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A to B Magazine

Climate Change

Updated 3rd March 2008

 

Whether you believe the catastrophic predictions being made by some scientists, or prefer the lower key approach of others, there's no doubt the world is heading for uncertain times, thanks to our misuse of resources, primarily over-consumption of 'fossil' fuels. But we can ALL do something about it.

 

 

 

1) Reducing or eliminating car use
Motor vehicles are a very real problem. More than a quarter of all CO2 put into the atmosphere in the UK comes from transport, and nearly all of that from the road transport sector. A typical two-car household will consume 77kWh of energy per DAY just running the cars. That's more than the energy consumption of a typical home. Just think about that for a minute - we are using more energy travelling around than we are cooking, bathing, keeping our houses light and warm, watching TV and every other power-consuming activity.
There are many ways to reduce your reliance on the car. We use bicycles for short journeys, and the train for long journeys. In between, we use electric bicycles and folding bikes that can be carried by train or bus. By these means, we have more or less eliminated our transport energy consumption.
A folding bicycle enables you to integrate your life with often irregular and poorly integrated public transport. For more information, we suggest starting with the page
Why Choose a Folding Bike?
Mor e recently, electric-assist bicycles have begun to make a real impact. Many people have now swapped a second car for an electric-assist cycle. For more information, we suggest starting with the page Why Choose an Electric Bike?

2) Reducing energy use in the home
By a number of measures we reduced the energy consumption of our home (plus the A to B office and all electric bicycle charging) from the national average of about 70kWh to 22.5kWh per day. More information can be found in A to B 53 - see Back Numbers for more information.

3) Generate your own power
Not as easy as it sounds, but our new home has an unshaded south-facing roof, making it ideal for Solar Photovoltaic panels that generate electric power from the sun. Full details in A to B 56, see Back Numbers for more information.

At the end of August, we moved house. Obviously this caused a great deal of disruption (and extra CO2!), but things soon settled down. We fitted cavity wall insultation, loft insulation and double glazing, and in mid-October our Solar PV roof came on stream There were still many problems - our wood-burner was not yet fitted and we were cooking electric while the gas supply was sorted out (this would run on for months), but here is our daily energy usage when the PV was first fitted. We've had to make an estimate for our total electricity consumption, because it took us a while to realise that our digital house to grid meter was unable to run backwards, so for a while we were recording the incoming grid power, incoming solar power and adding them together to give a household energy consumption reading. Of course, this figure was wrong because it made no allowance for the power we were exporting to other nearby houses. Judging by past consumption, we've assumed that about 3kWh of our daytime power generation is actually being used in the house, with the remainder being exported. On this basis (reasonably accurate) we have done quite well, and actually crossed the barrier in the first week of April 2007, becoming carbon neutral:


DAILY ENERGY CONSUMPTION:
LATE OCTOBER 2006

Gas
29kWh
Grid Electricity 7.6kWh
Solar Electricity 3.0kWh
TOTAL: 39.6kWh per day (8% from renewable sources)
NOTES: We had inherited an inefficient gas central heating system, which accounts for almost all of that 29kWh a day, despite sparing use. The good news is that our wood burner was finally installed on 4th November, and the central heating was finally turned off. October is a bad time for Solar PV, but the last week was very good, and for the three weeks the solar PV was in operation, we generated 30% of our electric power this way. How will the woodburner get on? How much sunshine will we see? Find out next month!


DAILY ENERGY CONSUMPTION:
NOVEMBER 2006

Gas
8kWh
Grid Electricity 10.1kWh
Solar Electricity 3.7kWh
TOTAL: 21.8kWh per day (17% from renewable sources)
NOTES: Wow! What a difference a month makes! The woodburner has proved up to the task of heating the whole house, and runs well on recycled timber of various kinds. This has more or less eliminated our gas useage (we only turn the boiler on for baths). It's also been a good month for PV. The result is 16% (plus the wood, of course) from renewable sources.


DAILY ENERGY CONSUMPTION:
DECEMBER 2006

Gas
1.5kWh
Grid Electricity 10.9kWh
Solar Electricity 1.6kWh
TOTAL: 14kWh per day (11% from renewable sources)
A miserable month. Very little sun and increasing electricity consumption. The only good news is that the gas boiler has barely been used at all.


DAILY ENERGY CONSUMPTION:
JANUARY 2007

Gas
2.3kWh
Grid Electricity 14.1kWh
Solar Electricity 2.3kWh
TOTAL: 18.7kWh per day (12% from renewable sources)
Continuing nasty weather, but it's a amazing how a few bright mornings can generate a lot of PV power, keeping the percentage up despite growing demand. Over one weekend, we produce more than 10kWh. Our overall electricty consumption is up however - partly space-heating in a child's bedroom, but also our new dishwasher! Can we bring consumption back down?



