HOME ENERGY Episode 3 - Generating, Storing & Shifting Electricity | FULLY CHARGED

[@DerekMacColl]

Long time viewer, who was really looking forward to this series. Unfortunately, as others have said it seems to be little more than a set of commercials for companies offering products and ideas that have already been covered, with frankly little to no substance included. I love Fully Charged - especially the car reviews, even if I can't afford one at the moment, as I see EVs as the way forward. If someone would release an EV with a decent range and about the size of a Honda Jazz I'd be interested in a few years if not now. Yeah, I know about the Honda Fit, but a new version of that would need a bit more range and to be available in the EU (oh, OK - and the UK) for me to consider it. On the issue of cost, I was really hoping that this series would have more episodes, with each one going FAR more in-depth about one or at the VERY most two of the things covered in each of the episodes we are seeing. Pricing, efficiency, cost/benefit, return on investment... the whole deal would have been superb. A couple of episodes actually talking to people who USE smart thermostats or TRVs, with real-world examples of pros and cons, would have been worth FAR more than all of the present three episodes combined.

[@philtucker1224]

Crickey Derek! Are you already in the green energy industry? If not you ought to consider it…

[@richardshillam7075]

These videos are to create discussion and encourage research. If you believe what any single source tells you, your on a loser. Stop whining, do your own research, work out what interests you and don't expect other people to do your homework 🖖.

[@moovrr]

Another 👍🏻, tend to agree. The cost/benefit of a lot of these technologies which are appealing don't actually give a fast return and before the technology is superseded or fails in service. Did my own sums on the smart thermostat and it would take 7 years to return on the investment for 10 TRV's, assuming no failures, after which I'd start to save c£120/yr. 🤔

[@DerekMacColl]

@@richardshillam7075 Precisely; what is a comment to a video if not some form of discussion? As for research, at the very least one would have hoped for some citations to papers - whether technical or academic, and whether relating to retrospective or prospective studies would not really matter to start with - from where some informed research could begin. My comment was not designed as a whine, however, but rather to show how I at least felt about the videos so far. Giving the series 3 episodes to see if the tone would change after the first one seemed more than fair for a planned 6 episode series. Providing feedback of any sort can be helpful, and I tried to be constructive by providing some ideas on how things might be improved (even if only from my own POV, which is naturally the only one I am in any way qualified to give).

[@qcsupport2594]

It's a tour of green tech wider than FC's primarily automotive focus, using individual companies / projects as examples of what is/is-becoming *actually* available in the real world at the current moment. (It's probably easier for me to view it that way because here in the US those companies aren't available to me, so I don't need to feel on guard against a sales pitch.)

[@barrygiles9149]

Reading down the comments I do tend to agree that this series lacks the details, but....but I don't believe It's aimed at us 'old hands'. If like many below you're a long time 'FullyCharger' (did I just create a new word for you Robert?) all these items so far proposed we've seen and investigated with Robert months ago. However put these series in front of a newbi and I think it's a winner. As a side note, I'm so pleased to see the talking heads in their 'sensible British clothes', not all smarmed up and using big words. Congratulations Fully Charged team. You've done a great quality job.

[@gigabyte2248]

