Saturday 7 August 2010

Free Electricity



Yes, I do mean free, or at least up to 40% of your usage could be free.

Daniel Green of the home energy company HomeSun will soon start giving away the first of 100,000 solar power systems to anyone with a decent sized south facing roof. He intends to roll out his offer over three years. HomeSun will install and maintain your free system for a period of 25 years.

Mr Green was also on Radio 4 this week explaining his reasons for such an offer. Energy companies are now compelled, for the next 25 years, to make payments to homeowners for all solar power produced. That's both power used in the home and any surpluses. Under HomeSun's scheme customers get to keep all the solar power they need, free of charge and the fees received from the energy companies - known as Feed-in Tariffs - go directly to HomeSun.

"I'm not a charity and I haven't become a tree-hugger. However, I do think we're mad not to make more use of such a great natural and free resource as the sun." My translation: "This will be a great wee earner. Electricity providers will up the costs to the consumer to cover their own costs of the Feed-in Tariffs and I cream off my share of this government-backed incentive scheme. The only losers are the consumers who won't, for various reasons, be eligible for my system."

To qualify for Mr Green's 'badge of honour' offer you require to have a south, south-east or south-west facing roof where there's no shade from trees or neighbouring building. Just a small amount of shade from trees can cut the efficiency by 50% and if your home faces north, forget it.

A very innovative person is Daniel Green and I suspect his exasperated ex-headmaster, who told him he'd never amount to much and then expelled him from his grammer school, is feeling a wee bit discombobulated this morning - if he's still alive.

All this reminds me I never had a response from the company which was determined to sell me solar panels. Maybe I asked too many questions.

21 comments:

Gordon the Fence Post Tortoise said...

Hmmm... 25 years eh? No transparency on the financing - I'd bet that once the ludicrous/insane/stupid green feedin tariffs are history - given 99.9% of folk's zero interest with what's on their roof that most of these items will be like BSB "squarials" or analogue TV antennas corroding away and rattling in the breeze in a couple of years.

The dumbclucks who've pushed these policies are an embarrassment - combined heat and power increases efficiency at a stroke and reduces fossil fuel usage - but that's not what all this is about is it? Noooo... unacceptable revenue loss - but they won't talk about that eh?

And before some twit says it's too expensive - I'd suggest that they look to Europe or North America before quoting the insane rip-off pricing the armies of re-tasked mendacious halfwit double glazing salesmen are trying to force onto punters in the UK for "green" heating and leccy.

sheesh....

Anonymous said...

Grammar.

Joe Public said...

Nothing in life is ever "Free".

Every single electricity user in the land is contributing towards the ludicrous agreement by the previous Labour Government to unilaterally cut Carbon emissions.

Those who think photo-voltaic generation is worthwhile ought to be disconnected from the National Grid. Then they'll realise how more-dependent they are, on conventional generation schemes.

Joe Public said...

Oh, and ALL 'leccy consumers will also pay dearly for the simple fiddle:-

Take the output from one of your electricity sockets, wire it thro' an integrated circuit board, marry its outlet into the output from the pv circuit, and Bob's your uncle.

You buy 'leccy cheaply off the supplier, & flog it straight back to them at an exorbitant profit.

Don't forget to incorporate a time switch in the circuit though. They might get slightly suspicious if you're trying to sell them 'solar generated' power at midnight.

wv = dangizi - only two letters away from damnizi

subrosa said...

I wouldn't put Mr Green in the dumbcluck category Gordon but I think you perhaps mean the politicians who proposed these policies.

No they won't talk about that. Goodness me Gordon, that wouldn't make them enough to live in luxury.

RMcGeddon said...

Joe said..

" Every single electricity user in the land is contributing towards the ludicrous agreement by the previous Labour Government to unilaterally cut Carbon emissions. "

Yes but our SNP government have passed their " historic groundbreaking bill that sets an international example that we hope others will follow "

A 42% reduction in carbon emissions by 2020.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Environment/climatechange/scotlands-action/climatechangeact


And the estimated cost a paltry £8Bn according to our Scottish government..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-10839865

Spending £8Bn on a problem that doesn't exist ( as anyone who reads up on the matter would know ) is scandalous.
So while we lose NHS and other jobs due to cuts our government are embarking on an ecological disaster ( Denny - Beauly pylons and associated white elephant windmills) for a non problem. Even if we were warming up ( no warming for the last decade) the cure is worse than the symptoms.

Meanwhile in other news Mr Neil quietly trousers £100K of taxpayers money..

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/politics/msp-s-100k-profit-from-second-home-1.1037505

subrosa said...

Tell me where Rightwinggit.

subrosa said...

Sadly that is true Joe and what's being pedaled now is that if you don't instal one of these 'green' systems in your home then you'll pay through the nose for your electricity.

Solar does have its place though but only in places where the sun shines.

subrosa said...

Ah RM the carbon emission policy. One of the two SNP policies which I fervently oppose (the other being the EU).

As for Alex Neil selling his subsidised home it's a good labour press release that one. It's a two-bed flat and the way the article starts implies it's a mansion.

