Going Greener

Might ( 1 ) not just encourage the use of gas (refillables) if so not necessarily greener. I would certainly want to stay as warm.

We use service pitches. Yes I definitely use more water for washing up in the van. However, probably less for my shower as I am limited by hot water capacity.

yes, we generally use all our own facilities, so a serviced pitch is good, but does not necessarily  mean we use more water.  

We have refillable gas bottles, so often use gas for HW and heating.

Metered EHU  would not worry us.

If I am using my refillable gas bottle to heat my water I am far more likely to switch the heating off than when it's being powered by "free" electricity from a hook up. 

Hi HH. Yes, good post. E bikes are something I'm going to have to consider too. As far as grey water is concerned, We don't tip ours down the drain. We either tip it into a hedge to help with watering or, more recently I have made a pump out box. Simply an automatic bilge pump in a plastic box with a 12v feed, and a 5 m length of hose on the exhaust. Water goes in from kitchen and wash room and gets automatically pumped out into a ditch or the bottom of a hedge etc-- stops all the messing about with the wastemaster which I tend to forget about anyway. Apart from that, I'm racking my brains to think of anything I can do to be greener. The OH is red hot on recycling . The other thing I do as I have a 22yr old Toyota Surf 3.0lt with the old style diesel is use 50% old but very well filtered veg oil in the fuel. It costs the same as a small hatchback that way.  Only during the warm months though- 20% in the winter. The engine handles it very well and the extra lubricant helps the engine run better and preserves it.  My last vehicle did 380,555 miles on it!! It also gets rid of a potential pollutant,  - sorry guys- NOT RECOMMENDED FOR THE MODERN COMMON RAIL DIESEL ENGINE!! 

I like that post Boff - yes, that would help massively! 

, 

I read on the web that Dethleffs have released the worlds first Solar Powered M/H called the E.home!! 107hp motor, range 100 miles.  334sq ft of flexible panel. There are various battery options. There are other innovations within the vehicle too. All very clever. Well, I guess it's a start- now there's Green for you!! 

HH, ebikes come in many forms, some a normal frame with motor attached to the front hub, rear hub or in the centre driving the crank like a normal bike.

some bikes fold, they normally have the power via one of the wheel hubs due to the 'fold' being in the middle...

some have full sized wheels, some have smaller ones...

prices vary from around £4-500 upto around £3000 (or more for something specialised)

battery technology is improving all the time, but batteries are still relatively heavy and expensive.....lighter batteries are (even) more expensive...

range varies with riding style, power required, terrain, weight of rider, wind (not in the rider....), battery capacity etc, etc....

power levels can be varied to suit conditions and terrain

my bike (Bosch centre drive with 400 watt hour battery) will easily do 70 miles (110 km) on a charge.....ive never run it right down....

latest German Kalkhoff are advertising 205 km (in ideal conditions).

notwithstanding all the above, if interested folk on.y need to buy what suits their requirements......if you want to pop to the shops (5miles) or do a 10 mile trip from site, this wont (necessarily) require spending thousands on a top line bike.....

conversely, of your regular trip was (say) a 15/20 mile each way commute to work (many do this) a small wheeed folder might not be the answer....

comfort and ridong position (for both short and long trips) will also be a consideration so a good test run is very important.

then, of course, youll want to take it with you on van trips, so how you carry it (them?) is important too.....along with any effect on payload and axle weights etc......

anyway, thats enough to get you started, check out these websites for a broad range of bikes.....these are just electric bike shops....

nationwideebikes

50cycles

good luck

That must be similar to the "free" WiFi that a poster was seeking on another thread, or possibly the free cofffee and Telegraph I was given in Waitrose yesterday.

Unless of course they are going to charge for it twice, both in the price and at the meter.☹️

I assume that if electric was metered it would be greener to use it than your gas, because at least some of it comes from renewables.

Holiday at home?

Just to explain why for us at least metered electricity may not be greener. 

Wether it was metered or not I would still want to heat the van to the same level. So it would come down to cost and the best way to do it. Depending on the unit cost, nothing might change and we would continue as we do now. If the cost meant there was a cost saving to be made by using refillables we would switch to these for heating and possibly the fridge.

As I put above, if the net result meant we used more gas and less electricity, that would actually be less green, and the thread was about going greener. I realise this will not apply to everyone, but it will to myself and I suspect a lot more.