377.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="642" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnkjh-I_JdxVdpJEncnEwqgYuUe9u-32c7MZ1OG0UWwcnWcIC2gPD79Y4b_rMGUDynmVCZfNC7PQzsxDvrtGDKvilGLQUlJUrI8zV4RHWAOKGWk2UTMg9WVAciZaONBppQp2lcMK6r-Ddi/s200/L1030377.JPG" width="125" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">0.08 kWh consumed in<br />
the 19 minutes it took to<br />
make the pizza, write<br />
down what I was doing<br />
and take <span style="font-size: 12.8px;">all the photos.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h3>
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="alowcarbonmeal"></a>
A low carbon meal</h3>
Having cooked and eaten the pizza we can now calculate the CO2 emissions which resulted from it. The electricity is easy: There are <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1361920916307933" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">articles online</a> which show the carbon intensity of electricity for different countries. Exact figures vary but for the Netherlands, and across Europe, around 500 g/kWh seems to about average. My plug-in usage meter measured 0.08 kWh used in total by the microwave. Generating that amount of electricity would normally result in about 40 g of CO2 being released. Because I cooked this pizza at lunch-time the microwave oven was actually entirely powered by <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/search/label/solar">our own solar panels</a>. The electricity meter span backwards the whole time. But I will stick with the 40 g for this calculation as it's more representative.<br />
<br />
Impacts for the ingredients are taken from <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/251236631_Inter-household_variations_in_environmental_impact_of_food_consumption_in_Finland?enrichId=rgreq-afaee9fb42f631480d6e6ca8eb2931e7-XXX&enrichSource=Y292ZXJQYWdlOzI1MTIzNjYzMTtBUzo5ODUwMzYxMTEyNTc2OEAxNDAwNDk2NDk5NzM4&el=1_x_3&_esc=publicationCoverPdf" target="_blank">this link</a> (it refers to Finland, but I can't see most of them would vary much elsewhere).<br />
<br />
<table style="width: 100%;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>Ingredient</th>
<th>Quantity (g)</th>
<th>CO2 equivalent (kg/kg)</th>
<th>Total CO2 (g)</th>
<th>kcal</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Electricity</td>
<td>0.08 kWh</td>
<td>500 g/Wh</td>
<td>40</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Flour</td>
<td>120</td>
<td>0.8</td>
<td>96</td>
<td>400</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Olive oil</td>
<td>20</td>
<td>1.5</td>
<td>30</td>
<td>160</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Water</td>
<td>40</td>
<td>0.5 (for mineral water. I used tap water)</td>
<td>20</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Salt</td><td>0</td><td>0</td><td>0</td></tr>
<tr><td>Tinned tomatoes</td><td>100</td><td>0.3 (vegetable juice)</td><td>30</td><td>19</td></tr>
<tr><td>Peanuts</td><td>10</td><td>2.3 (nuts and almonds)</td><td>23</td><td>61</td></tr>
<tr><td>Onion</td><td>30</td><td>0.2</td><td>6</td><td>12</td></tr>
<tr><td>Garlic</td><td>10</td><td>0.2</td><td>2</td><td>3</td></tr>
<tr><td>Cabbage</td><td>30</td><td>0.3</td><td>9</td><td>7</td></tr>
<tr><td>Capers</td><td>5</td><td>0.1</td><td>0.5</td></tr>
<tr><td>Herbs, salt, pepper</td><td>5</td><td>0</td><td>0</td></tr>
<tr><td><b>Total carbon footprint / calories</b></td><td></td><td></td><td><b>256.5 g</b></td><td><b>662</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
<br /></div>
So I've calculated that my lunch had a total impact calculated of around 260 g CO2. I've been a bit unkind to myself because our electricity has a lower impact, at least in the daytime, and my water definitely has a lower impact as it came from the tap - I never buy mineral water so in this case around 200 g was probably more accurate. Either way, the total is small enough to fit into most carbon budgets.<br />
<br />
The total weight of the finished pizza was about 370 g (very little liquid had a chance to evaporate, and the rest of the ingredients stayed in the plate). So the impact of a pizza made in this was is 0.7 kg CO2/kg food. This makes sense because it's somewhere in the middle of the impact of the ingredients themselves. It's a very long way removed from the 19 kg/kg figure given at the link for "pizza", but it's clear that what they're referring to is a ready made or delivered meal of some kind.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://thefootinfood.weebly.com/carbon-footprint.html" target="_blank">Another study</a> suggested that a frozen pizza in Norway could have an impact on the climate equivalent to as much as 290 kg CO2. My recipe has less than 1% of that impact.<br />
<br />
<b>Conclusion</b><br />
Following the recipe above you too can make a pizza which is quick to prepare, tasty, nutritious and has about 1/30th of the environmental impact of a delivered pizza. If it had been cooked in a conventional oven then the energy consumption would have been far higher. The energy saving potential of microwave ovens is largely not appreciated, but it should be. We are killing our planet with over-consumption of many things, including energy.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="662kcal"></a>
<b>Addendum: What can we do with 662 calories?</b><br />
662 calories is more than a quarter of the daily requirement for an average man and very close to a third of the recommended daily for an average woman. We need to eat that amount every day just to be healthy. We also need to exercise for about half an hour every day. So let's work out what can be achieved by using those calories.<br />
<br />
We should always bear in mind that we need 30 minutes of exercise every day just to maintain a healthy body. In 30 minute we can cover 15 km on a bicycle, so by cycling we effectively <a href="http://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2017/12/cyclings-recommended-minimum-daily.html" target="_blank">get 15 km of travel for free every day with no impact on the environment</a> over that of the food we have to eat anyway.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisAMJGKe7FnMrz_G9rttfnGrW_L8gAqwLlOvE1Ga3yg6UYuSTnlj-HFsV0PPo2JrHWD8MB_zE4iuLSLZhOqj_etLvVO8TFhYJz_TImjVyxE2B_9ySH-OE7PjXAkdhyphenhyphenxoEF_rEAnssVZImx/s1600/P1130231.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="800" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisAMJGKe7FnMrz_G9rttfnGrW_L8gAqwLlOvE1Ga3yg6UYuSTnlj-HFsV0PPo2JrHWD8MB_zE4iuLSLZhOqj_etLvVO8TFhYJz_TImjVyxE2B_9ySH-OE7PjXAkdhyphenhyphenxoEF_rEAnssVZImx/s400/P1130231.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Velomobiles are <a href="http://www.hembrow.eu/cycling/2017odeaangaia.html#slide19" target="_blank">the most efficient vehicles on the planet</a>. But can you get a<br />
subsidy to buy one of these ? Of course not. However the Dutch government<br />
will give you €6000 <a href="http://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2018/12/enough-of-cars-overuse-of-motorized.html#subsidyfordriving" target="_blank">to buy an electric car</a> which produces far more pollution.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
However if we ignore that and simply plug the calories that we have <a href="http://www.hembrow.eu/personal/kreuzotter/espeed.htm" target="_blank">into a calculator</a> and work out the potential then we find that with a standard town bike we can ride an impressive 32 km at just over 20 km/h using nothing more than the energy from the pizza. If we use a more efficient type of bicycle then we can cover 46 kms at 30 km/h using just that pizza as fuel. That works out as about 5.65 grams of CO2 emissions per km for the efficient bicycle and about 8 g CO2 per km for a standard bicycle. By comparison, in the Netherlands, <a href="https://twitter.com/BM_Visser/status/1189806188344627202" target="_blank">an electric car produces about 60 g CO2 per km</a> and a diesel car anywhere about 120 g per km.<br />
<br />
A cyclist can easily travel with a tenth of the emissions of the driver of even one of the most efficient cars, but even that comparison is unfair because actually we get our first 15 km for free.
<br />
<center>
<a href="http://www.dutchbikebits.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://dutchbikebits.com/dbbavtcp640_2.png" style="border: 0px;" /></a></center>
David Hembrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14543024940730663645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7781742879659228364.post-37420709651351216352019-09-28T16:48:00.004+02:002023-11-30T14:57:27.017+01:00The surprising cost of a pilot light (waakvlam)We have a low energy bill. This is the case because we've done quite a lot of work in our home to <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/search/label/insulation">improve the insulation</a> so that our central heating rarely comes on, and we've tackled our electricity consumption by <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/search/label/solar">installing solar panels</a>. However, we've not yet done anything to the gas equipment in our home which was already here when we moved in 12 years ago, in part because until now it's not been easy to tell which piece of equipment used most gas so should be targeted first.<br />
<br />
While we've had a <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2019/04/seven-years-of-solar-power-how-valuable.html">smart electricity meter</a> for almost a year now, and I've used a <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2008/08/saving-energy-insulation-and-measuring.html">plug in measuring device</a> for much longer to check which appliances had higher than expected consumption, our energy company didn't install a smart gas meter until a week ago. The old meter was not easy to read for small levels of usage. But the new meter has made it easy to find out something which I had long wondered about: How much of our not very high gas consumption was wasted to no effect.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcvp8qFV_5MTyCwPShiLn96g67SsukDFS9t8dGszvskIpcXFptApksV2Du27NaO0gjFMW_UPVDGdEcnW0mOGrP-FZMG2J7aFPhUbKzzLe5syMmB-rvEs036g3sGUijbTT4LMCKHpilJBxL/s1600/P1130310.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="631" data-original-width="640" height="630" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcvp8qFV_5MTyCwPShiLn96g67SsukDFS9t8dGszvskIpcXFptApksV2Du27NaO0gjFMW_UPVDGdEcnW0mOGrP-FZMG2J7aFPhUbKzzLe5syMmB-rvEs036g3sGUijbTT4LMCKHpilJBxL/s640/P1130310.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The new gas meter. Since installation we've burnt 5.725 cubic metres of gas.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwp4bABP4e98tRm4NKq9kBTViTs74XaNsO4wQC1ayeK6wdGBR7mKYeKQvzmSIqQUhcq0VWwAtrxKkk0EaxRPIOdCQ0hA56AR3xaUXpaEuOZjZh9wTYhwaSaFsdg2YO8mBEctNmo0liNahY/s1600/P1130312.JPG" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="393" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwp4bABP4e98tRm4NKq9kBTViTs74XaNsO4wQC1ayeK6wdGBR7mKYeKQvzmSIqQUhcq0VWwAtrxKkk0EaxRPIOdCQ0hA56AR3xaUXpaEuOZjZh9wTYhwaSaFsdg2YO8mBEctNmo0liNahY/s320/P1130312.JPG" width="196" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The gas water heater</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>How much gas does a pilot light (waakvlam) use ?</b><br />
Our house has three devices which run on gas: The gas hob in the kitchen, the central heating boiler and a separate water heater which heats water only for the shower, bath and bathroom sink.<br />
<br />
The water heater is really old. Old enough to use a pilot light (waakvlam) instead of starting itself with an electronic igniter whenever hot water is required.<br />
<br />
If you're unfamiliar with what that means, there is a very small flame which burns continuously, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, just waiting for someone to turn on the hot tap so that it can be used to ignite a much larger flame to heat water.<br />
<br />
In the past I've asked several people who work for the gas company, or otherwise seem to know about gas appliances how much gas is used by such a flame and I've always been re-assured that it's "next to nothing", "unmeasurable" or "similar to a mobile phone charger", but I was never quite convinced. The new gas meter has allowed me to measure how much gas is being consumed and the result is surprising.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw4sZ-ZoxIDOGsJt12CBB4nmDqkrO9cAfzPRc7tFPoME23WuxECbATeZcNTPzY26cXbnWu6Q9LY_JGu5uUHP08r2GbLCFMM2JcrxvdTlY2CEyhGNEfn1J9iTQuY5z3ddQj_ZFCLlkWSWUf/s1600/P1130314.JPG" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="383" data-original-width="584" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw4sZ-ZoxIDOGsJt12CBB4nmDqkrO9cAfzPRc7tFPoME23WuxECbATeZcNTPzY26cXbnWu6Q9LY_JGu5uUHP08r2GbLCFMM2JcrxvdTlY2CEyhGNEfn1J9iTQuY5z3ddQj_ZFCLlkWSWUf/s320/P1130314.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The pilot light. It's small, but any gas burnt here is wasted.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>Meten is Weten. It costs how much ?</b><br />
One day this week we took readings from the gas meter while avoiding using any gas appliance for 18 and a half hours so that period passed with only the pilot light burning gas. Over 18.5 hours, the meter showed that 0.283 cubic metres had been consumed. That equates to 0.366 cubic metres per day or 134 cubic metres per year.<br />
<br />
134 cubic metres of gas isn't insignificant at all ! In fact, it turns out that in summer months our gas usage is dominated by the consumption of the pilot light, which consumes more than we use for hot water and cooking combined. Over the whole year it consumes rather more gas than we use in February to heat our home. It's an appalling waste not only of gas but also of money: That pilot light costs us nearly €90 a year to run.<br />
<br />
<b>Like a phone charger ?</b><br />
The comparison made previously with a mobile phone charger is particularly absurd as phone chargers genuinely do consume an unmeasurably small amount of electricity when they're not in use (unplugging them is something that some people do in an obsessional way because it looks like it'll save energy, when actually the effect is almost nothing at all). But this pilot light consumes a very measurable amount of gas. 134 cubic metres of gas is equivalent to about 1340 kWh of electricity. If a phone charger used that much it would certainly be measurable. It would also add somewhat more than €100 a year to the electricity bill and the charger would be rather hot rather than cold to the touch.<br />
<br />
<b>The next step</b><br />
Obviously this old water heater has to go. That has long been the plan because actually we'd like to get rid of gas altogether. It's not happened yet because we prioritized insulation and electricity first. But discovering how much this thing wastes has given new urgency to the plan. At the very least we need to be rid of this water heater. It appears to be possible to buy an instant electric heater for about the annual cost of the gas for this, and an electric heater would effectively cost nothing to use because it would operate on the excess electricity from our solar panels which we currently export to the grid and for which the electricity company pays us very little. So I expect to change this quite soon.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div><br /></div><div><b>Update: The pilot light no longer burns!</b></div><div>It took us a few years to get around to it, but we did eventually replace this inefficient water heater, saving both gas and money. Read more about <a href="https://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2023/02/electric-water-heating-finally-got-rid.html">what we replaced the gas heater with and how this change will bring our total future energy bills close to zero</a>.</div>
<center><a href="http://www.dutchbikebits.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://dutchbikebits.com/dbbavtcp640.png" style="border: 0px;" /></a></center>David Hembrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14543024940730663645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7781742879659228364.post-18940136726183653622019-04-08T13:31:00.004+02:002019-06-29T12:01:00.263+02:00Seven years of solar power: How valuable is our solar energy ?I've been interested in solar energy since before I can remember. My first practical experience beyond things like solar powered calculators was in the mid 1980s when I put a square meter of surplus panels on the roof of my parent's home. These provided 12 V DC which I used, amongst other things, to charge the battery in my then quite new <a href="http://www.hembrow.eu/personal/necpc8201a.html" target="_blank">laptop computer</a>. It wasn't until seven years ago, though, that we installed a large system on our home and the seventh anniversary of that system passed on April 5th.<br />
<br />
<b>Seven year summary</b><br />
We have 16 panels each rated for 235 W output for a total of a 3760 W peak. In this part of the world it is usual to calculate the expected total output as the equivalent of 925 hours of full sun each year on the panels, giving an predicted output of 3478 kWh per year. In practice, over the last seven years our system produced 23601 kWh in total or an average of 3372 kWh per year.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpORf0QzRvUbMKgXGrL5p605xwC9bF9EenBXa81Kv4WDcyr_V3ydFkm3Sb8JCz7cO5d4vxUiJX9yubNGm_NaoqpwiLFHkqjRShyphenhyphen3TziSwaAc_D2QWuL9sw_ahDqoa8yYviadvsNGnQ43T3/s1600/chart.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="449" data-original-width="809" height="354" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpORf0QzRvUbMKgXGrL5p605xwC9bF9EenBXa81Kv4WDcyr_V3ydFkm3Sb8JCz7cO5d4vxUiJX9yubNGm_NaoqpwiLFHkqjRShyphenhyphen3TziSwaAc_D2QWuL9sw_ahDqoa8yYviadvsNGnQ43T3/s640/chart.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Output per month over seven years. Red bars show our electricity consumption, blue bars show the production from our panels and the yellow line shows where we are in total now relative to where we began. Our production in is higher than our consumption on average, though obviously that is not the case in the winter. The kink in the yellow line from July 2018 is the period during which our inverter was not working (<a href="http://www.hembrow.eu/electronics/abbpoweroneaurorainverter.html" target="_blank">I repaired it myself</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Several things contribute to the slightly lower output relative to the estimate: Our panels are mounted at the angle of the roof and not at whatever the ideal angle might be, they face South West rather than directly towards the South. But the most damaging thing so far as the average is concerned is that our inverter <a href="http://www.hembrow.eu/electronics/abbpoweroneaurorainverter.html" target="_blank">failed last year</a> and so we had no output at all for a few weeks during the sunnier than average month of July. Calculating out average output for the six years before the inverter problem we come to 3410 kWh per year which is within 2% of the prediction.<br />
