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Feb 2022
11:38am, 21 Feb 2022
2,946 posts
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Fields
Is that for the wholesale market which must fluctuate daily just as the price of Brent crude does based on myriad factors.
And for it to have a long term downward effect on prices we would need to have constant wind?
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Feb 2022
11:47am, 21 Feb 2022
41,531 posts
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HappyG(rrr)
Yes, I was posting it more to emphasize the scale of wind generation that we have in this country that it can affect the price so significantly. Add some decent storage, some more capacity, and we'll be able to wean ourselves of gas, coal and oil in no time. Just a cheery thought!  G
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Feb 2022
11:50am, 21 Feb 2022
86,052 posts
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Hanneke
I want a hybrid wind/solar system Happy, as wind in winter, solar in summer seems the way forwards. Hopefully, in a couple of years, prices will have come down, storage will have improved and I can take myself off the grid!
Anyone got any input on water collection? I am not allowed to drill a bore hole...
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Feb 2022
11:51am, 21 Feb 2022
86,053 posts
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Hanneke
I do however got a designated area to put a reed bed in in the future... For my sewage...
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Feb 2022
11:59am, 21 Feb 2022
12,041 posts
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jda
I'd be very dubious about collecting water for domestic usage. Gardening is another matter of course, we've got a few water butts for the ponds and general use.
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Feb 2022
12:34pm, 21 Feb 2022
16,699 posts
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rf_fozzy
Why dubious?
Grey water systems which reuse washing up water for flushing the loo etc very good. Extremely difficult to retrofit though.
Fresh water collection - more difficult. You need to make sure you get the treatment right - can be expensive.
There was a grand designs that saw fairly recently - they'd done a pond which they were filtering using plants and passive filtration. Very expensive and complicated.
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Feb 2022
12:44pm, 21 Feb 2022
86,059 posts
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Hanneke
It is complicated: in my previous house we ended up drilling 79 metres down, through bedrock, for a borehole...
Filtering surface water was less reliable and more expensive...
I may re-visit the borehole idea: it was 2006 when I last enquired and the answer from the council was an emphatic NO! They may have changed their tune...
Currently connecting foul and grey water to the house via a pipe and micro pumping station. At some point in the future, this can be extended to pump from the buildings to the reedbed, piping it along a 60 cm deep trench to the food forest, where it would run into a long, narrow reed bed/gravel filtration system. I would recycle grey water to flush the loos by means of a holding tank, outside the bathrooms in both buildings, on stilts... Gravity fed...
I already collect about 4000 litres of rain water for the garden, currently being extended to 5000. That should just about be enough...
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Feb 2022
2:28pm, 21 Feb 2022
12,042 posts
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jda
Well as you just said fozzy, expensive and complicated. Water-borne diseases are a very real risk, and quite possibly pollution too. Not just a borehole or collection off the roof, which is of course fine for gardening. I'm not saying it can't ever be done of course.
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Feb 2022
3:54pm, 21 Feb 2022
7,382 posts
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paul the builder
Why is being "off-grid" for mains water seen as a good thing anyway? As long as you're doing all the good stuff that you can do collecting rain-water, recycling 'grey' water etc. There's no need to 'waste' any water beyond what you actually need - safe, clean water for (at least) drinking.
I wouldn't want to learn the hard way how difficult water treatment might be
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Feb 2022
4:20pm, 21 Feb 2022
41,535 posts
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HappyG(rrr)
I suppose if you were doing *everything* you could for environment, then collecting and using your own water would minimize your impact. Every house using 349 (ave) litres water a day costs energy for collection, pumping, water treatment etc.?
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