Rob Chagford

To the driver that side-swiped my car on Friday

2012-02-26T21:29:00.000Z

Not 1 mile from home and just going over the Teign river bridge on the A382 this idiot coming the other way was in the middle of the road, there was little chance of avoiding him totally but we were lucky to get away with a broken door mirror and a small dent on the drivers door. I stopped to inspect the damage and pick up the pieces of both our mirrors, BUT HE DROVE ON, so we turned around but he had made up too much distance to catch him, or he had turned off somewhere.
I have your mirror cover if your brave enough to collect it..............I'll keep an eye open for you again.

Back into the garage tomorrow?

2012-02-26T21:22:00.001Z

Looking forward to finishing off the wall studding, insulation and plaster-boarding this week, and insulating the ceiling and plaster-boarding this also.
As the garage is at the end of our barn conversion the walls were just bare granite and apart from being impossible to heat the granite absorbs light making it depressing to work in.
I'm lucky to have a big space that would take 3 cars for storage or 2 to work on. As a luxury before I concreted the floor I put a coil of 13mm Hep2o in the concrete and this runs off our CH boiler and gives some warmth to an otherwise cold space. It also has a full depth inspection pit complete with heated towel rail!! Jill loves to tell folk about the towel rail.
Blokes need a SHED, and I love mine!! Oh yes, and the wife XX.

Better Photovoltaic today!!

2012-02-26T20:51:00.003Z

This is a sign of better/longer days ahead.
Generation started at about 7am and went on to well after 6pm, producing 14.8 KWh s. Equivalent to £6.64 FIT tariff. The best for the last 3 months!
We were busy with a spring clean of the timbers in our barn conversion for most of the day and even with 2 Dysons going and all the other paraphernalia running we were still exporting to the grid.

January PV Solar electricity generated

2012-02-02T09:17:00.001Z

Our Solar PV array.

The daylight hours are lengthening now and from the monthly generation figures it's obvious that we have turned the corner and January's generation figures of 110.4 kWh are equal to, in fact better than, November of 106.6 kWh by 4 kWh. Today Feb 2nd is cold and clear and as soon as the sun cleared the horizon at about 8am the panels were generating and by 9 am the output was at 173 W. The trees in our neighbours shade the array until about 11am but being deciduous trees the shading is only slight. By the time the leaves come on this year the sun will be higher and the array clear again.

It's been 6 months now since the installation and we are expecting around £600.00 back in FIT payment plus the 3p for half the FIT, we wait in anticipation!
Here is the chart for January

Without going into the figures too deeply it appears that for the 6 months we are saving around 40-50% on our usage from the grid, not bad eh!

War Horse on Dartmoor

2012-01-17T10:45:00.002Z

Sworn to secrecy during filming we were lucky enough to visit one of the cottages used in the film "War Horse" on Dartmoor.
They had just finished filming there and were in the process of returning it to "how it was before".
We had recently built a website for a local B&B that also accommodates horses, and this is where the horses were stabled during the shoot. Trevor, the owner, showed us around the location.
One could sense the atmosphere around it, and this piece of Dartmoor is ideal for the film.
We may get to the cinema one day!

Devon recycle 4 free

2012-01-17T10:19:00.000Z

Here's a fresh website to help us recycle all our unwanted stuff that's too good for the tip, take a look at their website.
It's free of course!

December 2011 solar PV output

2012-01-01T15:49:00.001Z

Happy New Year to all.
December monthly solar output figures are in now. We all know it's been dull for many days in the UK this month and it's hardly surprising that the total for Dec was just 76.53 KWh. Maximum day output was only 6 KWh on the 5th Dec.Minimum was just over 0.5 KWh on 21st Dec, of course this was one of our shortest daylight hours of the year.
Comparing this to August when 384.27 KWh generated, 22Kwh on the 10th alone. Bring back those long sunny days soon.
We look forward to crisp clear winter days to see how it is then.
Studying the shading this month showed that our array is partly shaded until about 10am, although this is partial shade as the trees have now lost all their leaves. The Sun is so low now that to remove the shading would mean lopping off most of the high branches, and they are not our trees!
We had hoped that there would have been sufficient output during winter to store heat in an old storage radiator, but outputs clearly won't support this. As we are at home most of the time we are still able to use generated power during the day to the best advantage.
Most revealing for us is the red light on the standard electricity meter which shows GREEN when we are exporting power to the grid, rather than importing.
It's not difficult to think what's switched on unnecessarily in the house and switch things off to make it show green again. It's surprising just how switching off a few lights etc can bring the light back to green.
The Sunny Beam Blue Toothed Monitor is good but doesn't show this + or - power.
Here is Decembers chart.