<br />
<b>Return on investment</b><br />
The monetary value of the electricity which we've generated is about 20 cents per kWh for that which we use ourselves and about 7 kWh for the excess that we export to the grid. We have exported about 1200 kWh in total for a value of €84 and consumed about 22400 kWh ourselves for which we would otherwise have had to pay about €4500. In total, then, about €4600 has been returned from our original €8000 investment. If the same rate of return continues then the system will have taken 12 years to pay for itself.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFeA9gPbGM-FlSCaNvB6wBj0VoStoHdQBzcd_nUCV3sUGjhXSNeodVl2qxi0CQczVtVYwqBYEnxxC5G0NRC0rWrI85OvCyfWfvZYe9XUxJBCCMF-aEATvBe_e0f_vMqgFtbpf2lDlZ9coK/s1600/L1030278.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="621" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFeA9gPbGM-FlSCaNvB6wBj0VoStoHdQBzcd_nUCV3sUGjhXSNeodVl2qxi0CQczVtVYwqBYEnxxC5G0NRC0rWrI85OvCyfWfvZYe9XUxJBCCMF-aEATvBe_e0f_vMqgFtbpf2lDlZ9coK/s320/L1030278.JPG" width="248" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our new smartmeter. When the photo was taken<br />
everything electrical in our home was powered<br />
from the panels and 2 kW was being exported<br />
to the grid.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
If the inverter fails again and this time we have to replace it then that will of course increase the repayment time. This might happen. However the panels themselves are expected to last much longer than the repayment period.<br />
<br />
<b>A smart meter</b><br />
Something else which changed last year was that our electricity meter was replaced in December.<br />
<br />
The new meter doesn't give us any real advantage over the old mechanical meter which <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2012/04/we-now-have-our-own-solar-power.html">span backwards just as enthusiastically as forwards</a> for nearly seven years. The electricity costs us the same amount either way around.<br />
<br />
Of course it does offer an advantage to the electricity company because they no longer have to ask us to read the meter or visit to do so themselves.<br />
<br />
What the new meter does give me, though, is that it counts differently and therefore I have a little more information for future calculations. While we pay the same amount of electricity in peak and off peak periods, the meter displays them separately, for both inbound and outbound electricity. So now we can see how much electricity we consume at night time and we can see how much leaves our home rather than being consumed here.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjluXscsdjhJWNYNJoKQOe7xarCB-eHYqNxitBtU2UsBkWUO9uhNc_5VXgD8DtB-yTyh9AxG6V4UAg7iqIBtwGy7AcYaRykCQjB3Iz92J0vRpbBus5xdb39CbG28cqu_sKZytA-Ah6QkQU9/s1600/D0QAQXiXgAIA-Yp.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="312" data-original-width="508" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjluXscsdjhJWNYNJoKQOe7xarCB-eHYqNxitBtU2UsBkWUO9uhNc_5VXgD8DtB-yTyh9AxG6V4UAg7iqIBtwGy7AcYaRykCQjB3Iz92J0vRpbBus5xdb39CbG28cqu_sKZytA-Ah6QkQU9/s320/D0QAQXiXgAIA-Yp.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Solar electricity is more valuable than average because it is<br />
generated at peak times of consumption (<a href="https://twitter.com/BM_Visser/status/1100006228275724289" target="_blank">source</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Perhaps after a year of recording this information I'll have something which which I can create an interesting graph. Thus far I have just three and a half months of this extra data, all of it from winter and spring. There's not much contrast to see.<br />
<br />
What has long been obvious of course, and is also visible even in the small amount of data which I have now, is that our electricity is generated only in the daytime and then mostly on sunnier days. As it happens, solar electricity remains quite valuable in the Netherlands because this daytime generation corresponds reasonably well with peak usage. That means that the electricity which we export, most of what we generate, is almost certainly of use to someone else.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhll9M-vQOvE42WpY5dFfFHp2BpixVMfro7Nq55mYhVPcukgzeQZrljdD4ufEOpkcYrkGm4iYf59GZWqul1PNizwVtLTG7HS0G_RtRP8s23EzxUfR0FF-mXgomzwo9qwlS4EZLX6NX1MAUX/s1600/IMG_20150305_144327.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhll9M-vQOvE42WpY5dFfFHp2BpixVMfro7Nq55mYhVPcukgzeQZrljdD4ufEOpkcYrkGm4iYf59GZWqul1PNizwVtLTG7HS0G_RtRP8s23EzxUfR0FF-mXgomzwo9qwlS4EZLX6NX1MAUX/s200/IMG_20150305_144327.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The first thing I made the prototype<br />
hardware do was wiggle a GPIO and<br />
then send serial data as shown here.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>Software for a smart meter</b><br />
I'm late to have a smart meter installed but as it happens, I spent a few months two years ago working on software for the prototype smart meter hardware of one of several competing manufacturers. I'm almost certain that the meter that I have now is not related to the manufacturer for whom I did the work, so my code is almost certainly not involved in reporting my own electricity usage, but as I'll never open the box of the meter and look inside, I'll never know for certain.<br />
<br />
It was quite an interesting project for a while because it was like a return to the old days for me, when I worked on 8 bit processors and embedded software. This work was with what for me was a new processor, the Renesas RL78. It's a quirky 8/16 bit design. The RL78 assembler is styled so that the source code looks a bit like that for the Z80, but the processor is really completely different. In total I had 32 kB of flash and 4 kB of RAM to work with. These days that doesn't sound like much at all but that means this device has about the same amount of memory as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer" target="_blank">guidance computers</a> which took Apollo to the moon so it's enough to do great things. In this case it's in a finger nail sized package which consumes micro-watts, and the little RL78 can of course compute many times faster than the AGC.<br />
<br />
<b>Power for a home and a business</b><br />
We generate more than enough electricity to power both our home and <a href="https://www.dutchbikebits.com/" target="_blank">our business</a>, though of course I always point out that we're not actually doing so at night, or on darker days in the winter. Anyway, if you want a support a solar powered bicycle business which uses no powered vehicles then you can do so here:<br />
<a href="http://www.dutchbikebits.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://dutchbikebits.com/dbbavtcp640.png" style="border: 0px;" /></a>David Hembrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14543024940730663645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7781742879659228364.post-65746556483132999042018-12-17T16:30:00.004+01:002022-11-09T14:54:18.063+01:00Upgrading Windows to version 3 (Continuing to insulate our home with triple glazing)<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu-tHgqwm38_1ZNiqYCIWBpbsRQk8w9TDXviiZOcCE8xGtr-2yvZv35B-poX4U4BITKtDv83P99yycGQGiolfQM8LUrP7tOje_jr4brmtiOt-wmkuBaGoIb3DEdLxc_EySjjrPdcyRL8xf/s1600/L1030160.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu-tHgqwm38_1ZNiqYCIWBpbsRQk8w9TDXviiZOcCE8xGtr-2yvZv35B-poX4U4BITKtDv83P99yycGQGiolfQM8LUrP7tOje_jr4brmtiOt-wmkuBaGoIb3DEdLxc_EySjjrPdcyRL8xf/s320/L1030160.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our windows were fitted by Van Dijk Services<br />
Assen. They did a good job so deserve <a href="http://www.vdsassen.nl/" target="_blank">a link</a>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
We knew we'd have to do something about the insulation of our home in Assen before we even moved in and every year we've made some change to improve the energy efficiency of our home. One of the oddities of 1970s Dutch homes is that while they had double glazing on the main rooms on the ground floor, it was quite common to have single glazing in places like the hall and all of the bedrooms upstairs. We fixed that problem eight years ago by <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-glass.html">installing HR++ double glazing to replace all the single glass</a> and this was very effective. But we kept the same older windows downstairs.<br />
<br />
It took a while for us to get around to considering the downstairs windows because we were busy with insulating <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2012/10/insulating-floor.html">the floor</a>, <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2017/12/more-insulation-for-our-walls-and-roof.html">the roof</a>, <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2009/02/cavity-wall-insulation-effectiveness.html">the walls</a>, <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/search/label/solar">installing solar panels</a> on the roof, <a href="http://www.dutchbikebits.com/" target="_blank">our bicycle parts business</a>, and generally getting on with life, but we've now begun. In fact, we did one of the smaller panes last year because the old double glazing had developed a leak and we took this as an opportunity to experiment with triple glazing. We made measurements and <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2017/12/more-insulation-for-our-walls-and-roof.html#firsttripleglass">found that it was</a> effective. When the outside temperature was -2 C and the inside temperature 17.5 C the temperature of the inside of a double glazed pane was measured as 9 C while the inside of the triple glazed window alongside it measured 14 C. Clearly we could stay warmer with less heating if we replaced more of the old double glazing downstairs in our home with triple glazing.<br />
<br />
Thus far we've replaced the glass only on the front of our home. We're still not entirely sure what we'll do on the back of house, but there is less than half the area of double glazing in the living room on the back compared with the front.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQCCNidxQIFjP-YVXb9Xa4OOJCVoFh_WxzXw7jdH7OWrQQmHGvrjKuEY_2GYLJPHVTQK5VwFmqls7SB-rhZ8U2TGMbGEQgxMF8dk5UTSLMnFQcm4jiVSqQd3ahCPJVInZ_YirVI7ympNl4/s1600/L1030166.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="762" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQCCNidxQIFjP-YVXb9Xa4OOJCVoFh_WxzXw7jdH7OWrQQmHGvrjKuEY_2GYLJPHVTQK5VwFmqls7SB-rhZ8U2TGMbGEQgxMF8dk5UTSLMnFQcm4jiVSqQd3ahCPJVInZ_YirVI7ympNl4/s640/L1030166.JPG" width="608" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of the old panes being removed</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvCvzCGhOjl2LtM8r59pHrKAjoE9MX2sPD9XDW3sHi8xBgIEa2aO0kP3kcUIQ-nlTK1acsMc6YE2xvvYqBVi3PemU8VAS0Aa36vLZYBSbMc13O6-9ZisVmxm1z0wv5LZNK_OXq8BQLqIYN/s1600/L1030171.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvCvzCGhOjl2LtM8r59pHrKAjoE9MX2sPD9XDW3sHi8xBgIEa2aO0kP3kcUIQ-nlTK1acsMc6YE2xvvYqBVi3PemU8VAS0Aa36vLZYBSbMc13O6-9ZisVmxm1z0wv5LZNK_OXq8BQLqIYN/s640/L1030171.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The replacement coming into place. It took some lifting because it weighed 127 kg.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgya853c53EzdwfBnnmklTl5364wvf6JyOKNh9HZYBrHdMTZDyu53g_agEx4sR9rlwUwudK6fQLbDkT-Ug7sgmE1lVAo6mwJwUh1vq82pC1ZciAZtoTaNSFlcVVmVozoAZQFho49bxzq_eB/s1600/L1030175.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgya853c53EzdwfBnnmklTl5364wvf6JyOKNh9HZYBrHdMTZDyu53g_agEx4sR9rlwUwudK6fQLbDkT-Ug7sgmE1lVAo6mwJwUh1vq82pC1ZciAZtoTaNSFlcVVmVozoAZQFho49bxzq_eB/s640/L1030175.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fixing into place</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb1HkHPbRbTsc0MUUhf2vBKYCIIakN_6Pk5no-XHtLjw04S6uFt5EFIN2dqV1U3g4cAst8_6lSvWmsMwk_nAx-F93xV63l6tEsyynkoBZcVcQs48CVLkGeeoh5R9ze5nFWpc_7Kw_0tiPD/s1600/L1030162.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb1HkHPbRbTsc0MUUhf2vBKYCIIakN_6Pk5no-XHtLjw04S6uFt5EFIN2dqV1U3g4cAst8_6lSvWmsMwk_nAx-F93xV63l6tEsyynkoBZcVcQs48CVLkGeeoh5R9ze5nFWpc_7Kw_0tiPD/s640/L1030162.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Just fitted, not made neat and tidy yet.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8HNZPDALx8ZBRHRNYkb-5SCEukpbHwYUWyHuqvqsupiPOMYUQRkIN0wEOnI9tZTu_JNfp04eAmBi1dzLJTmS7qwIxlTgtX4gLDORjFW2CPuw5B2xVfxk61tAV0KypRoJHFRyrmX216C_z/s1600/L1030176.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="636" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8HNZPDALx8ZBRHRNYkb-5SCEukpbHwYUWyHuqvqsupiPOMYUQRkIN0wEOnI9tZTu_JNfp04eAmBi1dzLJTmS7qwIxlTgtX4gLDORjFW2CPuw5B2xVfxk61tAV0KypRoJHFRyrmX216C_z/s640/L1030176.JPG" width="507" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A tidy job completed. We now have to wait a couple of days before we can clean the glass because the sealant has to dry first.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZTTIaCNzLC1pM35L6TRqoxJGKp1x_uGKjNJvme1EqGbEh3xbZzeZ9QlXw5SklNiViN_ljr05eS0B8vlweWpIjfIEAK3qqRlCl1zIsllYGZrsf9P9EOmTPO5magtoJBtJzD1Nie29sBjB9/s1600/Daddy%252C_what_did_You_do_in_the_Climate_War.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1056" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZTTIaCNzLC1pM35L6TRqoxJGKp1x_uGKjNJvme1EqGbEh3xbZzeZ9QlXw5SklNiViN_ljr05eS0B8vlweWpIjfIEAK3qqRlCl1zIsllYGZrsf9P9EOmTPO5magtoJBtJzD1Nie29sBjB9/s400/Daddy%252C_what_did_You_do_in_the_Climate_War.png" width="263" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2018/12/daddy-what-did-you-do-in-climate-war.html" target="_blank">Travel less, nor more, insulate your home<br />and don't eat meat</a>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
We hope this will reduce our gas consumption and our heating bill. We already have a very low energy bill because we generate more electricity than we use. The gas bill, which covers cooking and water heating as well as heating, is also low and has reduced each year. Dutch bills are increasing quite sharply this year <a href="https://nos.nl/artikel/2263097-zorgen-over-flink-hogere-energierekening-ook-bij-coalitiepartijen.html" target="_blank">due to increased tax on gas</a>, but our estimate for next year is the same as this year, and the energy company doesn't know that we've taken measures which hopefully will reduce our usage further.<br />
<br />
It's becoming more and more obvious to us that we can't continue to increase our energy usage but must decrease it. We must decrease our burning of fossil fuels. There is little time left to do this. The IPCC report from the 8th of October told us that emissions need to be reduced to zero in 12 years time. Who is doing enough to make that happen ?<br />
<br />
Because of our concerns we are not only continuing to make our home more efficient but have also <a href="http://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2018/12/enough-of-cars-overuse-of-motorized.html" target="_blank">got rid of our car</a> and stopped our business of offering holidays and <a href="http://www.hembrow.eu/studytour/" target="_blank">study tours</a>. Encouraging people to make international journeys to cycle is just not of this time. We must all stop behaving as if we can do whatever we like without consequences. Our children and our grandchildren, not to mention millions of people in poorer countries, are being made to pay for our own selfishness.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxMEgW2gkJoPkXw8w3fX2PeVE9RAoYEGjde0ds0_M8UeqMj3Hz7un8ho65aXRF1Y-YKb3B4yIHMZQzcHh3KiYtIu9mZtkn_4l7bRlnvw1Y6OYvS45tl7tuAPqSJ2BYFcNJl7QMMxCYg_yl/s1600/P1120428.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="449" data-original-width="800" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxMEgW2gkJoPkXw8w3fX2PeVE9RAoYEGjde0ds0_M8UeqMj3Hz7un8ho65aXRF1Y-YKb3B4yIHMZQzcHh3KiYtIu9mZtkn_4l7bRlnvw1Y6OYvS45tl7tuAPqSJ2BYFcNJl7QMMxCYg_yl/s640/P1120428.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yesterday afternoon. Four identical houses, ours is on the left. We're winning the race to keep ice on the roof from melting. Luckily it was somewhat warmer today.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>January Update: Is it effective ?</b><br />
<div>
We will really only know how effective the triple glazing is after the bills come in and we see if we've used less heating. However it's -4 C in the garden today, the sun is still on the side of the house and the inside of the double glazing at the back measure 8.7 C while the inside of the triple glazing at the front measure 14.5 C. Obviously we are loosing a lot more heat through the double glazed panel than through the single glazed panel.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPWcpySJ9Wj4J4g5rIglLN-cGhXeCOsIRe1lUFhqSSJN8I6j2-zUVjl5ef9K5CUIFMY2ycrb4o5MSup4qMKz0ullok0WunDj9aXBCUIe9rC3npS8-l7WX6kf5nlYEtEC8z0TZ8LrZABUUf/s1600/P1120467.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="655" data-original-width="800" height="524" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPWcpySJ9Wj4J4g5rIglLN-cGhXeCOsIRe1lUFhqSSJN8I6j2-zUVjl5ef9K5CUIFMY2ycrb4o5MSup4qMKz0ullok0WunDj9aXBCUIe9rC3npS8-l7WX6kf5nlYEtEC8z0TZ8LrZABUUf/s640/P1120467.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ice crystals visible on the outside of a triple glazed window when the temperature is -9 C outside. Photographed from the warmth inside.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
