Best strategy for power backup in case of cuts?

I think that is largely what I said (ignoring the EU irrelevance). Windmills are not progress.

Unless, of course, if you ant to open the lid to get at the food because you are hungry. :-)

Cheers

Dave R

Sadly, as usual, most of the discussion does not even marginally address the question asked.

How about thoughts on battery backup for the whole house without buying an electric car?

Cheers

Dave R

They can be sacked, but only in toto, not individually. It's the only actual power the European Parliament has. I believe this was the only time it came close to happening:

"The Commission was subjected to a motion of censure over allegations of fraud in January 1999, but Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) voted against dismissing the entire body of Commissioners."

They're all has-been politicians, given a worthless high-paying job by,,, well, nobody knows. Neil Kinnock, Chris Patten and inevitably, Peter Mandelson are some of the illustrious former UK Commissioners. Roy Jenkins was a President.

As always, the counter-question is: 'how much power, and for how long?' Are we talking a few hours or a few days? I think we can forget a few weeks.

When I moved onto an EV tariff, I worked out that if I could get a 6 kWh battery, capable of supplying 3kW, that could charge during the cheap period and supply the vast majority of my usage in the peak period, and I could not bother replacing my UPS batteries.

Then it became clear the UK plugin solar scheme wouldn't allow batteries at all, and even if they do allow them by 2028 or 2029, it'll likely only allow 0.8 kW

Also the worry is that cheap time-of-use tariffs might disappear before it had paid itself off ...

Wankers one and all

You probably need an average of 1kW to be safe. And at least 10kW max. If you want to cook on a stove

That's gets to be pretty big. And expensive A chinky genny that runs on fuel is probably cheaper

Once everyone is doing it they will tax it or raise the price. This gummint is totally unable to fund its ambitions

It's essential to make a few sacrifices in the cause of energy efficiency.

If you _still_ insist on eating, extreme hunger might make fast food seem palatable.

I imagine you would have preferred Henry Ford made faster horses ?

No. He was smarter than going back to 2000 year old failed technology, like windmills...or horses.

And cars succeeded because overall they were cleaner safer and more efficient than horses. They didn;t need massive subsidies to succeed

Do feel free to provide some evidence. I know you won't/can't.

While the Official Green Party are opposed to nuclear power there are green advocates for nuclear power, and becoming ever more vocal.

I think you'll need to provide some details before we can make much progress. If you don't have the details, you should gather them before deciding how to proceed..

Now you've reframed it as a whole house question:

1. For a house battery, what does your daily consumption look like? How much seasonal variation?
2. Do you want full coverage or are you prepared to load-shed non essential loads? What's the baseline after shedding?
3. How long an outage do you want cover for?
4. If load shedding, how are you going to wire them or control the shedding?
5. What kind of instantaneous power do you need? Don't forget motor/compressor spinup can take a lot more than running power.
6. Are you going to use it to arbitrage power, either your own consumption, storing your own solar or selling back to the grid?
7. How long do you want charging to take, eg to use tariffs with short cheap rates?

There are lots of options and it helps to refine what you need.

Theo

Alternatively lobby your MP for nuclear power and forget all that crap

As ever, there was a point and you missed it.

In a refreshingly frank display of his conetempt for the wisdome of the markets, Henry Ford famously (FSVO famous, it would seem) said that if he had listened to his customers, he would have worked on faster horses.

That was a little bon mots my director would use whenever we had a strategy presentation. Coupled with frequent reminders on how to sift out the "it's all about me" pushback that discussions about the future can forment. (e.g. saddlers and farriers saying that cars will never take off ....)

Cooking by gas is a good way to insulate yourself from a power cut. That and keeping a superser and spare gas cylinder.

During the 1970s, my Dad lashed up some old car batteries and a string of lights. Which also powered the (pump for the) gas boiler.

You can only "prep" for so much. A few hours outage yes. But a conflict style "we have no idea when" less so.

And it amuses me how few "Preppers" appear to have given any thought to the fact that the most effecient "prepping" is to have a shotgun quietly hidden away, to be used to relieve "preppers" of their stash. Although I admit US preppers have that angle well covered. Or at least the few my brother has encounted in Tennessee ....

Well if you fancy “going big” on energy storage this guy does some interesting stuff.

c.£100/kW/hr - interesting . . .