Solar PV on West facing roof – one year later
by Barry on Feb.24, 2013, under Health
This blog post is aimed at anyone considering buying solar PV panels, but does not have a South, South East or South West facing roof. I had twelve 250 watt panels installed on a due West facing roof a year ago, here are my figures.
We had a new electricity meter installed when we moved into our house, giving me a nice baseline figure of 0. After three and a half years, we had used 7,133 kWh of electricity, or on average 2040 kWh a year.
In the last year we generated 2,510 kWh of electricity from a 2.5 kWp due West facing solar PV array on a 26 degree pitch roof. Our consumption from the grid dropped to 1,060 kWh.
In summary, half of the electricity used is from the panels and half from the grid. Two fifths of generated electricity is used while three-fifths is exported and overall, we generated more electricity than we consumed.
So, if you have space on your roof and it faces anywhere between East to South to West, buy yourself some PV panels and slash your electricity bills. This website is very useful at calculating the expected amount of daylight in a year. I found the estimate to be slightly pessimistic.
Wombling
by Barry on Feb.20, 2013, under Recycling
My manor is ill. No really. It’s usually full of litter and this month, much more so. I have a couple of days off work, so the neighbourhood is in for a tidy up! This is what half an hour can do. Imagine if everyone did half an hour of street tidying this week.
My manor is ill. Before and after.
Instead of observing the crisp packets in the grass, the flowers are now prominent. Also, by some stroke of luck, karma returned the favour by presenting me with a reasonably new Nokia C1-01 lacking a battery, SIM card, memory card or any form of identification. Happy days.
Where there's muck there's brass
MP’s salary increase?
by Barry on Jan.11, 2013, under Green politics
According to a recent YouGov poll, the majority of MPs in parliament feel they are underpaid.
What is interesting is that the poll breaks down the average salary expectation for each political party. In order;
- Conservatives feel they should be getting paid an eye watering £96,740.
- Liberal Democrats think they are worth £78,361 a year.
- Labour MPs expect £77,322.
MPs are currently paid a very generous £65,738; almost double the average salary.
I contacted the only Green Party MP, Caroline Lucas, via Twitter to see what she thought she should be paid. She said:
“Absolutely not one of [the] MPs who think our wages should rise – fully support pay freeze & long campaigned for independent body to set wages.”
Not all politicians are the same, not all of them are self-serving and greedy. Beware who you vote for!