There's also a very visible difference in that ice crystals form on the outside the triple glazed panel, proving the temperature there stays below freezing while we have a more liveable temperature inside the house. This never happens with our double glazed windows. In fact the closest thing that I have seen to this in the past was when we had ice all over the <i>inside</i> of the upstairs windows of our house before we replaced the single glazed panels there with double glazing. That wasn't comfortable at all !<br />
<br />
<b>Update February 2019 - it's working !</b><br />
The front of our home, with the living room, is now fully triple glazed while the rear with the dining area (open to the living room) and kitchen remain double glazed. There's now an obvious difference in temperature between the front and the rear which I can also measure. Seeing this graph in February 2019 led me to make a simple calculation of consumption of gas for heating:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMfoC6ZlYfhMBCpEu7KmRRGV4cFbfXdqS-gQjR6B71zrmMrkYiED7A5gbrkOZV2IY_VNB9aoCf-qj0QvugWNWs6ryD47XnGP1gdh2dZwegV2BdYjjf70P1en-HJQEKTe9H50UpmN05imWb/s1600/Dyj1-KSXQAAgAYJ.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="277" data-original-width="471" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMfoC6ZlYfhMBCpEu7KmRRGV4cFbfXdqS-gQjR6B71zrmMrkYiED7A5gbrkOZV2IY_VNB9aoCf-qj0QvugWNWs6ryD47XnGP1gdh2dZwegV2BdYjjf70P1en-HJQEKTe9H50UpmN05imWb/s1600/Dyj1-KSXQAAgAYJ.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Source: <a href="https://twitter.com/BM_Visser/status/1092393971593216011" target="_blank">Martien Visser</a>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I keep a spreadsheet of our monthly gas and electric consumption. We used less gas in January 2019 than any other January on record, even the somewhat colder 2017. Our gas consumption in January 2019 was 15% lower than the same month in 2016 when the temperature was very similar. A drop in gas consumption of 15% represents a greater than 15% drop in use of energy for heating because we also use gas for water heating and for cooking.<br />
<br />
I only have one month of data so far so have to be cautious, but it appears that the replacement of the front windows with triple glazed panels has been effective. At this rate the windows will have paid for themselves in terms of nothing but a reduced heating bill within ten years even if there is no increase in the price of gas. That's a good rate of return and if it's possible I will replace the rear downstairs windows with triple glazing later this year.<br />
<br />
<b>Update November 2019</b><br />
We've just had the rear windows upgraded to triple glazing.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSA5si213FwEU4C2mRUc8TCC_wT8NO1q0w8_ORoW4XyzOSrqopoSkgd0G8lWezPzxBsFq4USv8Ct34E3FY5GKrUSZ1hTDJQK76Y0RYzXSnbtfLRlHfUTt4zU9u-Rgz4G422lWc6CE8wFGK/s1600/P1130578.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="707" data-original-width="800" height="564" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSA5si213FwEU4C2mRUc8TCC_wT8NO1q0w8_ORoW4XyzOSrqopoSkgd0G8lWezPzxBsFq4USv8Ct34E3FY5GKrUSZ1hTDJQK76Y0RYzXSnbtfLRlHfUTt4zU9u-Rgz4G422lWc6CE8wFGK/s640/P1130578.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVQgnCsLTT6aWf6TQYI_iAgoG45RSEGC4ItslahMB2gWy-Q2KtykCMYGfU7oG2IzsuojuVD9dlfEMgRvo5lLZWIFdO9m4i6jFBHV0cvnYjar8tzmh9YQHzYv9I1DU7HiRZwU0blCfdXQSL/s1600/P1130579.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="488" data-original-width="800" height="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVQgnCsLTT6aWf6TQYI_iAgoG45RSEGC4ItslahMB2gWy-Q2KtykCMYGfU7oG2IzsuojuVD9dlfEMgRvo5lLZWIFdO9m4i6jFBHV0cvnYjar8tzmh9YQHzYv9I1DU7HiRZwU0blCfdXQSL/s640/P1130579.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This time the work was done by <a href="http://www.dglas.nl/" target="_blank">D & S Glasmontage</a>, a different local company from the one who did the front windows, but known to us already because they installed new windows for us upstairs many years ago.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
So now we're completely triple glazed downstairs except for the window in the back door of the kitchen.</div>
<div>
<br />
<a href="http://www.dutchbikebits.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://dutchbikebits.com/dbbavtcp640.png" style="border: 0px;" /></a></div>
David Hembrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14543024940730663645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7781742879659228364.post-42016834559442939202018-11-28T12:21:00.000+01:002019-02-06T17:43:52.720+01:00Brexit: If the UK now remains in the EU how will it compensate EU citizens for their losses ?<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnN_T-APjcG7VqEJaZCo9FQRIyPx2iXZ5kMnsRHSM9zEj0AmaQ9k2NKmbQZJzBmsamSEZs6LZgSPEYS2TvweWsykwo2W69pba9w5n5YSwW4ACzEIqTWCaRH1pYt-vbj1IRC0EnbMCoOqFg/s1600/euco251118.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="855" data-original-width="1140" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnN_T-APjcG7VqEJaZCo9FQRIyPx2iXZ5kMnsRHSM9zEj0AmaQ9k2NKmbQZJzBmsamSEZs6LZgSPEYS2TvweWsykwo2W69pba9w5n5YSwW4ACzEIqTWCaRH1pYt-vbj1IRC0EnbMCoOqFg/s320/euco251118.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">EU27 leaders <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/news/president-juncker-special-meeting-european-council-art-50-2018-nov-25_en" target="_blank">endorsing the Brexit withdrawal agreement</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Last Sunday the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement was signed by both the UK and the EU27 states. It has been made clear by many EU leaders that there is precisely one withdrawal agreement and they have no intention of negotiating another in the four months left until the UK leaves the EU. That's it. There will be no more negotiation. This has been made clear.<br />
<br />
The choice that the UK now faces is between the deal which Theresa May has already signed or no deal at all. The first of those will damage the British economy and to a lesser extent also EU economies, but it will go some way to protect the rights of British citizens in the EU and EU citizens in the UK. "No deal" will be catastrophic.<br />
<br />
The EU has offered a <a href="http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-18-6422_en.htm" target="_blank">remarkably generous withdrawal agreement</a>. which was signed by the Prime Minister only to result in other <a href="https://decorrespondent.nl/8927/spectaculair-incompetente-mensen-bekleden-de-hoogste-posten-in-groot-brittannie-en-nog-twee-lessen-van-brexit/3096062443518-f767a4ba" target="_blank">British politicians</a> and some elements of the press discussing it if they've been blackmailed. Whatever happened to the concept of diplomacy ? How do you intend to remain friends with the other EU nations and their citizens ?<br />
<br />
In the few days since that time, the response from British people seems to have been that they will consider almost any other option other than the two choices which are now on the table. There are groups of people who want each of these options:<br />
<ul>
<li>Re-open negotiations to get some other agreement from the EU though it's been made very clear that this will not happen.</li>
<li>Another referendum (a "people's vote"), which of course the British can do if they want but they should not expect that an internal vote will have influence outside their country.</li>
<li>A general election to try to bring in Jeremy Corbyn as a Labour Prime Minister, even though he has absolutely failed to oppose the government during his time as leader of the opposition.</li>
<li>Unilaterally reverse brexit and remain in the EU with the existing preferential terms of membership.</li>
<li>An arrangement similar to that which Norway has now.</li>
<li>No deal as deliberate policy while continuing to lie about the likely negative consequences for the country.</li>
</ul>
<div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg_wnHNF-ShgdTpbJhs2rwdC3Km9GjroL4NpttBVtPsbrZJQusCgcnucvo1ZTDoHfLRSFZDVTzdsI7Wsljh7iH6Dea81eqtyZ_CuZ3brA4xXSJKn5igbTWf3qTjS4Uo4vpLqBRJ5iLGLnN/s1600/DtH5XnGXoAEqsr3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg_wnHNF-ShgdTpbJhs2rwdC3Km9GjroL4NpttBVtPsbrZJQusCgcnucvo1ZTDoHfLRSFZDVTzdsI7Wsljh7iH6Dea81eqtyZ_CuZ3brA4xXSJKn5igbTWf3qTjS4Uo4vpLqBRJ5iLGLnN/s320/DtH5XnGXoAEqsr3.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://twitter.com/Andrew_Adonis/status/1068037618225618944" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">A few days later</a>, at the Spectator awards. David Davis and Dominic Raab,<br />
two brexit secretaries who quit without finishing the job, accept a joint<br />
"Cabinet Resignation Of The Year" prize. They were fundamental in<br />
causing chaos and they're smiling about it. No reflection here of the<br />
damage they caused to other nations or even to their own.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
What all of these options have in common is that the other 27 nations who are remaining in the EU are apparently supposed to blindly accept whatever it is that the British people decide to choose for themselves, whenever they choose it for themselves.<br />
<br />
There's even a court case going on at the moment to decide whether or not the the UK can unilaterally reverse brexit and force that reversal on all the other member states. This is of course <a href="https://www.ejiltalk.org/a-second-brexit-referendum-what-makes-you-think-they-will-have-you-back/" target="_blank">very unlikely to be allowed</a> because it would open the EU to a type of extortion by member states.<br />
<br />
At this point many British people, even many of those who see themselves as pro-EU "remainers" are still talking as if the UK is exceptional, can decide on any path for itself without considering the other nations, and can control the entire bloc even at a point in time where it's on the edge of leaving that bloc (or maybe they think they're not leaving as they haven't bothered to make up their minds as yet).</div>
<br />
<b>Brexit is not just about the UK</b><br />
Quite apart from the absurdity of the idea that one nation which is leaving a bloc should expect to be able to change things for the 27 who are remaining, it seems to me that we have gone rather a long way past the time when British people ought to have worked out that the UK does not exist in a vacuum and that brexit has not happened in a vacuum either.<br />
<br />
The effects of the brexit vote have not been limited to Britain or to British citizens. Much damage has been caused over the last two and a half years to citizens of the other 27 nations. The chaos from the UK has affected and will further affect everyone in the EU. Millions of people have lost billions of euros as a result of the UK's brexit vote and the subsequent uncertainty and chaos. Some people have lost their homes, their jobs, their businesses, a few even their lives, and very many people who never had a choice in this at all have lived with a considerable amount of stress for the last two and a half years.<br />
<br />
Speaking for ourselves, our family was affected in a major way. We quickly realised that the only way we could ensure that we could remain living in our own homes, whatever the final outcome, would be by changing our nationality from British to Dutch. Not to have done this put us in harm's way if a brexit outcome which didn't protect our rights was the result. It was a difficult decision to make: Dual citizenship was not possible in our case so the votes of other British people resulted in us losing our right to live in our country of birth. The process of changing citizenship cost us several thousand euros and, in addition, a brexit related decline in our <a href="http://www.dutchbikebits.com/" target="_blank">largely UK facing business</a> (only UK sales dropped, not those to other markets) cost us tens of thousands of euros in lost sales. In addition we have experienced monumental stress due to having to take exams, provide evidence of citizenship (or lack of it), send important, expensive and sometimes irreplaceable documents through the post to provide evidence in the UK and the Netherlands. This stress lasted a long time: We started this process <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2016/06/brexit-my-country-was-taken-from-me.html">in June 2016 immediately after the referendum result</a> but it took until just two weeks ago before we received our final letters from the Dutch government to say that our case was closed, we could definitely remain Dutch, and that we were therefore safe. But this has not been an easy time for our family. We, like millions of others, have been damaged by brexit.<br />
<br />
<b>A question for the remainers</b><br />
I can't see how you can expect to turn back the clock without there being any negative effect. The UK has benefited enormously from the EU, it has benefited at the expense of other nations due to having been allowed special conditions which other nations did not benefit from. You have now caused great problems for the other nations and it's time for a bit of reflection and humility.<br />
<br />
This leaves me with a question for those British people who now still think they can reverse article 50 and remain in the EU:<br />
<b><br /></b>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">What plan does the UK have to reimburse for the losses that your country's actions have caused for EU27 citizens ?</span></div>
<br />
<b>Update 10 December 2018</b><br />
The ECJ has ruled that <a href="https://twitter.com/EUCourtPress/status/1072039706123210752" target="_blank">the UK can unilaterally revoke</a> article 50 and retain all the existing terms of membership "following a democratic process" which demonstrates that this is what the people want. We will now watch and see whether the UK takes advantage of this remarkably generous offer.<br />
<br />
Note that it does not resolve anything for the millions of people who are still billions of euros down due to the brexit vote. It does not resolve anything for those who have lost homes, jobs or their nationality due to brexit.<br />
<br />
Brexit was never an issue which only affected the UK and UK citizens. When will the UK offer compensation for the damage which the country has done to nationals of other countries ?<br />
<br />
There's also the question of where this leaves the UK. If the UK withdraws the article 50 notice before it has taken on the reasons why British people voted to leave in the 2016 referendum then there is every chance that a Farage2 and a UKIP2 will continue to cause chaos and that there will continue to be people who cause chaos and who push for a brexit. If the issues are not resolved in the UK and the UK remains in the EU then that is bad news for every EU nation.<br />
<br />
<b>Update February 2019</b><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjONfq4SSfrqGC7G7ALMt3j-H12pZ8FxW56CdO-9VhTEFsy3en0Og841b7gSCFXe2KEsRrP3NLCxtF6I_-0faVi7tLvgd_T_Hm_KkPXWSbro0UWiMiF4h_L7xRFRp6Y6E7QvNHaOf6eZIhd/s1600/Screenshot+from+2019-02-06+17-36-02.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="208" data-original-width="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjONfq4SSfrqGC7G7ALMt3j-H12pZ8FxW56CdO-9VhTEFsy3en0Og841b7gSCFXe2KEsRrP3NLCxtF6I_-0faVi7tLvgd_T_Hm_KkPXWSbro0UWiMiF4h_L7xRFRp6Y6E7QvNHaOf6eZIhd/s1600/Screenshot+from+2019-02-06+17-36-02.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The logo of an absolutely idiotic campaign</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Just 50 days are left before the UK leave the EU on Brexit day, March 29th.<br />
<br />
The British government still has not decided what it actually wants. It has proven to be incapable even of governing itself.<br />
<br />
Against this background a new campaign has sprung up in the UK with the name "Lead not Leave". This campaign is led by Gina Miller, Lord Maurice Saatchi and Helena Kennedy QC and it was kicked off by Saatchi making <a href="https://twitter.com/DavidHembrow/status/1091441138060484609" target="_blank">a remarkably jingoistic speech</a> in the British parliament, in which he harped back to the second world war, called for the vote of British people to be given more weight than the vote of other nations, and said:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>We don't to be bossed around, particularly by the Germans</i> - Lord Saatchi before launching Lead not Leave</blockquote>
I can assure the people behind "Lead not Leave" that that there is absolutely no yearning at all amongst the people of the other 27 nations of the EU for Britain to come along and "lead" them. The rest of the EU knows that it would not benefit from a country which is currently demonstrating an inability to tie its own shoelaces taking a leadership role. This, unfortunately, is the closest thing to an opposition to brexit that the UK has yet managed to organise, and it's not only far too late but also absolutely useless. Remain unicorns are not better than leave unicorns...<br />
<br />
Anyway, I'm not linking to them. The last thing that either the EU or the UK need is for this group of nitwits to get more attention than they already have.<br />
<br />
<small>This is the last so far of a series of six blog posts about brexit:</small><br />
<small><a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.nl/2016/06/brexit-my-country-was-taken-from-me.html">Brexit: My country was taken from me</a> (June 2016 + many later updates)<br />
<a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.nl/2017/10/brexit-there-was-plenty-of-information.html">Brexit: There was plenty of information about what the EU did for UK for those who sought it</a> (October 2017)<br />
<a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.nl/2017/10/brexit-long-journey-through-uncertainty.html">Brexit: A long journey through uncertainty</a> (October 2017)<br />
<a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.nl/2018/02/where-two-years-of-brexit-have-left-us.html">Brexit: Where two years of brexit chaos have left us</a> (February 2018)<br />
