Solar Kettle !

[CHRIS211083]

Ok, so I bought a solar kettle in one of those......."Does it actually work moments"(I'm very much leaning towards the environment in the How can I be better for the environment and save money while having fun). Well it does, and very well. In peak winter I was getting 65deg(water purification and too hot to touch, perfect for the dishes). This was the best it could manage in clouded conditions with -3 temps with high wind chill. However here we are now in sunny Scotland(not) and every day that the sun looks to poke through the clouds before I go to training I fill my Solar flask. When I return 2-4 hrs later the seal on the top has pushed out the temp sensor to release excess pressure and the reading tends to be about 93-95 deg. Perfect for a Coffee. Here is the Website:

 

http://contemporarye...solarkettle.htm

 

And a few pic's:

 

 

 

 

 

It holds two Large cups worth of water which for the average person would be fine. However I must get through 8+ cups a day of coffee. Here you can see why I want to reduce my impact and save money. I've been doing the "only fill the kettle with the correct amount" for a few years now which did reduce the energy bill but not by a massive amount as I never really over filled the kettle to start with. However I have been looking in to solar power, wood pellet boilers and many other fun gadgets. However non of these I can install as our house has been and still is up for sale. So when I spotted the Solar flash I thought "Does that really work"? followed by "F*ck it it's only £35". So after being very surprised that this product actually works I now started looking at cheap roof solar water heating systems which the company who sell the flask do. Now at £1000 its not cheap and this is a DIY install but it will give you virtually free hot water 70+% of the year. So say two years to brake even and then your saving. This is something I will definitely do to the new house as well as my new garage at the new house but until then I have another plan. 6x solar flasks, I'll buy 5 more which will give me all my coffee and dishes hot water for one day. This will have easily payed for it's self with in the first year and I can take it with me. Only thing I ave to do is make it part of my routine to fill them up every morning. I really like this product and even though you have to fill it every day it will last a long time with no maintenance and wont have costed much. So what's the point in this Thread???? Well anyone can have the same as long as they can be arsed doing the filling. So just thought i'd share my positive experience.

 

Once the new house is bought, I'll will be buying two solar water heating systems from this company.

 

http://www.contemporaryenergy.co.uk/

 

One for the house and one for the Garage which will need its own tank, Money well invested I think.

 

Chris.

Edited March 22, 2013 by CHRIS211083

[spitfire6]

Hi Chris,

Check the last link please. Not working for me..

Cheers,

Iain.

[CHRIS211083]

Cheers mate don't know why but it just wasn't working. It's now just the main home page.

 

Chris.

[smoothTouch]

This will be a good power saving option, nice to see people trying on useful inventions. Mind blowing job.

[CHRIS211083]

Ok Guy's,

I've ended up buying buying Four of these kettles and I use them everyday. If it's sunny all four will boil 2-3 times a day and then will finish off with about 65degs before the sun goes down. Iam so happy with there performance. I'm saving about £30 a month as only early morning am I boiling the kettle. So in the five months I've used these Kettles they have paid for them selfs and are now saving me money!!! Brill, so why four and not six like you said????? Well I can carry four out in one go. Simples. It makes putting them out one trip at night before I go to bed. I have to lock up the motorbikes anyway so I put the Solar Kettles out then and aim them at the morning sun rise. Then the next morning all I have to do is adjust the angle of the kettle to the sun on my way to the bike or car for work in the morning and by 12 they are boiling away. I have been in touch with the guy's who make these as I have one request for improvement.....MAKE THEM BIGGER. Four is the max you can carry in one go however if they make the Solar kettles longer say double length then I'll still take four but will double the amount of water boiled. If they make the larger one I will buy Four of them immediately. I'm so happy with this product, it's a really eco devise and should last a long long time. Chuffed to bits here is a pic....

 

 

 

So whats next???? Where else can I save money and be better for the enviroment???

