Prices of the electricity we use to charge

[guerney]

Future generation power needs one day may be supplied by SMR's, rolls royce are trying to generate the technology. The possibility of each city or area will have it's own mini reactor about the size of a couple of football pitches and each SMR supplying power to 0. 5 million homes.

RR are looking to be a major player in this area and think it could realise sales for the UK of £250bn in export sales.

What are Small Modular Reactors (SMRs)?

Small modular reactors (SMRs) are advanced nuclear reactors that have a power capacity of up to 300 MW(e) per unit, which is about one-third of the generating capacity of traditional nuclear power reactors.

www.iaea.org

GE Hitachi are also developing small modular reactors:

The Current | GE Vernova News

GE Vernova's The Current is an information hub for all energy innovation news and stories, including topics related to decarbonization and electrification news.

www.ge.com

 

[guerney]

Lockheed's Compact Fusion is one of their ploys to attract pig-flying spectating investors

Compact Fusion

Discover our revolutionary approach to nuclear fusion, leveraging compact design and rapid development cycles to harness powerful energy comparable to the sun.

www.lockheedmartin.com

Lockheed Martin Compact Fusion Reactor - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[guerney]

Some of the SC for elec at Octopus are over 200p per day .

Martin Lewis says it's Ofgem setting higher standing charges to pay for moving customers from failed energy companies to new suppliers, plus increased green levy, warm home discount and transmission costs - they've put it on electricity, because not everyone has gas... so in paying for the cost of moving customers to new suppliers, we're paying for the results of a failed ill organised messy and predatory UK energy market, when companies go bust. If Ofgem is setting standing charges, why are they at such different rates depending on supplier? Are energy companies inflating their transmission costs? Adding other costs? Charging for the rental of intellectual property in the form of "Transmission services" logo licensing from their separate subsiduary in the Caymen Islands via holding companies in the Netherlands? Not at all transparent.

 

[Nealh]

Avarice/greed rip off Britain hasn't changed but getting worse.

 

[flecc]

Future generation power needs one day may be supplied by SMR's, rolls royce are trying to generate the technology. The possibility of each city or area will have it's own mini reactor about the size of a couple of football pitches and each SMR supplying power to 0. 5 million homes.

RR are looking to be a major player in this area and think it could realise sales for the UK of £250bn in export deals.

What are Small Modular Reactors (SMRs)?

Small modular reactors (SMRs) are advanced nuclear reactors that have a power capacity of up to 300 MW(e) per unit, which is about one-third of the generating capacity of traditional nuclear power reactors.

www.iaea.org

Toshiba were the first into this decades ago with their "nuclear battery" design:

"If we lived in a world where everyone was (a) smart and (b) trustworthy, Toshiba's micro-sized nuclear reactor, small enough to fit in the basement or a large shed, would be a slam-dunk solution to the energy/climate crisis.

Twenty foot long by six foot wide, the reactors produce 200kW of energy and run themselves: the entire thing is manufactured with the fuel within, and when it runs out, they can just send a truck to pick it up."

Russia has the world's current smallest commercial reactor, but too big in this context:

"The EGP-6 is a Russian small nuclear reactor design. It is a scaled down version of the RBMK design. As the RBMK, the EGP-6 uses water for cooling and graphite as a neutron moderator. It is the world's smallest commercial nuclear reactor."
.

 

[guerney]

Ebico have just informed me of substantial price rises, which I'm having a violent reaction to:

Ebico Electricity from 2nd April 2022
Standing charge (per day) 47.8590p
Unit rate (per kWh) increasing from 20.0235p to 27.8565p

Ebico Gas from 2nd April 2022
Standing charge (per day) 27.2160p
Unit rate (per kWh) increasing from 3.8220p to 7.3605p

PLUS VAT

 

[Nealh]

They are pretty much inline to a degree with those flecc & I posted in #20 & #17 respectively.

 

[tleaf100]

Im not asking for quip answers mate, this is asking what is the power output, how does that equate etc etc. Obviously its not like plugging into the mains, but i reckon if people were stuck, with no power source, but they had a small generator, a bike, loads of wires, batteries and their life depended on it, I'm quite sure we could come up with something.

So back to my actual question.

Well what is actually needed to recharge a 625wh battery ?. My charger is 4A.- the output is 36v.
It takes about 5h to recharge that size of battery from flat, using the 4A charger.
I would be asking how much does a human pedaling away generate ? Obviously i think it would depend on what the generator puts out. Its a matter of doing the math.
Now im not suggesting it can be achieved in an hour, or even one day, but could it be done within a reasonable time frame of say 3 or 4 days of pedaling or less, i dont know which is why i was asking the people here you understand these things Flecc

I would also point out , that theres no road surface, nor wind resistance to worry about. you arent trying to propel a 100kg mass, just turn a wheel to turn a second wheel to generator power, which you then feed either into some sort of storage unit, or the bikes battery direct.
Many canal boats and small yachts we have wind powered generators for keeping the boats batteries topped up, and as those do a job and work well at it, and as we arent powering anything thats causing a constant drain, it should i would have thought be a simpler process.
I also know that in the WW2 the military had hand powered generators for powering radios. Plus obviously the one made by Trevor Baylis.


