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Thread: An Efficient House

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    Default An Efficient House

    Only yesterday I finished my modifying piping system on my water tanks for out toilets + the Cold water for our washing Machine. Also I have a RING main of 25MM piping around the house so all taps including the Bird cages that get water inside the large cages + a sprinkling system in Summer for them.
    Now all the System was done by me and my Daughter, also uses a PLC to control things like gravity flow to the toilets until it reaches 40% depletion level on the tanks then it start the pumps when flushing the toilets. I have done this to save on Power because the Pump is 1Kw.
    I have design the water tank system as if a cloud farts it will fill the 3 tanks. Each tank is 5400 Ltrs and the whole system is controlled by a PLC and inside my Lounge Room. Inside one of my tanks I have a Flygt regulator set at 40% so when my tanks are 40% (not raining for a while and save power) the pump will turn on. Also to start the Pump all you do is open the door so by opening the door on the pump house it the command to start the pump + remind all that you have turn the pump off so DONT FORGET TO SHUT THE DOOR. Its Idiot proof or my girls Proof because they complain to me the house it to Complicated and they will never every in a million years touch the Sate TV room.
    The house is full of LED globs + a Induction Cook top for the wifes cooking all with a 5kw PV System. We never had to pay a bill since 2012 yes we have a Night at lest 15 TV turned at night. Each bedroom has a wall mounted Tv, the eat room has a TV, the living room a has a TV, the Main TV room has 9 Monitors and two tv's all on all at the same time when I watch TV in that room.
    The Solar PV System uses a SMA inverter and it monitored in the House by both the Desktop computer + a SUNNY BEAM

    The Control Panel That controls the House Except for the PV System. That controlled by our computer room. I have pump circulating, Over Temp (panels @ 100 deg C), FROST ( below 4 deg and the hot water tank sacrificed hot water to stop the panels freezing), Pump failure. Also the pump is circulating now.




    Pump off water Tanks @ 70% Full. That Above top panel is for the control Tarfiff 31 power when It rain a lot and we are running out of hot water. The neon Lights are a indication for the the Tariff is turn on. See Most don't know when the Tariff is turn ON. I know




    The west side of the house. Notice 3 hot water panels + the cream section between the top of each panel that controls the panels and measure the temp (hiding under) Also the piping for the water tanks I WANT MORE WATER!!!!





    Piping going everywhere to collect water. Notice the pump house. open the door the pump starts. Also that skinney 20mm pipe is for the Comms Leveler + the 40% level for pump starting for flushoing the toilet. I did this because My family does not know how things works. I wrote a good tut just in case If I snuff it.





    3 tanks with a capacity of 5400ltrs each





    Notice that skinny 20mm pipe. That for the Comms for the tank to the shed to the house. Yes a brick shed. Also have a look at the Distance down pipe as it has a electric valve (GREY) to shut of to force water down to the tanks. If the rain is heavey the Valve shut off and its either fills the tanks or over flows,. I WANT WATER because we need to to save $$$$ + My hemorrhoids need it because I waste water when I go to the toilet.





    The Sunny Beam Monitor. It tell the lot of us how our PV sysyem is going. The Computer does the same but saves all.Todays a lousy cold dark day. So far we have Generated $20, 595 since installed. The Contractor Installed IT then two days later I told them to Remove it because of SHODDY works. Its the worst ever installation I say seen in 50 years of have a Elec License




    Now other Jobs can I do. I wont talk about our security system we have. We have a duel system with two monitors to view all cameras on two location in the House. Press a Butting and Bingo the monitors light up before opening the locked Doors
    Last edited by Mr 672A; 04-08-20 at 04:41 PM.

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    /pedant ... "An Efficient House"....

    Nice setup, what's the bottom line in numbers of $$$...anywhere close to rationalizing that equation yet? (I do realize it takes time in service to get that data, over an annual cycle =)

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    Looks good, how long before ROI?
    I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message...