Having dived into the topic neck-deep during our various lockdowns, I'm going to try to answer the question Dan posed at the start and then didn't answer: is domestic wind worth it? Short answer: no. For a long answer, we need to look at a rule of thumb for wind power size, types of turbine and the situations where small-scale wind does make sense. As a rule of thumb with wind power: the bigger the better. Bigger wind turbines are more efficient and have less variable output power. The largest wind turbine in the world, the GE Haliade X, is basically a small skyscraper, with 3 slightly smaller skyscrapers attached to an axle at the top. Building it is stretching the limits of our skills and capabilities as a species, but it's worth it because it sweeps a huge area, is highly efficient and ends up pretty much unaffected by turbulence. Wind turbines ideally want steady flow through the swept area and minimal turbulence. The Haliade X is going into offshore wind farms, and the large turbines and open surroundings of offshore wind make the wind farms less variable and more efficient. Onshore wind farms use smaller turbines, and are more variable and produce less total power, but are still worth it overall. Once you're down to the scale of individual buildings, the efficiency is too low, turbulence takes that down even lower and the turbine's output will be extremely variable. You've probably, so far, been imagining a conventional fan-shaped horizontal-axis wind turbine. If so, fair enough: horizontal axis wind turbines are by far the most common, most mature and most overall cost-effective design, particularly for large installations. But you've probably seen one or two vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs). Rather than the axis of the spinning turbine being pointed into the wind, VAWTs have, well, a vertical axis. You might have seen a triple-helix spinning VAWT out in the wild, but there are also designs that have scoops - the helical ones use aerodynamic lift to generate torque to drive the generator, and are more efficient but more complex, whereas scoop-based ones use aerodynamic drag and are less complex (and therefore cheaper) but less efficient. Have a Google image search and see, and I'll also recommend the KZbin channel Engineering with Rosie, which recently did a video the broke down the physics of VAWTs (she's a professional wind turbine engineer, and really knows her stuff). VAWTs are less affected by turbulence, which makes them arguably a better choice for more turbulent areas, in towns/cities and around or mounted to buildings. They are more expensive and less efficient than HAWTs, though, so don't expect them to start cropping up in wind farms. If small wind is going to work, it will probably have to embrace VAWTs. So when does small wind make sense? Basically, if you're living off-grid and/or in a location with lots of wind, like out on the American Great Plains or on a small island. Urban areas, and even small villages, are too built-up and the wind will be too interrupted and turbulent to get substantial output from a wind turbine. If you're going to install a turbine, put it on a pole, not on your house (you might need planning permission and/or get objections on aesthetic grounds). The higher up you mount it, the less turbulence you'll get from the ground, but the wind hitting the turbine and pole will cause vibration and noise, which for building-mounted turbines may be audible in the house and/or damage the fixings. Most locations where people build houses do not get enough wind for it to be worth it, though - you're better signing up to something like Ripple, or a variable tariff that lets you use overnight wind energy from the grid and its larger, more efficient turbines. Disclaimer: I might be a professional engineer, but I'm an electronic engineer. If there are any mechanical or fluid flow engineers out there who want to tell me I've made a blunder, please do so :)

[@billybilly7100]

Thanks for this explanation - very useful.

[@chrischild3667]

Belting summary! Thank you. I think I also researched that the electrical gubbins of a turbine+generator actually take power constantly thus further reducing the gains from any energy produced?

[@gigabyte2248]

@@chrischild3667 As far as I know, a wind turbine will have a 3-phase AC generator, convert that from AC to DC, then convert back from DC to AC for the grid. This process loses a little energy, as all conversion processes do, but is well over 90% efficient. You also tend to gain efficiency as you use fewer, larger converters - a quick Google shows me diagrams of offshore wind parks that bulk-convert the AC to DC offshore, then feed power back to shore using a DC cable and convert back to AC onshore - this will be a lot more efficient than each turbine outputting grid-spec power. Another thing to bear in mind, though, is that wind turbines will only cut in above a certain wind speed, and will cut out if the wind speed drops too low - there's sometimes just not enough wind to overcome friction and conversion losses. It might seem silly to do so many conversion stages, but the frequency and phase (which bit of the waveform you're at) of the turbine and its generator won't be synchronised to the grid and can't be forced into synch mechanically. It's also practically impossible to convert one AC frequency/phase to another in an AC-AC converter, so we convert from AC to DC and back - we're pretty good at both of these and the DC-to-AC step, in particular, gives us loads of control over the output.