So @flecc. The answer is not about getting fitter, or riding a non ebike, its about the generating of electricity that can be used elsewhere.

Maybe one day I'll show you my BayGen radio.

Actually, in the real world, very few folk use small wind generators on boats,, too pricey for the output, too fiddly, too in-reliable, where as, about 75% of canal boats have a few solar panels, but then we are charging much bigger batteries than yer average little car battery, battery banks of about 1000 amp hours /12v + big starter batteries too, so approaching 1500 ah/12v, are about average setup now, some much bigger, mostly done from solar.

 

[tleaf100]

As for the cheapest way to heat a home, a wood burner is it, with the huge surge in wood from dead ash trees, etc, from diseased trees, latest genersation "re-burn" multi fuel burners make sense.
A battery powered chainsaw, solar panel, and some peltier plates, batteries and a small inverter and your sorted,cut wood with battery chainsaw, tow home on trailer with electric bike, burn wood, peltier plates convert heat to electric, re-charge at least chainsaws power pack, possibly even the bike battery over night, if not solar panel and battery bank do the bike battery.
Solar panels are brimiant on boats, totally changed how you think about boatie life style in the last 25 years, add in electric bikes, scooters etc and boat life suddenly gets much easier.
Even "full" electric boats now, no main diesel engine, just lots of big batteries and solar panels over every inch you can get them on.
Long term storage of spare summer solar panels output is a problem, im considering getting a small hydrogen splitter and having an engine converted to run on that, possibly as part of a complex hybrid boat drive.
And all these output figures for humans
never survive in the real world, i used to be good on bike, and i can assure you, trying to move even a small boat by human bike power is only done if man or very desperate, considering exactly how easy it is to move a 30+ ton boat by hand either towing or my preferred method, poling, even half crippled, i can pole our 12 ton, 50 foot narrow boat several miles in a few hours,done mostly at night, to miss any winds and other boats getting in way and we can catch and cage our 6 cats at 6pm dinner time, and the noise they make ensures we get moved asap so we can let the furry little trip hazards out again
I need a small electric, smart cat herding machine group, about 4 drones, 6 runner/crawlers, 2 base stations, big pc, etc etc should manage it, for about 20 minutes !!!

 

[Nealh]

My dual fuel DD is currently £68 pcm, my new DD is to be £95 pcm from April 1st shame it's not a AFJ.

 

[guerney]

My dual fuel DD is currently £68 pcm, my new DD is to be £95 pcm from April 1st shame it's not a AFJ.

It's only fools like me that haven't gone totally off-grid by the 1st April and installed solar panels, wind farms, dug for geothermal or cracked fusion etc. etc. - at this rate I really will be pitching a 6 person tent in my living room for me and my computers to live in: it'd much cheaper to a warm a smaller air bubble like that next winter with a tiny greenhouse 100W oil filled radiator bar say, when tariffs will increase yet again... but tents prices are also increasing

Tokamak Energy achieves temperature threshold for commercial fusion

Oxford-based UK tech firm Tokamak Energy has reached a milestone in privately-funded fusion research after its ST-40 spherical tokamak reactor reached a temperature of 100 million °C (180 million °F), which it says is the threshold for commercial fusion energy.

newatlas.com

 

[nigelbb]

Happily we are on a fixed tariff with EDF until 31st May 2023 by which time there will hopefully be less volatility in the energy market & prices will be much lower. I always go for the longest fix possible so I can budget. I don't care if it's not the cheapest. Likewise with mortgage. Our current 5 year fixed rate has expired & we signed up for another 5 year fix at a slightly higher rate that is only an extra £50/month.

We are paying 23.58p per day standing charge plus 18.44p per kWh for electricity & 25.15p per day standing charge plus 3.177p per kWh for gas.

 

[Nealh]

I'm not too bothered as I have no mortgage and generally am a lower fuel user.
There will be a lot of folks though who will be paying twice or three times maybe more then me, I don't think I have had the heating come on for the last 5 or 6 days at least as the temps have been ok esp now in the day time, tbh I wear clothes in doors where with todays mod cons a lot of folks don't bother to wear proper clothes but instead bang the heating up and often it is on all day.