A dry Dartmoor today!

2011-12-20T19:56:00.000Z

At last, a dry day here on Dartmoor, if not very sunny for our solar PV.
But at least I was able to wash the car, albeit with the pressure washer, which does a reasonably good job considering that if I drive down any lanes round here it's as dirty as ever. All this mud on the roads is mostly down to cut-backs, as the local highways don't clear the gullies any more. Hey Ho.
Jill and I are getting over a bug that's been around here, knocked us sideways for a fortnight, lets hope it's gone for Christmas.
I was also able to re-string the lights on an outside Christmas tree, the wind had blown them about a bit and it's difficult to describe how it looked at night! More of a nightmare than a decoration.
Can't wait to see our youngest when she comes for Christmas. Drive carefully.
Seasons greetings all.

Christmas late night shopping in Chagford

2011-12-14T11:42:00.001Z

CHAGFORD DEVON

The weather leading up to late night shopping in Chagford threatened to put a dampener on the evening However at about 6pm it stopped raining/snowing/hailing to be a dry evening if very cold. Jill and I had been asked by the Chagford Business Association to gather some photos of the evening ready for next years publicity. Halfway through I couldn't feel the tips of my fingers and went for a warming Mulled wine at Best Cellars. hundreds turned out later to enjoy the atmosphere, do some shopping, eat the Hog Roast and socialise.

Royal Mail still off-line

2011-12-12T17:02:00.000Z

At a time when the post office should be making money in the build up to Christmas we can't even use the price finder facility on the website. They have had a nationwide monopoly for too long and I would look forward to an alternative to bring competition to the normal postage.

Their pricing structure is weird. A standard parcel up-to 2Kg is £4.41 which is competitive ok but the next weight is up-to 4 Kg and costs £7.62. Now, for this service I have to get in the car, drive 4 miles, stand in a queue, face our postmistress (who would rather not have customers bothering her) before it's on it's way.
It's not difficult to get a courier to collect the parcel from my door, deliver it (insured) in 3-5 days for only £5.99.
Now if RM was to introduce a 3Kg parcel rate it could undercut the courier and make more money. No technology needed, just an updated structure.

End of the Feed-In-Tariff, FIT?

2011-12-12T16:49:00.001Z

Did you listen to Jeremy Vine today on BBC Radio 2?
As expected the end has come of the initial FIT tariff of 43.3p/KWh and it's expected to be reduced by 50% as of today. There are thousands of jobs that could be affected by this hasty move. The idea behind the attractive FIT was to encourage home generation of electricity and help reduce the CO2 emissions, and in turn help the government hit their CO2 reduction target. Surely this has just shot themselves in the foot.
I suppose we are one of those lucky enough to get in well before today, as our system was up and running by late July 2010.
We heard of many customers being unable to get certification in time and as a result have missed out.
Our installation wasn't 100% for financial reasons, but it does seem to make financial sense, especially in today's climate of low investment returns. The predicted unavoidable rise in future electricity costs only adds to the reasoning. it was a stretch for us to stump up the investment and just hoped that there were no disasters anywhere else that might need lots of cash, at least in the short term while we saved again.
The PV Solar panels will become cheaper in the next few years making new systems affordable again. I'm confident we will look back and be glad we didn't wait any longer.

Solar PV electricity output November

2011-12-02T11:06:00.001Z

November Solar PV output was very interesting. Some very cloudy dull days some bright and clear.

I now have the figures for the month.

Kilowatts on the left vertical axis
Maximum was 06/11 at 10.618 Kw
Minimum was on 16/11 at just 0.054 Kw.

We have just had our first full quarter electricity (3rd Quarter) bill that we can compare with last year and it looks like we saved 1/3rd off the bill. In our case this is about £40. We haven't had the first 6 month FIT payment yet, due in the new year.