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    I like your indicator panels. Did you buy them or make them yourself?

    I have taken a different approach with efficiency.
    I don't have much.

    I have around 25Kw of solar panels on the roof atm running through 15KW of inverters. I have a regular electric 400L hot water system and ducted air in our all electric home.
    With the last 6.2 Kw of panels I put on the northern roof, we are now keeping up well and truly with our significant power demands this being the middle of winter. Sunny days we generate more than we use but it only takes a hazy day like today for that to average out. I make no attempt to save power at all, My strategy is to generate shitloads in the forst place so I don't have to be concerned about what we use. Having no other energy input to the home, we use a LOT of power especially in the Climate we are in. Heating cooling would be probably 80% of our power use. Nothing atm to blow through 70-80 Kph a day. In spring/ autumn, maybe 20 Kwh.

    The bio cycle for out waste water can pull 4-5 Kwh a day on it's own as it runs non stop. HWS can pull 12 Kwh a day easy at this time of year just because of the low water temp coming in more over than the amount of hot water we use. I thought about hot water panels but gave them up as a far less productive idea. Mate had them and said in summer the system could be up to temp and he could be boiling water off all day. With PV, you are making power that you can do many other things with including heating the water, cooking and cooling the place down. Even with the evac Tube hot water setups, they are no more efficient than PV for the same coverage area in practicality. Then you have the hassle of plumbing them, Circ pumps..... No, much easier to run wires than pipes in my book.

    As for water, I have 13K worth of tanks and I don't even use them that much TBH.
    Because we have our own water treatment system, everything we use goes on the garden or lawn. Mate says we get to use all the water twice. Once for washing showering etc and then we get to water the garden with it instead of buying mains wate and he's dead right. I have it go into 2x 1000L IBC tanks which are connected and have a Bore pump in those. Once they get full, I can water the garden or lawn when and where I wanted it watered rather than just pumping out whenever and never really knowing home much has been put down. The bore pump is connected to a 30M 1" Hose so really lays down the water for the garden. In summer I have a petrol pump for peace of mind in fire fighting.

    I always keep the 7000L tank full in case there is a problem with water supply. That would last us a decent while and I have a couple of pressure pumps I could tie it back into the the house plumbing if need be. At the end of the day, it's only $14 worth of water here.

    Our quarterly water bills are around $130 although last summer went up to about 300 as we desperately tried to save the tens of thousands worth of plants in the garden so money well spent and a one off. The upshot of having your own waste water plant is you only pay for the water you use, not to dispose of it which in sewered premises is another 80% charge of what you buy. I spose that should be factored into the savings of the water tanks in that situation. In effect, they are taking away your extra shit for nothing.
    I like getting one up on the system so well done.

    For me, more tanks would not be worth it. I'm guessing you have somewhere around $6-7 K worth of tanks, plumbing, pumps and controllers there. For the amount we spend on water, the ROI would be too long and would probably need a pump replacing before the initial outlay was recovered anyway. We average about 500L of water a day so not a lot of savings to be made, around .50C, x 7 = $3.50 a week.

    That said, I do have a number of IBC tanks around the place. They are a pain though because you need to fill them separately and pump them out the same. I usually fill them off excess rain water from the main two tanks but 1000L of water doesen't go that far on the garden anyway. here it's feast or Famine and when things get dry, water goes quick and then the tanks stay dry. You can have all the catchment you want but if there is no rain...

    Solar atm I worked out is saving me about $140 a WEEK with what we use. Even plumbing the existing tanks which would be a big job in this house to the toilets just isn't near worth it.
    I did actualy think about having a bore sunk but initial enquiries revealed that would be about $15 K to get a bore of Good water and flow so again, never going to be worth it even if we would have the best lawn all year round.

