Hoping to pick peoples' brains here....we have a (hopefully) cunning 5 year plan to kill off most of our utilities bills, and wondered if anyone has experience of doing any of the same.
water - Could be onto a winner here...we've found out that you don't need a license anymore to dig a bore hole for your own supply of water provided you don't take more than 20,000 litres per day (!!!). Apparently the analysis that is done includes calculating at what level the purest water is, and the pressure it comes up at - and the installation is done accordingly. We are not on mains sewerage, so if we could get our own water supply - no more water rates/chemicals/hose pipe bans? Anyone done or thinking of doing something similar?
Heating - we've been advised to go for geothermal heating and put underfloor heating in where we can. The guy claimed the water temp would be up to 55 deg, which would be ample for heating needs. I'm not so sure...if there's anyone out there with underfloor heating, does that make sense to you?
Power - we have too many trees around our pad so wind power is out, so I am guessing we have to go down the solar cells route. They all seem to be in 2mx2m panels, and we have enough space for 8 of them on a roof that is facing NW one side and SE on the other. Would be great if that provides enough electricity for our needs, but I'm guessing we may have to wait for the next generation of solar cells to become available (in 2-3 years time apparently). Anyone any experience of this stuff?
The plan is no water rates, no electricity bills and no heating bills within 5 years. If we could even knock off just two of those it would be great.
...so if there's anyone planning/doing anything similar I'd be grateful for any advice.
water - Could be onto a winner here...we've found out that you don't need a license anymore to dig a bore hole for your own supply of water provided you don't take more than 20,000 litres per day (!!!). Apparently the analysis that is done includes calculating at what level the purest water is, and the pressure it comes up at - and the installation is done accordingly. We are not on mains sewerage, so if we could get our own water supply - no more water rates/chemicals/hose pipe bans? Anyone done or thinking of doing something similar?
Heating - we've been advised to go for geothermal heating and put underfloor heating in where we can. The guy claimed the water temp would be up to 55 deg, which would be ample for heating needs. I'm not so sure...if there's anyone out there with underfloor heating, does that make sense to you?
Power - we have too many trees around our pad so wind power is out, so I am guessing we have to go down the solar cells route. They all seem to be in 2mx2m panels, and we have enough space for 8 of them on a roof that is facing NW one side and SE on the other. Would be great if that provides enough electricity for our needs, but I'm guessing we may have to wait for the next generation of solar cells to become available (in 2-3 years time apparently). Anyone any experience of this stuff?
The plan is no water rates, no electricity bills and no heating bills within 5 years. If we could even knock off just two of those it would be great.
...so if there's anyone planning/doing anything similar I'd be grateful for any advice.
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