AJH wrote:

I've been offered a yard to house my timber kiln, it is adjacent to a
road with an electricity supply and I'm deciding whether to go with a
generator 11 hours a day or the grid supply. SEEboard deem it a
business connection and are asking for details of welders, motors,
cranes etc. as well as the total load (about 15kW(e)max) before they
will quote.

Has anybody knowledge of costs of a recent 100A domestic installation?

AJH

I dont see how a gen could ever compare with grid. Setup costs are
usually higher, fuel costs are much higher, there's equipment
maintenance, repair and replacement, and finally it ties you in to a
certain amount of labour and inconvenience. If the prices were even
close I'd go grid.

If you want heat at competitive rates I'd take a good look he
http://builditsolar.com/Projects/Spa...rn_project.htm


NT

wrote in message
oups.com...
AJH wrote:

I've been offered a yard to house my timber kiln, it is adjacent to a
road with an electricity supply and I'm deciding whether to go with a
generator 11 hours a day or the grid supply. SEEboard deem it a
business connection and are asking for details of welders, motors,
cranes etc. as well as the total load (about 15kW(e)max) before they
will quote.

Has anybody knowledge of costs of a recent 100A domestic installation?

AJH

I dont see how a gen could ever compare with grid. Setup costs are
usually higher, fuel costs are much higher, there's equipment
maintenance, repair and replacement, and finally it ties you in to a
certain amount of labour and inconvenience. If the prices were even
close I'd go grid.

If you want heat at competitive rates I'd take a good look he
http://builditsolar.com/Projects/Spa...rn_project.htm



Not long ago people were saying that self generated power was cheaper.
Why's it changed? Is it because diesel prices have risen more than
electricity prices? Aren't we also in for another hike in electricity
price?

Fred wrote:
snip
Not long ago people were saying that self generated power was cheaper.
Why's it changed? Is it because diesel prices have risen more than
electricity prices? Aren't we also in for another hike in electricity
price?

It hasn't.
In recent memory, generation of electricity yourself, from 'normal'
fuels has not really been very close.
The best large power plants are bumping up to 50% thermal efficiency.

My generator, for example, specifies a fuel consumption of 230g/
per horsepower hour (for the engine).
Say at 4hp, that'll be 920g/hour, or about 1.5l, for 2880W of shaft
power.
If the generator bit is 90% efficient, that's 2600W, or 1.7Kwh/l.

If I run it on road taxed petrol, that's about 60p/Kwh.
On untaxed, it'd be about 30p/Kwh.

Or a little less if it was running on gas.

This is maybe 3 times more than grid electricity prices.

The very best conventional generators may get to 2 times.

Where it can be worthwhile is if you can use the waste heat of the
engine.
In this case, it can beat - on fuel costs - grid electricity.

wrote:

I dont see how a gen could ever compare with grid. Setup costs are
usually higher, fuel costs are much higher, there's equipment
maintenance, repair and replacement, and finally it ties you in to a
certain amount of labour and inconvenience. If the prices were even
close I'd go grid.

Anyone seen these things? Mentioned in the press a few months ago; the
idea is you have your vwery own natural gas-powered generator ibn the
kitchen! IIRC payback time was about 10 years or something:
http://www.whispergen.com/main/acwhispergen

David

"Ian Stirling" wrote in message
...
Fred wrote:
snip
Not long ago people were saying that self generated power was cheaper.
Why's it changed? Is it because diesel prices have risen more than
electricity prices? Aren't we also in for another hike in electricity
price?

It hasn't.
In recent memory, generation of electricity yourself, from 'normal'
fuels has not really been very close.
The best large power plants are bumping up to 50% thermal efficiency.

My generator, for example, specifies a fuel consumption of 230g/
per horsepower hour (for the engine).
Say at 4hp, that'll be 920g/hour, or about 1.5l, for 2880W of shaft
power.

4 x 230 = 960 agreed but where did the 1.5l come from. I've seen densities
of diesel quoted as being between 0.82 to 0.95.

Taking 0.85, this means less than 1.1 ltrs/h. giving 2.66Kwh/l


If the generator bit is 90% efficient, that's 2600W, or 1.7Kwh/l.

If I run it on road taxed petrol, that's about 60p/Kwh.
On untaxed, it'd be about 30p/Kwh.

It wasn't long ago when red diesel was 20p/ltr. Giving a price of 7.5p/Kwh.

As you say your generator may not be as efficient as others so in many cases
the price may be cheaper.


Or a little less if it was running on gas.

This is maybe 3 times more than grid electricity prices.

The very best conventional generators may get to 2 times.

Where it can be worthwhile is if you can use the waste heat of the
engine.
In this case, it can beat - on fuel costs - grid electricity.

If the waste heat can be recovered then I certainly agree it all becomes an
win-win situation.

My original post was inspired by a village which was reluctant to have mains
electricity because at the time it was cheaper to generate their own.