Comments: It's a sign!

7:07 a.m. on 7/7/20, interesting. What's more interesting is how you posted about it also at 7:07 a.m. on 7/7/20.

I think the Blue Witch is practicing the black magic!

Posted by Scoakat on 7 July, 2020 at 9:44 PM

I can alter the time/date on posts Scoakat (but, interestingly, not on comments). No spells required!

Posted by Blue Witch on 8 July, 2020 at 8:12 AM

Assume a round 90 days per quarter. At 37·3p per day, that makes a total of £33·57. I can't understand where the £4·85 comes from (though, knowing BW's thoroughness, it must be because I'm missing something!).
For historical reasons, our house has two electricity supplies; on one, it makes good sense to use a no-standing-charge tariff. Alas, they are getting scarcer as time goes on.
I meant to ask ages ago, what battery make/system do you have at Coven Sud?

Posted by Tim W on 8 July, 2020 at 8:51 AM

Oops, thanks Tim, now corrected. I divided the bill of £4.85 by weeks not days. It did seem too much, but I was too tired to think sensibly about it, or to double check by multiplying the numbers.

Inverter is SolaX, made to work with batteries, and the batteries are SolaX branded but actually made by LG Chem, and guaranteed for 20 years (luckily we won't be trying to claim on the warranty in Year 20 as we won't be there... hopefully). Actually, there are 2 battery units in one metal case. Quite slim and about 2 foot by 3 foot.

Are Ebico the only company now offering no standing charges? I think they've got an annual minimum of £52 on new NSC tariffs too.

Posted by Blue Witch on 8 July, 2020 at 9:40 AM

Ah, a fellow Ebico customer. But no surprise really: as you suggest, it looks as if there are currently no other suppliers with zero standing charge. Their new minimum is why I'm not thinking of changing tariff at the moment. I suppose in some cases it would be worthwhile having no public electricity supply, and having a generator for when the solar/wind/battery was insufficient.

Posted by Tim W on 8 July, 2020 at 10:11 AM

Some companies now have 50p per day standing charges... Mind you, Ebico's daytime units are now 30p each on the NSC tariff (it's an E7 tariff), but we don't use many of those (the night-time units are about 8p).

It looks like oil and electricity prices are on the way up again this week.

I'd love to go with ground source heat pump energy, but it uses so much electricity to power it, and systems are ridiculously expensive, that it's going to be a total non-starter.

Posted by Blue Witch on 8 July, 2020 at 10:53 AM