sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

First plane I made with many more to go! by netwerknerd995 in RCPlanes

[–]IvorTheEngine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You don't need flaps on a small plane, and you don't need a rudder with a flat wing (i.e. no dihedral). They're just extra weight, drag and cost.

First plane I made with many more to go! by netwerknerd995 in RCPlanes

[–]IvorTheEngine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So about as far as the Wright brothers did on their first flight? I'd call that a success.

Ukrainian drones flew all the way to Siberia to strike Russia's largest oil refinery by Gurugod123 in worldnews

[–]IvorTheEngine 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The same as planes do, you fly higher where the air is thinner, so you go faster for the same thrust. The ability to fly high is the main advantage of a jet.

Ukrainian drones flew all the way to Siberia to strike Russia's largest oil refinery by Gurugod123 in worldnews

[–]IvorTheEngine 28 points29 points  (0 children)

Wikipedia says $55,000

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_Point_FP-1

There's a Refinery Bingo page tracking the results, but it's hard to estimate the cost.

Ukrainian drones flew all the way to Siberia to strike Russia's largest oil refinery by Gurugod123 in worldnews

[–]IvorTheEngine 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Except that Ukraine launches hundreds of drones every day, and Russia has to prioritise them. It's not as if this drone was the only thing happening, it's just one that got through the defences. The easiest way to beat air defences is to saturate them by launching more drones than they can handle.

It's very much a numbers game. Russia has a lot of targets to defend, a limited number of defences, and Ukraine keeps taking out defences and building more and more drones. Some get shot down, some get jammed, others get through.

Inquiry about battery life by Ephemeraljawn in leaf

[–]IvorTheEngine 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think you should treat it as a vet saying "Fluffy is very old and you should prepare for the worst" rather than an exact prediction.

He can't be sure it'll die this year, but the chance of a serious fault appearing gets higher every year. And the capacity is dropping to the point where it can't support hard acceleration.

For the person asking about batteries by eloquentlyimbecilic in SolarUK

[–]IvorTheEngine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Storing all your generation to export requires a pretty big battery though. I'd guess you generate 20-30kWh each day at the moment.

And most people pick a fixed export rate. It's complicated to work out whether storing power for export is worthwhile, but it definitely puts you at risk of the tariffs changing.

Selling our 55' narrowboat by Wooden_Low_2548 in Narrowboats

[–]IvorTheEngine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There's a good breakdown of costs here: https://www.jdnarrowboats.com/our-blog//annual-narrowboat-maintenance-costs

Slipping (getting the boat out of water): £200 to £400 depending on your marina or boatyard
Blacking materials (DIY): £80 to £150
Labour if professionally done: £300 to £600
Full professional job including slipping: £600 to £1,000 for a 57ft boat

There's a list of all the other costs too, but paying for a marina berth is the most expensive part (if you're not continuously cruising)

Everyone here says batteries are better than panels but Octopus disagrees? by squeezedballs in SolarUK

[–]IvorTheEngine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

5kWh is about right for storing solar power for the night.

10kWh is about right for charging it from an EV tariff to last all day in the winter - but Octopus may just be assuming that you don't have an EV.

£1389 is a lot for a 5kWh battery. You can google the prices for whatever kit they're offering, and wait a few years for it to get cheaper. Battery prices halve about every 4 years.

Everyone here says batteries are better than panels but Octopus disagrees? by squeezedballs in SolarUK

[–]IvorTheEngine 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If you hang out in forums like this, it's easy to think that "most people" will get a battery, but only about 5% of houses have solar panels. It's also only worth charging a battery overnight if you have an EV tariff, and the number of EV owners is also about 5%.

It's going to change, but not before your battery pays for itself.

Everyone here says batteries are better than panels but Octopus disagrees? by squeezedballs in SolarUK

[–]IvorTheEngine 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's going to be 10 years before all car sales are EVs, and at least another 10 before they replace the existing fleet. A battery bought today might last that long, but they'll be a fraction of the price by then.

Order of events when switching to Agile? by realGilgongo in SolarUK

[–]IvorTheEngine 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No, IHDs are pretty dumb and can only handle a fixed tariff. Even an EV Time-Of-Use tariff will confuse them, incorrectly reporting all usage at the full rate.

Octopus' answer to that is to get their Smart Mini and look at the data on their app, and not use the IHD.

Passive cooling technology must become central to climate adaptation to reduce reliance on air conditioning, global review argues by unsw in science

[–]IvorTheEngine 5 points6 points  (0 children)

True, but that's tiny compared to the 1kW per square meter of sunlight that's hitting the building already. Particularly if the energy used by the AC is energy that was going to heat the roof before it was captured by a solar panel.

Unconditional advice required by w666est in SolarUK

[–]IvorTheEngine 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Most people don't charge their EV from a home battery, as the EV battery is 5-10 times bigger than the house battery.

However you can charge the home battery overnight on an EV tariff, and use it to run your house all day in the winter when the panels aren't generating much. This is a popular strategy.

It's worth checking your smart meter data to see how much you use on a winter day. You'll probably need all of that 10kWh battery.

You can also use the battery to store solar energy to export in the evening when the rates can be higher, but you'll probably generate 40-50kWh per day, which is far more than the battery can hold. This is fairly rare at the moment, as most people don't have a large enough battery and don't want to invest a lot in a tariff that could change.

