Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

A salesman wants to sell me a battery to store my solar panel generated electricity.

The battery size is 1.2kWh

The cost of the battery is £1,500

The average cost of a unit of electricity in the UK is, for the purposes of any calculation, circa 14p

Assuming I will definitely use the battery's stored electricity during the course of one evening (since my plasma TV alone uses 325 watts per hour) I am wondering if it's worth buying such a battery.

Q. What do you think?

Here is my calculation on it:

1.2 kWh/.325 kWh = 3.69 hrs (x £0.14 = £0.52 per 'battery TV evening').

= 340 days (ie. 365 less holidays) x £0.52 = £176.80 per annum

£1500 / £176.80 = pay back time of 8.48 years.

Payback time of 8.48 years = a return of 11.79 %

Hmmm? Should I take a flyer and get two batteries?
Hmmm? Can I burn 2 kWh of electricity per day? Possibly....? Surely...?

Dream on El.

1.2kw wont take you across the road in a normal house.


How much have they quoted you for the solar panels?

Doc,

We have issues with some of our rural properties in the south of France because they're not on the elastrickery grid, and we have to generate our own.

The two things you're discounting in your calculations are:

1) The rebate that you're currently getting from the electricity that you are putting into the grid.
2) The lifespan of the batteries, because they don't last that long before they need replacing.

They're also pretty big jobbies!

Biggest joke is that most of today's degree courses could easily be done in 2 years instead of 3.

There's a 33% saving for starters without touching anything else.

I've already got a solar panel installation with an Enphase Microinverter on each panel.

(Panels generate DC. Joining up all the outlet cables and feeding them into one big inverter (this changes DC to AC) is one way of doing things. If that one inverter fails you lose ALL your generation (obviously).

By having a microinverter for each panel, then if one microinverter fails then you only lose the generated electricity from that one panel.

Enphase Microinverters have a little gadget on them that sends its own generation signals to an Enphase Envoy reader. This reader is connected to the Internet. You can then use your PC and an Enphase App to monitor the whole system's individual and total panel generation. You can check your generation data during the day, after the day, after 7 days, after 1 month, after 1 year, since the day of first installation - all for each solar panel and also for the whole installation.

Neat, eh? If anything goes down, particularly like a microinverter or a solar panel, then you can see this immediately you use your App. If you look at the App and all is OK then it tells you:"All Normal". If you lose one panel from a lump of ice dropping on it from a plane or whatever, then you can see which panel failed, etc, etc, etc. ie. Your system is being 'Monitored' and can be readily 'Maintained' too.

The installer can also use an App to see if ALL of his own installed systems is working OK. eg. He will be able to look at, say all 357 of them.

Enphase can also use an App to see if all their, say 983 Bn systems out there on the planet are all working OK too - and also how reliable their stuff is. Their stuff is actually really good stuff and is 99.8% reliable.

My installer went bust back in Jan 2017. Thus I've no one to call on should anything go wrong with any of my system. I reckon the bottom dropped out of the solar panel market some time ago and tons of installers went bust.

Anyway meanwhile, Enphase have developed an AC Battery. These things are pretty new. If you were to have one installed with your system then the monitoring requirement would now be different too. Users might want to know how much value they are getting from the battery and also how big a battery system could best be fitted. You now need a new type of Enphase Envoy gadget and with new software.

Your system is wired up for you to use all that you personally generate. any spare goes to the Grid. I have a Generation Meter which tells me how much I generate. It would be nice too, if I still got all of the same payments but could store some of my spare electricity in a battery and use this on a cloudy day or during the evening.

Hence why I am considering buying an Enphase Battery - and also a new Enphase Envoy to handle my potential new, now modified monitoring requirements. Since my original installer went bust, I also perhaps need to set up a 'maintenance relationship' with an Enphase agent.

It is only the science courses that require 3 or even 4 years. My son is doing an integrated Master's in Physics and his girlfriend is doing philosophy. She doesn't get a lecture every day. Just has a few essays to write now and then. Thus is at a Russell Group uni. She pays full rate as does my son. He gets several lectures a day with lab work on top with assignments due every couple of days. His course is good value, hers should cost less than half.

Must admit that I have my south side roof covered in solar panels. Look terrible but good for my eco credentials. They only heat my swimming pool. My dogs insisted on them since they are the most regular users. I get the installers down from Leeds every couple of years to service the system although last time, the guy changed the fluid but said he couldn't go up on the roof to check the insulation for 'elf and safety reasons. I must insist on a Pole next time or a long pole with a mirror.

