Jump to content
 

S7 scratch building


Recommended Posts

  • RMweb Gold
55 minutes ago, hayfield said:

this scheme is projecting a 10% return on the cost through savings and income of the power generated at todays rates

Which means that after ten years, you will have recouped the capital outlay, but even with low interest rates, still another year to recoup that (paying 1% on the original loan each year, over ten years, will add 10% to the cost, assuming the loan is over ten years - which means you also have the commitment to that outlay). The panels will belong to you and would be a separate asset to the house: you can add them onto the house price during negotiations after an offer, but if someone didn't want them - or already had their own - you need to consider the decommissioning costs, and the cost of reinstallation somewhere else. 

That is, if you think you will still be living there in 11 years, and won't be (sorry to be frank) pushing up daisies or in a retirement home, in which case your executors/LPA-holders are left with sorting this out.

I don't know - or need to know - how old you are, John, but these factors need to be borne in mind. (And in 10 years time, solar panels may have been developed into something cheaper and more efficient, and yours will be of no value.)

 

 

  • Agree 2
  • Interesting/Thought-provoking 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Regularity said:

Which means that after ten years, you will have recouped the capital outlay, but even with low interest rates, still another year to recoup that (paying 1% on the original loan each year, over ten years, will add 10% to the cost, assuming the loan is over ten years - which means you also have the commitment to that outlay). The panels will belong to you and would be a separate asset to the house: you can add them onto the house price during negotiations after an offer, but if someone didn't want them - or already had their own - you need to consider the decommissioning costs, and the cost of reinstallation somewhere else. 

That is, if you think you will still be living there in 11 years, and won't be (sorry to be frank) pushing up daisies or in a retirement home, in which case your executors/LPA-holders are left with sorting this out.

I don't know - or need to know - how old you are, John, but these factors need to be borne in mind. (And in 10 years time, solar panels may have been developed into something cheaper and more efficient, and yours will be of no value.)

 

 

 

I am going to speak with the local estate agents about this, its buying the panels outright, at todays prices I think the return will be between 8 & 9%, but inflation will push electricity prices up. The panels are expected to last 25 years and hopefully will add to the properties desirability if not price.

 

I thought all new houses will have to have solar panels at some time in the future ?

  • Interesting/Thought-provoking 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold
21 minutes ago, hayfield said:

 

I thought all new houses will have to have solar panels at some time in the future ?

 

At one time (2010), it looked as though all new build houses would have them from 2016 (BREEAM level 6).

 

Like so many good Govt intentions, this seems to have sunk without trace. Probably the fault of the editor of The Daily Mail.

  • Like 5
Link to post
Share on other sites

my experience with solar has been very positive, although the inverter has proven somewhat unreliable, and the wombat that installed the meter made it as awkward as possible to read because I didn't pay the extra for the remote one and I was't looking over his shoulder whilst he was fitting it.

  • Friendly/supportive 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

We had panels installed when we moved here 7 years ago. The Feed In Tariff (FIT) payments have now recouped the cost and the efficiency does not seem to have dropped off. Because I have no comparison with before the panels were fitted I don't know how much we have saved in electricity charges. We have had no issues whatsoever. 

 

Many new houses up here have them built in and I understand many also have electric car charging points. 

 

Jim 

  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold
1 hour ago, hayfield said:

I am going to speak with the local estate agents about this, its buying the panels outright, at todays prices I think the return will be between 8 & 9%, but inflation will push electricity prices up.

Caveat emptor... My point is that unless you plan/expect to be in the house for 15 or more years, you may not get to see any meaningful monetary return on your investment. Feeling that you are helping with the environment, however, is a different point!

(Does anyone know the carbon footprint or true environmental cost of the manufacture of the panels?)

 

Be careful about the installers: some "wombats" are actually cowboys in disguise.

  • Like 1
  • Agree 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

19 minutes ago, Regularity said:

Does anyone know the carbon footprint or true environmental cost of the manufacture of the panels?

 

I've seen people state that the energy return from energy invested (ERoEI) is negative for installations much more than 35º from the equator. 

 

...and even the Guardian is getting worried about Chinese production of panels. 

 

I'd just ask what the political equivalent of a 'loss leader' is?

Link to post
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Regularity said:

Caveat emptor... My point is that unless you plan/expect to be in the house for 15 or more years, you may not get to see any meaningful monetary return on your investment. Feeling that you are helping with the environment, however, is a different point!

(Does anyone know the carbon footprint or true environmental cost of the manufacture of the panels?)

 

Be careful about the installers: some "wombats" are actually cowboys in disguise.

 

I understand your point about living 10yrs plus, as there is two of us the chances is one of us will, plus according to the estate agent there are positives to having them if only it increases the environmental value of the property, certainly add to the benefit of buying and may increase the value of the property

 

As for the company, its Essex CC approved scheme where the contract supply company vets the installers

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold
35 minutes ago, hayfield said:

As for the company, its Essex CC approved scheme where the contract supply company vets the installers

Kensington and Chelsea BC approved the cladding contractors on Grenfell Tower. This is the problem with the sleaziness of this country: no one has confidence in our public bodies anymore.