[@RippleEnergy]

To clarify - with Ripple you own a small share of a large scale turbine. Our first turbine was 2.5MW, but we're planning to expand into offshore too. For offshore wind Ripple co-ops would only own a minority share in a project, but the aim is to give people access to the very biggest turbines possible. As you say, with wind (and most energy sources) bigger is better and cheaper too.

[@timmurphy5541]

I have to say that this format is slightly frustrating - we already have the equivalent of glossy magazines with companies telling us what they do. The problem with all of these ideas is that we don't know what they will cost, whether they will work for our particular house, whether there's someone in our area who can install the thing that we're interested in. What are the other practical problems? It's really hard to get useful information and perhaps the best information would be not so much from the companies that are offering some service in some limited area but also from the people who did it and what problems they solved. We also could do with some completely honest ideas on price because as far as I can tell none of this stuff is financially worthwhile except for very specific types of people and I'd be delighted to be proven wrong. Example: is it worth removing your chimney? With modular inverters we'd expect not but then can anyone actually supply modular inverters in the UK? Can I put solar panels on a wall where I get a lot of sun? Are these solar companies really interested in "little guys" like me or are they chasing more lucrative work? Can I install panels myself and pay for the electrical work on its own? etc etc etc.

[@FalkinerTim]

And as I see it, the householder has to pay up front for the expensive equipment and then the electricity company can rewrite the contract each year. In Victoria, Australia, the electricity companies do not simply pay you for the net energy consumed. Oh no. They sell you grid electricity at, say, 25 cents and buy your solar electricity at a fraction of that. And the rate they pay for solar has been steadily going down. Now, they can even make you pay them to sell them solar electricity!

[@patrickjr11]

I would like to see mobile homes, camper vans etc all with batteries and all with V2G as standard, They are often parked up for months at a time and are perfect as part of a distributed grid. If you have a caravan with 20-30 KWh battery, as on grid in the winter, and then as a range extender while on holiday. Like why not!

[@kurtpalmer3674]

Untill they are ev driven it would be useless as most have a small capacity of batteries compared to an ev and they aren't set up for quick charge and discharge but once they are Ev yes I totally agree but I think they will be one of the last to be converted or made with full ev capacity as their use case is not able to benifit from the advantages of ev systems at the current time 😔

[@curmudgeon_OG]

My car is a honda e and has a 1500 watt inverter and 3 pin socket. As a matter of routine when I get home I run an extension lead from the car into my house and use the car battery for everything except cooker and electric shower, then recharge the car off peak or free. I don't have on grid solar but do have a battery aka solar generator and a few panels that run the fridge/freezer etc while i'm out in the car.

[@henry2188]

How many millionaires do you know who have become wealthy by investing in savings account? No one.

[@rosalinda1965]

It's not how much money you keep, but how much money you make, how hard it works for you and how many generations you keep it for...

[@aaronthomas8963]

Interesting, most people don't understand the market moves and tend to be mislead in facts like this and always depend on Money in the Bank very bad idea..

[@user-jf4wc7tf9v]

Crypto is a good investment if you want to gain direct exposure to the demand for digital currencies and the business they facilitate..I will advice you contact expert Nicholas Howard for professional guidance...

[@majormandy7702]

Oh so surprising as I'm happy to see Mr Howard mentioned here, My spouse recommended him to me after investing £4000 and he has really helped us in times of this bad pandemic crisis here in Australia...

[@mathews8970]

Exactly, money is always eager and ready to work for anyone who is ready to employ it, I was able to withdraw my profit of $17,000 after investing $3,500 on Mr Nicholas Howard some days ago.

[@TonyReilly]

Why is this series just an ad (and no disclaimer on any episode) for selected and favoured, providers. There's little no actual information in any of these videos... for example - You stated at the start does it make sense to have a wind turbine on your road / estate and is it worth the investment... you never answered that? Why not? Also, what does Ripple actually do? How do I pay towards a wind farm and then get my electricity from another provider? That wasn't explained at all. I ẃas really looking forward to this series, but you've really given no actual, usable, actionable information - e.g. who do I calculate how much cavity insulation do I need? Is it better than another form of insulation. How do you actually manage the direction of the electricity created by the PV Panel? I think I'll give the rest of them a miss as the lack of information is highlighting terrible reporting. Fully Charged used to be better.