Royal Mail On-line Postage--OFF-LINE!

2011-11-23T09:34:00.001Z

Does anybody use RM On-line postage?
I use it quite frequently, or I did until last weekend when they decided to update their website. Update, no, backwards step, yes.
It was slow enough and protracted enough before but now it's even worse. Finally this morning (Wednesday) after 4 days offline it's back but with huge problems. It took me nearly 10 minutes to create 1 on-line post this morning.
I only use it because we are 3 miles from a PO and most of my stuff sold on eBay goes as letters or small packets and our wonderful postman will take them from my door.
My gripe is, why launch a website that doesn't work?

Kirstie Allsopps 'Kirstie's Handmade Britain'

2011-11-16T16:08:00.001Z

Chagford Show will feature in the Channel 4 TV show
'Kirstie's Handmade Britain'
on Wednesday 23rd November at 8pm.
Kirstie Allsopp entered 4 of
the classes in the crafts section, elderflower cordial, homemade shortbread, she entered some
willow weaving and what she calls the most fun entry - a scarecrow.
Plus she tried her hand at Morris Dancing. Well worth watching !

Those of you with eagle eyes will have noticed pictures of her in my flickr photo-stream above. Jill also entered the Scarecrow competition class................did she beat Kirstie's entry? Tune in to find out.

Torquay and Paignton

2011-11-13T17:18:00.001Z

A great afternoon was spent in Torquay and Paignton yesterday. For a November day it was pleasantly warm and sunny. We parked the car just above Torquay and strolled down past Tor Abbey and the balloon (pic) which gives flights when the weather is better. A walk to Paignton of about 2.5 miles leaving the road where possible to walk through parks etc. to the prom at Paignton, and the pier (pic below).
The light was fading by then, but in B&W looked quite good.
There were loads of people enjoying the day, as the tide came in to wash the beach again.

Of course you should be Jill.

We decided to catch the bus back to Torquay and on our way to the station called in to reputedly one of the best fish and chippies and had fish and chips.

Solar PV output last 5 days

2011-11-11T11:39:00.001Z

I think we all know how dull it's been lately in the SW, Dartmoor is no exception as the moor hangs onto low cloud.
The output from our array has been quite low, peaking at 3 KW yesterday, the best for 5 days. The lowest was on the 8th Nov when only 0.332 KW was generated, compared to the 6th when 10.6 KW came in.
We didn't know what to expect from the system in the winter. Our hopes are that there will be enough generated overall to keep the PCs fed during daylight hours as this is where most of our power is consumed.
Most days there are 3 PCs running, plus office lights so we'll see haw this pans out.
Anyway, it's our wedding anniversary today and sitting here isn't on the cards.

Rain Water Harvesting

2011-11-10T11:41:00.002Z

Having always lived in the country, harvesting leads me to think of corn or barley rather than rain water.
During our barn conversion in the late 90s, and especially as I had a JCB digger on site at my disposal, we were keen to make a below ground rainwater catchment tank. We have a massive roof area so quantity wasn't going to be a problem, especially here on Dartmoor where about 1.5 metres of rain falls annually. There are 4 down-spouts around the barn and these were all routed underground to the catchment tank. There is a series of 2 sponge filters, a coarse one for leaves and bigger bits and a second much finer one before the water goes into the tank. Initially the concrete block walls of the tank were waterproofed but this just wasn't good enough to hold the water in for long periods, so a liner was made, by Structureflex in Norfolk, to fit snugly inside the chamber and this is 100% watertight now, and easy to clean.
The tank is effectively 1.95m deep 2.8m long and 1.7m wide, topped with a reinforced concrete slab and an inspection/manhole cover and should hold about 9,282 litres or just over 2000 gallons
A submersible pump then pumps water to a small ballast tank in the attic, and from here to all the 4 toilets in the barn, as well as an outside tap for car washing garden watering etc. When the catchment tank is full excess water drains off into the storm drain.
It's a simple layout which has cut water consumption by 50%. Our drinking water is by mains supply so were were able to see by meter readings just how consumption was affected.
It's never run out of water, but should it be low enough for the pump to automatically switch off then the ballast tank is fed by mains water, again automatically.
Further purification would be possible but it's not financially beneficial, so unless mains water dries up it's ok as it is.

