Beanz
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Posts posted by Beanz
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3 minutes ago, Addicks Fan 1981 said:
Always a great idea to post
things with statistical support as that way you are respected on the site and personally it's also a good idea to not post unsubstantiated claims.
I’m pretty sure I’ve said the same myself many times in recent posts - you’re preaching to the converted
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5 minutes ago, Addicks Fan 1981 said:
Mushy described this summer as average which is a fact, he also stated that summer wasn't all about daytime. His posts
are very reasoned and make sense.
I think average is probably right, not questioning the stats, but from a ‘feels like’ factor, it felt average…in a good way
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I don’t think this summer has been that bad at all quite honestly, we’ve had plenty of warm weather and enough rain to keep things alive.
Stats definitely have a place, but aren’t a reflection of reality and quite often don’t paint a very different picture. Reminds me of the phrase: ‘Football is played on grass, not on paper’
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2 hours ago, sundog said:
If we get a decent winter this year I will be stunned. I'm just not buying into the seasonal models. Also very warm Septembers in recent yrs being followed by poor winters is the hill I will die on........
Well if you’re up a hill, they’ll be more chance of snow
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16 hours ago, Catacol said:
Depends on whether we go by meteorological or astronomical definition. The astronomical to me makes much more sense, backed up by a narrative that is changing the reality and our behaviour. Cricket is now played through September - we have just seen 30 degrees and will see it again regularly in September I think going forward. You can go with that old school meteorological definition if you wish - I'll stick with a more observational approach and a desire to see the seasonal descriptor match the weather rather than the date.
If this was a star gazing forum, I’d probably agree with you
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On 26/09/2023 at 22:20, SunSean said:
1st to 25th September sunshine hours.
Eastbourne are having a hell of a month!
A lot of counties have surpassed or nearly surpassed their July totals already.
Missed this thread! Interesting stats.
What does the colour coding represent?
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2 rather negative poll questions - I don’t feel any animosity towards the summer weather or the weather we’ve had in September
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21 minutes ago, Catacol said:
I don't count September as an autumn month. Much more like Summer these days, and storms in September are rare.
You can't just change accepted practice to suit a narrative. It would be more appropriate to say that Autumn weather is changing, rather than changing the meteorological calendar according to the type of weather we are having, no?
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20 hours ago, Catacol said:
Same basic thoughts here. I think we are in for a stormy autumn, perhaps very stormy indeed, and then an SSW to provide a back loaded winter. Nature of the SSW (split or displaced) will clearly affect things and no way at all of knowing this until much nearer the time. A very different feel to things compared to the last two I think.
I guess we’re about to find out - Agnes will give us something to be excited about this evening I supposed.
That said, I don’t think this autumn will be particularly stormy, and the first third hasn’t been..
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19 hours ago, Don said:
Absolutely, but I'm really struggling to see where anything other than mild for this coming winter will come from currently?!
The same place it always comes from…conjecture, subjectivity or guesswork.
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5 hours ago, Summer Sun said:
Current data is pointing to a milder than average winter
https://www.theweatheroutlook.com/weather-news/6777/winter-2023-24
I’ve just read that, and I have to say it’s flaky, and not much expertise involved apart from some vague pattern matching.
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4 hours ago, damianslaw said:
but.. this year does feel quite different
That’s normally what I say just before the start of every World Cup
I agree though, lots of unusual signs this year, whether it will result in the final outcome being or feeling any different, the build does appear that it might be…and that’s half the fun right?
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11 minutes ago, Captain Shortwave said:
Fingers crossed on the MK storm. It is starting to look very dark the the south west of Peterborough now.
Must be heading your way, it’s just passing over us in Biggleswade. No rain yet, but wind suddenly picked up and a few rumbles of thunder now
6 minutes ago, Dami said:can confirm thunder is heard.
@lassie23have thunder lass!
Confirmed +1
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I see there’s some thunderstorms already down in Cornwall - hoping this hot spell goes out with a bang!
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10 hours ago, damianslaw said:
Yes very comparable, coming at the tail end of the season, an extreme spell thanks to SSW, allowing cold pool to invade UK from the continent. This time we've trapped a pool of heat over UK and central europe thanks to an anomalous set up.