[@JohnDoe-bd5sz]

I totally agree, it seems this series is mostly a "infomercial" show, where different vendors has paid to advertise on the fully charged platform. Maybe it is a moneygrab, where the team started out being really driven by the idea of electrifying everything to save the enviroment, but have now shifted to just getting as much money out of this as possible.

[@ReubenGow]

I have to agree. The lack of real information in this series has been really disappointing. I get that they can't go into minute detail on all the different things but everything is glossed over entirely and links to more detailed information isn't even provided. I don't mind the companies being in the videos, so long as they give some specific details. At least the Tado guy told you how much their stuff costs (even if he did leave our the subscription).

[@ablacknambercat]

@@ReubenGow Yep, I know the idea is to drive enthusiasm for this tech but some actual cost-benefit analysis would make it much more informative.

[@yips_way]

Another one for the agree list. I've seen nothing I don't already know from a distant interest. I could get more info from general advertisements, luckily I don't watch those but still know more. And, I won't be watching anymore of this series either. Complete waste of my time and energy. Sorry. Oh, and by the way - what's with everything needing an app for goodness sake. I don't own a smart phone and never will. I need a phone, to phone people, and only that. EDIT:- Typo

[@andymccabe6712]

@@ablacknambercat typically, with green tech, the cost benefit analysis is that it COSTS but it doesn't benefit!! - (well, it might benefit the planet a bit - but not the individual...!)

[@johndowne9304]

I’m persevering with this series in the hope that there will eventually be some material I would feel confident promoting in my local community (as I did with Maddie’s) but I haven’t seen it yet I’m afraid. It’s probably too late now but I think it needs a PRACTICAL roadmap for households in a variety of scenarios as I thought had been trailed in the first episode. We aren’t getting that yet and going off on things that aren’t here now addressing homes emissions outputs - V2G at early trials with some suppliers and a few cars, Ripple currently closed to new investments -and anyway wouldn’t it be better to encourage households to invest in the carbon efficiency of their own homes - insulation, lowering use, low carbon heating etc rather than in over-complicated schemes which are more like offset offerings. Institutional investors will provide the cash for wind farms surely. Cant Dan take a different type of home each time and work through the practical steps and measures that could apply with realistic costs and likely benefits - and base these scenarios on UK data on numbers / types of homes and typical levels of energy efficiency currently existing in them? So far just not very helpful unfortunately.

[@alanmilton8056]

What a waste of space, where were the residential wind generators, no mention of VAWT. As already mentioned ads & large part about solar, nothing new ! VAWT = vertical axis wind turbine, not an enormous windmill but an aesthetically pleasing compact design.

[@AlexanderWigmore]

I was excited for this series when it was announced-hoping to hear more of the nitty gritty ideas and real world examples. Instead it's just a load of spokespersons for companies. Unfortunately, I can only assume the premise of this series was driven by revenue rather than content. The "Moonstone house" tour episode you did last year still provides more relevant info than 3 episodes of this series so far. I don't enjoy being negative-simply adding my voice to mix of how I'd hope to see this channel progress into the future.

[@leighparsons]

I loved the premise of this series and was looking forward to it but so far it's just a series of adverts for start-up companies selling their goods & services. What this is doing is making me think 'are they being objective with their advice or are they just trying to sell me something?'. Disappointed.

[@philtucker1224]

I don’t disagree with your view but I also think that by Fully Charged showing these examples of all the different ways of utilising green electricity (as a substitute for using gas, petrol, diesel, coal etc etc) it will ultimately help us, or our kids to make better informed choices when we have to in ten or fifteen years time…

[@TassieEV]

Wow, the Ripple Energy model would be awesome to see in Australia though wind farms here tend to be a hated blight and various arguments against them from bird kills to ugly view whereas I would love to have a view of wind farm better than looking at a Nuclear or Coal power station.