<a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.com/2018/03/brexit-one-year-left-for-uk-to-leave-eu.html">Brexit: One year left for the UK to leave the EU and we're very nearly Dutch</a> (March 2018)</small>David Hembrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14543024940730663645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7781742879659228364.post-59863507449314838682018-07-22T14:31:00.006+02:002023-02-08T18:16:53.451+01:00Fixing an ABB/Solar One Aurora Uno inverter with Int. Error E031<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi81sHj4UoHYDFkC51ps_iTW1fylWpZb_74qE0AhyphenhyphenTKytDi8dwwqgLMWH9IJa2V-MIV6WnDxx1flOM0I5HjWkMtQtmQFkcEK4ySEe865dSx2azQMDnr_uRikz__nnMDlK9cae7uDDs8RS9-/s1600/L1020877.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="567" data-original-width="800" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi81sHj4UoHYDFkC51ps_iTW1fylWpZb_74qE0AhyphenhyphenTKytDi8dwwqgLMWH9IJa2V-MIV6WnDxx1flOM0I5HjWkMtQtmQFkcEK4ySEe865dSx2azQMDnr_uRikz__nnMDlK9cae7uDDs8RS9-/s400/L1020877.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our Power One Uno with the fatal "Error! Int. Error E031"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
A couple of days ago our ABB/Power One Aurora Uno inverter stopped working. It starts up, clicks relays and display "Error! Int.Error E031". Nothing more happens. It's six years old, so just out of the five year manufacturer's guarantee period. Not a good sign.<br />
<br />
Searching on the internet suggests that this is a very common fault and people claim it's a faulty relay. However, no-one seemed to be offering advice on how to fit the fault.<br />
<br />
I didn't want to replace the entire inverter. A repair is preferred because the whole reason to have a solar energy system is to conserve resources. Throwing out a huge device like this because of a minor fault goes completely against our reasoning for installing the product in the first place.<br />
<br />
ABB offered absolutely no help at all. Their reply to me was useless even to the extent of not bothering to get my name right: their swiftly cut and pasted reply to say "we won't help at all" was addressed to someone called "Emmanuel".<br />
<br />
The company which installed the inverter in the first place did offer a reasonable price for a replacement (from a different manufacturer and with a ten year guarantee) but that would cost us €1000 and of course it would still mean throwing out a mostly good existing unit. It turns out that the failed part is nothing more than a €5 relay on one of the printed circuit boards within the inverter.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8DyNZXWmWx37L_m9MPXgBEgqklUt7_WfjUfB0iq6WfX3pr4BcF0xHT980DrCQPQ4DWow1xbjlm5pNJYUicAEZWDii7mhQuaY0ZLI78FBHO0ySOopDI5QC62zsGE7OpJnuMk_uixNQA_Da/s1600/L1020889.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8DyNZXWmWx37L_m9MPXgBEgqklUt7_WfjUfB0iq6WfX3pr4BcF0xHT980DrCQPQ4DWow1xbjlm5pNJYUicAEZWDii7mhQuaY0ZLI78FBHO0ySOopDI5QC62zsGE7OpJnuMk_uixNQA_Da/s1600/L1020889.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Discolouration about the relay shows that it's failed.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXkWFLUYsnnBzX21TaA4Bm1KN6DmsrcGbX75o0XhQZ47KHSpGEEJBkaRnzZogpBYnEIw00HsHINw9nNZTaqGbbcO-J6pFT8qTxgvoiJjj5SVA-z51HpDL9nwbilFMznPjQh_4DnF361qsm/s1600/L1030018.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXkWFLUYsnnBzX21TaA4Bm1KN6DmsrcGbX75o0XhQZ47KHSpGEEJBkaRnzZogpBYnEIw00HsHINw9nNZTaqGbbcO-J6pFT8qTxgvoiJjj5SVA-z51HpDL9nwbilFMznPjQh_4DnF361qsm/s1600/L1030018.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The other side of the PCB has a crater in it from the pin on the relay melting/burning away.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Anyway, long story cut short, if you want to know how to repair one of these inverters click on the following line:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.hembrow.eu/electronics/abbpoweroneaurorainverter.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">I've repaired my inverter and it now works perfectly again</span></a></div>
<br />
Hopefully the repair will be good for another five years. If I find myself buying a replacement inverter in a few years time, it won't be bought from ABB as their customer service is absolutely useless.
<a href="http://www.dutchbikebits.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://dutchbikebits.com/dbbavtcp640.png" style="border: 0px;" /></a>David Hembrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14543024940730663645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7781742879659228364.post-40853869925234998212018-04-05T12:30:00.001+02:002018-12-17T16:40:30.803+01:00Six year solar power anniversary: We're still pleased with the system.We've had 16 solar panels on the roof of our home for six years today. In total they've generated 20459 kWh of electricity. Our electricity meter reads 7022 kWh this morning, vs. 7814 kWh on the morning of the 5th of April 2012 when the panels were installed, indicating that we've generated 792 kWh more than we've used over the last six years. You can see this in the graph below. Note how the yellow line has tilted upwards over time:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_Q0aMmRvE9h_UvbyjtnILOOWQmPw8WauHQ-2hIGXY-sIyfi46txvP_m0ksqxlOnKfImzzCmI1jXvKnYUcFVSmM0EhAuwiQZQbFKCtOhwiHhQSsyYskYggF10e4aGcMiMtahApvJBuAxuZ/s1600/chart.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="449" data-original-width="809" height="354" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_Q0aMmRvE9h_UvbyjtnILOOWQmPw8WauHQ-2hIGXY-sIyfi46txvP_m0ksqxlOnKfImzzCmI1jXvKnYUcFVSmM0EhAuwiQZQbFKCtOhwiHhQSsyYskYggF10e4aGcMiMtahApvJBuAxuZ/s640/chart.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Solar power 2012 - 2018. Blue bars show generation per month. Red bars show consumption per month. Yellow line shows difference between generation and consumption. Last year we overproduced </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
For the first few years our consumption was closer to the total generation but a few things changed which made a fairly dramatic difference in consumption over the last two years:<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOB7m4x9ZxkgDHYm6VjBxhOQ47ncAB8Lcq5ABHQuWHeMU4XWWWiYnzqCYxVlj3hTqBXn0BTX2BfGtqDXefbz7Opj_GANwoEMkmNP-HGWtW_gZl8dYLdWwrXxSkmkP1DUGB0QbObtT2f-gF/s1600/L1020617.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="594" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOB7m4x9ZxkgDHYm6VjBxhOQ47ncAB8Lcq5ABHQuWHeMU4XWWWiYnzqCYxVlj3hTqBXn0BTX2BfGtqDXefbz7Opj_GANwoEMkmNP-HGWtW_gZl8dYLdWwrXxSkmkP1DUGB0QbObtT2f-gF/s200/L1020617.JPG" width="185" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This simple switch saves standby<br />
current to computer and printer,<br />
making a considerable saving.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<ol>
<li>We <a href="http://www.dutchbikebits.com/" target="_blank">work from home</a> and as ours is a web-based business we use computers a lot. Newer second hand computers replaced the older Pentium 4 based machines a few years ago and they consume a lot less electricity when in use.</li>
<li>When I measured the usage of our computers and laser printers I found that they consumed almost as much electricity in the many hours when they were switched off as they did in the smaller number of hours when we were using them. The printer was especially bad in this regard. To counter this problem I installed an inexpensive switch which completely disconnects our laser printer and computers from the mains power when they're not in use.</li>
<li>Almost all the older compact fluorescent lightbulbs have now failed and been replaced by LED lightbulbs. This made almost no difference at all.</li>
<li>Our children left home, which made a dramatic difference to our total energy consumption.</li>
</ol>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYV08XXPVSVoosJnYaekoBE2y-h02O2Dw9HlYZAHgml6VX9eSTeqljCx_N_zhfhJTKavrO2HVt5H-uA_iRGlMtKGDfl7PsGsAS-OoZDb1Ws0SNAlZurTWKTASlaBfLD6ZemER1_oPyt4yJ/s1600/121_0283.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYV08XXPVSVoosJnYaekoBE2y-h02O2Dw9HlYZAHgml6VX9eSTeqljCx_N_zhfhJTKavrO2HVt5H-uA_iRGlMtKGDfl7PsGsAS-OoZDb1Ws0SNAlZurTWKTASlaBfLD6ZemER1_oPyt4yJ/s200/121_0283.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Netherlands. Bicycles & windmills<br />
are a stereotype. Sadly, some people are<br />
protesting against wind power here.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The blue lines on the graph show the production of electricity on each month. You'll note that our production in winter is far less than our consumption. On the shortest day in December our solar panels produced just 0.2 kWh of electricity. The peak output for that day was 111 W. That's from an array that peaks above 3900 W on especially good summer days. Output in winter can be as low as 1/40th of that in summer. At night time, whether summer or winter, the output of solar panels is zero. This is why solar power really cannot be used for everything. It's important also to have other green sources of energy to balance the supply. In the Netherlands that really has to mean wind turbines, though sadly some people don't seem to understand why that is important and there have been protests against wind turbines.<br />
<br />
<b>Standby power</b><br />
The switch which I use to disconnect the computers and laser printer from the mains electricity cost about €1 to buy and has saved €100s of euros so far. This was possible because the standby consumption of the computer and monitor power supplies and, even worse, the laser printer, were surprisingly high. They totalled over 20 W. Not all such attempts make the same difference. Unplugging the likes of mobile phone chargers is completely pointless because their consumption is measured in mW. Unless something gets warm it's not consuming any energy.<br />
<br />
<b>Have we been economically successful with solar power?</b><br />
When we installed our solar power system <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.nl/2012/04/we-now-have-our-own-solar-power.html">I predicted</a> that it would take about ten years to pay for itself. After six years it now looks like it will take a little longer than predicted but not dramatically so, or uneconomically so.<br />
<br />
The price per kWh has varied over time but currently our supplier gives a value of 17 cents excluding tax, working out to about 20.5 cents per kWh including tax. That values the 19997 kWh of electricity that we consumed at about €4030. Our overproduction is valued at only 7 cents per kWh meaning that this was worth about €55. i.e. after six years we've "earnt" about €4080 from the system and we're about half way to paying back the cost of installation.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinILNFjNrnq7EcFv3bkaJempeMYbKGv7fZo7Ng7oYLAXCwS5chLXxk81OKqeJL9-WcGElhRk7Uy_UCDXJ6RD-3fuH6uV7rvujMBl-OYMxprZNpESJpHUxnxL4YxDxmCPdlyG4fxJB9e_Lc/s1600/odeaangaia_img7.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinILNFjNrnq7EcFv3bkaJempeMYbKGv7fZo7Ng7oYLAXCwS5chLXxk81OKqeJL9-WcGElhRk7Uy_UCDXJ6RD-3fuH6uV7rvujMBl-OYMxprZNpESJpHUxnxL4YxDxmCPdlyG4fxJB9e_Lc/s320/odeaangaia_img7.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">While we generate more electricity than we consume that<br />
does not mean everything in our household runs on our solar<br />
electricity. During the night and in winter we use energy from<br />
the grid and <a href="http://www.hembrow.eu/cycling/2017odeaangaia.html#slide7" target="_blank">most of that</a> in the Netherlands comes from<br />
fossil ful.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Rather than taking ten years to repay, it looks like it will actually take about 13. That's still quite good. It still easily beats putting the money in a bank account (especially with the low interest rates over the last few years). The panels are expected to last a minimum of 20 years producing their rated output so will continue to produce electricity well after they've been completely paid for.<br />
<br />
If you're considering installing a system now you will do better than us because the costs have come down considerably. Installers are now claiming that the payback period can be as short as five years, which may be slightly optimistic but this is still likely to be one of the best investments anyone can make.<br />
<br />
<b>How long will the inverter last ?</b><br />
A friend of ours had a nearly identical system installed at the same time as us and his inverter failed a month or so ago. Perhaps our inverter will fail similarly. We expected from the beginning that the inverter would be the weak point: it's a hard working piece of power electronics. Luckily, inverters have dramatically dropped in price. The cost of replacing the inverter is expected to be about a tenth of the total cost of our system, so it will extent the repayment time by about a year. If we have to do this it will be annoying but it will still be worthwhile.<br />
<br />
<b>What next for us ?</b><br />
We have made considerable progress on <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.nl/search/label/insulation">insulating our home</a>, bringing dramatic results for our gas consumption. We've considered the idea of stopping use of gas altogether, cutting not only the €50 per month that we pay for gas but also the €18 fixed charges for the connection. If we switched to an electrical heat pump to replace the gas boiler for central heating we could eliminate this cost. Because we would no longer require the chimneys on our roof we could then install a few more solar panels instead to produce about as much electricity as our total consumption.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately this is currently impossible to justify because the repayment time works out as somewhat longer than the expected lifespan of a heat pump, let alone the other extra costs involved. For now we'll concentrate on continuing to make our home more energy efficient while waiting for a suitable more efficient non-gas heating system to become available.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiQqHXnXeHXjD9b0-4opU6zPdVAt0Rw6aLXFI9Mxo6jQQRteq7G1yYjP0P-tr5Qn4TkTfMSVo9aC1IVgEaVZEhmRkNkaPsrqe1FGUgCvwJbjX2Ty5Ewr7gjUPp5aCuhyphenhyphenvyWzWwLu94UB8E/s1600/P1070964.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="367" data-original-width="1024" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiQqHXnXeHXjD9b0-4opU6zPdVAt0Rw6aLXFI9Mxo6jQQRteq7G1yYjP0P-tr5Qn4TkTfMSVo9aC1IVgEaVZEhmRkNkaPsrqe1FGUgCvwJbjX2Ty5Ewr7gjUPp5aCuhyphenhyphenvyWzWwLu94UB8E/s640/P1070964.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elsewhere in Assen: A small section of what was claimed to be (when it opened in 2016) the largest solar covered motor bike parking facility in the world - at the TT track.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<a href="http://www.dutchbikebits.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://dutchbikebits.com/dbbavtcp640.png" style="border: 0px;" /></a>David Hembrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14543024940730663645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7781742879659228364.post-44738303609836616132018-03-29T16:59:00.000+02:002018-05-29T12:34:50.008+02:00Brexit: One year left for the UK to leave the EU and we're very nearly Dutch<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9jJlYyJ0ATQjqEkz9aWXOXwB04spZ0bCuwJ8sKHwonPQFcC4CjYDeAQwOyiAY0C_avcDlf6cdChnBaeyAPpAOq8PAf5D5BY8o0ZWKPwZJgc5kAA90PEGtAExJsy7w0RBngmYPGiwntPsI/s1600/P1100420.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="644" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9jJlYyJ0ATQjqEkz9aWXOXwB04spZ0bCuwJ8sKHwonPQFcC4CjYDeAQwOyiAY0C_avcDlf6cdChnBaeyAPpAOq8PAf5D5BY8o0ZWKPwZJgc5kAA90PEGtAExJsy7w0RBngmYPGiwntPsI/s320/P1100420.JPG" width="257" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An interesting book which I read last year about<br />
brexit from the perspective of a Dutch person<br />
living and working in the UK.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Exactly one year has now passed since the British government triggered article 50 and announced that the UK really was going to leave the EU. The process takes two years so is now half way through, but because the British government is chaotic they appear to have achieved more or less nothing at all during the time that has passed.<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>No progress has been made on the Irish and Gilbraltarian border questions</li>
<li>No progress has been made on the rights of citizens, either citizens from the EU27 who live in the UK or British citizens who live in the EU27 countries.</li>
<li>No progress has been made on trade arrangements</li>
</ul>
<br />
A whole year has passed in addition to the nine months that it took between the referendum and triggering article 50, but rather than making any useful progress at all on anything, this time has been consumed with political in-fighting within the UK and no real progress has been made on anything. The clock is ticking, Britain !<br />
<br />
What's more, there have been yet more revelations over the last couple of weeks of how the British people were (quite possibly illegally) manipulated by over-spending by leave.eu spending money with Cambridge Analytica to use <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.nl/search/label/facebook">Facebook</a> to spread false information. We <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.nl/2018/02/where-two-years-of-brexit-have-left-us.html">knew this from the beginning</a>. There was <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.nl/2017/10/brexit-there-was-plenty-of-information.html">plenty of factual information</a> out there for people to read, but many preferred the lies and half truths which were especially aimed at <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.nl/2016/06/brexit-my-country-was-taken-from-me.html">those people who were most easily manipulated</a> to believe them.<br />
<br />