 

Well I have the next answer!!!! The wife found this site called POWERBEE here is a link:

 

http://www.powerbee.co.uk/

 

They sell solar power chargers and lighting systems.

 

My wife bought a Powerbee elite phone charger off the site here is a link:

 

http://www.powerbee.co.uk/solar-phone-chargers/elite-solar-phone-charger.html

 

Now she didn't ask me and just bought it. This is basically a battery with solar panel that takes two days worth of sun light to charge fully. Then it will charge your phone to nearly full from empty. The idea is this is an emergency power supply. Your suppose to charge it from the mains and then use the solar power to top it up say if your camping etc. So this on it's own didn't really do what the wife wanted. So I called the guy at power bee and looked through his website and I found this.

 

http://www.powerbee.co.uk/solar-phone-chargers/powerbee-explorer-pro.html

 

This is what the wife should have bought. A solar panel that charges the included battery pack which you then take with you. So in theory you never need to charge your phone from the mains again!!!!!! The solar panel will even charge the battery's to full in winter!!! It just takes longer, so you place the panel out in the morning and connect the battery. You come home at night and you connect your phone up to the battery and it charges for free!!!

 

So I've bought one and the cherry on the cake is that powerbee has actually upgraded the battery on this kit from 2000mah to 3500mah which means it will take an hour longer to charge but when charged will easily charge two phones of one charge. Now I charge my phone once every 2-3 days as I don't use all the functions however my wife is in PR for a living and so has two phones that she uses constantly and need charging almost every day. So She will have the emergency charger in her bag and the bigger battery for when she comes home. Will start another thread once it arrives but thats not all!!!! I've also ordered the Solar path lights that will fully charge even in winter and also a out door solar security light. For us the security light we currently have is like 400w. We are on a private road so no street lamps. So everytime there is movement it comes on costing us money, the idea is this new security light system recharges in the day to be used at night with a motion sensor. Here is the product.

 

http://www.powerbee.co.uk/solar-security-lights/signaller-solar-security-light.html

 

I'll start a new thread once they arrive and let you know how these devices perform. Can't wait.......Saving money and the environment.

 

Chris.

[2.5piman]

Hello Chris,

 

you say you are saving £30.00 a month by using your solar kettle, just how often do you boil your kettle as that adds up to quite a lot of boiling? Ball park figures of 15p per Kilowatt hour, 3 Kw kettle and 31 days a month is approximately six Kilowatt hours per day, that is two hours of kettle boiling?

 

The other point about the security lights is the one you want to buy is using LED lamps, i.e much more efficient than your current incandescent lamp, simply buy a more modern lamp.

By the way, power stations still run whether you are using the power or not.

 

Alec

[CHRIS211083]

Hi Alec,

I have 12+ cups of coffee a day and all were off the kettle before the solar kettle came along. I went onto the gov website for saving power and I typed in how many coffee's I have each day and it came back at about £38 a month I think. So saving most of that except in the morning and the odd cup at night.

 

 

"By the way, power stations still run whether you are using the power or not."

 

It's a sad fact but yes, all that wasted power, and now they are converting them all to gas.

 

I have my eye on a tripple wind turbine setup, thats next years fun.

 

Chris.

[spitfire6]

By the way, power stations still run whether you are using the power or not.

 

Hi, not strictly true. We are all connected to the National Grid, but, generators that are not running near full capacity would be shut down or the DC voltage would be sold to Europe! Cheers, Iain. If I missunderstod what you meant; apologies. Edited July 31, 2013 by spitfire6

[oviwan]

and now lets go bigger and diy: http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/SpaceHeating/Space_Heating.htm

[2.5piman]

Hello Spitfiresix,

 

it's not quite so simple, you cannot just shut down a base load generator, it takes days to shut them down or start them up. The generation system is a mix of steam, gas turbine and some wind and hydro electric, mostly pump storage schemes. It is quite a complex system to balance as the load, although predictable to a large degree does require some reserve. Generation is much like a car, accelerate as the load increases and lift off as it decreases, but it is most economical when generating near maximum capacity.