Just the small matter of a 40 delta, unfortunately.
But yes, that’s a good comparison.
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I’ve always struggled with heat, but I’ve managed to get through it and generally not moan too much. But this week it’s the humidity and even worse, the lack of any breeze whatsoever. The only time I remember experiencing this weather before and not enjoying it was on holiday at Lake Como, that was the same - but at least I had a pool to escape from it then. But the evenings were just unpleasant, as they are now.
I was hoping tomorrow’s forecast would look a little better…but it looks like I’ll be seeking every opportunity again to sit in the car!
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Ok, I’m going to admit defeat - I’m off to sit in the car for 15mins with the AC on.
This is horrendous.
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10 hours ago, S Bragg said:
A week of sleepless nights is long enough thanks. If you want warmth turn up the heating, if you want sunshine get a SAD lamp. Most of us cannot escape this heat.
What an utterly ridiculous comment, seriously?
Deal with it, or move to a place where the climate is more suitable for you. Moaning about it, and moaning about those that enjoy it, isn’t going to improve the situation for you.
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6 hours ago, Chris J said:
The problem with the UK is that its not Australia or Spain (Thankfully!) and for large parts of the year generation from Wind and Sun whilst covering domestic needs during these kind of periods in the Spring / Summer, still rely on subsidy of power drawn from the Grid during the Evenings and on a cold misty day in Winter or a very large expensive battery bank!.
Even the large scale systems suffer in relation to grid feed. Take today for example, £32 billion nationally spent on Wind Turbines and at the moment, they are generating less than 0.5% of our national energy requirements. If it was a calm cloudy day rather than a heatwave, then unfortunately 'Green' forms of energy such as Wind and Sun would be contributing barely anything today, and for a large percentage of the year, cloudy and calm is a factor for this Country.
G. B. National Grid status
WWW.GRIDWATCH.TEMPLAR.CO.UKIn short, energy costs will ride high in the UK until a cheaper means of energy generation can be found and we closed all of our coal generating plants 15 years before anybody else leaving ourselves energy bereft with only Gas to make up the shortfall - which is increasing in price leading to the highest electricity prices in history. Technology such as the Rolls Royce small modular reactors may be one such way forward as we need a constant scalable output, not the variable day to day nature of wind and sun. Personally, i'd have rather backed that project with £32 billion rather than spending it on Wind Turbines having seen their current contribution.
Sadly we backed the wrong horse some years ago and will be paying for it in our bills for many years whilst at the same time our usage and reliance on Electricity increases as EV's and Heat Pumps and even Air Conditioning needs get rolled out. Crazy times ahead.
Sorry...straying off topic.
I think what you’re presenting here is quite selective, and doesn’t represent a problem, or at least the real problem.
First myth to bust, is modern solar panels are actually quite efficient where cloud cover is concerned, not that we rely on solar PV as a major contributor to the U.K. energy system, but worth a fact check.
Also worth noting that, by the end of this year we’re likely to have produced more of the UK’s energy via renewables (mostly offshore wind) than from either fossil fuels, or nuclear and hydro power. So choosing one day or week in isolation isn’t a fair representation, nor is it actually a problem.
The challenge we face, is managing frequency response, balancing, and increasingly, grid capacity.
The point regarding our electricity prices is also not correct, renewable energy generation is cheaper, and increasingly more so. The strike price on AR5 was between £40-55 (ignoring emerging tech), whereas nuclear is more than double that. Unfortunately we’re in a transition, and we are still reliant on importing energy, which is why power prices are high.
The more renewable energy we have, and the better our grid management becomes, the less we will rely on imported gas and electricity from outside of the U.K., and ultimately the lower our energy bills will be.
Either way, it’s still hot and I can’t sleep, so all of that jazz changes nothing really, but a solar panel system, BESS and a heat pump or AC, will make make these grim nights far more comfortable.
