the alternatives

there are a number of alternatives around but not all are viable for me in my council house (hydro electric for example) so i am only going to deal with realistic options that i can (a) install and (b) afford.

a quick glance tells me there is

• wind power
  
• solar pv
  
• solar heating
  
• ground heating

and each has its own issues to deal with.

now i must point out here that legal restrictions may be in place where you want to source your alternative energy so as a disclaimer i am saying you should always check with your local authority before constructing any kind of energy collector. 

my current total energy usage

so to summarise my yearly energy usage is:

• gas: £200
  
• electricity: ~£600
  
• coal: ~£500
  

yearly total: ~£1,300

thats over £100 per month! for a family of 5 in a 3 bedroom council house i think that is on the higher side of expensive. i would be interested to know what other people are spending a year on energy. :)

my current coal usage

i only buy coal over the winter months, probably an average of 5 months in the year at a cost of about £50 a fortnight. So on average that works out at just over £10 per week. in the summer i do burn wood but as this is free i am not counting it.

my coal usually only used through winter to heat the living room, heat 3 radiators upstairs and heat the water tank.

my current electricity usage

my last electricity bill showed a usage of about 17kW per day! i think that works out at about £2. Granted that was the winter quarter but even so i am still shocked because my water is gas or coal heated so where is my electricity going?

It was this bill that really got me thinking about looking for cheaper energy. and with utility bill costs predicted to go up things will only get worse.

my current gas usage

As i only use gas for hot water (in summer) and hob cooking i feel i should address this first. I am happy to leave the hob on gas for now as its use is minimal and my current gas tariff is without a standing charge so i only pay for what i use.

My recent gas bill for the quarter was about £50. I am assigning about 90% of that to hot water heating so that means i could save about £180 a year on hot water. Not loads, i know, however if i set the thermostat in the water tank to 'high' then i will use less hot and more cold to get my desired bath/shower temperature so more of my collected energy can be used efficiently.

starting the research

my first objective is to establish my current energy usage and from what sources. i currently use mains electricity, mains gas and coal.

what i am aiming for

Some have the objective of producing enough electricity to feed back into the national grid (for a profit) but i have already given up on this idea. I believe there is a lot more red tape to do this not to mention the safety aspect of it.

I have decided to just get to the point of self sufficiency (that is, if my electric and gas supply is cut off i can still cook eggs). My sourced energy will not interfere with the mains supply (using isolator switches where necessary).