Anyone else have an Eco Friendly 'plan'
Discussion
I am getting a bit sick of the rising / unpredicatable cost of oil whether that be home heating oil or fuel and i was wondering if anyone else on here was planning on doing something about it?
Heres how i see the next 10 years going for me...
NOW:-
Building our new house with Wood Pellet Burner instead of Oil fired C/H, underfloor heating with individual room thermostats, using solar panels to heat the hot water tank, upgraded glass with better thermal capabilities, upgraded insulation, therefore the house will have no oil dependency.
Next three years:-
Driving a car with double the current economy of current car (not difficult as i find myself in a petrol Alfa at the moment getting about 28MPG
Three years after that:-
Driving a hybrid car
Within 10 years from now:-
Upgrade house to have significant solar panels with electricity producing capabilities, as opposed to only for heat.
Driving an electric car and charging it via the house.
I guess the only query is how to keep 'fun' in that equation. Initially i'd say that will be through some sort of fast turbo diesel, but i'd imagine once moving to hybrid i'll end up having some sort of weekend car in the garage...
Heres how i see the next 10 years going for me...
NOW:-
Building our new house with Wood Pellet Burner instead of Oil fired C/H, underfloor heating with individual room thermostats, using solar panels to heat the hot water tank, upgraded glass with better thermal capabilities, upgraded insulation, therefore the house will have no oil dependency.
Next three years:-
Driving a car with double the current economy of current car (not difficult as i find myself in a petrol Alfa at the moment getting about 28MPG
Three years after that:-
Driving a hybrid car
Within 10 years from now:-
Upgrade house to have significant solar panels with electricity producing capabilities, as opposed to only for heat.
Driving an electric car and charging it via the house.
I guess the only query is how to keep 'fun' in that equation. Initially i'd say that will be through some sort of fast turbo diesel, but i'd imagine once moving to hybrid i'll end up having some sort of weekend car in the garage...
Why would you have a 'fast turbo diesel' for fun when you have a hybrid?
Have you ever driven a Lexus hybrid? They do 0-30 quicker than just about anything! Electric motors produce maximum torque from rest, so you get fantastic off-the-line acceleration...
OK, so no-one builds a hybrid 'sports car' yet, but when they do, they will knock spots off the 0-60 times of petrol cars with much bigger engines and still return better fuel economy.
Have you ever driven a Lexus hybrid? They do 0-30 quicker than just about anything! Electric motors produce maximum torque from rest, so you get fantastic off-the-line acceleration...
OK, so no-one builds a hybrid 'sports car' yet, but when they do, they will knock spots off the 0-60 times of petrol cars with much bigger engines and still return better fuel economy.
kVA said:
Why would you have a 'fast turbo diesel' for fun when you have a hybrid?
Have you ever driven a Lexus hybrid? They do 0-30 quicker than just about anything! Electric motors produce maximum torque from rest, so you get fantastic off-the-line acceleration...
OK, so no-one builds a hybrid 'sports car' yet, but when they do, they will knock spots off the 0-60 times of petrol cars with much bigger engines and still return better fuel economy.
in the next three years i expect to move to a Turbo diesel to get the economy improvements as i expect a hybrid to be out of my budget in that timeframe.Have you ever driven a Lexus hybrid? They do 0-30 quicker than just about anything! Electric motors produce maximum torque from rest, so you get fantastic off-the-line acceleration...
OK, so no-one builds a hybrid 'sports car' yet, but when they do, they will knock spots off the 0-60 times of petrol cars with much bigger engines and still return better fuel economy.
But yes, i'd see whats out there and suits my pocket.
I'm fed up of being cold all year round, so my current planned contribution to global warming is this:
And if you ever see the amount of fluorescent advertising hoarding in Las Vegas, you'd totally give up the idea that not using the standby facility on your tv is going to make ANY difference to global climate warming carbon footprint lentil hugger tree weaver brainwashed change.
And if you ever see the amount of fluorescent advertising hoarding in Las Vegas, you'd totally give up the idea that not using the standby facility on your tv is going to make ANY difference to global climate warming carbon footprint lentil hugger tree weaver brainwashed change.