'The deal was last night branded shameless'. I bet it was and the brander was possibly jealous as hell.

He's not doing anything illegal and he didn't make the rules which are to be changed shortly.

Did you read this wee bit RM
'Most of the 26 MSPs still claiming for homes they bought are expected to sell rather than pay their own mortgage interest'.

Wonder how many will manage to beat the change in rules?

Crinkly & Ragged Arsed Philosophers said...

The sooner we divorce politics from the drive for independence the sooner we will gain independence.

Politics is a moral abhorrence and an anathema to democracy.

Governance must be removed from the lexicon of democracy and replaced by representation and administration.

Governance is the root concept that nurtures the hybrid trunk and the corrupted twigs.

As a free man I am not governed by anything other than my conscience. Nor do I seek to govern; by attempting to do so would be denying the right of others to be guided by their conscience. Therein lies the sovereignty of the people as opposed to the Westminster model which allows a dysfunctional parliament sovereignty over the people.

Really not so different from the tyrannies of kings, nobles and jesters.

RMcGeddon said...

wrt Alex Neil trousering £100K..

" He's not doing anything illegal and he didn't make the rules which are to be changed shortly."

Yes that's what I don't understand. Why would they change the rules if there's nothing illegal with them ? It can't be anything to do with morals because we know the troughing pigs don't care about morals. Adjusting their living arrangements to squeeze as much as they can out of us.
It must be because of the falling house prices. They might actually lose on getting a mortgage so would be better renting instead and have no outlay at all. Yes that's got to be it.

Gordon the Fence Post Tortoise said...

I think Mr Green underestimates the cost of support and over-rates the system reliability - there have been some notable failures in the ecopower business where poorly engineered systems have been rolled out with more enthusiasm than sense only to fail miserably (and expensively) in the field.

Ask the Danes about windmill gearboxes and usable wind energy.

The problem is that the idjits in government (both political and executive) are using your money to subsidise unproven systems lashed together to grab the subsidies. All this public money by and large being handed out to crony outfits with a view to an easy job later...

I would read the contract very, very carefully - is your house insurance compromised ? Are you financially responsible for weather (hailstone, high wind) damage? What if the house is sold? Is there any amendment to your deeds? What if you suddenly decide you don't want them up there any more?


I'd bet that the windmill terms 'n conditions came as a real surprise to head teacher Stuart McLeod...

Just because they're green don't mean they can't be mean :-)

subrosa said...

No, it's not different from the tyrannies of years gone by RA, we're currently in the space age version.

subrosa said...

Now RM, if I remember correctly there was a big stooshie when Nicol Stephens and others upgraded their second homes to accommodate (in Stephens' case) is children. The public reacted vocally. So, the parliament agreed that the rules must be changed but they didn't rush it of course. Only took 3 years.

http://news.scotsman.com/politicianspay/Call-to-change-rules-on.3358306.jp

If you believe the Scotsman it has been changed because it's all about perception.

Somewhere this week I read that house prices in Edinburgh are rising RM. If that's a picture of the flats Alex Neil lived in then £200,000 is obscene. Here in ruralshire that would buy a reasonable 3 bed house complete with garden etc.

subrosa said...

Aye Gordon, you certainly seem to know your subject here. I don't have a clue, but when the chap came round to try to sell me all sorts of technology, labelled green, I must have upset him in some way because he never came back to me with the promised quote.

Green did answer some of your questions on the radio, but can you use a radio interview as evidence in court? I'd doubt it.

I'll stick with my combi-boiler and electricity from the Grid although I'm aware it's going to cost me much more in future. Many thousands more will become what's known as in 'fuel poverty' but they'll squeeze and squeeze the last few pence out of us on this scam - because that's what it is.

Thanks for the link to Richard. Yes I enjoyed that one.

Hamish said...

Watch your language Subrosa.
First grammer school when you presumably meant crammer school.
And solar eneregy has nothing to do with pedal power.
Hamish.

subrosa said...

Wow Hamish. I will do my best to ensure no further errors occur.

Hasn't pedal power anything to do with emissions though? ;)

Idle Pen Pusher said...

"I'm not a charity and I haven't become a tree-hugger. However, I do think we're mad not to make more use of such a great natural and free resource as the sun." My translation: "This will be a great wee earner. Electricity providers will up the costs to the consumer to cover their own costs of the Feed-in Tariffs and I cream off my share of this government-backed incentive scheme. The only losers are the consumers who won't, for various reasons, be eligible for my system."

Brilliant!

subrosa said...

Morning IPP. It's true though. :)

Joe Public said...

This Tesco page explains a lot.

What it doesn't explain is system reliability, and degradation-over-time.

25 years is an awful long time for any prophesy. No doubt the maths is that after 24 years, either the house has been sold, or, the 'investors' have died / forgotten the small print.

http://www.tescohomeefficiency.com/electricity-pricing/

subrosa said...

Joe, good link. I certainly won't be installing solar for a few reasons. Not least, as you say, 25 years is a long time. The subsidies could be stopped by a change of government quite easily.

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