Sadly, since the referendum we've seen very little political support from the UK. People like us were described as "<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/theresa-may-mein-kampf-adolf-hitler-nazi-vince-cable-liberal-democrat-conservatives-a7825381.html" target="_blank">citizens of nowhere</a>" by the British Prime Minister while our rights have been defended mainly by <a href="https://twitter.com/guyverhofstadt/status/979331299256172554" target="_blank">EU representatives</a> (with a few <a href="https://twitter.com/catherinemep/status/976050916104265729" target="_blank">wonderful exceptions</a>).<br />
<br />
<b>Rights ?</b><br />
When we moved to the Netherlands we did so as European citizens. We had a right to continue to vote in the UK in national elections (and in theory also the referendum, though <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.nl/2016/06/brexit-my-country-was-taken-from-me.html">voting forms didn't turn up</a>) and a right to vote at local and European level here in the Netherlands. The brexit vote took away not only our right to live here, but also threatens to completely disenfranchise British people living in the EU27 countries so that they can't vote anywhere for anything and have to spend their lives hoping that policies formed by other people will not work against them. I don't find that acceptable but it's the "will of the (British) people" that other British people should be disenfranchised and it seems unlikely that this will be overturned.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4stfVk3BEh9jfc2Qz1yfriMMFmwn8t6zmwgRm7e_fqIGrJcTyePRgpbuMD_sgL_-fIqZgSxRi-gpWn2g_V6HGvMSJZAcvfKJoUreUrYcwOjtp_6_Rqn3qdVj9NMFIceQN_Sn4Zj7m1Acp/s1600/DSCF1713.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="615" data-original-width="640" height="307" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4stfVk3BEh9jfc2Qz1yfriMMFmwn8t6zmwgRm7e_fqIGrJcTyePRgpbuMD_sgL_-fIqZgSxRi-gpWn2g_V6HGvMSJZAcvfKJoUreUrYcwOjtp_6_Rqn3qdVj9NMFIceQN_Sn4Zj7m1Acp/s320/DSCF1713.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We hung our flag out when we got this week's excellent news,<br />
but we still have to wait until we can officially become Dutch.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Our response to the referendum result was quick: We did the only thing that we could do in order to maximise our chance of preserving our European citizenship. The only thing that could guarantee our being able to continue to conduct ourselves as citizens of a democracy. That's what it meant to begin the process of becoming Dutch citizens immediately after the referendum.<br />
<br />
Our children became Dutch last year (they were educated here so had no need to prove their language ability). Judy and I are following them and we now know we've been successful in our attempt: after what was beginning to feel like an endless wait, we received the wonderful news just two days ago that we have been accepted and will become Dutch citizens. There are just a few more weeks to wait until it's made official by the King and we can attend a naturalisation ceremony.<br />
<br />
<b>Becoming Dutch</b><br />
We are thankful that the Dutch government has stepped in and will protect our rights in future. This is the best possible outcome for us. We'll have the right to live in our own home and continue to <a href="http://www.dutchbikebits.com/" target="_blank">run our own business</a> in the same country as where our children live and we'll be able to participate as any other citizen in this most democratic of nations. It's an honour. We will be proud Dutch citizens.<br />
<br />
When we become Dutch we will have to give up our British citizenship. This means we will no longer have the right to live and work in the UK. It's a strange thing to have to do, but one which has been forced upon us by people from the country in which we were born. We now see this loss of British citizenship as just one of the many costs of brexit for us, and we'll add it to the five figure financial sum which we've already lost due to brexit as well as the two years of sometimes quite horrendous stress which we've experienced. This will leave a permanent scar.<br />
<br />
<b>What about everyone else?</b><br />
We are lucky enough to have now seen the worst of what brexit can throw at us and we have a light that we can see at the end of our tunnel, but brexit certainly has not finished with making other peoples' lives miserable.<br />
<br />
The millions of others who remain in limbo, both EU27 citizens in the UK and UK citizens in the EU27, have my greatest sympathy. I wish success to all of those who are trying to change their citizenship in order to retain the rights that they already have, as well as those who have chosen a different path which they are trying to make work. We have read many stories about families being split apart due to brexit or about people who have moved to the UK and are leaving because of how they have been treated and it has all been heart-breaking. People should not be treated this way.<br />
<br />
Britain, what have you done ?<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqjKK9az28unh81_1U_xO2xLiHqlTq1VKXShEc5nuDMyAdcMzYk1NvXh-5T9UFEaO5rO4216c5AsjXuPiLwNyerl7de-X3oiC1SwIUfNahwmr_n0w5J38areryApR8cjP6xZhd5m6KwUqr/s1600/P1110361.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqjKK9az28unh81_1U_xO2xLiHqlTq1VKXShEc5nuDMyAdcMzYk1NvXh-5T9UFEaO5rO4216c5AsjXuPiLwNyerl7de-X3oiC1SwIUfNahwmr_n0w5J38areryApR8cjP6xZhd5m6KwUqr/s320/P1110361.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo from the citizenship ceremony with<br />
the Mayor of Assen, Marco Out.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>Update May 2018: Changing nationality</b><br />
On the 7th of May Judy and I became Dutch citizens. Dual citizenship is not an option for us and so becoming Dutch means we have to renounce our British citizenship. With this step we've lost the right to be able to visit our country of birth. It's a big step to have taken, but it's also the only step that could guarantee us a life free from stress and doubt about what brexit would force upon us in the future.<br />
<br />
While Britain forced us out, the Netherlands welcomed us. We're extremely happy to have become Dutch citizens.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_eif8MGrKqYtg_Nr3tdm7eRDnr-xWIhpjk_WbnlIQ8NKwtQ1kEP03R7sy7EeD6tqM4U9b3WZu5np8wXmVaowa83jqZuO5WJBja66pl36YrwbD01PxO7G-dz1ehXtPWQMgxmkNQenoICxI/s1600/L1020672.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="600" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_eif8MGrKqYtg_Nr3tdm7eRDnr-xWIhpjk_WbnlIQ8NKwtQ1kEP03R7sy7EeD6tqM4U9b3WZu5np8wXmVaowa83jqZuO5WJBja66pl36YrwbD01PxO7G-dz1ehXtPWQMgxmkNQenoICxI/s640/L1020672.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flags out again for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_Day_(Netherlands)" target="_blank">Liberation Day</a> in the Netherlands, two days before we became Dutch.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="pension"></a>
<b>Update a bit later in May 2018 - They're going after our pensions again</b><br />
So we're Dutch now. Does that mean we'll no longer be affected by brexit ? Of course not. Our pensions are in the UK. We contributed over decades to both the state and private pension schemes in the UK and like most people we'd like to be able to make use of a pension when we retire (I reach retirement age in 15 years). But there are problems with the idea of having a happy old age because we were once British. I wrote a little about this <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.nl/2016/06/brexit-my-country-was-taken-from-me.html#updateseptember2016">in September 2016</a>, but the situation has become more confused since then:<br />
<br />
<i>The state pension</i><br />
The state pension has already suffered an approximately 20% drop in value due to the lowered value of the pound as a result of the brexit vote. We can expect the pound to drop further as the consequences of brexit become more clear and every drop means that our pensions drop as well, so the prospects of state pension already look poor. However that's not all:<br />
<br />
It's become apparent that if the UK leaves the EU with no deal in place, which is still quite likely, then the UK will probably freeze the pension of every British person living in the EU at some arbitrary date; perhaps 29 March 2019. This means that when I eventually reach pension age I'll receive the rate of pension due to me as if I had reached pension age in 2019, rather than 15 years later. For the remainder of my life I'll receive a 2019 pension with no increases due to inflation. I'll have paid in the same as everyone else, but I won't get a pension in the same way as I would if I still lived in the UK.<br />
<br />
This may all sound far-fetched, but it's exactly what the UK already does to pensioners who retire to, for instance, Canada, which is why there is <a href="http://www.britishpensions.com/" target="_blank">an organisation</a> there which is trying to convince the British government to treat British citizens in Canada in a more reasonable manner.<br />
<br />
<i>The private pension</i><br />
My private pension is not large and it's split between several different schemes run by different companies due to my having worked for a variety of companies in the past. The result is that it's difficult to move because the fees to move the pension make up too high a proportion of its value. A good chunk of my pension was invested in commercial property in the UK before brexit and unfortunately as that began to drop in value due to brexit the fund itself was frozen so that I could not get my pension out before damage had been caused. This is of course on top of the 20% or so already lost to the currency devaluation.<br />
<br />
Now I <a href="https://infacts.org/hard-brexit-could-threaten-british-peoples-pensions/" target="_blank">read</a> that there are other problems on the way, including that with the loss of passporting rights, British pension companies won't actually be able to send me the money which I am due from them without breaking European law. One solution which is proposed is that they'd transfer the funds to an EU company which could pay me, but of course the transfer will take a large slice out of the remaining funds so that would have also a dramatic effect on my pension. I'll find out quite soon what will happen because when I signed up to one of my private pension funds (for the last computer company that I worked for) I said I wanted my retirement age to be 55. The fund is not large and it's not worth all that much. From this fund I should receive a pension of around 100 pounds a year from the age of 55 onwards (yes, just 100 pounds a year. i.e. about 30 p a day). But will I even get that ? That remains to be seen. If I do receive anything, how many euros will 100 pounds even be worth by that time ? That also remains to be seen.<br />
<br />
As a result of the brexit vote we don't have a secure, let alone prosperous, old age ahead of us. Our UK pensions have been stolen or at the very least greatly diminished in value by the people who voted for brexit. Many retired people voted for brexit. Did they intend that those who would be retiring shortly after them would be thrust into poverty ? We did what we were supposed to and paid into the system, but the system is now firmly rigged against us. We do have very small NL state pensions as a result of working here for the last eleven years, but while those are not under threat, they're also not enough to keep us.<br />
<br />
This update is largely based upon <a href="https://infacts.org/hard-brexit-could-threaten-british-peoples-pensions/" target="_blank">a very good article</a> written by Ros Altmann. Ros is a pensions expert, economist and Conservative member of the House of Lords. She was previously Minister of State for Pensions. i.e. not someone who doesn't understand these issues but an expert. So she'll probably be ignored by all the ignoramuses who voted for brexit and still think it was a good idea.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="update29may2018"></a><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTgZFgbTV4SVFHkjGK0k6MrS0TLKs4vlN4yyOqXEcGWU617zwjJ4_jKUtEF9ByyEJ8DRlFQDDoApgYjMfVjcFNdUuCKoZk9kryQ1HZY6A3iURE7SNbO0jraTwLRwg7emQEO9JDFYnji5wY/s1600/L1020776.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="660" data-original-width="800" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTgZFgbTV4SVFHkjGK0k6MrS0TLKs4vlN4yyOqXEcGWU617zwjJ4_jKUtEF9ByyEJ8DRlFQDDoApgYjMfVjcFNdUuCKoZk9kryQ1HZY6A3iURE7SNbO0jraTwLRwg7emQEO9JDFYnji5wY/s320/L1020776.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My new passport eclipsing my old passport, which is soon<br />
to be disposed of - by paying a newly enhanced punishment<br />
extra cost to the Home Office.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>Update 29 May 2018</b><br />
Today we picked up our new Dutch passports. Dutch passports take just a week to be issued and they cost just €65. That's a very long way removed from <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.nl/2012/09/rip-off-britain.html">the rip-off price charged by the UK government for our last passports</a> which we bought six years ago while living here in the Netherlands. Britain has long treated "ex pats" as cash cows.<br />
<br />
All that is left for us to do now is to renounce our British citizenship, but overnight we discover that the cost of renunciation has <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-latest-uk-citizenship-eu-nationality-foreign-nationals-passport-countries-a8369706.html" target="_blank">been put up up by 16%</a>. It now costs 372 pounds to get rid of a British passport instead of 321 last year. An extra 100 pounds that we'll have to pay to rip-off Britain just to get rid of our British citizenship. We'll pay it because we have no choice but to pay it. At this point that extra 100 pounds is merely a rounding error. It's less than 1% of what brexit has cost us so far, and it'll become even less significant in the long term as we expect to be <a href="http:/#pension">stiffed on our British pensions</a> as well.<br />
<br />
As Britain leaves the EU the country appears to be set on a path of burning <i>all</i> bridges. The Windrush scandal showed Commonwealth citizens the truth about the UK. EU citizens in the UK are suffering at the hands of the Home Office and now we find that ex British citizens are also being punished for leaving, when the country has made it very difficult for its citizens to do anything else but leave. When Britain wants to make trade deals in the future, who does the country expect to work with ? All the people that have been insulted and mis-treated ?<br />
<br />
The picture is now quite clear. Britain is isolating itself. Those who can leave, those have both the means and the "get up and go" are getting up and going.<br />
<br />
Read all my blog posts about brexit:<br />
<a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.nl/2016/06/brexit-my-country-was-taken-from-me.html">Brexit: My country was taken from me</a><br />
<a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.nl/2017/10/brexit-there-was-plenty-of-information.html">Brexit: There was plenty of information about what the EU did for UK for those who sought it</a><br />
<a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.nl/2017/10/brexit-long-journey-through-uncertainty.html">Brexit: A long journey through uncertainty</a><br />
<a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.nl/2018/02/where-two-years-of-brexit-have-left-us.html">Brexit: Where two years of brexit chaos have left us</a>David Hembrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14543024940730663645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7781742879659228364.post-92005648011125262852018-02-21T14:36:00.000+01:002018-09-28T15:45:31.525+02:00Brexit: Where two years of brexit chaos have left us<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-xP-JPOlQG9PLoRe3FbFOx2R7Giw95JUv0k3q-5MfGapTORj-CyO14YXkzfTlggcla3OUw2PEBy2_ANa3EkILDHZT6117bv0oUSLEtdZC7gyPCfyzbfccvrqeDgu2vmNA0RmVPp7lLBH3/s1600/20160625_woc754_2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="695" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-xP-JPOlQG9PLoRe3FbFOx2R7Giw95JUv0k3q-5MfGapTORj-CyO14YXkzfTlggcla3OUw2PEBy2_ANa3EkILDHZT6117bv0oUSLEtdZC7gyPCfyzbfccvrqeDgu2vmNA0RmVPp7lLBH3/s320/20160625_woc754_2.png" width="294" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The EU has listed hundreds of <a href="https://blogs.ec.europa.eu/ECintheUK/euromyths-a-z-index/" target="_blank">untrue stories printed by</a><br />
<a href="https://blogs.ec.europa.eu/ECintheUK/euromyths-a-z-index/" target="_blank">the British press</a> (graph <a href="https://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2016/06/daily-chart-15" target="_blank">source</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
When we woke on June 24th 2016, the world had changed. Before that date the news was mostly about someone else somewhere else. From that date onward the news has no longer been an abstract thing but something which regularly discusses, or fails to discuss, what is happening to our rights. Why ? Because we are amongst the more than a million British people who took advantage of the Freedom of Movement offered by EU membership to live and <a href="https://www.dutchbikebits.com/" target="_blank">work</a> in a different European country to that in which we were born.<br />
<br />
The right to live in the home which we bought in our new country and <a href="https://www.dutchbikebits.com/" target="_blank">run our own business</a> from our new location was taken from us by the millions of British people who voted for brexit based on false promises by liars. Those voters included our own relatives who preferred to believe false sources about the EU above what we who lived on the continent of Europe could tell them. Stories were believed above referenced facts.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi10wI5ZEV82cF25KHmD6TAI0QBVVxh3wqUp2mvIsjR4N9tR6gPGVfS9V2TTjRZKyKPA-HTN0i8-VtDT9koU4pHcstURh4QQlKE1kkZaqRYXBsvz_w7LKgx4iIs-Fe-gIXPA_F6FUmUWQno/s1600/2JunEUcontribsFINALweb-1-1260x836.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="836" data-original-width="1260" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi10wI5ZEV82cF25KHmD6TAI0QBVVxh3wqUp2mvIsjR4N9tR6gPGVfS9V2TTjRZKyKPA-HTN0i8-VtDT9koU4pHcstURh4QQlKE1kkZaqRYXBsvz_w7LKgx4iIs-Fe-gIXPA_F6FUmUWQno/s320/2JunEUcontribsFINALweb-1-1260x836.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Where does the EU's money come from ? Mostly not from the<br />