 

Not saying don’t do it, just accept that the product has a 25 year (estimated) life span, and will spend roughly half of that time “washing its face” (paying itself off). As for desirability to other future buyers, I would say it would depend on how the panels are by that time: if life-expired, then there may be a disincentive as they would require removal/replacement. As an ecological investment, I’d personally prefer them to last longer, but there is no doubt that this all helps towards becoming carbon neutral, though nowhere near as much as not flying and switching to a largely vegetable-based diet, and going without Chinese-made goods (because production was outsourced, and the pollution increased).


As Simond says, just keep an eye on the installation work, to make sure that as well as being compliant, it is also easy to access.


We had panels installed some years ago: they are still in place and working, and my ex-wife is happy enough with them, but we both agree that we probably wouldn’t repeat it if we went back in time. 

  • Like 4
Link to post
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Regularity said:

Caveat emptor... My point is that unless you plan/expect to be in the house for 15 or more years, you may not get to see any meaningful monetary return on your investment. Feeling that you are helping with the environment, however, is a different point!

(Does anyone know the carbon footprint or true environmental cost of the manufacture of the panels?)

 

Be careful about the installers: some "wombats" are actually cowboys in disguise.

 

 

Thanks for the advice, especially tips on installation. Its one of these things that hindsight will confirm how good or bad the system is. Certainly electricity will not get cheaper, so the savings may be more than anticipated, I am seeing more benefits than drawbacks. Thanks

 

I think the Grenfell tower was not entirely Kensington & Chelsea's fault . It seems the manufacturer kept vital information to themselves, then building control gave it the all clear plus many other authorities and businesses used the same material. My new extension is full of the stuff, under the floor and between the brickwork, like hundreds of thousands of properties.

 

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Back to the models. Having run out of brake shoe castings I have cut a couple out of my big brass washer. I am not sure I'm going to use them on the next build but at least they are in stock for later.

At least I have plenty of drawings and photographs to go on.

 

20210426_141000.jpg

20210426_164623.jpg

20210426_165015.jpg

  • Like 16
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

The dumb-buffered Clay Cross wagon, with its serif lettering, is very interesting too. It's not so very different to the Clay Cross wagons that can be seen in this newspaper illustration of the aftermath of an accident at Belper on 29 October 1859. Although it's an engraving, the wagon detail is reasonably convincing - so I think it was either drawn from a photograph or from sketches made on-site, rather than being a pure figment of the artist's imagination, as many such illustrations are.

 

Edit: thumbnail of the image:

 

image.png.851edc2af83d18437de596a79e654fc0.png

Edited by Compound2632
  • Like 6
  • Informative/Useful 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Sir Douglas, yes the van in the photograph is a Wirral Railway van. I tried to build one in page 2 and 3 in these ramblings of mine.

I am struggling to find parts in my many boxes of bits. I searched around and found 4 LNWR wagon buffers so I thought I would attempt to build a beer van. My wife says how appropriate given my love of real ale.

So I made the basic frame which is slightly wider than a standard van and drilled the holes on the headstock for the buffers. When I came to glue them in I discovered that one had a smaller stem on the back than the other three. So I had to sleeve it with a bit of brass tube. Adrian must have made several patterns of the same buffer but the front part is the same. I cut back the solebars to give plenty of room for any nuts on the back of the buffer heads. 

I think I am going to have to build it like a open cattle wagon.

Graham, the other van in the photograph is a M&SLR van like this.

20210427_133449.jpg

20210427_133518.jpg

16195281501661653671485269369219.jpg

  • Like 13
  • Thanks 1
  • Informative/Useful 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

I have started to build the frames up. I am sure it would be easier to build the sides in the flat and then add them to the frames but I prefer to build them up as the prototype.  We will have to see if this is successful or not. 

 

There won't be a lot done today because we have our grandchildren today while mum and dad are at work. 

20210428_094742.jpg

20210428_094759.jpg

  • Like 11
  • Agree 1
  • Craftsmanship/clever 3
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Occasionally ones comes across a mongrel that's not going anywhere. This wagon is one of those. 

When I glued the bottom of the frames on something just didn't look right so I took them off and made new ones. The plastic I am using is 80 thou and is very soft. One side is shiny and one side is matt.

The shiny side doesn't scribe very well. I made a mess of the replacements and had to make another  pair. Having pulled it apart 3 times it became obvious that this was going to be one of those......

 

So I will recover the buffer castings because it's the last set I have of these LNWR wagon buffers.

I have a nice bottle of beer and the folk show is on Radio 2 so all is not lost.

20210428_204410.jpg

  • Like 4
  • Friendly/supportive 10
Link to post
Share on other sites

I did that one a few years ago. Its currently sat one WC Boggs I will take a photo and post it later tonight. 

It featured on a YouTube video I did for the GOG's first vertual show last year.

Marc

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Marc, I see you have done your model in the full Cambrian  livery.  Mine will very run down like the condition seen in the photograph of wagon No 356. 

I put the ends on and then I made a mess of the sides last night so I went to bed and had another look at it this morning. With fresh eyes it wasn't as bad as I first thought. So I was able to use the sides with a bit of trimming. At least the basic body is together now.

20210430_100422.jpg

20210430_100445.jpg

  • Like 13
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

The bottom of the W-irons is curved so I soldered four bits of nickel together and cut them out as one.

I cleaned them up and separated them. When I seperated them I found only three. Where do these things go ? I drilled one and glued a couple of Masterclub. 8mm bolts in. The missing one may become a straight one from my spares box. 

20210430_133120.jpg

20210430_133142.jpg

  • Like 13
  • Craftsmanship/clever 5
Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...