DAILY ENERGY CONSUMPTION:
FEBRUARY 2007

Gas
2.5kWh
Grid Electricity 9.3kWh
Solar Electricity 4.3kWh
TOTAL: 16.1kWh per day (27% from renewable sources)
Some scientists think the recent pattern of hot summers and cold, wet, stormy winters will become the norm. If so, our power generation will be very seasonal! Despite some terrible weather, there were a handful of clear, bright days in February, some producing in excess of 10kWh. The mean of 4.3kWh is a big advance, and with slightly lower demand, helped to push the solar contribution up to 25%.



DAILY ENERGY CONSUMPTION:
MARCH 2007

Gas
1.8kWh
Grid Electricity 2.3kWh
Solar Electricity 8.6kWh
TOTAL: 12.7kWh per day (68% from renewable sources)
Interesting to see solar energy double in February and double again in March. Despite rather high consumption, that's enough to get us very close to 50% from solar. Incidentally, if the energy useage seems high, iit covers our business, home and all electric bike transport, so pretty low considering. We're working hard to cut household and office consumption.



DAILY ENERGY CONSUMPTION:
APRIL 2007

Gas
1.24kWh
Grid Electricity -1kWh
Solar Electricity 10.6kWh
TOTAL: 10.8kWh per day (98% from renewable sources)
Super-fine weather in early April resulted in a week or so when we were net exporters of energy, but across the month as a whole, we narrowly failed to beat that 100% target. All the same, 98% from renewable sources overall is quite good going for the time of year.



DAILY ENERGY CONSUMPTION:
May 2007

Gas
1.7kWh
Grid Electricity -0.5kWh
Solar Electricity 9.6kWh
TOTAL: 10.8kWh per day (89% from renewable sources)
A mixed bag of weather in May drops our home generation total. But towards the end of the month we install three Schott solar water panels to back up the PV and replace our aging gas boiler with a new condensing boiler designed to accept solar pre-heated water . This should reduce our energy consumption further, but will we simply use more of this wonderful new source of hot water?



DAILY ENERGY CONSUMPTION:
June 2007

Gas
0.99kWh
Grid Electricity -0.7kWh
Solar Electricity 8.7kWh
TOTAL: 9kWh per day (97% from renewable sources)
New boiler and new pre-heating panels have meant a bit more luxury, and a near halving of our gas consumption. Disappointingly, two weeks of terrible weather knocked back our solar power from what should have been the best month of the year.



DAILY ENERGY CONSUMPTION:
July 2007

Gas
1.4kWh
Grid Electricity -1.6kWh
Solar Electricity 9.3kWh
Solar Hot Water 4kWh (estimated)
TOTAL: 13.1kWh per day (102% from renewable sources)
These figures are a little difficult to interpret:
SOLAR ELECTRICITY: It was one of the wettest (and darkest) Julys on record - solar electricity generation was lower than it might have been!
GRID ELECTRICITY: With builders working in the house almost every day, baking for a family party and other odds and ends, we used more grid electricity than we might have expected, but ovrall consumption is down because part of the load for the dishwasher, washing machine and shower is now provided by gas
GAS: The new pre-heating boiler works well, and has reduced electricity demand, but we're using more gas! Some fine-tuning might be useful : On hot days, hot water is supposed to flow from the solar tank direct to the taps, leaving the boiler off. It does, but the boiler often cuts in unnecessarily. Something to look into when the last bits of plumbing arrive
SOLAR HOT WATER: Overall energy consumption appears to be up, because we've recorded the amount of solar hot water produced, which has little to with the amount used. The process of getting energy from the roof to the bath is rather inefficient, but it's free energy, and even if we only manage to use a quarter of it, we're still cutting our fossil fuel consumption. By managing the solar supply better, we should be able to improve on these figures!


DAILY ENERGY CONSUMPTION:
August 2007

Gas
0.8kWh
Grid Electricity -1.9kWh
Solar Electricity 9kWh
Solar Hot Water 3.9kWh (estimated)
TOTAL: 11.8kWh per day (109% from renewable sources)
Our best ever result, thanks to two weeks of more or less unbroken sun.All the same, the days are getting shorter, so we have to expect lower power figures from now on.



DAILY ENERGY CONSUMPTION:
September 2007

Gas
2.9kWh
Grid Electricity 1.8kWh
Solar Electricity 7.9kWh
Solar Hot Water 3.4kWh (estimated)
TOTAL: 16kWh per day (71% from renewable sources)
Oh dear! Not a good month for various reasons. Builders still using a lot of power, which explains our relatively high electricity consumption, but the gas is a bit of a mystery. One possibility is that we're simply using the solar system to have more hot baths!