UK. The idea that the UK is a cash-cow has been spread by<br />
many brexit supporters. The UK was actually a net recipient<br />
of funds when it first joined. British workers used the right<br />
to travel to other countries to find work helping to regenerate<br />
the British economy. Remember "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auf_Wiedersehen,_Pet" target="_blank">Auf Wiedersehn Pet</a>" ?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
We've been living with brexit for more than two years now. Why more than two years when the referendum was only 20 months ago ? Because we had already spent months trying to explain to relatives living in the UK that much of what they had read about the EU on <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.nl/2013/04/why-i-am-no-longer-on-facebook.html">Facebook</a>, or in newspapers, or in news coverage of politicians or had heard from friends who were informed by those same sources was not actually true at all. We explained that voting for brexit would cause us hardship. Our words made no difference.<br />
<br />
We know know that this is probably in part due to the very same Russian interference as is being prosecuted effectively in the US, but unfortunately it is still completely ignored by British authorities. Of course in Britain there is an additional problem of a press which <a href="https://blogs.ec.europa.eu/ECintheUK/euromyths-a-z-index/" target="_blank">has been making up stories for years</a>.<br />
<br />
The <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.nl/2017/10/brexit-there-was-plenty-of-information.html">facts were always out there</a> for people to read if they wanted to, but too many people preferred to ignore them.<br />
<br />
<b>So where are we now ?</b><br />
Over the weekend, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Verhofstadt" target="_blank">Guy Verhofdstadt</a>, the European Parliament's representative in the brexit negotiations was interviewed on British TV. As usual, he spoke with clarity about the position of the EU and about the many attempts that have been made to come to an agreement with the UK, all of which have been rejected because of the UK's desire for an impossible arrangement:<br />
<br />
<center>
<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-lN08lEwMv4" width="560"></iframe></center>
<br />
The content of that interview was remarkably familiar as the EU has held the same entirely logical position since before the Referendum vote. We have heard again and again such simple and obvious things as that you can't expect to force the policy of any organisation which you are not a part of and that you can't expect to retain benefits of membership while not being a member. British brexit supporting politicians continue to try to divide the EU and to seek to do these things, a position which is often referred to as wanting to "have their cake and eat it."<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVKu75hOekbJ6DsR7muKZEXJkWZ1dsVs2TjSsQ6lFamUNCrcu3Zex-7_SkmS5ufItOsHxc3z3NatDWmJMPkIQ5Ei8CBp5a92ZLPEx1id5EgqCSENV1Hm_3ONyU20U0L2ikNao7SW6CWfkQ/s1600/serveimage.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="625" data-original-width="1024" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVKu75hOekbJ6DsR7muKZEXJkWZ1dsVs2TjSsQ6lFamUNCrcu3Zex-7_SkmS5ufItOsHxc3z3NatDWmJMPkIQ5Ei8CBp5a92ZLPEx1id5EgqCSENV1Hm_3ONyU20U0L2ikNao7SW6CWfkQ/s320/serveimage.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of the most common lies is that the EU was once only a<br />
"common market". This letter to the British public by PM<br />
Edward Heath in 1972 before the UK joined the EU explained<br />
that there was an intention to also give people extra rights.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
It is notable that both Verhofstadt and the EU's chief negotiator <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Barnier" target="_blank">Michel Barnier</a> consistently bring up such concerns as the rights of citizens (both EU citizens in the UK and UK citizens in the EU) and the problem of the border in Ireland and the predicament of Gilbrater. British politicians talk infrequently about these issues, most discussion of citizens' rights being about how to take those rights away. Though we are citizens of the country which is leaving the EU it is not our government which is fighting for us but EU representatives who are working to preserve our rights.<br />
<br />
Over the last week we've heard the voices of three of the "big hitters" in the UK under an overall title of "the road to brexit". <a href="https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Boris_Johnson" target="_blank">Boris Johnson</a>, <a href="https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Theresa_May" target="_blank">Theresa May</a> and yesterday <a href="https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Davis" target="_blank">David Davis</a>. None of them has said anything memorable or which gives a clearer picture of what the UK wants from brexit. They have instead spoken in a mix of generalities and sound-bites. Each speech has included a new catch phrase. Nothing concrete has been suggested. No sensible suggestions have been made about citizens' rights or about the issue of the Irish border.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixlo77MQoewUkE6k8Fw5xLZqJDnQQltGDUTb9208gE3QwoaDstAdmWUCqonvwbfYkPUVHCZgLzgQDVcj4kK7YwYgF2gheqe2tmgf9VTof1SZrs5dJEuGDbNL1HIoIo7evMgI2fZLsI_C_M/s1600/DWbZc1-X0AAelGg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="340" data-original-width="792" height="136" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixlo77MQoewUkE6k8Fw5xLZqJDnQQltGDUTb9208gE3QwoaDstAdmWUCqonvwbfYkPUVHCZgLzgQDVcj4kK7YwYgF2gheqe2tmgf9VTof1SZrs5dJEuGDbNL1HIoIo7evMgI2fZLsI_C_M/s320/DWbZc1-X0AAelGg.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Is this what passes for good news now ? <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/feb/19/david-davis-brexit-britain-mad-max" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">link to article</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Today it was David Davis' turn to speak. It was trailed in British newspapers, as you see to the right. He obviously thought that the Mad Max reference was funny, but no-one laughed. Davis' catchphrase was "a race to the top". Davis made vague suggestions that the EU and UK could continue to trade on an equal basis not because they'd stick to the same laws and standards, but because they would "respect" each other's standards while actually having different laws. The British position remains that of wanting to have their cake and eat it. Davis did not make any mention of either citizens' rights or the Irish border.<br />
<br />
Davis' claim that he would ensure that standards would remain high was almost <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7O-zynEwnc" target="_blank">immediately undermined by his colleagues</a>.<br />
<br />
Something which has been seen several times with brexit is that the government claim initially to have a fairly mild position and later change this to reflect the more extreme position of other brexit supporting politicians. There have been several examples of this over just the last few days:<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9FhUsR-Lr4pVCMPM83NLA0s2gZEWtqYyR-_2gbwneIfNAJSyEKYczhNjjyeRmvaplpxpZaLsRHpkcHt2EEcsKIUxHW89CWiZBUakDRZQTYECOurbL9CxDNTnJvCeCSf5kt9Y3R_QLGTRS/s1600/DVd_UqAWkAAmgtp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="654" data-original-width="752" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9FhUsR-Lr4pVCMPM83NLA0s2gZEWtqYyR-_2gbwneIfNAJSyEKYczhNjjyeRmvaplpxpZaLsRHpkcHt2EEcsKIUxHW89CWiZBUakDRZQTYECOurbL9CxDNTnJvCeCSf5kt9Y3R_QLGTRS/s320/DVd_UqAWkAAmgtp.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Daily Telegraph front page story <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2018/02/nick-timothy-telegraph-george-soros-anti-semitic" target="_blank">widely held</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/08/brexit-antisemitic-dog-whistle-daily-telegraph-george-soros" target="_blank">to be</a> anti-semitic<br />
as well as being anti-EU. Right wing news papers in the UK<br />
continue their war against the EU through the brexit process.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Yesterday we heard that brexit supporting politicians have begun to talk down the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Friday_Agreement" target="_blank">Good Friday Agreement</a> which has maintained peace in Ireland for the last 20 years. Why are they talking this important agreement down ? I think it's quite obvious: the Good Friday Agreement requires an open border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, and because Ireland is staying in the EU this means an open border between the UK and the EU. Note also that the GFA incorporated the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Convention_of_Human_Rights" target="_blank">European Convention of Human Rights</a> into the law of Northern Ireland and that many of the politicians who support brexit have opposed the ECHR for many years.<br />
<br />
There has also been <a href="https://twitter.com/Peston/status/966027705937481729" target="_blank">a letter from extremists</a> written to the Prime Minister which is seen as a "<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/feb/20/tory-mps-sign-letter-to-theresa-may-outlining-hard-brexit-goals" target="_blank">ransom note</a>" with its demands for a hard brexit or else.<br />
<br />
At the same time, the government has been suggesting to other EU members that the proposed two year transition period (to end at the end of 2019 to fit the end of an EU accounting period) should instead be "<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/feb/21/brexit-transition-period-open-ended-uk-eu-position-paper" target="_blank">open ended</a>", ending whenever it suits the UK, and that during this period the UK should be able to set policy (e.g. fishing quotas) for the rest of the EU to follow. Yet again they want to "have their cake and eat it."<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
While all this is going on, the rest of the world can see the way the UK is heading and they are reacting. The Dutch are already <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/dutch-activate-hard-brexit-plan-and-blame-a-lack-of-clarity-from-the-uk-11258568" target="_blank">training the hundreds of extra customs officials</a> who will be required to staff the ports and airports after the expected "hard" brexit. i.e. it's now expected by many that the UK will not be able to agree either a transitional arrangement with the EU or a trade agreement after they leave the EU and the Netherlands will be prepared for this eventuality, even though the UK is not, with the head of the UK's maritime business association warning of the trouble ahead and begging the government to take notice, saying that they are "<a href="https://maritime-executive.com/article/uk-shipping-industry-warns-of-brexit-s-impact" target="_blank">lost in politics</a>."<br />
<br />
<b>How is this affecting us ?</b><br />
Above you'll find links to just a small fraction of the many news articles from the last two years about issues which have a potential to disrupt our lives, and those of the other nearly five million EU citizens living in the UK and UK citizens living in the EU, which have resulted from brexit. We have had two years of this and the strain is extremely unpleasant.<br />
<br />
Many of the problems which have now come to light as just as we predicted they would be. That is why <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.nl/2016/06/brexit-my-country-was-taken-from-me.html">we took the decision to begin the process of becoming Dutch</a> immediately after the referendum in 2016. However, the process is slow. For our children it took about a year before they had their Dutch nationality. Because the Netherlands does not allow dual nationalities under any but exceptional circumstance, this required renunciation of their British nationality. It's a very odd thing to give up the nationality of the country in which one was born, but this is the process which our children have been forced to endure as a result of those in the UK who thought they were "getting their country back". When the process is complete you receive a letter like this:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSk3gH9Rkq8g8JGdHcc9RCWpBOFbxijWlyYza5a4kI55KfxN9mNMDu0Veho22ChEvLHqrwu-zsr4AV4kCQlqP8IG_Un1COxstq88F4gcudO3ueBGle3FR0riXGJuzqJAmsh1Fq1WjCPTl-/s1600/renunciation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="549" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSk3gH9Rkq8g8JGdHcc9RCWpBOFbxijWlyYza5a4kI55KfxN9mNMDu0Veho22ChEvLHqrwu-zsr4AV4kCQlqP8IG_Un1COxstq88F4gcudO3ueBGle3FR0riXGJuzqJAmsh1Fq1WjCPTl-/s640/renunciation.jpg" width="439" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Like <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/sep/01/home-office-makes-800-profit-on-some-visa-applications" target="_blank">everything</a> to do with the Home Office in the UK, this letter is expensive and it takes months to arrive. It costs 320 pounds per person to become non-British and it was not until a couple of weeks ago that our daughters could finally provide the required evidence of renunciation of British nationality to the Dutch government.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Our children are no longer British. They have lost their automatic right to live and work in the country in which they were born or even to go there to visit their relatives. Perhaps in the future a visa will be required to visit? No-one can be sure.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, it is only our children who are already Dutch so our family's fortunes are split on nationality. For Judy and I the process has taken much longer. I first had to take exams to prove my ability in Dutch. The exams were especially difficult, but the process of booking appointments and waiting for results <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.nl/2017/10/brexit-long-journey-through-uncertainty.html" target="_blank">took almost a year</a>. Judy could have applied on her own at the same time as our children but as it was cheaper to apply as a couple we decided to do that before realizing that this decision would cost a whole year of delay. We applied to become Dutch jointly in May last year but a decision on this can take a year and after nearly ten months we have yet to receive an answer from the Dutch government. We obviously hope for a positive outcome, but though we can't think of any good reason why this should happen it is also possible that we will be rejected. Until there is certainty on this we have nothing.<br />
<br />
In the case of rejection we will be left only with British nationality and have a right to live and work in the UK, but not to live here and run our Dutch business, while our children will have a right to live and work in the Netherlands and across the EU, but not in the UK.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4stfVk3BEh9jfc2Qz1yfriMMFmwn8t6zmwgRm7e_fqIGrJcTyePRgpbuMD_sgL_-fIqZgSxRi-gpWn2g_V6HGvMSJZAcvfKJoUreUrYcwOjtp_6_Rqn3qdVj9NMFIceQN_Sn4Zj7m1Acp/s1600/DSCF1713.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="615" data-original-width="640" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4stfVk3BEh9jfc2Qz1yfriMMFmwn8t6zmwgRm7e_fqIGrJcTyePRgpbuMD_sgL_-fIqZgSxRi-gpWn2g_V6HGvMSJZAcvfKJoUreUrYcwOjtp_6_Rqn3qdVj9NMFIceQN_Sn4Zj7m1Acp/s200/DSCF1713.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our future, we hope. Certainty and<br />
freedom in a country which we had<br />
already made our home.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In the case of our being accepted we will be able to become Dutch and will then have to renounce our British nationality leaving us able to remain in the same country as our children, be able to live in our own home and <a href="https://www.dutchbikebits.com/" target="_blank">run the business which gives us a living</a>. We won't necessarily be able to visit our relatives in the UK.<br />
<br />
Becoming Dutch is easily the preferable outcome of the two. Being able to visit relatives who are amongst those who voted to create this mess is less important to me than being able to stay right where we are with some certainty returning to our lives, and to be able to live in the same country as our own children.<br />
<br />
This tale of woe is not just our tale. Nearly five million people have a story to tell. Some haven't started to do anything yet so their tales lie in the future. Others have already had far worse experiences than we have. Here in the Netherlands we have found a procedure which is fixed and appears to work. No-one has been threatened, we have just had to wait a long time. That is stressful enough but the story is not the same for EU citizens in the UK where the government doesn't know what they want to happen, the Home Office can't keep up and random decisions seem to be made. EU citizens have had to change to <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/eu-nationals-home-office-stay-permanent-uk-visa-applications-brexit-citizens-liberal-democrats-a7701211.html" target="_blank">bizarrely changing suggestions</a> and people who have spent a lifetime contributing to the UK have repeatedly <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/home-office-british-history-expert-deport-leave-uk-month-queen-mary-university-eva-johanna-holmberg-a7908586.html" target="_blank">been told</a> <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/home-office-deportation-mistake-100-people-government-finnish-a7908306.html" target="_blank">to leave</a>.<br />
<br />
<b>Update 5 March 2018</b><br />