Edited by King Herald on Wednesday 9th September 09:50
a_bloke said:
I am getting a bit sick of the rising / unpredicatable cost of oil whether that be home heating oil or fuel and i was wondering if anyone else on here was planning on doing something about it?
Heres how i see the next 10 years going for me...
NOW:-
Building our new house with Wood Pellet Burner instead of Oil fired C/H, underfloor heating with individual room thermostats, using solar panels to heat the hot water tank, upgraded glass with better thermal capabilities, upgraded insulation, therefore the house will have no oil dependency.
££££? When will you get your money back?
Next three years:-
Driving a car with double the current economy of current car (not difficult as i find myself in a petrol Alfa at the moment getting about 28MPG
Three years after that:-
Driving a hybrid car
Again...why? A hybrid car will cost you a fortune to replace the batteries when they fail (and its a case of when, not if). Given the premium, it will take years to make the additional outlay back. You'd be better off looking at a nice, secondhand turbo diesel car. Hybrids are a con, and only exist to appeal to people with deluded ideals about saving the world.
Within 10 years from now:-
Upgrade house to have significant solar panels with electricity producing capabilities, as opposed to only for heat.
Driving an electric car and charging it via the house.
This is assuming you get planning permissions. Again, I'd love to see how long it takes you to actually make money on the initial outlay for solar panels. You also assume that electric vehicles are going to be a viable alternative to the internal combustion engine, which at the moment, unless you're delivering milk, isn't true.
I guess the only query is how to keep 'fun' in that equation. Initially i'd say that will be through some sort of fast turbo diesel, but i'd imagine once moving to hybrid i'll end up having some sort of weekend car in the garage...
I'd guess with all that investment, you'll be cooking baked beans on the fire and toasting your bread the same way!
Look, if it makes you happy then I'm not going to try and persuade you otherwise, but seriously....if you are contemplating replacing your oil fired boiler, then I think you may be slightly mad. I reckon our current tank of oil (which cost £270 back in May) will see us right through the rest of the year, which makes it way cheaper than gas central heating. And we simply don't have the climate for it to provide year round heating capabilities.Heres how i see the next 10 years going for me...
NOW:-
Building our new house with Wood Pellet Burner instead of Oil fired C/H, underfloor heating with individual room thermostats, using solar panels to heat the hot water tank, upgraded glass with better thermal capabilities, upgraded insulation, therefore the house will have no oil dependency.
££££? When will you get your money back?
Next three years:-
Driving a car with double the current economy of current car (not difficult as i find myself in a petrol Alfa at the moment getting about 28MPG
Three years after that:-
Driving a hybrid car
Again...why? A hybrid car will cost you a fortune to replace the batteries when they fail (and its a case of when, not if). Given the premium, it will take years to make the additional outlay back. You'd be better off looking at a nice, secondhand turbo diesel car. Hybrids are a con, and only exist to appeal to people with deluded ideals about saving the world.
Within 10 years from now:-
Upgrade house to have significant solar panels with electricity producing capabilities, as opposed to only for heat.
Driving an electric car and charging it via the house.
This is assuming you get planning permissions. Again, I'd love to see how long it takes you to actually make money on the initial outlay for solar panels. You also assume that electric vehicles are going to be a viable alternative to the internal combustion engine, which at the moment, unless you're delivering milk, isn't true.
I guess the only query is how to keep 'fun' in that equation. Initially i'd say that will be through some sort of fast turbo diesel, but i'd imagine once moving to hybrid i'll end up having some sort of weekend car in the garage...
I'd guess with all that investment, you'll be cooking baked beans on the fire and toasting your bread the same way!
I think you'd be better off looking at energy saving within your home, such as loft insulation, cavity wall, alternative glazing etc.
My plan is to ignore the situation. The Lentil weaving brigade won't listen to sense or reason, so I fail to see why I should listen to their LSD lead, yoghurt enhanced mutterings about the ice-caps flooding or Exmouth melting. As King Herald pointed out, switching off your TV at the mains will have no affect whatsoever on slowing down the NATURAL rate of global climate change. Therefore, Live fast, enjoy life and make sure that you use your quota of fossil fuels.