 

As a statistic that environmentalists may not like but wind generated electricity is about twice the cost of the next most expensive, not something that is widely published.

 

Alec

[2.5piman]

Hello Chris,

 

lets say twelve boilings a day, 3 minutes maximum as long as you only fill the kettle to make that cup, 36 minutes (probably much less) at 3 Kw is 1.8 kilowatt hours at 15 p is 27 pence times 31 days is £8.37. Do you always believe what the government says?

 

Spitfiresix, you cannot just shut down generators, they take days to shut down and start up. Smaller gas turbines or hydo can be shut down fairly quickly but are only a small part of the generating capacity. Most gas is used for steam and is irrelevant to the argument, steam generatiors cannot be switched off just like that. Wind generated power is also flexible but is twice the cost of the next most expensive type of generation.

 

Alec

[2.5piman]

Hello Chris/Spitfiresix,

 

sorry for the multiple post, I thought I'd lost one and started again.

 

Alec

[CHRIS211083]

Hi I just timed it and it takes 55seconds to boil one cup, dont know where you got that 3mins for 12cups. So lets call it one min. So 12 mins or more a day as i some times drink more. So 12x 31= 372mins a month. So whats that in power???

 

Chris.

[CHRIS211083]

By the way I use this kettle:

 

http://www.ecokettle.co.uk/How_it_works.html

 

Makes measuring one cup very easy.

 

Chris.

[AJ.Lintern]

I work it out to be only around £2.80 per month. Say 15p per kWh, so 12mins per day @ 3kW is 15x3/5 = 9p per day...

[CHRIS211083]

Really 9p a day???? at that rate the kettles will pay for them selfs in four + years. what about phone chargers???If you charge your phone from empty to full once a day, how much does it cost???

 

Chris.

[2.5piman]

Hello Chris,

 

I allowed three minutes per boil hence my 36 minutes for your twelve cups (I was erring on the cautious side).

The kettle you use is a very good idea, I've not seen one before.

 

I've no idea what it takes to charge a phone but it must be miniscule, which is how solar panels can charge them, given the dismally low out put from these devices.

 

Alec

[CHRIS211083]

I've ordered a solar phone charger kit. The way I look at it is I'm doing little things but every little helps and as long as I keep doing them my impact will be reduced. Our House is still up for sale but as soon as we move we are going OVER ECO!!! Geothermal heating, solar panels, solar water heating, wind turbines and I'll still be using the solar kettles and the phone charger.

 

Imagine if everyone did a little bit!!! The world would be a better healthier place. Shame people are too lazy and can't see the returns things can bring with a little hard work.

 

Chris.

[motov8id]

http://icpds.com/CMS/Media/Solar-Central-County-02-26-13.pdf there is so much solar construction going on in the south west corner of the US. Each project has thousands of panels producing megawatts of electrictricity. An every new commercial building I have worked on the past several years has photovoltaic as part of it's design. there was a tax rebate in California to subsidize installing panels on homes which send power to the grid during the day and draw from it at night. The power companies are required to reinburse you if you are a net producer.. http://icpds.com/CMS/Media/Solar-Central-County-02-26-13.pdf

[2.5piman]

Hello Chris,

 

as you may have gathered I'm not a fan of these generating systems. Solar thermal panels is the only one I considered when we built our annexe, but in the end I did not do it. It has under floor heating and lots of insulation (SIP roof) and evn in the last hard winters we have had, the heating rarely switches in, largely due to our wood burner which is excellent. As we have a large amount of scrap wood it is economical.

 

I don't know the current rate of feed in tarif for solar panels but the previous rate is the only way that they made economic sense for the owner, although, bear in mind, the rest of the country is paying through the nose for your panels. Wind turbines are very ineffective. The very large turbines on wind farms are only a few Megawatts each and apply the availability factor of between 30 and 40% due to the variability of the wind are extremely expensive to build, install then run the overhead lines to the grid, usually a very long way away. This is also a factor in nuclear generation but at least they provide sensible quantities of electricty.

