Posted By: bot de paillehttp://www.britishgas.co.uk/business/products-and-services/energy-management/smart-metering.html

erm yeah, the link was referring to an electricity smart meter.

Posted By: Seretbut I wouldn't be surprised to see it come from out of left field either.

Will almost certainly be a resistive load such as water or space heating as that has virtually zero electrical losses. That is the trouble with the grid being pretty good at delivering electrons.

There is the issue that if getting energy in and out of the batteries is inefficient then it inflates effective energy costs and carbon footprint.

With a typical swing in generation intensity (kgCO2/kWh) in the GB grid of (say) 20% as of now, it is just possible that a good inverter/charger with Li-chemistry batteries could have an energy loss of significantly less than 20% round-trip and actually lower a typical house's carbon footprint. But only just, and not in winter when we seme to run coal generation pretty-much flat out for now. Not possible at all so far as I can see with lead-acid batteries (round-trip losses at least 20% themselves), even ignoring any emboddied costs.

Rgds

Damon

Posted By: Seretstoring your excess electricity as heat

Electric (night store) Aga

Although there is much more excess in the non-heating season and at the moment as a total per day we are using more than we generate, I am impressed by how much power we are getting with 4kW installation for peak periods of the day. If it's a clear day then its peaking at 2-3kW which is way more than we need unless we are running the dish washer/washing machine so it would seem to make a lot of sense to divert anything excess to heat a thermal store and save the gas boiler some effort.

Posted By: SeretThe pricing structure implies minimising your export

Perhaps, unintentionally entices rather than implies?

Posted By: SeretUntil then, storing your excess electricity as heat seems like the simplest and most economic solution for a homeowner.

Depending on:
a) The cost of the "maximisation" technology.
b) The available "excess" that you actually have a use for (and the value that can save, compared to other sources for that usage).
c) The technology &/or implementation being smart enough to avoid accidental increased import.

Ethical issues aside, unless those factors combine to produce a realistic payback for the "maximisation" process, the most economic solution is to be happy with the generous FIT and let the excess out into the grid...

[aside]
One problem with the current system is that without an export meter (which applies to most installs) the owner not only doesn't know how much they are actually exporting (making it difficult to assess the maximisation potential), they don't know exactly how much they are using (as opposed to importing) either!
[/aside]

Posted By: SeretDumping the power into an existing immersion heater can satisfy all of that for about £100, so the break-even point would seem to be at about 2500kWh compared to gas or 800kWh compared to electric.

With just a standard immersion as the dump (and without spending extra on 110V transformers, etc.) isn't maximisation only available when generation is above houseload + 3kW, squeezing the annual potential yield notably?

Posted By: skyewright
With just a standard immersion as the dump (and without spending extra on 110V transformers, etc.) isn't maximisation only available when generation is above houseload + 3kW, squeezing the annual potential yield notably?

Yes, it wouldn't be at all practical without limiting the power going to the heater. You can of course get 1kW immersion heaters, but they're upwards of £50 anyway, so you'd be better off trying to control the power properly IMO.

Obviously the ideal system would accurately monitor the excess power available, and trim the output to the heater to match. The Arduino system could do this, but the parts to pull off this kind of power electronics are fairly expensive. It's probably more cost effective to just cut in relays at 500W and 1kW like the bloke I linked to.