    I wanted more water back in Jan when the drought was on and was looking for ways to make water as it were. Fog nets would have been a real good soloution.... had we any fog here. Strictly a winter time resource.... when everything is wet anyway. I cut down about 400MM with the tractor yesterday morning levelling the ground for a fire pit and had to stop. The ground was a mud pit and even though it hasn't rained in over a week, I was getting seepage coming up.
    I put a solar panel with a radiator fan blowing on it the last 2 days but it's not dried anything much. I think I'll put the post hole digger on tomorrow and sink a 300mm hole about 2M down and use that to drain the surrounding water into and pump that out the front to where the big tree is.
    NEVER enough water at the front no matter how much the rest of the place floods.

    Perhaps a shallow bore, they may call them seepage pits, I know there is a name, could also help your water recovery? You could just dig it about 3M with a post hole digger and put a bore pump in there after you cased it with some perforated PVC Pipe. If you had it cascade through some settling drums with a filter on the end, you'd certainly get clean enough water for thunderbox flushing or garden watering.

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    nice setup 672A - a couple of questions though , do you get much shading from the taller house next door? I presume you have houses below you so you can do the same to them lol. and , what is the blanket om top of the HWS ? does it make it more efficient?

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    Very Nice - Well Done

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    Quote Originally Posted by wotnot View Post
    /pedant ... "An Efficient House"....

    Nice setup, what's the bottom line in numbers of $$$...anywhere close to rationalizing that equation yet? (I do realize it takes time in service to get that data, over an annual cycle =)
    When I asked the Company to remove the solar PV complete system from the house otherwise you will meet Current Affair at 7 pm the actually left it there but refunded half the price but was still out around $5500 on a $12000 installation. Now back in 2012 panels and a SMA inverter was dear but what I did I removed all and started again. The panels were not straight, The two Flexible conduits should have been drilled through the tile roof NOT LIFTING THE TILES and jam the 25 MM flexible pipe in there that cracked the tile coping, The wire inside the house they should have been in a Conduit NOT RUNNING LIKE A bare (they were double insulated though) they could have been used for a cloths line. I have the Photos of this in one of my computers and if I find them I will post them, now I had to buy 100 mtr new DC cable NOT TWIN AND EARTH cable used for wiring up you PP in your house. The panel went back on the roof, Used a string line because when I walked before the street behind us the PANEL The Panels were light a BOW. IT took 3 days to do a job that they did in one day. I took my Time.
    When it come to the Solar Hot hot water I did the lot with my Daughter, Same with the Complete Water tank system, same with all the Wiring the panel make the panel, Ughhhhhh The ditch witch Yes That horrible device that digs a trench for the 25mm flexible water pipe, Shit Must have dug 150 mtrs or more before the Concrete went down. Yes doing all myself I save plenty of Money. When It came to buy the Solar Hot System I got a mate of mine that is a Plumber to order it from Rheem although I could have order it myself and you dont need a license to order it but it will have cost me more $$$

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    Quote Originally Posted by lsemmens View Post
    Looks good, how long before ROI?
    Because I did the LOT Myself with my Daughter and because I got money back from the Solar install company that change there name and the colour of there shits, and got my mate to order the HWS but yet I went and paid it with now issue in CASH and because I order the Water tanks myself I save heaps in $$$$. Funny things is at the Plumbers Supplies I went back there at least 6 time buying material in Cash and asked what you up to and told them my self what I was doing and told them I had 3 quotes for installation of the Solar HWS and the three of them were going to use INSULATED FLEXIBLE PIPE. I bought a Roll of INSULATED 1/2 and 3/4 inch pipe for the solar panels, I made my own Concrete Slab in red colour to the tank, I used a 20MM conduit to make ridges in the wet concrete so rain water does not get trapped under the 320 ltr tank. Yes Plumbers go to bunnings and but a SLAB of 2 or 3 inch concrete and drop it there and the tank goes over it. I wanted the new tank in a different position about 750 MM away from the old. Yes the Slab was 100 mm thick not a biscuit of concret that is not level. I think if you look at the photos you might see the Concrete under the HWS, its RED and matches the drive way + the walk ways to the cloths line