A bit more on the Solar PV

2011-11-09T12:35:00.001Z

A bit more on the Solar PV.
Clear sunny days have seen in excess of the rated 3.6KWh in fact reaching over 4KW for brief periods.
Our roof aspect is considered ideal for the panels, virtually due South and at about 45 degrees, and at our UK location puts us in the optimum location for good output.
At this time of year, from about Oct to Feb there is slight shading from our neighbours trees until about 10 am, it's then clear of shade for the rest of the day. As the leaves drop the shading will be reduced somewhat. It may not be financially worth getting a tree surgeon in to trim the crown of these trees, our neighbour has agreed if its necessary, we'll see how it goes.
We are using a 'Sunny Boy' remote monitor which receives a blue-tooth signal and through our granite walls is ok within about 5-6 metres of the inverter. This device stores data which can be downloaded into an Excel type PC program for detailed comparison over time.
Initially we couldn't leave this gadget alone, being very excited to see what it was generating, but now only look at it to see if we can use a large appliance "for free". It has it's own solar panel to keep the battery topped up, and also charges when connected to the PC via the USB cable.
Our inverter is situated outside, under a lean-to shelter rather than in the loft which most installers prefer, (simply for ease of installation) as the cables are generally run in the attic. However I had heard that inverters can be noisy and didn't want it to be heard upstairs. I needn't have worried on this score as it's perfectly quiet. there is a cooling fan in the inverter, to cool it should it be working hard, but I haven't heard it running yet.
Our building is a barn conversion, which we did ourselves, and during the roofing I ran various 'pull cords' through roof voids etc, this helped during the installation to draw cables through easily. Not a problem in most houses, but our attic is quite restricted in places. Anyway the guys from Beco approved.
During the conversion in 1997 I had wanted to fit integral solar pv panels rather than the slates, this would have been a more aesthetically pleasing installation but back then it was about £40K, this cost coupled to the planning restrictions for our area (National Park) meant we passed on it at the time. Nowadays it's much cheaper and the Parks are more inclined to allow solar panels, we were now allowed the installation without planning consent.
The extra meter and isolator fitted nicely inside our meter box, which happens to be in the hall.
Something I've never seen before is our grid meter showing a steady green light instead of the normally flashing red light. The green light indicating that power is going back to the grid. Heartening to see this as we pass by the meter.

Solar PV

2011-11-08T20:36:00.000Z

Our Solar PV installation was finished back in July 2011 and I intended to keep a blog of how it was going.
It's a 3.67 KW 15 panel system using Sharp NU-E245J5 panels via SunnyBeam Inverter. The system was installed by Kier (Beco) of Totnes, Devon.
We were tempted initially by a free installation from ISIS but after realising we were giving up our freehold on the roof decided that it was better to make the capital investment and have our own system.
Beco were reliable throughout, and the system was soon up and running, and all seemed ok. Although as soon as it rained our RCD tripped and shut the whole house down! This minor upset was soon rectified by fitting the PV system with it's own RCD and all has been good since then.
We had the benefit of the last half of our British Summer and have been trying hard to use appliances during the day, rather than at night as before.
It's mid November now and it's clear the winter output is going to be low, especially if there is blanket cloud, like today, 8th Nov, when the output was barely enough to keep a 100w light on for half an hour, and only 15p in 'FIT' revenue earned! But it's a long term investment, and not only for any financial benefit at the end.
It could easily take 7-8 years to pay back, at current rates, but this will shorten if (most likely) the electricity price from the grid continues to rise. Plus of course the FIT tariff is index linked. Is it a win-win situation? The government has this week realised that at 43.3p/KWh generated it's being over generous and has slashed it by probably half! So perhaps they have realised it was to good a win-win for the consumer.
There are a lot of new PV installation companies now and surely it's going to be a tough time for them from now on.
I'm looking forward to new technology, if it ever comes about, that will switch designated appliances on or off as the output rises and falls. this will make the best use of the generated power, rather than just exporting it to the grid at 3p/KWh.
Since the installation we have saved the planet from around 1,581 lbs of CO2 and generated about 1054 KWh.
We wait now for our first repayment for the FIT, it might be in time for Christmas!!