BTW my Uncle is a Green Party member and city councillor, if he reads this then perhaps he can pass it on to his raffia Tampon brigade. They need all the real information that they can get on the subject.
BTW my Uncle is a Green Party member and city councillor, if he reads this then perhaps he can pass it on to his raffia Tampon brigade. They need all the real information that they can get on the subject.
Smart roadster said:
If you want to save money on heating and you are going to build a new house. Why not build one that doesn't require much or any heating at all?
It should require much heating the ways its being built and the materials that are being used. The 'jump' from that to a house that requires no heating at all is something like a tenfold increase in price or something mad like that.££££? When will you get your money back?
Theres something like a 7 year payback on the wood pellet burner. I'm 40 now and this will be our last move so after that running costs will be about 1/3 of the equivalent oil burning costs.
Again...why? A hybrid car will cost you a fortune to replace the batteries when they fail (and its a case of when, not if). Given the premium, it will take years to make the additional outlay back. You'd be better off looking at a nice, secondhand turbo diesel car. Hybrids are a con, and only exist to appeal to people with deluded ideals about saving the world.
I think the next generation of hybrids will be the major step forward. The new generation of hybrids - such as the Vauxhall Ampera will move the game on significantly. Prius's seem to hold their money well which i guess offsets the cost come resale time.
This is assuming you get planning permissions. Again, I'd love to see how long it takes you to actually make money on the initial outlay for solar panels. You also assume that electric vehicles are going to be a viable alternative to the internal combustion engine, which at the moment, unless you're delivering milk, isn't true.
Again, you're thinking 'today' not what is coming. In three years time there will be solar cells on the market that are four times more efficient than current ones, thus 1/4 of the cells required. I dont think you need planning permission to stick solar cells on the back roof of your house, but if you do then we'll do that.
I'd guess with all that investment, you'll be cooking baked beans on the fire and toasting your bread the same way!
LOL. Yeah hopefully not. £10K for the installation of the wood pellet burner and storage bin etc, £3.5K for the solar panels on the roof is the outlay at present. Next big spend would be adding the next set of solar cells in 10 years time. Probably a similar outlay then.
Look, if it makes you happy then I'm not going to try and persuade you otherwise, but seriously....if you are contemplating replacing your oil fired boiler, then I think you may be slightly mad. I reckon our current tank of oil (which cost £270 back in May) will see us right through the rest of the year, which makes it way cheaper than gas central heating. And we simply don't have the climate for it to provide year round heating capabilities.
Maybe its the climate difference here in (un)sunny northern ireland. We're putting approx 3 fills of oil in a year at anything up to £600 a fill at its peak last year and its a 1200sq ft house, so relatively small . The new house will be three times the size of this one. My 'fear' would therefore be we could be in to £4K+ just in oil to heat the thing.
I think you'd be better off looking at energy saving within your home, such as loft insulation, cavity wall, alternative glazing etc.
As its a new house, we're doing all that already. The glass is 4x more efficient than standard glass, we're even using special frames that have a heat(?) break built into them so that there is next to no heat loss through the frame itself. Low voltage lighting too. We've even had high level insulation added to the piping between the house and the boiler, reducing the loss across the distance from 6 degrees to less than 1 degree. The heating is all underfloor as this runs at a lower temperature, thus requires less energy to heat a room.
Theres something like a 7 year payback on the wood pellet burner. I'm 40 now and this will be our last move so after that running costs will be about 1/3 of the equivalent oil burning costs.
Again...why? A hybrid car will cost you a fortune to replace the batteries when they fail (and its a case of when, not if). Given the premium, it will take years to make the additional outlay back. You'd be better off looking at a nice, secondhand turbo diesel car. Hybrids are a con, and only exist to appeal to people with deluded ideals about saving the world.
I think the next generation of hybrids will be the major step forward. The new generation of hybrids - such as the Vauxhall Ampera will move the game on significantly. Prius's seem to hold their money well which i guess offsets the cost come resale time.
This is assuming you get planning permissions. Again, I'd love to see how long it takes you to actually make money on the initial outlay for solar panels. You also assume that electric vehicles are going to be a viable alternative to the internal combustion engine, which at the moment, unless you're delivering milk, isn't true.