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    Quote Originally Posted by VroomVroom View Post
    nice setup 672A - a couple of questions though , do you get much shading from the taller house next door? I presume you have houses below you so you can do the same to them lol. and , what is the blanket om top of the HWS ? does it make it more efficient?
    No nothing with next door house. No issue with Shade what so ever on anything. See the I notice on cold night my lounge room panel will tell tell me I'm losing HEAT!!! the leds went down ++++ at the same time the FROST led went on yes the panel told me that only on very cold nights what I was watching tv up to mid night or over so when I added the Blankets on the top of the Rheem HWS ITS STOPPED THIS!!!! Yeah you learn something every day. If I did not have the LED Panel inside I would have never know this.

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    Quote Originally Posted by george65 View Post
    I like your indicator panels. Did you buy them or make them yourself?
    I made the panels both of them from a blank plate and drill the holes to suit the LED then made a template for the engravers to do there job of printing on it

    Again I did the lot my self so I saved heaps. I forgot what the cost was for the tanks itself but I got a got price on them because the company I got them from was going bankrupt. The only thing I paid full price was the Orange Pump and the controllers where I got this from the Local Plumber Supplies. Around $700

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    Quote Originally Posted by VroomVroom View Post
    what is the blanket om top of the HWS ? does it make it more efficient?
    I will take the blanket of around September. Next yes I will get a water proof blanks made, If I can fins a persont to do this. Yes watch all the Tv on in my TV room enjoying my Sat stuff and at the same time I notice the Frost light was was flashing to me and the LEDs on the Temp for the tank were dropping. Hummm!!!

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    ArgH!!! look at the Slab under the HWS, Its red but cant see the corrugations in it to allow rain water to get away. Now could you imaging a Plumber do this NOOOOO Time is $$$$ for them

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    A little slight of hand I thought you might be interested in which I have used......

    -Most- water meters don't register under 3L an hour. if you have a " Dripping " tap, say like mine into a tank, as long as the water output is less than the meters minimum flow accuracy rating, you won't be charged for the water. In my case the tap next to the tank leaks but I measured it and checked the meter when we went out for the day ( remembering to look at it when you get home is the hard part!)

    Sure enough, I can get around 70L a day for nothing. Sure, doesn't sound like much but in a tank it adds up and would at least keep up with the water used for your ablutions every day.
    Check those Micro Dropper home irrigation nozzles. They do around that sort of number and also look up the Model and specs of your water meter to see what it's minimum register is.
    Just can't seem to remember to get around to fix that dripping tap!

    If you are lucky enough to have an older water meter, it is true that some of them can be stopped or slowed in the presence of strong Neo magnets. Power meters can too depending on the type. Will work with many over 20 years old that just have the flat glass face. The ones that have the glass domes tend to be a lot more impervious as is anything electronic. Modern smart meters can log strong magnetic fields as possible tampering. The mechanical ones with the larger glass domes were made with extra clearance to prevent magnetic interruption.

    Unfortunately neither of mine are old enough to work. Can definitely see the effect on the water meter but just can't quite stop it.
    Bet I could with the electro magnet out of an electric clutch though. Must " experiment" with that one Day.

    Of course if your meter is not in plain view from the street, You could " Theroeticaly" just remove it completely. Standard tap fittings which are 1" and screw to the tap itself are the same thread and one would just cut a Piece of 3/4 Hose to fit between. Plumbing supplies also have the correct pieces called " Breaches" which fit right in.
    If one knew when the meter was going to be read, usually every 3 months and specified on your water Bill, One could hypotheticaly speaking just remove the meter, insert the breech and have free water until the reading was due when the meter was put back in place.

    All just for arguments sake and hypothetically of course.