[@RippleEnergy]

Thanks - we're hoping to get to Australia at some point!

[@stephenhenry7528]

You should create an episode just on food and the impact of changing your diet :)

[@stephenhenry7528]

@Capt Shiny how it has everything to do with the environment if anything it’s the biggest impact

[@drewcipher896]

That's not what this series is about. But they did already do a show with Helen about the carbon footprint of local vs shipped food. And how something in the UK from Spain might have a bigger foot print than something from Argentina depending on what it is and not just how far it travels, but by what method.

[@stephenhenry7528]

It’s just with her mentioning diet I think it would be great to have a episode just on how much of an impact eating right can make

[@eamonstack4139]

Excellent series Dan, I have solar and battery - can't wait for heating solution to replace my gas boiler! Eamon ( see you at the Outside FC game)

[@87vortex87]

I'm a big fan of PVT panels. Where the back of the panel is used to cool the panel with a glycolic substance. You get heat for the tap water, and increase efficiency of the PV part of the panel due to lower temperature of the panel itself. As an added bonus the temperature range of these panels is much smaller which will increase the technical life expectancy of these panels.

[@anwarmahmood573]

Me too! PVT panels connected to a heat pump + lithium iron batteries seem to be a great set of technologies for cold climates like the UK and northern and western Europe. Do you have direct experience of them? Do you mind sharing where? (country/location).

[@87vortex87]

@@anwarmahmood573 I live in the Netherlands. I don't mean PV panels to supply power to a heat pump. I mean PVT panels, where the T stands for Thermal. So the back of the panel is used to drain heat from the panels and used directly in the house for warm water and heating. If you don't use it you are able to pump the heat in a ground bound heat system. With that you heat your ground source for the winter to be able to extract the heat again that you pumped in the source in the summer, and still get the benefit of cooler panels. But a ground source heat pump is not economically viable yet. A better way would be a air to water heat pump that extracts heat from the air. You can even extract heat if it's freezing outside. Downside is that your house needs some serious insulation for that to work and consume a lot of electricity. So the best thing to do right now is insulation, and PV panels. Use the PV panels to power the air to water heat pump. Whether this is economically viable depends on your local energy prices and cost to buy and install this equipment. I think all governments need to put subsidies in place to make it more economically viable, say a return if investment of 7 years and maybe increase taxes on electricity and gas to pay for these subsidies. As an example, I have 11 PV panels on my house, which supply 2800kwh per year. For a air to water heat pump I would need an additional 15 panels, just to cover the power consumption of the heat pump, which is kinda insane. And I don't have room for that on the roof. But I would kill almost all gas usage.

[@anwarmahmood573]

@@87vortex87 Thanks! Yes, I did mean PVT panels. I like Triple Solar. Also DualSun from France. In summer, you might heat water directly in the panels, but not in winter of course. So, instead of heating water directly, they pump glycol through the panels, then the glycol acts as the source for a water|ground source heat pump. The Triple Solar panels are not insulated, because in winter they extract heat from the air too. They're phasing out residential gas in the Netherlands much sooner than the UK, so the Netherlands is ahead in this. In the UK, the government commissioned a study on PVT panels back in 2011 I think, and that said PVT isn't worth it, so no subsidies in the UK :( It's a very complicated setup, but the best long term setup if installed correctly, providing heating and hot water year round. There's lots of case studies from Triple Solar and DualSun, was hoping to find someone who actually had one!

[@87vortex87]

@@anwarmahmood573 no, I don't know anyone, but PVT is very new technology. A air water heat pump makes a lot of noise, and PVT panels are 100% quiet with no moving parts, so that's nice. And increase life expectancy due to lower panel temperature and due to lower temperature increase efficiency. All in all very elegant solution. I was watching a video about this and you can also use them to extract heat during the night to heat the house because they primary use the air, not the sun, to extract heat. I originally thought it used the sun, but apparently that just helps a lot but is not mandatory. Of course, PV will always face the sun.