Dil - 21 Feb 2018 15:56 - 80199 of 80208
M , this is no laughing matter. People in Swansea haven't eaten for days.

That's funny Dil but probably true in several places !!

Elon Musk announced last year that he is producing roof tiles that are solar panels. They will look similar to conventional tiles. He will be offering them for a price that is the same as normal ones. There will be a control unit including battery storage.

I greatly admire Elon Musk as I'm sure lots of people do.

His space rockets are wiping the floor with old technology. The video clip of his two long slim SpaceX Falcon Heavy Side Rocket Boosters coming back down to earth and landing side by side on their landing pads, both at the same time, has to be seen to be believed. It is utterly incredible, totally insane and a wonder to behold:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0-pfzKbh2k

"The falcons have landed!"

MaxK spot on with the post about student debt: "MaxK - 21 Feb 2018 19:27 - 80200 of 80211"

However it is never and was never really a debt and only when you earn above £25k pa will deductions be made to repay the debt that never really was a debt as they were always willing to right it off. It is, as always was nothing more than a political tool that was badly presented, which in turn has given JC and Co the ability to offer so called Free Uni education.

Why call it debt when you say you do not have to repay it if you so structure your life to avoid doing so.

Lots of stuff out there now about the new 2018 F1 cars. eg, Mercedes, Williams, Red Bull, Ferrari.



Haven't seen anything from McLaren yet. Of course, they will have a new Renault engine for 2018 and so hopefully, will be a lot more competitive.......hopefully. And do notice the new "halo".

F1, as racing goes, is a bit 'roundy -roundy' but it does have lots of technology and lots of pezazz! But possibly no 'grid girls' anymore. 'Grrrrrrr!' about that, IMHO.

It was always nice to lots of very nice crumpet about the F1 scene. Hope they don't go away completely and they give the ladies a proper job to do instead of just 'standing around adding to the scenery'.

Quote: “We’re 100% committed to looking into grid girls and making them a more relevant part of the competition rather than just holding a board and standing next to a car,” he says.

“We want to make them fully integrated into the programme and change the perception of what their involvement in the sport is. We haven’t quite cracked what this will look like, but we’ve recognised we need to become more progressive there.”

They can hold a board next to my car any time, even if one does look remarkably like my grand-daughter.
That british racing green is timeless. Maybe we can do away with the great egos and go driverless too.

You can now type 'speed test' into Google and test your Internet speeds.

I'll take the brunette...and the blonds.....

Clocktower.

Unfortunately, the debt doesent just fade away, the taxpayer is on the hook for the snowflakes worthless degrees.

It's a nice little earner for the banks. Borrow money at near 0%, and lend it out on guaranteed repayment loans at 6% .. I'd have some of that, but of course, no chance for us punters.

One to warm you up on these cold winter nights...
Medieval times...
King to new mistress :...I can't see you tonight ...you see... poker game ...you know... cards...that sort of thing....tomorrow perhaps...
Mistress....ohhh...(disappointed but with a smile)....
....Servant comes rushing in(to the King).....your Highness....something going on...up in your new mistresses pad...euuhh sorry I mean..maiden's pad....
...What ?...exclaims the sovereign !..
King rushes up to the top of the castle ....bursts in....and behold :
Three of his loyal knights....all standing starkers beside his newly found mistress !...
Galahad ! Lancelot ! Arthur !...what are you all doing here ?...
To the mistress :...didn't I please you on our first night ?....yes Sire says the mistress,
and the second night ...didn't I satisfy you ?....ohhhh...Yes Sire...
Well what's going on and why are they all standing together (pointing at the three)...
Well Sire...forgive me....but I wanted three nights in a row........
the mistress replies...

Ah well.

:-)

Tee hee hee

Knights, Knaves, Jokers

Suppose you are visiting an island populated by knights who always tell the truth, knaves who always lie, and jokers who can do either.

You meet three islanders named Ellis, Farin, and Gobi. They make the following statements:

Ellis says: Farin is a joker

Farin says: Gobi is a joker

Gobi says: Ellis is a joker

Qn. If you know for sure that only one islander is a joker, then how many of the islanders are knights?

Here are the possible solutions. Which one is right?

1. None of them are knights
2. One of them is a knight
3. Two of them are knights

Good night.