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Post by cye on Jan 20, 2011 15:58:40 GMT -5
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Post by joeryan on Jan 20, 2011 18:56:34 GMT -5
Im interested.
Just readin the selectn criteria. I think we might be ok with the selection criteria listed on the entry rules , but what about the the group being expected to use NIE products, services and website in an attempt to become more energy efficient ? what are the products and services theyll be wanting to see us use ?
(I can see us potentially using less of their electricity product, but surely this isn't what they're thinking?)
Joe
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Post by campbeji on Jan 21, 2011 20:29:01 GMT -5
Hi Joeryan, I'd guess that when they talk about using NIE products, services, and website they are talking about things like not being a customer with Airtricity, using their website for a free energy check etc, they also seem to sell various energy saving products as well. I may be wrong but I think that NIE may be happy if we all used less electricity, they would put their prices up to make the same profit but they wouldn't have to increase their generating capacity. Maybe I'm just being cynical Anyhow, Cye, could you put me down for it, I'd love to win a share of that sort of prize. Thanks Jim
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Post by ragandbone on Jan 24, 2011 17:32:00 GMT -5
I,m also interested not sure how to use the money if given could use double glazing as well as other use,s
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Post by campbeji on Jan 24, 2011 21:50:58 GMT -5
Hi all, I've been thinking about this and I was wondering if by energy saving they mean from any source or specifically from electricity? My energy usage includes electricity, phoenix gas, calor gas, and if you stretch it a bit you've also got petrol in the car. Solar heating would save a fair amount of the phoenix gas but not a huge amount of electricity. Although they mention the likes of solar and insulation etc they don't (as far as I saw) mention the criteria for energy saving. I also would like to get the double glazing, one of a long list of things I can't afford at the moment. Jim
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Post by joeryan on Jan 25, 2011 17:20:50 GMT -5
Double glazing - Yes this would fit in of course. But we should also consider, in a given house, whether the £750 would be better spent on some of the other measures if the householder hasnt already addressed the more obvious energy targets first.
Heres the average uninsulated house's heat loss:
draughts 25% roof 15% windows 20% walls 30% floors 10%
Draught and loft/roof insulation is really cheap, especially loft insulation with the offers available from time to time in the likes of B&Q (subsidized by British Gas). Few hundred at the very most.
For walls, if you have a wall cavity, pumped in insulation costs in the region of £200-400. So I'm thinking perhaps this sort of thing should be a fairly high priority target in a given house after draughts and loft. Sure, DG windows could also be a target if all the other 'easy-win' measures are already adopted in the house. However, with an average house needing ~£2k? (total guess) on a full set of DG windows, this is a major outlay for a lower energy saving return and the householder would have to provide additional top-up money to cover the DG. Unless that is we win the £20k top prize at the end of the year (instead of the 7.5k) as well! Or unless some of the applicants only want loft insulation and allow the surplus of their £750 to be shared amongst the other householders?
If we are going to apply for this money (and I think we are getting closer now with 7-8? people expressing an interest to date), I would think we might need to adopt/develop a plan of how best to achieve the max energy saving in each house with the least money. E.g., if a house already has roof, draught, and wall insulation, then of course the £750 could be used in that house on DG. If however the loft is uninsulated and there is no draught exclusion, the funds would have to be put to these first before subsidising DG - Does this seem reasonable?
Secondary glazing may also be worth considering as it is much cheaper, although not as good as DG.
Perhaps Im totally off-beam on my logic here, and maybe others have other equally valid ideas on an approach - Anyone any other thoughts? Joe
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Post by campbeji on Jan 25, 2011 18:23:36 GMT -5
Hi Joe,
Yes I think your right, we should go for the easy option first, the problem is of course any other groups will be doing the same thing, and as it is a competition we need to do something bigger and better. The obvious thing is the Solar heating of course but there may be other things we can do.
We do need to determine what is considered an energy saving for the purpose of this competition, is it just based on a reduction in the electricity used or will it incorporate the likes of gas and car fuel. If it is just electricity savings that are counted then the draft proofing, insulation etc will have a minimal effect on savings in a household that uses gas for space heating. We'd need to look at things like energy saving bulbs and appliances, changing our energy useage habits, etc
Bye for now Jim
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Post by joeryan on Jan 26, 2011 14:24:23 GMT -5
Jim
This competition applies to all types of energy. Sure NIE have offers (albeit now fully subscribed) for free insulation, and provide information on cavity wall insulation cashback, solar water heating, etc all on their website.
The av UK household uses 20000-25000kwh in space heating pa with a further 3000-4000kwh in electric. There's no way they're going to try and restrict energy saving measures to just leccy when clearly most of the energy waste is heat loss.
I do take your point about the application offering something special. What about something along the lines of: (1) a system for monitoring both electricity and space heating usage. this could be a simple as one of their cheap smart meters, a plan for studying the most leccy hungry appliances in each household using the meters, plus a record sheet that each household uses to record monthly leccy, oil, gas and solid fuel usage? (2) a plan for targeting the bulk of the cash at the easy energy wins within each household, where a household doesn't already have these? (3) in addition to (2), a plan to implement, in at least a few a households in the group, some of the trendier technologies for the purposes of education & sharing knowledge in the community. Say a few solar water installations (where appropriate) and a few small scale pv installations?
This way we could say weve uniquely combined a targeted approach to getting the most energy saving from the least outlay, as well as introducing some microgeneration to the community to educate/show what it can do. As our application would be distributed across NI (unlike any other application!!!), we would probably need some microgeneration in each area represented by the various subgroups.
as usual this is just a few thoughts. in the end i'll go with the flow! what think you all?
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Post by jketfield on Feb 4, 2011 9:15:12 GMT -5
id like to be involved in this -750 would help draught proof + insulate my house- also solar water heater would save ££ in spring summer on domestic hot water
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