[@curmudgeon_OG]

At least "Maddie goes electric" was titled like a kids show and hosted by a kids presenter. This series is horribly basic and condescending. At the start of this episode, the practicality of home wind power is mentioned and dismissed with "we have our doubts" or whatever, followed by corporate advertorial to a company that isn't yet producing anything. Any chance of rewinding to home wind power and explaining? What makes it impractical and for who? Is it the height of the installation, the size of the required blades, electrical connection stuff?

[@TonyOrc]

Wind turbines need planning permission

[@examinerian]

@@TonyOrc So does a house extension. The question of diameter/height/output/noise and whether it's worth doing will involve the planners, but only in part. Some authorities have permitted development for extensions - are turbines up to a certain size allowed in the same way? There are limits on solar installation sizes as well - you can't just add a few 10's of kW without the say-so of the local grid. Permissions are everywhere.

[@rpx1979]

Compared to solar, a wind turbine on your roof offers: [x] poor power output - the ones for yachts have max power of 400W. Compare to 4kW solar array. [x] expensive operations and maintanence cost compared to solar. [x] hard to sell - how on earth can you model the microscale wind climate on a house on a customer basis? How do you provide yearly yield predictions? [x] noisey [x] don't benefit from the HUGE economy of scale compared to solar panels. Mate, you're barking up the wrong tree.

[@examinerian]

@@rpx1979 Now, *that's* the sort of info which should have been on the video - it'd answer the scenario raised in the intro.

[@rpx1979]

@@examinerian I have worked in the renewable field for a few years from small scale residential PV to multi MW wind farms. Both require some kind of modelling with a focus on 'yield'. i.e. How much energy do you expect to get from your installation? This is the basis on which people buy their projects - cost per unit energy produced. The inputs to a yield calculation for a renewable energy installation is the local weather. For solar PV the Sun is less susceptible to microscale noise - it generally is a function of the position of the sun in the sky. Wind Energy yield however is affected by geography, temperature, direction...so many variables! On a house by house basis, when trying to create a yield estimate, you might as well have a random number generator. Wind farms are geographically disparate things spread over kilometres, so these microscale fluctuations average out, and more certainty arises from yield estimates. Back to residential: PV is sold on a 1kW: 1MWh yield basis in the UK (a 3kW installation will generate on average 3MWh over the year). It's a simple equation, so you can have a good idea about what you should expect. Trying to model a wind turbine on a house - different ball game all together. I'm not saying it's a bad idea but just from the yield estimate part, it's a very hard thing to model. Yield estimates are often the first thing people ask about, so without that, it's a bit of a non starter.

[@drewcipher896]

I think how this series was teased was a problem, but it's still an interesting 'state of the industry'.* Not really any new information, but it's consolidated in a nice format. *for the UK.

[@leb3018]

You might be planning to cover this but I'd love to see some options that are designed for those who are renting homes. Lots of the options and products out there require investment in the property which renters aren't going to want to spend money on. Is this something that you can cover?

[@RippleEnergy]

With Ripple you can part own a wind farm and have the electricity supplied to your home whether you rent it or own it. You just need your own electricity account. Enabling access to climate solutions for people who rent is really important to us.

[@leb3018]

@@RippleEnergy That's really good to know, thank you.

[@CausticLemons7]

I am both surprised and happy to see so many women in this series.

[@leesmith9299]

i'd be interested to see how the numbers stack up with that ripple thing vs. buying shares in a renewable energy investment trust. the latter would be less complex and restrictive. independent decision on your energy provider, don't need to faff around with it when you move house. the trust income and capital gains would trigger tax though. hard to know how it would work out.

