Green stuff 2021

2020

installed smaller water heater (65L vs 200L) which needs much less energy 

new cordless hoover

2021

changed electric tarif to 100% renewable 

replaced gas oven with electric oven

replaced gas hob with induction hob, but retained 2 ring gas hob for certain pans that are occasionally used. Gone from 4 bottles per year to less than 1. Further, electric cooking uses significantly less energy

installed another 700W of solar PV taking us to 1780W. This provides our daytime usage 100% even on cloudy days, and the surplus is fed into the hot water tank; In 2021 we spent less than 1€ on domestic hot water

Installed a heat pump to heat the house in spring/autumn running off PV, and reducing our dependance on wood for heating.

Extended the house and used nearly 3 times the legal minimum insulation.

The garage extension was built with the smallest possible foundations/concrete and wood used for the walls.

New panels

Our base load has crept up, partly due to crappy design of electrical products such as hobs, oven, washing machines etc that do not have an off switch and pull 'a bit' ie waste energy all the time and partly due to using more appliances eg heat pump

As a result I decided and additional 600W would help on the east facing roof.  300W isnt much cheaper as the micro-inverter price is front loaded ie 150€ for 300W, 180€ for 600W, and panels are relatively cheap (130€) The worst is delivery at 80€, but it was a lovely pallet! 579€ including roof kit. 

Opted for a Hoymiles mi600, which, unlike the competition with a similar part number (AP systems YC600 anyone?) actually produces 600W. This is a twin channel device, and the panels are 1/2 cell meaning they will produce more power on the roof which is badly shaded until 9ish summer, 10ish winter. Each panel is 370W so when it's sunny I throw away 140 watts even before it leaves the inverter, but the panels are new and keen to generate; the situation will change in few years.  Panels never really generate their rated power as they get hot and inefficient, and they age.

To give you an idea, today, the old set (1180 Wc) were producing 800W on the south face at 3pm. The new panels on east face were giving 600W. If they were the same age, it would be 2/3, so around 530W.

We're not allowed to give the power away that we're not using, so it gets wasted. A real shame and I'm hoping the authorities will change their minds; it's only been 2 years ish since we're allowed to install stuff ourselves, so fingers crossed.

They are pretty heavy at 20kg, and a bit unwieldly to put over your shoulder at 1.7m x 1m. I made a lifting block and slid them up the ladder. Cardboard to protect the panel (a larger piece is better) and a couple of strops.

And don't forget the bolts at the bottom of the panels to stop them sliding off the roof rails!

Heat pump

 Finally got one. Airton 2500W.

Found support for the remote control.

LEDVANCE wifi socket

An Amazon bargain (9€), this socket also has power monitoring using a really nice chip HLW8012.

This one came with a ESP8265 chip, which I programmed using ESP01 settings.

Very similar to this https://devices.esphome.io/devices/LEDVANCE-SMART-PLUS-PLUG-EU

Soldered a wire onto GP0 on the rear of the module.

Ground and reset to enter boot mode.

Works fine with ESPHome

Button 13, relay 12, led 3, HLW select 14, CF 4, CF1 5

Panel move

Moved the panels between 4pm and 7pm. More power in the evening and less in the morning.

The roof slope means more generation in the summer, but the same annual generation overall. The house is pointing SSW, so power starts later in the morning (~30 mins later) but as the panels are now higher, the power ramps up quicker.

Hedges

 West hedge cut and chipped to bamboo. Was pretty tall, now 1.6m. 4 hours

Ecostar garage door opener

The Ecostar garage door opener that I have is over 8 years old, so things may have changed. This ecological disaster of a design takes 8W on standby. And it's all down to a cheap crappy transformer that Ecostar have tested and accepted.

They have deliberately undersized the trafo, and it gets over-loaded albeit for a very short time when the door opens or closes. This is fine, but is a trade-off. The rest of the time it's on standby, waiting for the 2 or 3 times per week that it gets used. 

I know it's the trafo, as I found a 200VA unit in my junk box. It takes 2W on standby. So, really well done Ecostar for saving yourselves a few euro and killing the planet.