Going Greener

Yes and yes again to that!

As to the gas v electricity at home question, the equation does change if you have solar panels on the roof, though kettles do take a huge whack of power. We installed them while we were both working, partly on principle, partly so that as we get ever more retired we enjoy the benefit of the cheaper bills and money back on what we generate at a time when we're earning less.

Even with all 16 panels enjoying full sun, they're only just equal to a sprinting kettle, but if we used a lower wattage kettle we'd have free hot water a lot of the time. Maybe we should use the caravan kettle and patience at home!

Meanwhile, since we're doing home matters just for now, we have a Thermos kettle which boils the water then keeps it hot for ages, so it's worth boiling a full one if you're going to need more any time fairly soon; even an hour or two later it takes less time to blast up if you didn't use it all.

HH doesn't the low wattage use the same amount of lecky over the longer term?  I think this cropped up in a discussion before.  My daughter does have solar panels but she is seldom in the house when they are at their peak so that doesn't apply to her cuppas.  But she does use them for an immersion heater midday in the summer and for running the washing machine on a delayed setting.  The Thermos kettle sounds a great idea - although the tea purists would tell you it has to be freshly boiled water!  I don't drink tea! 

I couldn't agree more about the Club using Solar panels they certainly missed out back in the day when the subsidies were higher than now.  There is a huge bank of panels at the Exeter Racecourse site but presumably that belongs to the Racecourse not the Club. 

Hi Pippah45, and of course you're right, it will take roughly the same amount of power in total. But boiling it slower wouldn't take it all at once in such a blast. While the roof's only producing 250W at present - it's dark grey and actively raining out there - yesterday it was over 3KW for much of the day, and in high summer, more. So I reckon anything taking less than 3KW is free at such times, if you don't mind mind it taking a bit longer.

We're thinking of getting a lower power, slower immersion heater for the same reason, so we can use it on average days without the grid having to cut in. It's lovely using a washing machine and watching the meter going nowhere!
And yes, tea purists demand freshly boiled, but it still tastes pretty good to me, and if needed, it's only a few seconds to zap it back up to boiling.
It would be dangerously close to getting political here to comment that the gov't has seemingly done a lot to kill the growing solar power industry just as it was progressing closer to a stage where subsidy wouldn't be needed.

Looked to be an interesting program on solar, battery technology and electric cars this morning on the BBC's Click program. I only caught the shortened version but looked worthwhile watching the full version on catchup when available.

peedee

Very good point HH I hadn't thought about the heavy draw and solar panels.  I looked at my capacity a few weeks ago when the sun was very hot and found the battery for the solar was very low - then I remembered the immersion heater was on.  As you say its a pity many have missed the boat with solar support but I won't get political either!  Except to say I would rather the NHS got the money! 

Thanks Peedee, I'll have to look into that. We'll have electric towing cars yet!! (I just can't afford one until they come a long way cheaper, but they're growing.)