Power Saving Tips

[ukrizla]

Im not sure why they don't sell it as some of the wood is good quality all be it packing cases,I see this company wasting money everyday and no one seems to care.I work for an oil company and all they are interested in is finding and extracting oil,everything else is insignificant to them.I must add that this is not my view and if they want to give me wood for my fire then im not going to qustion why they don't sell it as that would mean I would have to find another source,maybe thats a selfish view on my part

[Lady Muck]

It's not unusual for local joiners firms to leave notes on our marina gates saying they have wood to collect. I'm not complaining. We get sacks and sacks of it sometimes.

[RLWP]

If thats 30 tonnes of dry wood its about 40-60m3. Would be worth about £4-£6k as prepared firewood.

 

Assuming its good enough.

 

Why dont they sell it?

(er what is it?)

 

Because they would have to employ someone to manage the sale of the wood, which would cost more than £6k per annum?

 

Richard

[Chertsey]

And remember, boys and girls, in these highly safety concious days, there are other risks we should be aware of.

 

Fortunately the owners of this skip have it covered, but you might chose ones where such risks have not been highlighted to you......

 

Happened to a rough sleeper in Brighton a couple of weeks ago.

[PaddingtonBear]

It wasn't a rough sleeper but some 30 year old trying to get down with da kidz and drink all night, got too pissed to find his way back to his lodgings, it started to rain..........................................................

[Justme]

Because they would have to employ someone to manage the sale of the wood, which would cost more than £6k per annum?

 

Richard

 

 

Well I could have that amount shifted with one phone call so dont see how it would need them to employ anyone.

 

In fact for £1k I'll make the call & they can keep the remainder.............

 

Still be cheaper for them to employ someone as not only will they get the £4-6k but they wont be paying £48k per year to have it taken away.

 

In fact forget the phone call I'll take a job there to manage the waste & split the savings with them 50 - 50 That should give me a £26k per year job & only need to do one day per month lol.

[ukrizla]

Well I could have that amount shifted with one phone call so dont see how it would need them to employ anyone.

 

In fact for £1k I'll make the call & they can keep the remainder.............

 

Still be cheaper for them to employ someone as not only will they get the £4-6k but they wont be paying £48k per year to have it taken away.

 

In fact forget the phone call I'll take a job there to manage the waste & split the savings with them 50 - 50 That should give me a £26k per year job & only need to do one day per month lol.

 

Oh if it was only that simple

[mayalld]

Because they would have to employ someone to manage the sale of the wood, which would cost more than £6k per annum?

 

Richard

 

Best bet would be to contract it out to a firewood seller.

[ukrizla]

When the time arises Dave I will drop some off for yourself and Kiki and Paul,you can never have enough.

 

Or should that be when I can get my car back off the wife

[mick1964]

No it doesn't.

 

Stealing waste wood from skips costs the owner of the waste wood nothing. It may even save him some money, as he won't need to have the skip emptied as often and/or her can get more of his rubbish into the skip.

 

If you charge a battery pack up at work, your employer is paying for the electricity.

 

Doubtless we can claim that it is a tiny amount of electricity, but what if every employee decided to charge upm a battery pack every day?

 

yawn yawn yawn yawn yawn.............................. employers , screw em for every penny i say, well done tom, dont suppose you could take my c5 in could you ?

 

No I didn't. you tiresome woman.

 

You made a claim that I only argued things where I could quote regulations and that I walked away from arguments where I couldn't back my position with the law.

 

In this case, an assertion has been made that s10, Theft Act 1968 legitimises taking stuff out of skips. I have posted the text to show that it does not.

 

Perhaps it would be better for me to simply have asserted that it was untrue, then we could argue it back and forth for days.

 

had a feeling he didn't like women

 

I have been informed by my boss at work that I can have as much wood as I need for my boat when I get it,as it costs the company almost 4000 pound a month for it to be removed from site,not sure what im gonna do with 30 tonnes of wood a year though

 

build a boat ?

[Gunna Do]

I have even bakes some bread in a large biscuit tin on top of the stove one time as an experiment. It worked a treat although the bottom of the loaf was a bit burnt and dry it was very tasty above the first 1/2 inch or so though. Next time I may need to get more air gap under the tin to get a lower and more even heat.

 

We have an Omnia stove top oven. Used it to make bread on a recent trip to Azores. Can't see a reason why it wouldn't work just as well on a NB stove.

 

www.omniasweden.com tells all!

[tomandsophie]

I tried cooking a jacket potato in the stove (Morso Squirrel), but it was too hot and the potato ended up burnt very quickly. Tonight however I wrapped a potato up in foil and put it in the ash pan under a hot fire of anthracite nuts. I turned it over after 45 minutes, and it was perfectly cooked (light and creamy inside and crispy skin) after 90 minutes. Brilliant.

[ThePiglet]

I wrapped a potato up in foil and put it in the ash pan under a hot fire of anthracite nuts. I turned it over after 45 minutes, and it was perfectly cooked (light and creamy inside and crispy skin) after 90 minutes. Brilliant.

I've just got into this. I made a wire cage to hang potatoes wrapped in foil at teh top of my Davey Hot Pot over a low heat.