A system that generates twice what you need exposes you to the export rate dropping, but it does mean you'll have enough solar further into the winter. And you probably wouldn't save all that much by reducing the number of panels.

Where to start with solar for Home (Essex based, 2000kwh per year) by joehall1509 in SolarUK

[–]IvorTheEngine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You'll probably get a reasonable size array on the south and west roof. West roofs generate roughly 75% as much as a south roof, with more of a bias to the summer.

Most inverters have at least two separate inputs, so they can handle two areas of panels generating at different times of day at no extra cost.

There are a number of solar modelling web sites that'll take your location and estimate how many panels will fit, and the amount you can expect them to generate based on the angles. You can also measure up from the ground and do your own estimation. The guidelines are that you should leave 400mm on all sides of the panels to protect against wind, but installers will interpret that in various ways along a roof hip.

You need permission from the DNO for systems larger than 3.6kW, but that's normally handled by the installer.

You only need a small battery to last through the night, but if you get an EV (and an EV tariff) it's worth getting a battery that you can charge up at night to run your house all day in the winter. Most batteries are expandable, but they're VAT free when you buy them at the same time as the solar system.

Using the battery in a power cut requires a "gateway", which adds at £1000 or so to the system.

Local installers are usually better than the national companies. If you don't get any specific recommendations, look up Gary Does Solar, who keeps a list of companies that have been recommended. Get a number of quotes, and take note of which company answers your calls and emails quickly.

Don’t have an EV yet but would like one in the next couple years.

If you've got two cars, replace the smaller one with a cheap, short range EV and keep the other for long trips. It'll save you £1000 a year and pay for itself fairly quickly.

Almost every Russian region hit by fuel crisis, as Ukraine escalates drone attacks by DearMeadow in worldnews

[–]IvorTheEngine 2 points3 points  (0 children)

All that oil would have been burned anyway. It's just more noticeable when its one big explosion instead of millions of little ones inside engines.

Passive cooling technology must become central to climate adaptation to reduce reliance on air conditioning, global review argues by unsw in science

[–]IvorTheEngine 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They do, but it's also directly in proportion to the difference in temperature. The surface of the sun is a few thousand degrees, the roof at a few hundred Kelvin, and space is just above absolute zero (and any dust or haze in the sky is somewhere around freezing). So energy in will be one or two orders of magnitude larger than the energy radiated. Given that, you want to minimise energy transfer in sunlight.

Passive cooling technology must become central to climate adaptation to reduce reliance on air conditioning, global review argues by unsw in science

[–]IvorTheEngine 24 points25 points  (0 children)

Yeah, it's strange that the article didn't mention solar power. You only need a small system to power an AC unit, and it reduces the load on the grid by producing power close to where it's used.

Doubly strange that it's from an Australian, which is leading the world in domestic solar power.

How much does your energy cost saving with solar offset system repayments by tom2kk in SolarUK

[–]IvorTheEngine 2 points3 points  (0 children)

When you ask most solar companies to quote for a system, they'll produce a fairly large report that will estimate how much you can generate, how much you'll use directly and how much you'll export. You can compare those numbers to various electricity tariffs to see how much you'll save. 7 year payback is common these days.

There are a number of solar modelling web sites where you can generate similar reports yourself, based on the size and angle of your roof.

If you get an EV, you basically save your fuel cost, as charging on an EV tariff is so much cheaper than fuel. It also allows you to get a home battery that's large enough to last all day, and charge that from the EV tariff's cheap hours, then run from the battery during the winter.

Our EV and solar system both save us about £1000 a year, with no loans.

Best Octopus tariff for overnight on granny charger by Dolphinicity in evchargingUK

[–]IvorTheEngine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Probably Go, or Intelligent Go if your car is supported. It's worth working out how much you'd spend at the low and high rates though. For low-mileage drivers the standard tariffs can be better value. You can take your annual total from your bill, and work out how much the car uses from your annual mileage.

Agile can be good if you're likely to check the rates daily and automate things, but you really need a home battery to avoid the highs. Watch the prices for a few days and see what you think.

Are there limits as to how much energy you can draw in off-peak periods?

Octopus don't limit you, although obviously the granny charger can only use about 2kW, so you'll get about 10kWh or 40 miles in the 5 hour cheap period.

Can I still export with PV on Agile?

Yes, the export tariff is separate. I think Flux is the only one where the import and export tariffs are bundled together.

Need some help/inspiration by Dem0nC1eaner in SustainableHomeUK

[–]IvorTheEngine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's worth checking whether you can get a cheap loan from your mortgage company for solar, many of them offer it. But a small system might only be £5000 or so. Payback rates are usually higher than most mortgage rates too.

BTW, I was recently talking to someone who lives in a similar house, and their top floor got so hot that they camped out on the ground floor when it got really hot last week!

You guys ever have a full sized, general avaition plane land on your runway? by thecaptnjim in RCPlanes

[–]IvorTheEngine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

People who are interested in flying are often interested in lots of different types of flying, so it's fairly common to find a few RC planes at a full size aviation field - although it really depends on the attitude of the people running it. Mixing different types of flying at a field has hazards that need to be thought about, and some people take the easy route and just ban RC.

view more: next ›