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It may depend on your local rules, but here it's certainly better to put a recyclable thing in the bin than a non-recyclable thing in the recycling. That is, if your council doesn't have any sorting facilities: if they deem the recycling to be 'contaminated', they'll send the whole load to the incinerator - whereas if you put it in the normal rubbish, it's ...
9
The advantage of a rotary mixer is the ease of keeping the compost moving. A static pile that is never moved takes around a year, and the top 6" doesn't decompose well. Turn the pile a few times, cut that down to a couple months. With a rotary composter, you can easily turn it each time you add material to it. The time required will still be measured in ...
9
If you compare a MC (monocrystalline) and PC (polycrystalline ) PV (photovoltaic) panel with the same full-sun efficiency in each case, there is very little difference in efficiency as light level falls, between the MC & PC panel.
For the same full-sun efficiency monocrystalline are slightly better in low light conditions but the difference is liable ...
7
There shouldn't be a big difference in annual energy production between mono and poly in general.
The three main factors that influence energy production of solar panels in real life are
temperature coefficients (given at the data sheet)
the efficiency at low light conditions (should be given at the data sheet as the drop against nominal efficiency at 200 ...
7
The Energy Saving Trust (EST) is an organisation that has no vested interest in selling you things (although their mission is certainly to encourage takeup of renewables). They have a lot of good advice on their website - I suggest having a read from this starting page. Make sure you're looking at the page relevant to the right part of the UK, as the rules ...
7
I was quite surprised by the number of upvotes the question got, and as I've now gone ahead and had the panels installed, I'll add a few more details of what I did, in case it is of use to anyone going forward.
First stop was the MCS web site. (this is an absolute necessity, since as @EnergyNumbers says, to qualify for the feed-in tariff the installer has ...
6
Summary: yes, the UK can be powered practically by 100% renewables
Technically it's fairly straightforward. Subject to some fairly reasonable assumptions, and the commercialisation of technology that's already proven in the labs, it's also economically efficient too.
Total UK energy demand is about 200 GW, of which 40 GW is presently served by electricity. (...
6
Rooftops are pretty much the only place where efficiency matters for PV panels, because surface area is typically a constraint there, but almost nowhere else. And the structure of UK feed-in tariffs usually means it's best to go for the maximum ~3.86 kW installation.
However, a 40% cost increase (I'm assuming that's the increase in price of the total system ...
4
In Britain, the important bit is to make sure that your installer is MCS registered, and that the equipment they supply will be MCS registered.
This will ensure that you are eligible for the Feed-in Tariff (aka the FIT)
The FIT is untaxed. The amount you receive will be determined by the date of commissioning. A system that is commissioned in a year's time,...
3
I found this webpage of a company in Bristol called "Environmental Media Solutions" where they say
Environmental Media Solutions are able to recycle 78% of tapes, 100% of CD’s and DVD’s and their cases, leaving just 22% being sent to waste to energy. The service is free of charge for households and is subsidised through the revenues made from our B2B ...
3
I realise this thread is a little old, but for the benefit of current and future readers, I would like to share some valuable insight and a detailed infographic of UK solar PV payback period and earnings by region, that I have put together recently (July 2015).
Answer To 1st Part - UK Solar PV Incentives
Earnings from solar PV in the UK can be summarised ...
3
Paul from Ecotricity here.
We can certainly arrange for the meter to be exchanged to an Economy-7 meter, enabling you to have both off-peak and on-peak registers to record your electricity usage. If you have night storage heaters and a timed immersion heater, then it would be beneficial to have an off-peak style meter as you will then have the units used by ...
2
National Grid supplies the energy for the UK, and also manages the high voltage power transmission system. Each year, they prepare a Future Energy Scenarios report looking at energy needs across the UK and the different alternatives for how those needs can be met. The most recent FES was published in July 2018, and is the source for the figures and quotes ...
2
The maximum rated power is not the only thing to consider.
You should also look at how your panels are going to perform in low light conditions.
Cloudy days, early mornings and late afternoons etc. You need to understand if the more expensive panels are going to start producing earlier each morning and until later each evening.
I have some older 250W ...
2
Expand the effective roof area.
A: Extend the slope of the south facing roof with beams that are flat to the south roof but overhang the slope of the north roof. You should be able to do one more row of collectors, and possibly 2.
B: Look at alternate mounting points: Can you mount collectors in the position of window awnings.
C: Is your exposure such ...
2
There are jugs with filters. This happens to be a Brita.
2
I was looking at the website of South West Water, the company that supplies tap water for Devon, and they have a page on Tastes and smells where they say that
...often unusual tastes or odours relate to issues with private plumbing or appliances in your home.
And they provide a list of possible problems and solutions.
So perhaps you can check if it's ...
2
From a BBC article on 2018-01-25:
Plastic bottles: Free water refill points rolled out to cut waste
Shops, cafes and businesses will offer free water refill points in every major city and town in England by 2021.
Industry body Water UK says its scheme could cut disposable plastic bottle use by tens of millions a year.
The move comes amid growing concern ...
2
Energynumbers gives an excellent summary of the purely technical aspects. While I might quibble with a few specifics, I'll accept that - subject to developments of storage technologies and some substantial demand reductions - 100% renewables in the UK is technically possible.
However, technical considerations are not the only ones. There are two other ...
2
I guess the sustainability depends strongly on how the pellets are produced. Often pellets are made from by-product from other forest industry which makes it trickier to calculate emission and carbon footprint.
I took a quick look at IEA (International Energy Agency) and they had a general article about bio-energy:
http://www.iea.org/techinitiatives/...
2
My former local council (Leicestershire) used to take these by the skip loads at the tips. [Reference]
If your home council doesn't, perhaps it might be worth looking into neighbouring councils?
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The regulations are still in flux as recently as 23 September 2013, with the Renewable Heat Payment Plan (RHPP) extended to offer one-time grants to households through spring 2014.
The ofgam website and RHI website provide good resources on the latest regarding the RHI domestic programme. The eligibility guidelines are quite long to cover the variety of ...
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