I can get two good sized baking potatoes in at once, turn them after 30 minutes and Mmmm, lovely free cooked food.

[Shasterian Noble]

Sunny day not necessary! The washing machine uses so little power that we can do two washes in one cloudy day and still have power to watch a dvd on the laptop and run all the lights (LEDs) and pumps.

 

this sounds brilliant! What manufacturer are the solar panels produced by? They must be pretty high efficiency!

 

I have thought about solar but was hesitant about just how effective it would be for what can be a significant outlay initially.

[soldthehouse]

Nice of them to leave a step, to help you climb in, though.

[tomandsophie]

The panels (2 x 62w) are made by Uni-Solar and they are really good. Of course right now they're not putting out much power at all, so if we want to use the washing machine (full size twin tub) and the laptop we run the engine for half an hour a day. That's only for about 4 months of the year though. The remaining 8 months or so we barely run the engine at all except for moving.

 

this sounds brilliant! What manufacturer are the solar panels produced by? They must be pretty high efficiency!

 

I have thought about solar but was hesitant about just how effective it would be for what can be a significant outlay initially.

[Naughty Cal]

The panels (2 x 62w) are made by Uni-Solar and they are really good. Of course right now they're not putting out much power at all, so if we want to use the washing machine (full size twin tub) and the laptop we run the engine for half an hour a day. That's only for about 4 months of the year though. The remaining 8 months or so we barely run the engine at all except for moving.

 

Is that really enough?

 

Running the engine for a half hour will recharge your starter battery but i shouldnt have thought it will provide much charge to your domestic batteries

[tomandsophie]

It's done us fine for the past 5 years, so yep, it's enough! Our batteries have lasted for 3 years so far...

 

And we never let them drop below 12.2v

[nb Innisfree]

It's done us fine for the past 5 years, so yep, it's enough! Our batteries have lasted for 3 years so far...

 

And we never let them drop below 12.2v

 

How many batteries and how big is your alternator?

[Smelly]

How many batteries and how big is your alternator?

 

and do you still use that power pack you charge at work for the lappy

[tomandsophie]

Nope, as I now have a much better option - I simply unplug my work laptop at the end of the day (it stays plugged in all day so is fully charged) and use that at home. Lasts a couple of hours. Brilliant. No need to do the old battery pack trick.

Oh and by the way, to all those boring old sods who said I shouldn't 'steal' electricity from my employer, two things:

1. My employer (primary school) is perfectly happy for me to charge up my battery pack at school because they are real, down-to-earth, nice people.

2. My school is solar powered anyway by a massive solar array, so the power is free.

 

In reply to the previous question, my alternator is the standard 90amp one that came with our Beta Greenline 43, and the batteries are 4 x 110ah. The secret is using very very little power. And it's not because we are frugal, but rather that we don't like TV (so we don't have one) and so all we use is LED lights (very very bright and 'warm' but only 1w each) and pumps. Altogether, we probably get through around 8ah a day.

[Naughty Cal]

Nope, as I now have a much better option - I simply unplug my work laptop at the end of the day (it stays plugged in all day so is fully charged) and use that at home. Lasts a couple of hours. Brilliant. No need to do the old battery pack trick.

Oh and by the way, to all those boring old sods who said I shouldn't 'steal' electricity from my employer, two things:

1. My employer (primary school) is perfectly happy for me to charge up my battery pack at school because they are real, down-to-earth, nice people.

2. My school is solar powered anyway by a massive solar array, so the power is free.

 

In reply to the previous question, my alternator is the standard 90amp one that came with our Beta Greenline 43, and the batteries are 4 x 110ah. The secret is using very very little power. And it's not because we are frugal, but rather that we don't like TV (so we don't have one) and so all we use is LED lights (very very bright and 'warm' but only 1w each) and pumps. Altogether, we probably get through around 8ah a day.

 

You must be very frugal with power.

 

We have very few power thirsty items (the fridge is probably the worst,) yet our 70amp alternator cant charge our 2x95amp domestic batteries in half an hour!!

[nb Innisfree]

You must be very frugal with power.

 

We have very few power thirsty items (the fridge is probably the worst,) yet our 70amp alternator cant charge our 2x95amp domestic batteries in half an hour!!

 

8ah is only 1.8% of their 440ah battery bank so it will take a short while to recharge + they are probably not recharging to a true 100% but a nominal 100%, not good to discharge batts by less than 5% but they seem to be doing ok.

Edited January 22, 2010 by nb Innisfree

[Naughty Cal]

8ah is only 1.8% of their 440ah battery bank so it will take a short while to recharge + they are probably not recharging to a true 100% but a nominal 100%, not good to discharge batts by less than 5% but they seem to be doing ok.

 

True.

[alan_fincher]

.........................not good to discharge batts by less than 5% but they seem to be doing ok

 

Out of curiosity, why, please ?

 

Isn't that how the average modern vehicle aims to operate - nearly all power needs are met directly by the alternator, and only a small amount of discharging of the battery actually ever takes place - it is largely near 100% charged, for most of the time.

 

I changed a car battery a year or two back that had had 10 years of continuous service, and no firm evidence it wasn't going to give a bit more.

 

Dedicated boat starter batteries that get discharged only small amounts seem to last far longer than even well looked after "domestics", in my experience.