I have solar panels! The UK mandates that my electricity supplier buys the surplus energy off me. They set a minimum price, known as the SEG (Smart Export Guarantee). My supplier - Bulb - pay me 5.38p for every kWh I export. I pay them about 13p for every kWh I import. You notice the discrepancy? When I tweeted about this, some people got angry on my behalf. How could I stand being ripped off like this? Why couldn't I sell electricity to my neighbours at full price? Personally, I'm quite…
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Back when nuclear power stations were first proposed, we were promised "energy which is too cheap to meter". That is, the cost of electricity would be so low, invoicing for its use would be prohibitively expensive. Well, that didn't exactly turn out that way! But as our electronics have become more efficient, the cost of processing payments begins to outweigh the cost of providing electricity. How much would you pay to fully charge your smartphone? A quid? 50p? If you're desperate, a fiver? …
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Even when I had a petrol car, I boycotted Shell - refusing to use their petrol stations. I thought that would continue once I got an electric car - no dino-juice for me! My car has more than enough range for me, but on a recent journey I decided it would be prudent to do a splash-and-dash - shove a few kWh in the battery just in case. I fired up Zap Map and was pleasantly surprised to see that Shell had a rapid charger near me. So, here's my review. Can a station forecourt deliver the power I…
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(Long and data-filled post ahead!) I've switched to energy provider Bulb (£50 off if you join using that link). They offer a "peak time" electricity charge which looks like this: 23:00 to 07:00 = £0.0815/kWh 07:00 to 16:00 = £0.1235/kWh 16:00 to 19:00 = £0.3263/kWh 19:00 to 23:00 = £0.1235/kWh By contrast, the standard tariff is £0.1359 per kWh. That means my electricity is 2.4x more expensive for 4 hours per day, during peak time. But cheaper the rest of the time. Let's look at a typi…
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I've been driving EVs for a few years now - and people often ask me about running costs. I can't tell you what your insurance, maintenance, or leasing costs will be - but I can show you how much it costs to drive. Here's a fairly recent trip in my Renault Zoe: That's a mixture of motorways in the cold, and gentle country paths in the summer. Hopefully typical of a mixed driving style. It takes 971kWh of electricity to move 3,500 miles. So, what's that in MPG? Let's work it out the long…
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Last year I published details of the BMW i3's API. I've now swapped my i3 for a Renault Zoe - so I thought I'd perform the same exercise. edent's Car@edent_car🔋 100%🚗 76 miles🔌 Plugged in⚡ Not charging⚠ Secured and Locked#RenaultZOE❤️ 1💬 0🔁 020:18 - Sat 15 October 2016 All these API calls can be found by using the Renault ZE Services website. I am indebted to this German blog post for kicking off this work. I'd also like to thank Renault for their "esoteric" use of JavaScript! What's Availa…
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My solar panels deliver pure Direct Current electricity into my house. All my house has Alternating Current circuits. Therefore, I need an inverter to change the DC to AC. This is inefficient. Most of the electronic devices I own are powered by DC. So I plug little wall-warts into the AC sockets to convert back to DC. This is also inefficient. One of the DC devices I'll be getting soon is the Maslow Battery. It's like the Tesla home battery. A several kWh array which can power my home…
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A couple of years ago, we had solar panels installed on our roof. We based our power generation estimates on the Europa Solar Calculator which estimated that they would generate around 2,700 kWh per year. Every few months we take a reading and see how the panels have been performing. Our meter reading for the end of May was 4,271kWh - our reading at the end of August was 5,791. That means this summer we generated 1.5MWh! Let's put that into context. The average UK domestic household uses …
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