We've now had several more days of politicians talking about our rights... or not.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiND5NVZJjK4JkN-xW1MYvX9etLd70nx1so4IrpzpkhGwOu7lpOEH4uAreO8GT7YDig0pkSpDeECxCj6ftcDP_RF-cKKdRxdaFAtTQQlRttD4vUen0FzQx888uA40OGbNq2USu4Id-CKf1V/s1600/david2018_0302.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiND5NVZJjK4JkN-xW1MYvX9etLd70nx1so4IrpzpkhGwOu7lpOEH4uAreO8GT7YDig0pkSpDeECxCj6ftcDP_RF-cKKdRxdaFAtTQQlRttD4vUen0FzQx888uA40OGbNq2USu4Id-CKf1V/s640/david2018_0302.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The bottom two made sense. The top two want extra cherries on the cake which they wish to have as well as to eat.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Britain's International Trade Secretary Liam Fox and Prime Minister Theresa May both made presentations about the UK having its cake and eating it. Theresa May introduced her new catch phrase "getting on with it". Neither of these two current members of the British government managed to find a single word which could offer any reassurance to British citizens like ourselves. They also didn't say anything which moves their position on from seeking to "have their cake and eat it" with regard to Europe.<br />
<br />
EU Chief Negotiator Michel Barnier and ex British PM John Major both spoke sense. Barnier simply put it as it is. This is the EU and the EU has rules which it must follow. John Major spoke very much from the heart, clearly a man who is deeply concerned about the future of his own country. These wise words are being ignored.<br />
<br />
Britain continues its course towards falling out of the EU without an agreement. This will cost the country a great deal. Those of us who are British but who live in the EU have been abandoned by our own government, apparently because to do otherwise would mean that the British government <a href="http://www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2018/03/05/discarded-by-brussels-westminster-brits-in-europe-left-stran" target="_blank">would have to promise rights to EU citizens</a> in the UK.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfZ1EXsMi6bT4rt3KZ7_n31s2-TOiTknogYfavC-kpUYJSA9_TX0KwczOEWWT1CqkzPt6eXW-DtgLCGro6LjxTVJmn7aJqh0U-Q9SBXDIbVjGhtAKtZtfCU0jyVrbl9KdE8sAM-3qHkywp/s1600/5676.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="735" data-original-width="1225" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfZ1EXsMi6bT4rt3KZ7_n31s2-TOiTknogYfavC-kpUYJSA9_TX0KwczOEWWT1CqkzPt6eXW-DtgLCGro6LjxTVJmn7aJqh0U-Q9SBXDIbVjGhtAKtZtfCU0jyVrbl9KdE8sAM-3qHkywp/s400/5676.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Let's not forget that British Prime Minister Theresa May brought us the "Go<br />
Home" van when she was Home Secretary. It's a mistake to expect her leadership<br />
to result in positive progress for immigrants in the UK and it appears that she<br />
also has no interest in British citizens who live outside the UK</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
For the EU and for us as well the clock is ticking. We started the process of trying to become Dutch <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.nl/2016/06/brexit-my-country-was-taken-from-me.html">immediately after the referendum</a> in 2016 but because it took time to take exams and get the results before we could send in our applications for Dutch citizenship, only ten months have passed since our applications. It's actually precisely ten months today as <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.nl/2017/10/brexit-long-journey-through-uncertainty.html">we applied on the fifth of May last year</a>. According to the letter which we were sent in reply to our application, it can take a maximum of twelve months for a decision to be made. We're waiting and hoping for good news.<br />
<br />
<br />David Hembrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14543024940730663645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7781742879659228364.post-26223306017199679112017-12-13T15:12:00.006+01:002023-02-08T18:17:02.092+01:00More insulation for our walls and roofWhen we first moved into our home in Assen we were disappointed by the lack of insulation resulting in a high energy bill even with low indoor temperatures during our first winter.<br />
<br />
We have now lived here for more than ten years. Each year we've done something which has improved the energy efficiency of our home, including this year when we inexpensively added more insulation to the top floor of our home. The result is that this winter our home is again a little warmer and also more energy efficient so more economical than it was before.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKaIBdhlneFFW3DvWm1x5MkBwAQXc2J1E8h2NVcFE1xQumatRDS45g1UB9HfW9na_cWMKV8EZuAVDsyI9fZsROlgXgOf6gqeoTdOc3ri2xmLmhEP-Ab5TGpi_iNe1i38m3sY3ODf3QweEk/s1600/P1100812.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="378" data-original-width="640" height="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKaIBdhlneFFW3DvWm1x5MkBwAQXc2J1E8h2NVcFE1xQumatRDS45g1UB9HfW9na_cWMKV8EZuAVDsyI9fZsROlgXgOf6gqeoTdOc3ri2xmLmhEP-Ab5TGpi_iNe1i38m3sY3ODf3QweEk/s320/P1100812.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Two days of snow followed by warmer weather and rain and<br />
we still have solid snow on our roof. The area under the red<br />
square is where we made the most recent change. The area to<br />
the left of the red square is a bedroom which we had already<br />
insulated in a similar way a few years ago.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>The roof</b><br />
This year's improvement was quite minor: We added insulation to the ceiling above the top floor landing and staircase. This results in the first floor landing and ground floor entrance hall being better insulated than they were before. This job actually began <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.nl/2008/12/four-roofs.html">in the first winter</a> that we lived here when I quickly added some thin insulation panels to this area after seeing our first winter fuel bill. It continued a few years later when I doubled the thickness of that insulation but then remained as an unfinished job until the beginning of this year when we began the last part of it, stretched out over months because of other commitments, beginning by adding yet more insulation to reach a total thickness of about 10 cm, covering this with reflective and damp proof foil and finally hiding that with plasterboard (aka gipsplaten, gypsum board, sheetrock), sealant to fill the gaps and applying some paint. Actually, the job is still not quite finished. I need to paint again.<br />
<br />
Anyway the process was simple and can be summed up in one photo:<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwTnkKuKCOxrgsChfr64_8f4fcWJ9NN0_Pm91MiVKhbjwUFOFeZX5JubGShF0brJb0sj8fzuIu_anbnekeWOSaX2O5o_1114cDZb24pkiiKD9pSeSWs6DkkgLrI6_OyrNKwbm5edEYL2Tj/s1600/L1020488.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwTnkKuKCOxrgsChfr64_8f4fcWJ9NN0_Pm91MiVKhbjwUFOFeZX5JubGShF0brJb0sj8fzuIu_anbnekeWOSaX2O5o_1114cDZb24pkiiKD9pSeSWs6DkkgLrI6_OyrNKwbm5edEYL2Tj/s640/L1020488.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">10 cm of solid insulation above double sided bubble wrap foil which itself offers quite good insulation and reflects back energy otherwise lost due to radiation. Gaps in the foil are closed by reflective tape where there are joins. Wooden battens are installed to support the weight of the plasterboard sheets. It's quite important that there is an airtight seal as this prevents condensation from forming behind the insulation where it is cooler.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>Also the walls</b><br />
It's been five years since I last wrote about insulating our home but that's not five years of doing nothing. Another job which was completed a couple of years ago was taking apart the lower parts of the front and back walls on the ground floor of our home. I had long suspected that there was not much insulation inside these walls, and was pleasantly surprised to find that they were better constructed than I had expected. In total there was 4 cm of glass wool plus another 3 cm of polystyrene solid insulation bonded to an asbestos sheet which provides weather protection on the outside of the house to a height of about half a metre (we don't have any other asbestos so far as I know, except a fireproof panel on the door to the room with the central heating).<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5qGl1at48q-163IYuspMD51WtPjX1e2uDP15H8jgrufJwi4Nzy-Eh1sSFQzgmSsY2XEZ_exib5bTxn_LBxJbzJOenhClMFjd8aVwE0f0mWjGxpVArsbgj9jhHPmnkKeBsbbjnINw3OiiT/s1600/123_7618.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5qGl1at48q-163IYuspMD51WtPjX1e2uDP15H8jgrufJwi4Nzy-Eh1sSFQzgmSsY2XEZ_exib5bTxn_LBxJbzJOenhClMFjd8aVwE0f0mWjGxpVArsbgj9jhHPmnkKeBsbbjnINw3OiiT/s640/123_7618.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The existing fibreglass looked a bit sad, clearly it had been damp at some time, though there was no sign of any damage to the wood, all of which looks brand-new from the inside despite being 40 years old. The insulation was not very evenly distributed. I removed it and it was possible to see some gaps through which air could come from inside the house, the probably source of the damp which had discoloured the fibreglass. I sealed the gaps and all around the edges so that the wall is now both air and water tight and no further damage should be possible.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG21Ddpe5z-sQsF9xyap_n0HIilKrY4I6Frk5FxH95AZ_D3KZM2CEWLDiUDPXdR-kLgE9iRA2twhyNTybNsd-717Hr2Sh6fibNeLiGFKZCR2Z-ov2akQpw722-X-adyyF1CORuOG_VFoqJ/s1600/123_7622.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG21Ddpe5z-sQsF9xyap_n0HIilKrY4I6Frk5FxH95AZ_D3KZM2CEWLDiUDPXdR-kLgE9iRA2twhyNTybNsd-717Hr2Sh6fibNeLiGFKZCR2Z-ov2akQpw722-X-adyyF1CORuOG_VFoqJ/s640/123_7622.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I then used the same double sided reflective bubble plastic here. It's the same double sided bubble wrap type foil as I later used in the ceilings upstairs. In this instance you can see it installed on the inside edge. On top of this I installed the existing fibreglass a bit more evenly than before. It had been discoloured but there was nothing wrong with it. On top of that there is now then another layer of reflective foil which helps to reflect out sunlight in the summer. There is a radiator mounted on the other side of this wall. The interior reflective material is intended to help to keep radiated heat inside the house.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKkvE1bG6PDN_cXfhqjT7Zjvl1OTKFOL_aNnBMHPLfCxK4k8jLJKo6RCoUO9XrA5nt75pthz6q3JNyrhprujcuZblPUEkzVlt73zuxuRYYy4YrGxOcIlFoYBBAillEKasvfqVIM2g8c0Lj/s1600/123_7619.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKkvE1bG6PDN_cXfhqjT7Zjvl1OTKFOL_aNnBMHPLfCxK4k8jLJKo6RCoUO9XrA5nt75pthz6q3JNyrhprujcuZblPUEkzVlt73zuxuRYYy4YrGxOcIlFoYBBAillEKasvfqVIM2g8c0Lj/s640/123_7619.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Afterwards I re-installed the original polystyrene + asbestos outside panels, slightly further out than before because the thickness of the reflective foil has added slightly to the overall thickness of the wall. The asbestos is something I intend to dispose of in due course, but covered in paint and on the outside of the house it's not really a danger so for now it will remain until we think of a better alternative. Note the paintwork behind - one of the other problems with these sheets is that paint other than the original brown of the house seems to peel of its own accord. This has been repainted and now looks a lot better again.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>Low cost improvements</b><br />
Neither of these jobs cost much to do. The results of them are difficult to quantify, but thicker insulation and reflective materials to keep infra red energy within the house ought to be expected to bring improvements. We notice that even on cold nights the wall behind the radiator now feels warm rather than feeling cold so it seems that the reflection within the wall is helping. Even more obvious is that we keep snow or frost on our roof a lot longer than any of our neighbours do. Our immediate neighbour's home, featured in some of our photos because it's closest by, is far from the worst in this regard.<br />
<br />
Neither of these two jobs was expensive to do. The materials (reflective foil, insulation, tape, sealant, glue, screws) are cheap. It required a bit of planning and took quite a few hours, but it's a reasonable DIY job.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="firsttripleglass"></a>
<b>A less inexpensive job</b><br />
Last year we also had a problem with one of our windows. The seal had broken on an older double glazed unit in our front room, dating from the 1970s, and we arranged for this to be replaced by a new triple glazed unit:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVxSdTkf39MgvrOvhILsFpQ9b5HTulaa48R5Oq9A-GZ854CvkXHTol0zeur8gC8d9GeW7f-IhABtl8-_fl0kj7h1JLIoy5QsLIX1l4vHYhRgix-0cDynSDK-t_X6_yaG0VGjB06ypELSZR/s1600/L1020467.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVxSdTkf39MgvrOvhILsFpQ9b5HTulaa48R5Oq9A-GZ854CvkXHTol0zeur8gC8d9GeW7f-IhABtl8-_fl0kj7h1JLIoy5QsLIX1l4vHYhRgix-0cDynSDK-t_X6_yaG0VGjB06ypELSZR/s640/L1020467.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The old glass looked misted up all the time because moisture was caught between the two panes. This is not a rainy day photo even though it looks like one.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggc4SSSSPRk5R-UxZyn2Hv4X1joJUmIszo-VJd0jx3Yz0tFrFB_pmTvCHmj257XHgopDrvQuZBubJn-TgQjwIlDm8qWwjlWf5H_O0Vxt95YSS024wk2KUYcUMcwam8nntmQDqipe4c6k-_/s1600/L1020468.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggc4SSSSPRk5R-UxZyn2Hv4X1joJUmIszo-VJd0jx3Yz0tFrFB_pmTvCHmj257XHgopDrvQuZBubJn-TgQjwIlDm8qWwjlWf5H_O0Vxt95YSS024wk2KUYcUMcwam8nntmQDqipe4c6k-_/s640/L1020468.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The new triple-glazed HR++ panel before installation. It only covers a small percentage of our total glass area but at least this small percentage will perform far better than before.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
With windows, the glass isn't the most expensive thing. Labour for fitting this new glass cost more than the glass itself. However this was not a job which I could have done myself as the glass was heavy and needed to be lifted quite high (it's the longest window at the top in our living room in the photos. This more expensive job simply couldn't be done by myself but we did need to replace the panel anyway so decided to pay the small extra cost for triple glazing over double glazing. Our thinking was this while this won't make a huge difference to our energy consumption nor even to our comfort (getting rid of the misty glass it's more of a cosmetic difference), it will at least make a small positive improvement. I estimate that the downstairs will leak energy about 5% less than before.<br />
<br />
Measurements made with an infra-red thermometer show that when the outside temperature is -2 C and the inside temperature of our home is 17.5 C, the inside of the older double glazed panel is 9 C while the inside of the new triple glazed panel alongside is 14 C. Clearly heat loss with be much smaller through the triple glazed panel.<br />
<br />
Our current plan is to replace other double glazed units with triple glazing as they fail. When we bought our home there was single glazing upstairs but <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.nl/2010/10/new-glass.html">we had that replaced some years ago</a>.<br />
<br />
<b>Better insulation = a more pleasant home</b><br />
Better insulation means a more comfortable home, less energy consumption, a lower carbon footprint, and lower bills. What's not to like about any of that ? Many effective treatments can be made<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9vMk7rW5By4WeBiCImCmUmtjYeU7P1RyY2bQC_iDiFqVc110fYgTLXAIFkEUNMR7evCEfus7vbZbE8vaiXuWCOtFV5-7zzOMjt72KcKbWEK0N9gDZ0GXOLoy891dhsMVVVjVAp9iGY7VT/s1600/P1100813.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="280" data-original-width="640" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9vMk7rW5By4WeBiCImCmUmtjYeU7P1RyY2bQC_iDiFqVc110fYgTLXAIFkEUNMR7evCEfus7vbZbE8vaiXuWCOtFV5-7zzOMjt72KcKbWEK0N9gDZ0GXOLoy891dhsMVVVjVAp9iGY7VT/s640/P1100813.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A white roof is an energy efficient roof ! This photo was taken later the same day as the photo at the top, after a little rain and slightly higher outside temperatures. All four homes originally had identical insulation but our home, the left-most of the four, benefits in quite an obvious way from the extra insulation we've added.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<center>
<a href="http://www.dutchbikebits.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.dutchbikebits.com/dbbdbb640.png" /></a></center>
David Hembrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14543024940730663645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7781742879659228364.post-33606255066583543342017-10-18T17:59:00.002+02:002017-12-06T17:39:49.928+01:00Brexit: A long journey through uncertainty<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp6stX2ADckNEt9oaEHlA_FSQ_KE7CcDdR8SgBsgPsqdtCvIPOL6zknhh08lG4HYp0apLzOEpVj7zLV4-hqky0gdoFJwzC5sVW6BqVyItubmPoQjEt8JqTaONRK_TGD-bUpQsDFTp2zBAW/s1600/P1100539.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="686" data-original-width="800" height="274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp6stX2ADckNEt9oaEHlA_FSQ_KE7CcDdR8SgBsgPsqdtCvIPOL6zknhh08lG4HYp0apLzOEpVj7zLV4-hqky0gdoFJwzC5sVW6BqVyItubmPoQjEt8JqTaONRK_TGD-bUpQsDFTp2zBAW/s320/P1100539.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/search/label/drenthe" target="_blank">Drenthe</a> is known as "<a href="http://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2016/11/drenthe-worlds-cycling-province-now.html" target="_blank">the world's cycling province</a>" for good<br />
reason. We continue to enjoy riding our bikes around the<br />
