A nice article and video about the May to June 2011 research (well it’s actually been going on for a lot longer) research project on rip currents being done on Perranporth beach:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-13712840
Also take a look at the http://www.ripcurrents.co.uk Website all about the project.
A bit of an eye catching headline “Solar Panels Never Make Economic Sense, Says Fuzzy Math” that first points out the well know detail “that insulation, weatherization and other energy efficiency measures should come before solar”.
Or to put it another way, “Adding photovoltaics to a non energy-efficient house is like exercising to burn off cake – much more efficient to stop eating cake…”. Not that sure about this quote. Eat cake and then exercise a bit more makes perfect sense to me! OK, I do get it, the environmental hit of an inefficient house just doesn’t stack up. Step 1 make the building / property as environmentally efficient as you can, BEFORE you then sort out how you provide the energy sources.
Back to the linked article, it did end that if you include some assumptions on future electricity prices, feed in tariffs etc. the article ends with the estimated “current payback of power-generating PV panels was 13 years”. As the PV panels should last 20+ years, that means they should be a good economic investment too.
All the paper work, the money transfers etc. are done and during the afternoon on Friday the 3rd of June 2011, I exchanged and completed on the same day, so Silver Spray changed hands to me.
Waited for Olivia to get down from London to go round with the keys that I got from the estate agents in Truro.
Over the weekend had a dozen or so friends round for a late Saturday BBQ. Slept over on a camping inflatable mattress listening to the sea. Another BBQ looking out at the view on Sunday. Just Khalil, Olivia, Pebbles & I.
On Monday phoned Cornwall Council re the council tax, also liaised with utilities to transfer those aspects over.
Apparently:
“Legend has it that an Irish Saint came riding across the Irish Sea on a millstone which was washed up on the long sandy beach. The sun was shining, turning the sands to gold so he called the place by the name of the God of the Sun “St Pirus” and over time this became St Piran. Today one of the several chapels built as oratories may be found half buried in the sands.
Droskyn, the name given to the Western end of the bay, appears to be a derivation of “de Roskyn”, a Portuguese Count, who is said the have come over in the sixteenth century, landed on Droskyn Point and to have founded a Monastery on the site on which the Hotel pictured above is now standing and incorporates the old monastery walls.
Today the Droskyn Castle Hotel is run as a block of 14 self contained flats.
The monastery apparently had many ups and downs and one of the downs being an underground passage that ran through Perranporth on one side to a little bay across the headland. Smuggling, together with tin mining, in those days were the two principal industries; and who knows to what use the underground passage was put. The hotel was at one time reputed to be haunted and was used as an officers’ billet for those stationed at the nearby aerodrome during W.W.II.
The building fell into decay and from the ruins the 45 bedroom Hotel was later built. Owned and run by Captain William Noon Munford from 1932 until his death in 1955 aged 71.”
Source: http://users.tpg.com.au/munford4113/perranporth.htm
I’ve also heard that Droskyn Castle was at one point a fish processing plant. That it was made to look by a castle by the one time German / Bavarian owner. That when Perranporth was a seaside by train destination the Castle was the 1st class accomodation. Second class was Cellar Cove, which is now 2 large properties behind Droskyn Castle. Cellar Cove was the name of the cove at this southern end of Perranporth beach.
OK, the article is about a prototype for a rainwater collector for the urban environment. But why not adapt / progress the idea ?
Full article at http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/05/urban-rainwater-collector-saves-water-in-the-city-turns-into-a-green-wall.php?campaign=daily_nl
The Previous Record was 17.6%
Scientists at Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, have made flexible solar cells made of copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) with a light-conversion efficiency of 18.7 percent, a new world record. This milestone, about 1% higher than the previous record, might seem like a small step forward, but when looked at in the context of constant incremental improvement, it is significative. What truly matters is the rate of improvement, and how it can be leveraged (1-2% multiplied by many gigawatts of capacity makes a huge different).
Despite some great initial success with free Sweet Home 3D, that quickly gave some great mock ups, I found from quite a look about that most cheap or free packages are:
This matched the answer given on http://www.homebuilding.co.uk/community/ask-the-expert/Which-DIY-software-package-should-we-use-design-our-new-home pretty much matches this:
“Perhaps the best CAD package is Arcon’s 3D Architect (around £200) which is quite intuitive and more sophisticated than the others, although quite expensive. In truth, the packages – such as Ideal Home 3D Home Design – retailing at around £30 tend to be much of a muchness.”
So I’ve on-line purchased (£180) and downloaded Arcon 3D Architect and we’ll see how that goes !
In the end, the architects I chose, ARCO2 used Sketchup, so I had their generated Sketchup file for the house. Which was amazing.
Superb.
“this spectacular chandelier is made from 500 butterfly-shaped blue cesium photovoltaic cells, which in turn self-powers a large, hand-blown glass bulb in the center.”
Full story at
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/05/biomimicry-chandelier-photovoltaic-butterflies-jeroen-verhoeven.php?campaign=daily_nl
As I knew, there is a mine tunnel under the property. What the survey doesn’t pick out is that the entrance to this is at beach level which is 10’s of meters of rock etc. below the property.
The survey recommended a further site check for cracks etc. There are none that I can see! I spoke with the surveyor that would do this and he said that as the plan is to take down the current building, there is no point. He did recommend that a foundations inspection is done at that stage of the project. That makes sense, they can see a lot more from the foundation trenches etc. than the would be able to see from the current site and buildings (including from the neighbours.
This did bring up a few interesting points:
iPhone Sun Seeker app to see where the sun rises and sets in relation to Silver Spray during the year. You can make out the dates at the top of these iPhone screen grabs.
Very much meaning that solar panels for water heating or electricity generation should be angled to slope down away from the sea facing front of the house.
Sunlight, 1st of Jan, 1st of March
Sunlight 8th June and 1st of September