[@computerbob06]

Surely not through an ISA or other tax efficient scheme though? So quite simple really and the better idea probably!

[@leesmith9299]

@@computerbob06 yeah. i guess just the very wealthy who already use their ISA allowance and hit the limit on their pensions would be effected.

[@sjcsystems]

Ripple didn't work out for me. Cost to cover all of my consumption was about £2100 in one hit. Whereas my electric bill is about £1100.

[@leesmith9299]

@@sjcsystems could you explain a bit more because I don't think they did so in the video. Is that£2100 per year they wanted? Because that would be an amazing price if it was a one off fee to cover a£1k yearly bill for 25 years.

[@xlphos]

@@sjcsystems 21k? if it was only 2100 for 100% coverage that would be a no brainer.

[@wasbikebloke9846]

I love this videos and feel like I’m learning so much from watching them, but it deals feel like this area is in constant development. This makes it so hard to decide when to jump in, and to pick which solution is the best fit.

[@matthewlloyd956]

great addition to the Fully Charged show

[@michaeldepodesta001]

As people have said, this is slickly produced, but disappointingly content free.

[@stephendoherty8291]

Winter tends to generate such high winds that many wind turbines are turned off to avoid damage. How is Ripple any different from buying shares in a wind energy provider? We also know that lots of that power is lost in the transmission system depending on your distance from the wind farm.

[@321tryagain]

I really dislike the sound level editing to have one person louder on each audio channel left/right in an interview.

[@EriYtt]

Why do not more PV use thermal as cooling. More energy caprtured(heat) and better efficency in the PVs?

[@kuro68000]

Most of the new houses I see have no solar and a had boiler. They are very clearly built to be as cheap as possible. It's such as shame as retrofitting is much more expensive and instead of massive profits we could have affordable, green housing.

[@solentbum]

On the plus side the MDs of the major building firms had record bonus payments over recent years!

[@mariecrowe8843]

Do you need to go phase 3 for this? A real top down approach to real world problems and cost would be helpful. If I have batteries can I avoid going phase 3? Can I dump spare solar?

[@trevorheley1045]

I actually don't have a problem with this series. Yes of course there is an element of selective promotion here and also they do cover things that a lot of people who follow this channel already know a lot about (but not everything). However I think sometimes we need to look beyond ourselves and see how helpful having a series like this is to a wider, less informed viewership. It may be high level but If it gets people thinking about what to do to help the environment and then starting to look into things in details (you have to as all this stuff is relatively new and evolving) then it must be a good thing.

[@markyboyclark]

So much cool stuff! I don't know where to start. I like the idea of vehicle to grid especially if I could run my house during a black out say but I want a EVan.... And they all seem so expensive so I feel like I'll just watch from the sidelines a bit more. Oh and ride my electric bike everyday 🙂

[@rp9674]

V2G - maybe best used as emergency backup only. The labor of replacing a battery in your car far higher than a one in the garage,, although v2g is gentler use on the battery. ALSO for house energy you can use a second life battery. I don't know if they mentioned, but solar also stabilizes the electrical grid.

[@Dickie2702]

V2L Sono Sion 11kw. I rest my case.

[@richardgoldsmith7278]

Ripple is all very well but out of reach for those of us who have chosen our primary energy supplier carefully, because Ripple need you to move to their specified provider. Pity, I love the principles of democratised distributed renewable energy production, but I am fussy about where the remainder of my power comes from, and Ripple’s designated one doesn’t cut it for me.

[@RippleEnergy]

Richard - we absolutely love working with Coop Energy and Octopus Energy. For our second wind farm that's launching in the autumn we will, however have a wider pool of supply partners.

[@firstname4459]

I've joined the ripple waiting list, hopefully won't be too long

[@RippleEnergy]

That's great to hear!

[@tomorrow-man]

This series looked promising from the ad, not delivering so far

[@peterwundersitz3715]

I read recently that wind provided nearly 50% of the British power requirements when the wind blew strongly all over the country about 13 gigs. A great summer day was had recently and wind provided 67 MW.