Again, you're thinking 'today' not what is coming. In three years time there will be solar cells on the market that are four times more efficient than current ones, thus 1/4 of the cells required. I dont think you need planning permission to stick solar cells on the back roof of your house, but if you do then we'll do that.
I'd guess with all that investment, you'll be cooking baked beans on the fire and toasting your bread the same way!
LOL. Yeah hopefully not. £10K for the installation of the wood pellet burner and storage bin etc, £3.5K for the solar panels on the roof is the outlay at present. Next big spend would be adding the next set of solar cells in 10 years time. Probably a similar outlay then.
Look, if it makes you happy then I'm not going to try and persuade you otherwise, but seriously....if you are contemplating replacing your oil fired boiler, then I think you may be slightly mad. I reckon our current tank of oil (which cost £270 back in May) will see us right through the rest of the year, which makes it way cheaper than gas central heating. And we simply don't have the climate for it to provide year round heating capabilities.
Maybe its the climate difference here in (un)sunny northern ireland. We're putting approx 3 fills of oil in a year at anything up to £600 a fill at its peak last year and its a 1200sq ft house, so relatively small . The new house will be three times the size of this one. My 'fear' would therefore be we could be in to £4K+ just in oil to heat the thing.
I think you'd be better off looking at energy saving within your home, such as loft insulation, cavity wall, alternative glazing etc.
As its a new house, we're doing all that already. The glass is 4x more efficient than standard glass, we're even using special frames that have a heat(?) break built into them so that there is next to no heat loss through the frame itself. Low voltage lighting too. We've even had high level insulation added to the piping between the house and the boiler, reducing the loss across the distance from 6 degrees to less than 1 degree. The heating is all underfloor as this runs at a lower temperature, thus requires less energy to heat a room.
Edited by a_bloke on Wednesday 9th September 20:55
Edited by a_bloke on Wednesday 9th September 20:56
Edited by a_bloke on Wednesday 9th September 21:30
Why choose a pellet burning stove at a cost of £10k? Aside from the cost of buying and installing the thing, aren't you replacing one form of fuel dependence with another?
Given that a high output woodburner could be had for less than £1,500 with free fuel everywhere if you CBA to cut it, why choose the substantially more expensive route?
Given that a high output woodburner could be had for less than £1,500 with free fuel everywhere if you CBA to cut it, why choose the substantially more expensive route?
Mobile Chicane said:
Why choose a pellet burning stove at a cost of £10k? Aside from the cost of buying and installing the thing, aren't you replacing one form of fuel dependence with another?
Given that a high output woodburner could be had for less than £1,500 with free fuel everywhere if you CBA to cut it, why choose the substantially more expensive route?
I'm replacing a dependence on a fuel of limited resource, with a fuel thats of increasing resource. The pellets are made from willow tree which is a grown specifically for this purpose and is renewable.Given that a high output woodburner could be had for less than £1,500 with free fuel everywhere if you CBA to cut it, why choose the substantially more expensive route?
Its a high efficiency burner, auto cleaning with a pellet hopper from a 3 tonne hopper bin. I think the actual cost of the burner is maybe £6K, plus the cost of the hopper, building the bin and theres also a 1000 litre buffer tank too.
OnTheOverrun said:
Am I still on Pistonheads or have I inadvertantly stumbled onto Green Toss & Hippy Monthly?
Indeed, a PHer waffling on about saving the planet by buying a brand new 'hybrid' car, that produces three molecules less CO2 a week than his current model, but took a gazillion watts of power to build.
Or an electric car that plugs into the wall, to charge 'cleanly', whilst guzzling power from a dirty smelly coal fired power station.
If the greeny wadheads lentil suckers are serious about carbon dioxide, how about banning fizzy carbonated drinks?!
Bio Ethanol through Algae ... big volume through small area, does not tie up land or cause slash and burn of forest. Also the algae offsets itself by absorbing CO2 and producing O2 and nitrates as it grows.
All done in big growing tanks ...
and i can stick the end product in the porker.
thats my eco plan.
eventually ...
All done in big growing tanks ...
and i can stick the end product in the porker.
thats my eco plan.
eventually ...
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