countryside but brexit has cast a shadow over everything.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Sixteen months have now passed since <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.nl/2016/06/brexit-my-country-was-taken-from-me.html">all certainty was removed</a> from our lives by the brexit vote. It was obvious at once that this would cause a monumental change in millions of peoples' lives, including our own. The only way in which we could guarantee to be able to remain where we are with the rights which we have was by becoming Dutch so we started the process of applying for citizenship within a few days of the vote.<br />
<br />
Our children now have Dutch citizenship but Judy and I are still waiting for a decision. Though we had lived here for nearly ten years supporting ourselves by running <a href="http://www.dutchbikebits.com/" target="_blank">our own business</a> we had never entered the Dutch education system. We therefore first had to complete <a href="https://inburgeren.nl/" target="_blank">exams</a> the result of which would demonstrate our ability with the Dutch language and show that we could fit into Dutch society.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHuByzXGdoMVHbyc7RHOTwQ-Cwm2eQcQVpdTFx0aMVRBRxavbMx-bK8b1ylNp6yEfxu654ACkLnc7wEg-hsja1toU7Bo8-BDc8NWgs4nej5SMSsBE1d0nvna6ut79AtN_0WBKoL2-u6BPO/s1600/P1060415.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="491" data-original-width="800" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHuByzXGdoMVHbyc7RHOTwQ-Cwm2eQcQVpdTFx0aMVRBRxavbMx-bK8b1ylNp6yEfxu654ACkLnc7wEg-hsja1toU7Bo8-BDc8NWgs4nej5SMSsBE1d0nvna6ut79AtN_0WBKoL2-u6BPO/s320/P1060415.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A group of "Nieuwe Nederlanders" in Assen in May 2017<br />
after the ceremony in which they received Dutch nationality.<br />
One of our daughters is in this photo but Judy and I are<br />
still waiting.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Judy had actually taken the exams some years ago as part of an immigration course for women but we delayed Judy's application so that we could apply for citizenship together (a joint application costs €1200 vs. €900 each for individuals). I passed all the exams on my first attempt but the process still took quite a long time. I booked the first exams immediately after the brexit referendum but I couldn't sit them until September 2016 and then I had to wait for the results from those before I could book in <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.nl/2016/06/brexit-my-country-was-taken-from-me.html#updatemarch2017">March 2017</a>. It took more than a month to get the official certificate and an appointment at the city hall and as a result it was May 2017 before we finally applied for Dutch citizenship.<br />
<br />
Within a few days of application we received a form letter telling us that a decision would take up to a year. Our children received the same letter last year and for them it actually took less than a year for the entire process so we're hoping that we get lucky with this timing and that we might actually know before the end of 2017 whether we can become Dutch. It's more likely that we will not know until some months into 2018.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyXiCrtnz5N440dsCCffH69Di33tRcx3UFBwNDstgN_Vh1rpkP37JkdBAhwUixzS30zbHn3R3q10MSGBNjmSewpiW4VC5cEAnMblUUxr-UP5JtuZSyL0K_KO-JwAxvDb4Ab9ZmSN7SGgRt/s1600/L1020495.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="430" data-original-width="640" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyXiCrtnz5N440dsCCffH69Di33tRcx3UFBwNDstgN_Vh1rpkP37JkdBAhwUixzS30zbHn3R3q10MSGBNjmSewpiW4VC5cEAnMblUUxr-UP5JtuZSyL0K_KO-JwAxvDb4Ab9ZmSN7SGgRt/s320/L1020495.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Geslaagd ! My exam results from March.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The process has been enormously expensive. €900 each for our two children, another €1200 for us + the best part of another €1000 to pay for exams and transport myself to and from the city where I had to take the exams and pick up the certificates. We also already had to pay the British government 321 pounds twice to renounce British citizenship of both of our children (the Dutch government doesn't like dual citizenship, though that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/10/dutch-nationals-living-britain-allowed-dual-citizenship-brexit" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">might yet change</a>). What's more, our <a href="http://www.dutchbikebits.com/" target="_blank">cycling component export business</a> used to sell mainly to British customers but the reduced value of the pound has done some harm to our sales to the UK and that has reduced our income by several thousand euros right at the same time as our costs have been increased. A brexit double whammy which we've had to work through as best we can: we've had no holiday in the last two years.<br />
<br />
<b>How much uncertainly is too much ?</b><br />
Two months ago we passed the ten year anniversary of our arrival in the Netherlands. We had long planned to have a party to celebrate, but with a permanent shadow above us we were not in a party mood.<br />
<br />
We still do not know whether we can continue to live our lives in our own home. We still don't know if we can continue to run our business here. We could still be forced back to the UK, where we have no home and no job.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyLKaiHzAYZiWvHlgOfWxaOpaLEI2kmNCVgDJibNmsxv5_qaeDupx4vVKi2KzpYB6u1Fq8DMPfDQgi3Gho7zVsYQZad_ZggTYEkTI0Z-hjqP-G_e59yhuf6NMZwCB2ioa_kJXCFDJ3PRJ4/s1600/P1100708.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="867" data-original-width="1024" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyLKaiHzAYZiWvHlgOfWxaOpaLEI2kmNCVgDJibNmsxv5_qaeDupx4vVKi2KzpYB6u1Fq8DMPfDQgi3Gho7zVsYQZad_ZggTYEkTI0Z-hjqP-G_e59yhuf6NMZwCB2ioa_kJXCFDJ3PRJ4/s320/P1100708.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">There was plenty of information available about <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.nl/2017/10/brexit-there-was-plenty-of-information.html">the benefits<br />of the EU</a> before the referendum but this was unfortunately<br />
drowned out by decades worth of <a href="http://blogs.ec.europa.eu/ECintheUK/euromyths-a-z-index/" target="_blank">deliberate misinformation</a>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>A three way race</b><br />
All EU28 countries, including the UK, agreed in advance on the process. There would first be agreements about the UK leaving and then there could be negotiations about the future status of the UK. The first group of things which needed to be agreed include the rights of EU citizens in the UK and UK citizens here (i.e. the rights of my family and myself).<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, the British Conservative government has proven itself to be completely unable to make any sensible statements which could protect our rights. They simply do not seem to know the brexit that they have brought about is for or what they want to achieve. Even from afar it's obvious that this is still an internal dispute between Conservative party factions, some of whom are so fascinated by the supposed "freedom" of a no-deal brexit that they <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/18/eu-nationals-rights-british-citizens-brexit-deal" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">don't mind harming everyones' rights</a> to achieve it.<br />
<br />
The clock is ticking in Brussels as everything needs to be agreed before the end of March 2019, but that's not the biggest problem facing us. The two year period is a maximum. The British behaviour is so erratic that they could decide to walk away at any time, leaving none of the issues addressed, including the rights of citizens. That means that we could easily lose the right to remain in our own home.<br />
<br />
For us this has become a three-way race:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>We desperately hope that the Dutch government will allow us to become Dutch citizens.</li>
<li>We hope we are Dutch before the British government does something stupid because otherwise we stand to lose our home.</li>
<li>Everything must be resolved before the March 2019 deadline, but that's probably the least important of the three constraints.</li>
</ol>
<br />
As for those still living in the UK, I can only wish you luck. Brexit is a tragedy which will harm the UK. Given time, perhaps the UK can re-join the EU.<br />
<br />
<b>Does anyone in the UK know what they want ?</b><br />
I recently watched two Channel Four News debates showing what the UK's population was now thinking about brexit. The first debate included only brexit voters:<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KMhqM__FqNo" width="640"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
The debate is introduced by Conservative MEP Dan Hannan. He claims at 3:50 that both the EU and the UK are equally interested in preserving citizens' rights but at 41:07 he talks specifically about wanting to restrict the rights of EU nationals. Such mixed messages were typical of the brexit campaign and they have resulted in no-one who voted leave actually knowing for certain what "brexit" is actually supposed to be.<br />
<br />
Though the people in this debate are nominally "on the same side", they don't actually agree with each other. People were told what they wanted to hear, with different groups targeted specifically with messages that they wanted to hear (e.g. at 26:00 you'll hear how workers in ethnic restaurants were told that they would be able to employ chefs more easily once the UK left the EU).<br />
<br />
The second debate included only remain voters:<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Qp-EASrzo44" width="640"></iframe><br />
<br />
I had hoped that this debate might be more enlightening, but actually this group is just as divided as the group of leave voters. Some of them now want to accept brexit, some want to continue to fight against brexit but there's no more agreement on what brexit actually is amongst this group than there was amongst the leave voters. How can you either accept or fight something which is so poorly defined ?<br />
<br />
As time has passed it's become quite clear that not even the British government knows what they want. Their attempts at negotiation thus far have been described as a "<a href="http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/brexit/2017/10/09/britains-approach-to-brexit-is-a-textbook-example-of-failed-strategic-thinking/" target="_blank">textbook example of failed strategic thinking</a>" and it appears that they're determined to ignore <a href="http://www.oecd.org/unitedkingdom/united-kingdom-maintain-close-ties-with-eu-to-meet-challenges-of-brexit.htm" target="_blank">experts</a> even if the result is enormous damage to the country. It's hardly surprising that <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/eu-leaders-uk-brexit-goals-ireland-taoiseach-leo-varadkar-aims-deal-eu-a8006261.html" target="_blank">the EU also doesn't know</a> what Britain wants.<br />
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<b>Citizens' rights ?</b><br />
The two videos above cover many of the concerns of normal British people. There has been much discussion in the press as well. We quite often read about how the UK wants to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/oct/17/britain-to-accept-eu-nationals-by-default-says-amber-rudd" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">restrict the rights of EU citizens</a>, but rarely do we hear of concerns from the UK about the situation that their fellow citizens who happen to live in the EU, like ourselves, may find themselves after the UK leaves the EU and removes rights from EU citizens. The British people, and particularly the government, appear to see no problem in using even their own citizens as "<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-talks-collapse-negotiations-eu-uk-theresa-may-david-davis-no-deal-wto-a7955471.html" target="_blank">bargaining chips</a>".<br />
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If I were an EU citizen living in the UK now, I would be planning to leave. The position of the UK towards immigrants from the EU has been made quite clear enough.<br />
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Our situation is a different. We want to stay here. The Netherlands has always welcomed us and treated us in exactly the same way as any other EU citizen. The UK may have given up on us, but the EU continues to try to defend our rights even as "our" government seems intent on taking them away. Our children are now both Dutch and wish to stay here and we wish to become Dutch citizens as well.<br />
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To live under the uncertainty that we have for so long is causing us an enormous amount of stress, but we hope that it will turn out for the best.<br />
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<b>Update November 2017 - Brexit Impact Studies and a useless British government</b><br />
For some time now the people leading brexit, especially David Davis, have been claiming that they have brexit impact studies covering 58 different industries which show how well off the UK will be after brexit, but they've refused to publish them. Last week the high court gave a deadline for publication and the story about these studies them mysteriously turned into something along the lines of "the dog ate my homework". The have still not been published. They probably do not exist.<br />
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The EU, meanwhile, has published studies. They're <a href="http://www.richardcorbett.org.uk/brexit-impact-studies-ep/" target="_blank">publicly available</a> and can be read. The only one of these which I've completely read thus far is that <a href="http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2017/583135/IPOL_STU%282017%29583135_EN.pdf" target="_blank">pertaining to citizens' acquired rights</a>. There's bad news, as we expected: We almost certainly don't have any right in law to remain in our home in the Netherlands after the UK leaves the EU because the British government will have taken our membership of the EU away from us. This is precisely the reason why we began the process of trying to acquire Dutch citizenship a few days after the referendum vote. Without it we have no certainty (we've still heard nothing).<br />
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Meanwhile, the Conservative party in the UK is in chaos. Members of the cabinet have been forced to resign for unpleasant sexual behaviour and putting a foreign government above their own, Boris Johnson and Michael Gove are undermining the authority of the Prime Minister while trying to push her towards the hardest possible (most destructive) brexit, but at the same time she's also threatened by an attempt to undermine her plan for brexit and in addition likely to face a vote of no-confidence. How much longer can Theresa May remain Prime Minister ? No-one knows, but it doesn't look good.<br />
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And what do I read today ? A leading Conservative and brexit supporter, John Redwood, has been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/nov/13/labour-accuses-john-redwood-of-talking-britain-down" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">advising investors to pull their money out of the UK</a> because the economy is going down the toilet, while both Cornwall and Grimsby in Lincolnshire, both of which voted overwhelmingly for Brexit are now suffering from the result of their vote. Grimsby's brexit supporting local MP has actually <a href="http://www.dw.com/en/pro-brexit-grimsby-opportunist-second-thoughts/a-41306632" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">called for the town to be made a special case</a> which remains in the EU, while the Cornish have noticed that <a href="http://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/farm-tourism-jobs-cornwall-brexit-716108" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">a lack of migrant labour</a> is already causing problems with their tourist and vegetable growing industries.<br />
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<b>Update December 6th 2017 - The British government is incompetent</b><br />
Today we learn that the British government hasn't actually bothered to commission any impact studies at all. They're going into brexit completely blind about what the outcome will be, and a good part of the British population seems quite happy about this. What's more, there's been an admission that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/live/2017/dec/06/david-davis-questioned-by-brexit-committee-about-impact-assessments-politics-live?page=with:block-5a280d2083311a066ae8b965#block-5a280d2083311a066ae8b965" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">the cabinet hasn't even bothered to have a conversation about their goal in brexit</a>.<br />
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Most people would put in more effort if they were choosing a new ornament for their house. No-one should be happy that their future is being gambled away based on nothing but a completely unsupported hunch, which has some slogans which they think sound good, but no facts behind it at all.<br />
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In other news, we've unfortunately still had no news about our Dutch citizenship application.<br />
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Read more about our experience with brexit:<br />
<ul>
<li>Brexit: <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.nl/2016/06/brexit-my-country-was-taken-from-me.html">My country was taken from me</a> (initial post about the aftermath of the referendum)</li>
<li>Brexit: <a href="http://davidhembrow.blogspot.nl/2017/10/brexit-there-was-plenty-of-information.html">There was plenty of information about what the EU did for the UK</a> (an example of informative EU brochure distributed in schools)</li>
</ul>
David Hembrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14543024940730663645noreply@blogger.com0