    Got to Build a brick fence in front of my meter! :0)
    Last edited by george65; 06-08-20 at 02:32 AM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by george65 View Post
    A little slight of hand I thought you might be interested in which I have used......

    -Most- water meters don't register under 3L an hour. if you have a " Dripping " tap, say like mine into a tank, as long as the water output is less than the meters minimum flow accuracy rating, you won't be charged for the water. In my case the tap next to the tank leaks but I measured it and checked the meter when we went out for the day ( remembering to look at it when you get home is the hard part!)

    Sure enough, I can get around 70L a day for nothing. Sure, doesn't sound like much but in a tank it adds up and would at least keep up with the water used for your ablutions every day.
    Check those Micro Dropper home irrigation nozzles. They do around that sort of number and also look up the Model and specs of your water meter to see what it's minimum register is.
    Just can't seem to remember to get around to fix that dripping tap!

    If you are lucky enough to have an older water meter, it is true that some of them can be stopped or slowed in the presence of strong Neo magnets. Power meters can too depending on the type. Will work with many over 20 years old that just have the flat glass face. The ones that have the glass domes tend to be a lot more impervious as is anything electronic. Modern smart meters can log strong magnetic fields as possible tampering. The mechanical ones with the larger glass domes were made with extra clearance to prevent magnetic interruption.

    Unfortunately neither of mine are old enough to work. Can definitely see the effect on the water meter but just can't quite stop it.
    Bet I could with the electro magnet out of an electric clutch though. Must " experiment" with that one Day.

    Of course if your meter is not in plain view from the street, You could " Theroeticaly" just remove it completely. Standard tap fittings which are 1" and screw to the tap itself are the same thread and one would just cut a Piece of 3/4 Hose to fit between. Plumbing supplies also have the correct pieces called " Breaches" which fit right in.
    If one knew when the meter was going to be read, usually every 3 months and specified on your water Bill, One could hypotheticaly speaking just remove the meter, insert the breech and have free water until the reading was due when the meter was put back in place.

    All just for arguments sake and hypothetically of course.

    Got to Build a brick fence in front of my meter! :0)
    Sorry I was in a hurry yestertday yesterday so I did not read complete all post 6 time like I have too because of my stroke but will red them better later this arve after I come back from Shopping.

    Regarding leaking of the complete system or the ONE tap leaking I give you example on what I do and I might do this today. Right were are going Shopping, We gone for 4 hours, We read the Meter and wrote it down, When we come back we read it again and if it moves with a higher number we have a leak.

    Regarding leaking Poly Pipes (tank water) I have at least over 100 M of pipe underground with plenty of tees and elbows so what I do is start the pump manually, it builds up pressure, the controller turns it off and if it stays off I have No leaks but if it starts by itself I have a leak somewhere

    All my taps inside and outside the house has O Ring washers. If after 10 year with O ring one taps play up I either re-seat them or replace them tap
    Last edited by Mr 672A; 06-08-20 at 09:50 AM.

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    Taken this photo early this morning yes it was Cold this Morning and the Frost LED was Flashing to me. Had to take 10 photos to cath the LED Flashing.


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    Quote Originally Posted by george65 View Post

    The bio cycle for out waste water can pull 4-5 Kwh a day on it's own as it runs non stop.
    Ours consumes nothing like that amount ...

    All electric house and about 11kWh/day.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Guiseppe View Post
    Ours consumes nothing like that amount ...

    All electric house and about 11kWh/day.
    A lot depends on where you are.
    Where I am we only had - 3 this winter. Last year was several -5's. Can't not heat a house in that climate or the MANY 45's we get each summer with some nights not dipping below 40 till after 9pm.

    We can use 70 Kwh day. Don't really care that much now because I have added to my solar setup and I can make that on a sunny winters day and a couple of weeks ago, I made 102 Kwh in one day before I shut half the inverters off.

    I reckon the next couple of months we will drop back to around 20-25 Kwh day due to not needing any heating or Cooling.

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