 

Alec

[mattius]

Hello Spitfiresix,

 

it's not quite so simple, you cannot just shut down a base load generator, it takes days to shut them down or start them up. The generation system is a mix of steam, gas turbine and some wind and hydro electric, mostly pump storage schemes. It is quite a complex system to balance as the load, although predictable to a large degree does require some reserve. Generation is much like a car, accelerate as the load increases and lift off as it decreases, but it is most economical when generating near maximum capacity.

 

As a statistic that environmentalists may not like but wind generated electricity is about twice the cost of the next most expensive, not something that is widely published.

 

Alec

 

Generally we run at permanent full load in uk power stations, the plants are designed to run at 90% load 24/7, spitfire6 is right, the electricity gets dumped to the grid and sold, but the generators never get shut down except for a trip or outtage, in old days they would raise load during peak times but its not required anymore. Energy companies love it when we don't use power because they get a lot more selling it to other countries than us. All bar 1 nuclear power station in the uk was running at full load yesterday, much much greater than the uk's requirements but it makes them money elsewhere.

 

Sorry for the rant, its my day job, just heading in to one now.

[CHRIS211083]

Interesting stuff...........Didn't know what they did with the excess. So whats the score with the power outings in the next 10 years???? There are alot of people saving there will be black outs and to start making your own grid and ways to charge it. Whats the thoughts???

 

Chris.

[2.5piman]

Hello Chris,

 

coupled with forced closures of some coal fired stations and a lack of investment in building new stations means a shortfall of capacity for anticipated load which is forecast to increase from present levels. I think this is why shale gas is being pushed as a gas fired station can be built a lot quicker than a nuclear station which seems to be the best option for carbon reduction.

You can't really make your own grid as a sole provider, it's not necessary. The national grid connects all generation faciliies with very high voltage power lines and there used to be a link to France (D.C.), I don't know if there are other links now Europe? If you have surplus you can sell it to your local area board.

 

Alec

[mattius]

The power outages are cause by the fact that up until recently if the uk didn't have enough power that was it, however these days we import and export electricity. Hence when their is too much we sell it and when there is too little we buy some in, most of it from large power lines under the channel. The problem comes when no one has excess or it becomes too expensive to import it...

 

You can start your own power grid kind of, you need to connect it up to the grid and you work like one of the power stations, when you produce more than you can use you sell it to the national grid, when you need more you buy it back, it can work out very cost effective, however you need a rather large wind turbine to do this. However if their are blackouts the grid has no power to give you!

 

The only way to store this power is to have a storage means to give you an example, we have a room of car batteries on one site, that is around 250 of the ones you find in tractors, that will power a small amount of computer systems (about 20) for around 1 hour! Probably keep your house going for around 2 hours (p.s. the control of these to keep them optimum is critical hence costly).

 

Solar power panels are pointless it will take you more than your lifetime in your house to gain back the costs, even then the amount you produce is negligible. Solar heating panels can be a wise investment.

 

Its an interesting sector to be in, and the system works very well, 2 months ago every nuclear power station in the fleet had at least one reactor off, yet no one noticed except the power companies of course, each day 1 reactor is offline it looses megabucks!

 

interestingly It takes around 20-25years to plan and build a nuclear power station, 10 - 15 to build a gas fired one.

 

But the governments are crazy not to build more nuclear, the fleet is ageing massively, and whilst they can extend the lifetime of the current ones so long, in 20 years time we will be in trouble if they don't act now, you have to remember most of the nuclear stations were build in the 80s, in 20 years they will be 50 years old, running 50 year old computer systems!!

Edited August 2, 2013 by mattius

[James]

My uncle has solar panels fitted to his house — he gets paid when he's producing more than he's using.

 

Reckons it will take 8 years to pay for themselves.