Happy Settlemas

 Look what’s appeared on our fence:

We've Finally Got our Solar Energy Supercharged

 Meet our new batteries by Sigenergy.

Hitherto our sixteen solar panels on the south facing roof of the navvy hut simply collected solar energy for immediate use or fed it into the grid.  That was fine back in 2013 when they were fitted but since then battery technology has raced ahead. Indeed, nobody nowadays would fit solar panels without batteries.

For a couple of years we have been researching the subject but the whole idea was interrupted by our flooding and recovery.

We did however discover that there are hundreds of suppliers out there, all anxious to sell you extra panels and batteries galore.  Our panels are on an advantageous tariff called FIT - Feed In Tariff.  Extra panels would have to go on another tariff, SEG.  Further complications arose because we are lucky' enough to be on three phase mains electricity.  We would require a smart meter which we were told we could not have on three phase.  It was all getting a bit confusing at a time when we could well do without it.

The whole idea faded away until we concluded that fitting batteries to our existing panels.  A couple of the hundreds of solar firms agreed and we set about trying to purchase a system with Duracell batteries - a well known and reputable brand.  Expensive, but we had been warned against cheap batteries.  Trouble was that Duracell did not do three phase batteries and inverter BUT they had such a system under development for imminent supply.   Imminent became prolonged so we ruled out Duracell.

Then we stumbled across the Sigenergy system.  Dearer than Duracell but way ahead on specification.

The Sigen system even had the latest AI which would run itself intelligently, even to the extend of looking at the next day's sunshine prospects and taking account of our electricity consumption routines.

We have switched our Utility warehouse tariff to Economy Seven which has an off-peak (midnight to 0700) of just 8.8 pence per kWh, compared with 37 pence daytime and evenings!  Furthermore, with 32 kWh of batteries we now harvest ALL of our electricity from the grid at that much lower rate - straight into the batteries for use next day.  If the sun shines we harvest that too of course.

£12,000 worth of outlay but the Return on Investment, plus the massively increased energy efficiency made this a logical affordable thing to do.  We shall see,

Future posts and an Anniversary

After radio silence for quite a while I have decided to concentrate this blog on things mainly to do with the water tower as such.  It has got rather big over the years  but it has been very useful t times to look lack and see what happened when and how.

Before I change to that reduced format though I do think I should mention that on 2nd September it was our diamond wedding anniversary.  Thats I think to a bit of arm twisting by our beloved daughter Lorna we even got a card from HM The King !

The Roof Room and Walkways

 Here are some recent pictures of the top floor and the room inside the tank.   Following the need to replace the entire roof we have been slowly reinstating the roof room and surroundings,   Very comfortable and refreshed it is too.

A Book, a Rooftop and a Glass of Red

 Mark Harvey took these pictures on the evening of 8th August 2025, unbeknown to me.  They were taken from the footbridge over the railway at Settle station.  He obviously has a superb telescopic lens and a steady hand.

Drying Out

 A truly massive amount of water got into the tower while we were between roofs, as it were.   Thanks to Jack Towell we now have a 30-year guaranteed new roof, not that 30 years will be our concern.  Today has been a day of finishing-off bits, including the installation of five roof vents, specially chosen to be connected to electric air blowers to ensure good ventilation between the tank base and the EPDM roof.   Picture below shows the care being taken to glue them securely and seamlessly in place,  Picture 2  shows one of them in situ.

Meanwhile, in the tower below no less than four industrial dehumidifiers and two enormous fans are hard at work drying everything out.  They will be (noisily) doing their thing for two weeks.   Meanwhile, we are in the quietness and warmth of the annexe.

Recent radio silence

 Both of my followers may (or may not) have noticed no new posts on here for quite a while.  We're both OK and beginning to re-enjoy the water tower following the successful installation and rain-testing of our new roof.  Not only a new roof but, thanks to NFU home insurance, a total new wooden floor in the lounge, new large curtains, new electrics in the lift and redecoration of the main lunge, including its complicated ceiling of iron beams and the tank base.

Lots of these things are difficult to photograph interestingly, so here are a couple of garden pictures showing our spectacular huge shrub outside the upper back door, in bud on 15th June and now in spectacular flower.

More later.