@raisingirl, Ideally we need a combination of battery for stored excess power for the various pumps when demand is very high in summer, than a dump into hot water for radiators in winter. We use very little hot water from Spring to Autumn, a shower each a day is about it as the dishwasher and washing machine take cold only. All feasible, but academic, as we don’t have the capital funds to invest anyway!
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
There are 2 of us in our house and we have used an average of 90l a day over the last 6 months, so about 45l each. We have had meters on the Isle of Wight for around 40 years. We have baths rather than a shower, wash up in the sink, flush the loo etc. I don't make any conscious effort to save water but don't waste it either. I try not to water the garden at all unless absolutely necessary which this year is not at all as we have had so much rain. I don't grow veg and my garden has to see to itself!
“Every day is ordinary, until it isn't.” - Bernard Cornwell-Death of Kings
We are not on mains water. We fortunately have five underground cisterns - two small and three very large. These provide water for the house and watering the plants. Re drinking water, we pay one euro for 20L from machines in our local city - the water is subject to regulatory checks, the purity results being displayed on the machines. When our cisterns run very low we can pay to have water delivered by tanker at a cost of 35 euros for circa 1000L.
When we bought the house it had lain empty for ten years and the cisterns inside the house had overflowed and caused some internal damage. The plus side is that all that water has taken a long time to use despite the fact we are very, very short of rain!
Re electricity usage, we have just switched to a new tariff that allows three hours free a day so this is when the washing machine is used.
We would very much appreciate rain if anyone has some to spare
Martina Franca, Puglia, southern Italy Love living in Italy but a Loiner at heart
I've very rarely used mains water for the garden, luckily got space for 9 water butts and tanks, and looking to put a few more in...
In terms of toilets, the whole: making water clean enough to drink, piping it to people's houses then dropping a s**t in it approach is a bit bonkers! I'm frustrated not to have yet got round to installing a simple composting toilet in the garden, and I do use a watering can with a lid in the house, which is then added to the compost as household liquid activator...
In terms of electricity, it seems likely that the cost of vehicle to grid (V2G) chargers will drop massively in the near future, and electric vehicles will then do a lot of the work of storing solar electricity on site.
The trial we're on is, in the next few weeks, planning to automatically charge the car from our excess solar, and discharge to the house/grid in the early evening (when demand is high and energy is expensive). Fingers crossed it works well!
In the meantime it is satisfying to not have the boiler on in the summer, as the Eddi sends excess solar electricity to the immersion heater.
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How much mains water do you use?
For the amount I pay United Utilities.. as much as possible! I like getting my moneys worth.
We have baths rather than a shower, wash up in the sink, flush the loo etc.
I don't make any conscious effort to save water but don't waste it either.
I try not to water the garden at all unless absolutely necessary which this year is not at all as we have had so much rain.
I don't grow veg and my garden has to see to itself!
When we bought the house it had lain empty for ten years and the cisterns inside the house had overflowed and caused some internal damage. The plus side is that all that water has taken a long time to use despite the fact we are very, very short of rain!
Re electricity usage, we have just switched to a new tariff that allows three hours free a day so this is when the washing machine is used.
We would very much appreciate rain if anyone has some to spare
Love living in Italy but a Loiner at heart
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.