KWh question

You must remeber that "quality of supply" is very important. Small generators on their own do not make sinusoidal wave forms - like you get from the mains. Most suppiers are not happy to have poor quality inputs to the grid. It may not be important, but it may make insurance claims difficult - especially from your neighbours!

Regards,

Alan.

(45 years in the supply industry)

I must admit Murray's 300A figure had me wondering, most domestic properties are on an 80A fuse.

Neil

A Madame Jo from Hampshire sells solar DC kWh for silly money to grid.

Generators are closer to being 50Hz AC.

My dream workshop would need a 300A supply. Perhaps Murray's got his already!

As I get older, I become more cynical, and no longer believe that anything the Government, Utility suppliers, or insurance companies tel me is "for my benefit" "We must tighten our belts" actually becomes "You must tighten your belt"

Slowly, I am learning not to be an early adopter. Pretty soon afterwards, the device becomes much cheaper, and the sound of gnashing teeth is heard (especially mine!)

We have an electricity consumption monitor, (gift from Daughter) but it seems to have little effect on consumption. There is a frightening minimum that is needed to keep the house and workshop running, and we save a little by turning off things when not needed, (As long as we remember!)

It may take a LONG time for a Smart meter to find a home here.

Howard

I thought that the current (yeah, I know) standard for domestic properties was 100A. I've just looked in the garage and sure enough I've got three 100A fuses. My system replaced an old one of 60A.

Andrew

Our non-smart electronic meter has a 100A contactor to control the economy 7 supply to storage heaters.

This from smart energy GB,

Does a smart meter mean my energy can be cut off more easily?

No. You’re protected by strict regulations against your energy supplier switching off or disconnecting your gas or electricity supply. This protection remains as strong with smart meters as it is with traditional meters.

Please also note that UK energy consumption is falling, not rising, and has fallen 15% in the last decade. We do not need a new Hinkley plant, and it will not provide any EXTRA capacity, as the old plant is ready to be shut down. Coal is very little used now, by far the biggest part of the load is met by combined cycle gas turbine.which is approaching 48% efficient. One of the main problems is nuclear, which is steam turbine generation, thus only about 33% efficient, and which at best can only provide about 24% of peak load with all stations flat out, which they almost never are due to maintenance, refuelling etc, but they are the only electricity generator that gets to sell every watt they produce, thus renewable enrgy like wind is actually turned off if nuclear stations have excess capacity. It would make far more sense to use every watt we can from wind, solar and other renewables, and then top up with CCGT and use nuclear as a last resort, as it is the most expensive by far, if you also count the huge cost of decommisioning, which is also paid by the taxpayer. this "keeping the lights on" claim is a myth, we have many oil fired back up stations, which are fully fuelled and ready to go, should there be a really major power station failure, they are started once a year to check them out

As all lighting in homes shops offices and streets turns to LED there will be further huge cuts in consumption. As a rule of thumb, a CFL uses 45% less than an incandescent lamp, and an LED uses 95% less than an incandescent, which is probably the reason that EDF are getting cold feet over Hinkley, they doubt its long term profitability, even though the electricity it will produce will be sold to us three times the cost of todays power. What smart metering, combined with the internet of things is supposed to do, is enable load to be matched to generating capacity at peak times, and spare capacity that appears suddenly from sources like wind to be used instead of rejected. it is supposedly a way of increasing efficiency, and thus profit, but personally,I think it was better when it was nationalised, and there were two tariffs, domestic, and commercial, although strangely, we in the UK were the only people in Europe who charged commercial (bulk) users more than domestic.

http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/ gives you all the info in real time! ( updates every two minutes anyway!!)

Phil

" Every household will, ultimately, pay for the new meter roll-out via their bills. As energy companies are quick to say, this is one reason why bills are rising. "

I KNEW they were not going to be free !

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/six-reasons-say-no-smart-meter/

.

If only they had built much smaller CCGT plants and placed them in the centre of towns , to use the 'waste heat' for heating buildings , etc.

Like we used to do in the '50's.