Power supply for lock-up garage

[Scott]

I have a lock-up garage that uses a minimal amount of electricity - electric door, light and trace heating for the water pipe (winter only). Up to now I have been paying about £4 per quarter on a zero standing charge tariff. My supplier has now withdrawn the tariff and moved me to standard variable tariff. This means a standing charge applies. They have then applied the Ofgem price cap and propose to charge me £250 per year.

I understand there are no zero standing charge tariffs available any longer. I am concerned if I put up an argument that the property is not domestic, they could say the price cap does not apply, and increase the charge!

I wondered about terminating the supply and installing either a UPS or an inverter with a battery. I could then have two batteries and charge them in my flat. I wonder if this would be feasible.

My other - and better - idea would be a solar panel but given the construction and location this would be very difficult.

Any ideas? Thanks.

[John Rumm]

Are there any other adjacent garages with power? Perhaps an agreement with other people in the same boat, to "share" one supply between the lot and share the bill.

[Harry Bloomfield Esq]

John Rumm was thinking very hard :

+1

[Brian]

Recharging batteries is ?high risk? in terms of forgetting and leaving you outside a garage with electric doors.

Solar: I recall claim that a 1kW array of solar panels ( eg an array of 5 x

200 W panels ) will yield between 700 and 900 kWhr per year in Yorkshire.

Googling, the average power required for a garage door opener is 500W. Say

1 min to open or close. 30 cycles / kWh. ( I suspect these times are generous.)

You need to decide how you want to trade cost of solar panels vs energy available but, assuming the claim I recall is valid, a 200W panel would yield 140kWh / year. At 30 cycles / kWh, 30x 140 = 4200 cycles.

I?ve not allowed for light but, I assume this will be LED and short term so minimal.

Heating is more of a problem. Using your hard gained electricity to heat probably isn?t the best idea. Can you turn off the water in the winter and only turn it on when needed?

[Martin Brown]

Although it usually wins hands down over solar power (especially in winter) unless you have a very large (expensive) solar PV panel. It was the solution I adopted for remote power in my off grid greenhouse.

On paper it should have been ideal for solar power since the plants only need a lot of watering when the sun is shining. In practice the thing didn't stack up and two SLA's used in rotation were a perfect solution.

Heating in winter will be a killer. Active signage around here dies every winter without fail and destroys a set of batteries too. They work perfectly in mid summer but in winter when they might do some good are dead in the water a couple of hours after sunset.

They are radar activated "Pleas go round the dangerous bend" signs. I have *never* seen one working on a frosty winters morning.

[Mike Rogers]

Excellent idea, you could even offer to install a private meter to record how much you use. They can cost as little as £13.

Mike

[Dave W]

Why not convert the electric door to manual, and lag the water pipe instead of heating it?

[Jock]

That doesnt work if its cold enough with infrequently used water pipes. The heat bleeds out over time until it freezes.

[Adrian Caspersz]

Need a mechanical override for opening the garage door if power fails, or have a separate battery for it.

When they are in the garage, have something monitoring the charge state, and alerting when they need changing / charging.

A three way valve/pump that drains water from exposed pipework when the temperature falls below 4degC.

Ideal application for some IoT things.

[Theo]

There's an antifreeze valve for that, it doesn't need power:

However it does need to be at the lowest point of the circuit, which might be awkward if it's an underground pipe.

(and you get a puddle of the drained water, so they're intended to be used outside. Although I suppose you could put a bucket underneath)

Theo