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7 hours ago, reef said:
We've actually found the opposite with solar Mike. We had it installed late-January and I expected a payback period of around 12 years as we got quite a bit of battery storage too. As it turns out, despite not being a particularly sunny year, we're looking at around 8-9 years instead. Our inverter has a 10 year warranty, panels 25 years and the battery is guaranteed for 6000 charge/discharge cycles before losing 20% of capacity. On our usage that's about 16 years and even after that, they'll still work.
The big difference now is there are finally some decent tariffs which pay a good amount on energy you generate. We're on Octopus Flux and get 18p per kWh exported and 29p if its between 4-7pm. Yesterday for example we fully charged our 12.25kWh batteries, used quite a bit ourselves and exported 10.1kWh and so will be credited nearly £2. Our electricity bill since 26th January is currently -£47. SO we're nearly £950 in the black already just since then.
There's also the bonus that the air con we're using during hot spells is costing us nothing.
Don't get me wrong its a large initial outlay, but with energy costs as they are now it finally seems sensible.
If you’re using solar to power your home, for instance a heat pump and maybe even using storage, then subsidies are irrelevant because you’re using the power, not exporting it back to the grid.
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10 minutes ago, Chris J said:
Also make sure that whoever installs your system offers a guarantee for both parts and labour on ALL of the parts within the system for at least the length of your original installation cost payback period. I've heard plenty of horror stories of people having to buy new inverters even before they recouped their original outlay from the installation. You really don't want to be spending money on replacing expensive parts BEFORE you have actually started saving money!.
Its common for some manufacturers to offer up to 25 years warranty on panels but only 1 - 5 years on the inverter. MTBF Odds definitely in their favour on that one......
So, if you calculate that your installation will take 10 years for you to make your original £6000 outlay back in energy savings, then make sure that all of the parts have a warranty for at least those 10 years. If you have to pay £1000 for a new inverter 3 years into that, then the clock extends on the payback and your installation could always be in debt to you.
There is a placebo effect of paying £6000 for the installation, then seeing the reduction in energy cost and immediately thinking you are saving money. In reality you aren't, that only begins when you have saved that £6000. From £6000.01 then you are saving money until that point your savings in energy are simply paying off the intial installation cost. Strangely This is often a point missed off the glossy brochures and sales patter.
That advice applies with battery banks too. Make sure the cells and BMS all have long warranties.
Finally, choose an installer who has been around for a while. If "The happy dragon solar installation company" go bust 3 years after your installation, you may end up with a 10 year warranty worth nothing from that point. Read the small print as to who is underwriting the warranty.
Funnily enough I’m literally sitting here calculating invertor replacement costs for 15MW Solar project - no warranty on that though!
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3 hours ago, The PIT said:
Last I heard you can't combine solar panels with a heat pump.
You can power heat pumps with electricity from Solar PV panels, it’s quite a common system for those wanting to reduce their dependency on grid supplied power. The question is whether the roof of the property is suitable for the size of the system.
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1 minute ago, *Stormforce~beka* said:
Get out on the lawn indeed lol!
It’s the creepy crawlies that stopped me!
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1 hour ago, Schnee said:
I'm researching proper heat pumps, not the half a heatpump system that the Gov are pestering us to get. I want a heat pump that will do heat and cold. Future plan it...
It would necessitate the removal of all the radiators and convert the house to an air based heat/cool system. In these homes, that won't be simple with the location challenges with a ducted USA style system. Indoor cassette units in every room would look ugly both inside and outside with the numerous linesets.Personally, unless you have the capital to spend and your house is suitable for a full heat pump retrofit, I wouldn’t bother.
I will probably fit solar panels, BESS and heat pumps to certain areas. With a bit of carpentry and creativity, most of the hardware can be integrated into the existing fabric of the building.
As an alternative, albeit not a ‘cooling’ device, I’ve been hearing good things about positive air systems, which if you have an external feed can do quite a bit to reduce the indoor temperature overnight. Problem is they don’t do much during the day apart from keep an airflow. During the winter they keep moisture levels down. They are much cheaper, but not really a replacement for AC.
I’m still not sure which way to go.
Why did summer 2023 feel worse than stats suggest?
in Spring Weather Discussion
Posted
I’ll laugh with you by all means, but I’m completely lost now!