I like some of the headlines coming out of the Low Carbon Transition plan. The two that catch my eye especially are:

• Financial incentives for home generation.
• Paying for the creation of woodland.

I’d love to be able to commission a wind turbine (so long as it was quiet) or get some photo-voltaics up and running and at least generate a portion of my own electricity – selling an excess back to the grid would be the cherry on the cake.

Getting paid for transforming a few acres into woodland is something I’d love to do and that would make a lot of sense for the barn. It may also be the solution to my problematic overgrown fields – can’t even give the grass away at the moment!

I hope the headlines match up to reality some time soon.

One to watch…

The UK Low Carbon Transition Plan

So, June…

Tiling two bathrooms, both floor and shower enclosures has taken far longer than I predicted but on the whole I’ve enjoyed the work and the end product should be okay.

The main progress this month has been in getting the solar panels and heating system up and running. It all went pretty smoothly with the panels kicking in when powered up and getting the water in the accumulator up to around 40 degrees Celsius after a few hours. So far, even on a dull day the water is kept at a constant 40+ degrees, raising to 60+ on a sunny day – pretty satisfying. The simplicity but efficiency of the technology is very attractive – when the water in the accumulator is cooler than the panel then the pump kicks in and circulates the water, thus heating it. Once equilibrium is reached the pump switches off until either the water cools or the panel heats up… simple.