Something I am starting to understand about generating your own energy is that in the same way that you have to watch when there is little sun and no wind (which is pretty rare), you also have to find ways to use power when it is available. Here we cook, heat water and space with wood, and my thinking had kind of come around to the idea that electricity is really something that we should avoid using wherever possible, and that it would in some way be wasteful to have lots of appliances of one kind or another. But now I am coming around to the realisation that this isn’t entirely the case. The figures above speak for themselves. 1500w is a lot for us to use, but on a fairly average day there’s 2.2kw coming in, the batteries are full, and all is well.
At 45 I am hardly a crock, and am relatively fit and healthy, but even then there are times when I wonder at the amount of effort it takes to cut, carry, cut again, split, stack, and fetch firewood, and in the back of my mind, I have always wondered what I will do when I am 65, 85 (with any luck). Plus in the heat of summer we rely on a big hot cast iron thing to cook on, which isn’t always desirable. Wood and fires are wonderful things that we wouldn’t be without, but like everything, moderation isn’t a bad idea.
Our efforts to cut electricity usage have had a significant effect. On a normal day (or night), our house consumes about 100 – 150w of power at any one time, a tiny amount by normal standards. However we have 12kw of useable power from batteries if we need it, 4kw of solar, and 3kw of wind, soon. On a bright or breezy day that is a considerable amount of power, and especially in the case of wind, it has to be used somehow. Even here in darkest Northern Ireland, in March we regularly produce far more than our baseline consumption.
So I find myself looking at immersion heaters, electric space heaters, induction hobs, and halogen cookers. All things that I thought of as ‘A Bad Thing’ not six months ago. No warm up time, no smoke, no fetch and carry. Of course we will always use our range, but this newfangled electricity suddenly makes sense when it comes without all the baggage associated with fossil fuel derived power generation. All the benefits, without the guilt. It is a very strange feeling indeed, readers.