 

[tleaf100]

Hope they have a good plan for disposal of old reactors and radioactive waste

Small modular reactors

Rolls-Royce SMR LTD was established to develop an affordable power plant that generates electricity using a small modular reactor.

www.rolls-royce.com

I like the idea of Thorium reactors, which produce waste that's radioactive for far less time - Thorium is much more abundant than Uranium and can't be weaponised. India seems to be the only country in the world currently exploring the technology

Thorium-based nuclear power - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

India’s Ambitious Nuclear Power Plan – And What’s Getting in Its Way

The country has an ambitious three-stage nuclear power production plan.

thediplomat.com

Thorium type reactors are much safer, much smaller, quicker and cheaper to build and have the handy knack of being able to "burn" a lot of high level radioactive waste and make it safer, we could get rid off about 60% of all our radioactive waste, and about 95% of the bulk, much less to safely store/recycle.
The western world/northern hemisphere states should get together to pay for disposal by deep burial, we drill a very deep borehole near a continental shelf subduction zone and let mother nature mix the waste with trillions of tons of magma.
You dont need planning permission for ground based domestic solar panels, if you want to fill your garden with panels, there is little that can be done in most areas to stoo you.
At average £3k per year,for energy,almost anything you can self generate must make a difference, on the canal boats,long term energy storage is tge problem, too much power in summer, too little in winter, as we do get a few weeks in winter with basically zero solar production, due to cloud, then its out with the generator, diesel powered if you can afford it, petrol otherwise, but come summer, batteries charged by 10am,so small hydrogen producer could run for free most of the day, then use hydrogen in converted generator in winter, storage in the small cans that hydrogen maker comes with..

 

[tleaf100]

This is the type of thing im thinking of getting for boat..

High Purity Hydrogen Gas Generator H2: 0-500ML Pem Electrolyzer 110/220V New os | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for High Purity Hydrogen Gas Generator H2: 0-500ML Pem Electrolyzer 110/220V New os at the best online prices at eBay! Free delivery for many products!

www.ebay.co.uk

 

[Nealh]

We encroached on the SMR's previously up the thread, the tech is still at an early stage with R&R ongoing and is likely 10 years away for a working model to be up and running.

 

[guerney]

Are soaring fuel prices extending the e-bike boom?

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/are-soaring-gas-prices-extending-the-e-bike-boom

 

[guerney]

First Light says it's achieved nuclear fusion breakthrough

We talk to CEO about projectile-based implosion design

www.theregister.com

 

[georgehenry]

I am having a rude awakening to expensive energy.

I previously swapped around energy companies and paid what I regarded as not that much for a large extended 1930's house. I bought my gas boiler brand new back in the 90's for about £600 fitted, and it is an old fashioned floor standing one with a pilot light of the style the government want to get rid of.

However it only has three working parts and has been peerlessly reliable and all my plumber mates tell me to keep it as long as possible, which could be 40 years, as its reliability makes up for its inefficiency.

Anyway it is sited in a large drying cupboard that dries and airs all our clothes which is both lovely and useful so the heat is not wasted!

Also when I previously compared my gas use to my friends with their new condensing boilers my bills were actually very similar if not less as I run my house cooler than theirs, and their new boilers cost a lot more go buy and install, needed looking at a lot, lasted only about 10 years, and seemed to break down in the winter just when they needed them.

My last deal before all the energy inflation madness ensued was a monthly direct debit of £93 for duel fuel. It was so cheap that I made my direct debit £105, and when they went bust and I was shunted over to Octopus I was actually in credit by about £300.

I put my direct debit up to £185 and have gone into the latest rise about £300 in credit.

So what to do now? I have put in some led light bulbs! Small steps! Although 1930's my house is reasonably well insulated, although with suspended drafty wooden floors.

Heat pumps would not work in my old house.

I could open up all my fireplaces and fit wood burners.

I am also considering putting solar on my roof, as I am south facing at the front, but am bogged down trying to work out whether it is worthwhile as solar and whether to have a battery, and what size system, etc. And solar is not a solution in the winter. So apart from the led light bulbs and wearing a lot of pullovers with the heating turned down I have done nothing. Rabbit in the headlights.

 

[Nealh]

You aren't alone a good percentage of the country is in the same spot, only the rich won't really mind. They will bleat but that is normal with tight fisted rich folk.
My DF DD was £68 then adjusted to £65, now it is £95 and likely to be 130 - 150 come Autumn when it will go up again.
I have an open fire so am collecting wood to dry out for winter burning, currently while temps are as they have been on the warmer days like today heating off certainly in the day. A lot of folk need to think about actually getting dressed properly during the day whilst indoors and wear proper clothes to save money, I find thin layers are good my cycling thin thermal tops and bottoms work well as does wearing a second pair of thicker socks. If the feet aren't cold then one generally doesn't feel it so much.
It's these little adjustments that will help if money is tight or budgeted, I'm a bit old fashioned and remember when as a kid we had no central heating in the Victorian era built house, the kitchen had one of those old Rondo type coal boilers for the water and the living & dining room had an open fire. It was only the early - mid 70's that the fires were closed up and Gas fires were fitted and then mum's brother installed central heating and the boiler you talk about.

The modern generation have been spoilt since the mid 90's onwards and think the world is easy come easy go, now they moan at the slightest thing. They need to wake up and join the real world where events change lives very quickly. Post WW2 family's were still faced with some austerity in to the mid 70's, I remember I still had to share a bike with my brother. He has am use and I pm use.