Eco wankers gone mad in Barnsley

[ARW]

[Roger Hayter]

At least with shallower mines this is not at all whimsical. Cheaper source of energy than the electricity industry can supply. I know someone who can sell your SME a turnkey system if they are near a suitable mine.

[spuorgelgoog]

Yippee, if your home's on top of a capped mineshaft it's gone up in value.

Owain

[Brian Gaff]

Sounds like a lot of hot air to me.

Brian

[alan_m]

Actually it's hot water.

More interestingly, what's gone wrong with ground source heat exchange schemes in Barnsleys housing associations? Bad installation? Exaggerated expectations?

I know someone who is currently being persuaded to change from a LPG system to air sourced heat exchange when an extension (two storey, two rooms) is being added to the property. There is no mains gas. My limited research indicates that possibly no money will be saved despite a 7 year subsidy totaling around £6k.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Geothermal. It works. Until all the heat underground is gone, and then it doesnt.

Most schemes extract far more heat than is actually seeping up from the earths core.

>

[nightjar]

The Barnsley coal seam outcrops at one point. So I suspect that the mine is not really deep enough to produce more than fairly low level heat.

[Andy Burns]

The RHI doesn't seem to add-up, looked at a GSHP for a location with no mains gas, high upfront costs and regular payments that *might* break-even if it works as promised ... will probably go for bulk LPG tank.

[dennis]

RHI is worked out so it just about covers the cost of installation. You aren't going to make a big return on fits which is why harry hasn't done it.

Solar water heating is probably the best option if you actually want to go green as it probably will save CO2 unlike anything else that doesn't have any way to store the energy collected.

[Andy Burns]

Yep, will likely substitute solar thermal panels for PV panels that have been specified.

Why is it that (all bar one?) MVHR systems don't have the option for active cooling of the input air for the few hot days of the year we get?

[R D S]

The councils around here are all declaring 'climate emergency'.

There must be gov funding for bullshit schemes.

[harry]

Electricity from PV panels can be used for anything. Including heating water,

[harry]

Most of it is in fact solar heat. The largest part is from rainwater permeating the soil.

[harry]

You'll probably find it's because people have voted the Tory councillers ut.

[ARW]

I have one seam through my front garden.

[ARW]

And hot water that still has millions of pound per year pumped from old mine shafts. By hot it's not hot enough to have a bath in,

[Cynic]

I was taken on a tour of several village halls a few years ago to look at their ideas for energy efficiency improvements. One had a wind turbine but regretted choosing that over solar panels because of neighbours and maintenance. A couple were fitting external insulation. One had installed solar panels with a grant then been told they couldn't get the FIT unless they had used their own funds not a grant. One new hall had incorporated a ground loop system under the car park. It was about a year old and seemed to be satisfactory although in the autumn after a year of operation some drainage work discovered permafrost under the car park. I've not heard any more about that one. My own village War Memorial Hall has replaced both flat and pent roof section incorporating 100mm of kingspan type insulation plus insulated the walls. The gas boiler changed to a condensing model and lighting changed to led tubes. All this carried out via grant funding. Plus our treasurer has chased down much better tariffs for both gas and electricity supplies. It seems there are lots of sources for grants if energy efficiency improvements are included in the reasoning for applications, especially when the applicant is a registered charity.

[Robin]

Lots of talk about using abandoned mines, a few pilot projects, but no firm evidence of long-term, large scale cost-effectiveness. After all, if there were then there'd be no need for public money to pay for further pilots, would there?

[Dave Liquorice]

Define "suitable mine" says him with a "capped" ventilation shaft in the in-bye leading to an long abandoned adit a mile or so long and a couple of hundred feet down.

[Dave Liquorice]

A true enough statement. How ever Solar PV is at best only about 30% effcient at collecting the available energy. Solar Thermal 60% or more.

Our 80 tube, 2.25 ish m^2, solar thermal produces about the same amount of energy as solar PV with 2 or 3 times the area.