DAILY ENERGY CONSUMPTION:
October 2007

Gas
3.4kWh
Grid Electricity 3.5kWh
Solar Electricity 4.8kWh
Solar Hot Water 2.1kWh (estimated)
TOTAL: 13.8kWh per day (50% from renewable sources)
RUNNING ANNUAL AVERAGE:
62.6% from renewable sources
This is more the sort of thing we were hoping to achieve. Producing 50% of your energy from renewable sources in October really is not bad in the UK. Gas consumption is still higher than we hoped, but it's good to see the solar water still coming on stream almost every day, pre-heating the cold feed water.



DAILY ENERGY CONSUMPTION:
November 2007

Gas
5.1kWh
Grid Electricity 7.4kWh
Solar Electricity 2.9kWh
Solar Hot Water 1.3kWh (estimated)
TOTAL: 16.7kWh per day (25% from renewable sources)
RUNNING ANNUAL AVERAGE:
63.3% from renewable sources
The lack of pre-heat to the water tank (zero on many damp, dark days) shows in the higher gas consumption. And it's been a bad month for solar electricity too. All things considered, we're lucky to have produced 25% of our energy.



DAILY ENERGY CONSUMPTION:
December 2007

Gas
6.2kWh
Grid Electricity 8.2kWh
Solar Electricity 1.6kWh
Solar Hot Water 0.7kWh (estimated)
TOTAL: 16.7kWh per day (14% from renewable sources)
RUNNING ANNUAL AVERAGE:
63.5% from renewable sources
Several changes - a new more efficient washing machine, and a new gas/electric cooker, instead of the electric only model. And a pretty miserable month.



DAILY ENERGY CONSUMPTION:
January 2008

Gas
7kWh
Grid Electricity 7.8kWh
Solar Electricity 2.8kWh
Solar Hot Water 1.2kWh (estimated)
TOTAL: 18.8kWh per day (21% from renewable sources)
RUNNING ANNUAL AVERAGE:
64.3% from renewable sources
A new baby has added a lot of extra energy consumption in the short-term. For two or three nights, we kept the central heating on, and of course, there's a lot more washing! The other change, just noticable in the figures, is a new gas/electric hybrid cooking stove. As we were previously all-electric, this has increased gas consumption a little and reduced electricty use by about the same amount.



DAILY ENERGY CONSUMPTION:
February 2008

Gas
4.8kWh
Grid Electricity 5.0kWh
Solar Electricity 5.2kWh
Solar Hot Water 2.2kWh (estimated)
TOTAL: 17.2kWh per day (43% from renewable sources)
RUNNING ANNUAL AVERAGE:
65.6% from renewable sources
Not a warm and pleasant month, but plenty of sharp, cold frosty mornings. These are good for us, because the solar water and pv panels work extremely well, even with temperatures near or below freezing.



DAILY ENERGY CONSUMPTION:
March 2008

Gas
6.2kWh
Grid Electricity 4.4kWh
Solar Electricity 6.8kWh
Solar Hot Water 2.9kWh (estimated)
TOTAL: 20.3kWh per day (63% from renewable sources)
RUNNING ANNUAL AVERAGE:
65.2% from renewable sources
Disappointingly high gas and electricity consumption this month. Hard to explain, but a baby means a lot of washing, and we used the central heating on two days - it's a bit scary how fast the gas consumption can rise with just a few hours of central heating.



DAILY ENERGY CONSUMPTION:
April 2008

Gas
3.5kWh
Grid Electricity -1.1kWh
Solar Electricity 9.4kWh
Solar Hot Water 4.0kWh (estimated)
TOTAL: 15.8kWh per day (85% from renewable sources)
RUNNING ANNUAL AVERAGE:
64% from renewable sources
That's a bit more like it, but we will have to get used to the idea of our consumption being higher now there are four of us.



DAILY ENERGY CONSUMPTION:
May 2008

Gas
3.4kWh
Grid Electricity -0.9kWh
Solar Electricity 9.0kWh
Solar Hot Water 3.8kWh (estimated)
TOTAL: 15.3kWh per day (84% from renewable sources)
RUNNING ANNUAL AVERAGE:
63.7% from renewable sources
Slightly down due to grotty weather.



DAILY ENERGY CONSUMPTION:
June 2008

Gas
2.4kWh
Grid Electricity -4.3kWh
Solar Electricity 11.8kWh
Solar Hot Water 5.0kWh (estimated)
TOTAL: 14.9kWh per day (113% from renewable sources)
RUNNING ANNUAL AVERAGE:
65% from renewable sources
Excellent weather and our best solar month yet.

 

 

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