PowerSwitch

I put in a Navitron system myself last summer 20 tubes, then expanded it to 40 in August. We have 172 ltr tank and 3 in the house, pretty much self sufficient in the summer unless it is very overcast or we use a lot of water. It was very satisfying to see our gas consumption plummet. Also satisfying...

It is ironic that with the new electricty regs people are more likely to do things themselves (and therefore potentially dangerously) than get in an electrician to sign it off. I bet I cannot find a leccy who will sign off what I have in mind. Not because it is dangerous but because they will not ha...

Yes it is possible and quite legal to run CNG cars. The pump costs about ?2K and will slowly (5 to 6 hours) fill your tank in your car to 200psi. The car conversion costs the same as an LPG conversion at about ?2K as well. So 4K for the whole setup. They say you will be paying the equivalent to 25p ...

Thanks guys useful tips there.

I like the idea of being able to couple the inverters together, then I can start small now whilst things are stable. Then scale up if necessary, also gives me some built in redundancy.

Good tip re the voltage.

I will have look at the spec for the Victron...

Continuing from Vortex's thread on another thread I think a home UPS is the way forward. Andy H, has his inverter/charger/solarPV on one of his house circuits. I am thinking of a similar setup (without the PV for the moment but with option for the future) but for my whole house. I think I need: 1) C...

There will be gas shortages. Since it is dangerous to cut off gas pipelines as air can then get in and cause explosions, the answer will be to cut off our electricity since all boilers need power. So a battery back up for the boiler and water pump is a good idea. I want to get a decent inverter and ...

The scary thing about Nigeria is how much gas is wasted by flaring. I don't remember the statistics but it could keep a lot of cars on the road and houses warm. Instead it is being burnt in a very dirty and polluting manner by Shell etc. Gas the planet will never get back.....

I run a converted LPG Vectra Estate. The LPG tank replaces the spare wheel and will take up to 70ltrs. This gives me up to 470 miles range and a saving of ?36 a fill, not bad I say. Because LPG burns more cleanly, the interval between oil changes and plug changes can be extended. Yes it takes longer...

I think we will be surprised how resilient and innovative people and communities are. If you look at Zimbabwe, they are in a most terrible situation. I would have predicted a collapse and implosion years ago. It still has not happened. The unofficial market has taken over from the official one and l...

Yup, it's solar water. I have tubes which produce heat in overcast conditions. I understand that PV driven pumps will pump too slowly in those conditions or you need to massively oversize the PV module...

I had a look on flea bay the other day and can see 300ah ex UPS 12v batteries. They say they will last 10years (but only guarantee them 7 days!) so not sure I trust them. I presume the only way to test this out is to test the voltage, then apply a known load and see how quickly the voltage drops. An...

Thinking back to threads about generators etc. The downside with generators is they need petrol/diesel (difficult to store in meaningful quantites) use a lot of the stuff. Are nickable and breakdown.... I think the most likely scenario for the UK will be very expensive electricity and rolling powerc...

Not very green this one. But falls under preparations... I was thinking that with the fall in the stock market and uncertainty in the banking system, plus the high likelyhood of inflation over the next few years. That buying a couple of tons of coal and piling up behind my shed could be a reasonable...

We can all see what Gordon is doing with his tax revenues. My thinking is more of the 'ideal world' rather than the corrupt system we have now. We can see to a limited extend how high tax on fuels in the UK has driven us (pun intended) to driving more efficient cars whereas in the ol US of A the low...

If you had a diesel generator as backup, surely the diesel would be exempt from Duty as it would not be going into a road going vehicle. How does one get hold of the stuff, legally? Which brings me to my next point, Mr Brown must owe me for the extra tax I have paid for the petrol I put in the mower...