[@rhysbayley5149]

Vehicle to grid (V2G) will be a game changer! Well done Octopus for the trial 🐙

[@Dr.Stacker]

It seems like somewhat an alternative to an energy storage device. A sort of 2-in-1 tesla powerwall/car lol

[@Dickie2702]

V2L is way, way better. Sono Sion has it via their charger at 11kw and the car is only €25,000. Run your house from your car during peak times and recharge at night on EV tariff.

[@lsavov4407]

Love the home series!

[@cloudyskies1323]

Another video which is sponsor advertisement. Keep your heat pumps. My gas boiler has another 10 years lifespan. Who has the money to add phase 3 power line for power wall and EV charging ?

[@buzzofftoxicblog791]

Empowering us all globally cool thank you

[@TheEVside]

Really loving this series, great work Dan

[@therealcaldini]

Is it easy enough to get an Economy 7 tariff, charge a battery overnight, use that to exclusively run the shower/kettle/oven in the morning/evening? What are the economics?

[@RichardOzanne]

Yes. If, say, you use 20KWH per day (i.e. peak rate energy use, not necessarily total energy use) on average you could get a 20KWH (or slightly more) system and charge it overnight, then use that power in the day. We were doing pretty much this with a small solar array topping up in the day. We have since added more PVs so the need to charge overnight has diminished but we could still do it if the need arises (winter for example when the PVs will be less productive). Costs will vary. We went with the PW2 but other systems may well be cheaper. For us the payback is probably going to be be not far off 8 -10 years..

[@xlphos]

@@RichardOzanne +1 decades if the battery still has good SoH.

[@duracellgee]

So, the concept of V2G(selling off peak energy back to the grid at peak prices, correct me if I am wrong!) besides sounding like profiteering, can surely only last as long as it takes the energy suppliers to realise that someone else besides them is making money from off peak electricity? Confused! And what charge level can I expect my EV to have available should I need it at short notice?

[@fredbloggs72]

Well I quite like the series so far, a couple of niggles, but overall gives a few things to think about. As for it being a series of adverts, well I'm perfectly capable picking up ideas from one company and seeing who else might offer a similar service. A question, for V2G, can any/most cars do this or is it limited to those built to do it?

[@minamikhaeil9314]

That's great news hoping we get rid of ages of black oil to the new beautiful environment and cheap electricity that boost uk and Europe economy... from Egypt

[@jaquesaulait]

Vehicle to grid - in other words, distributed energy storage. A good idea. Let's hope the tories don't fvck these sorts of things right up with their nepotism, greed and corruption. (e.g. David 'Dodgy' Cameron, most "top" tories)

[@hamshackleton]

VTG is also cycling your car battery. Each cycle reduces it's working life. They very briefly and carefully glossed over what happens if your battery has been depleted into the 'grid' and then you find an unexpected and urgent need to go out, but your car battery is empty!

[@VictoryHand]

I love the vehicle to grid idea. I've been working from home since the arrival of the pandemic and have been putting my excess PV generation into the battery of my car since I'm at her me in the day. If I could then use that saved up power in the evenings it would be amazing.

[@Dickie2702]

Buy a Sono Sion 11kw vehicle to load, will run most normal homes during peak demand. Oh did I mention they are only €25,000. Tesla aren't listening by the way but a bunch of guys in a shed 10years ago had it covered. First 14,000 already sold. Any car company worth it's salt should have been doing this from the get go.

[@13ahab]

This is just getting worse no information here

[@nickieredshaw7835]

Thanks for another great video series

[@BackpackingtheWorld]

What about hybrid systems solar and wind? Can you tell more about it and how to save that energy, cost comparison with self generating energy and if you'll buy it from the grid. Thanks for these series very interesting!

[@sjcsystems]

I looked at Ripple and it simply wasn't economic. Either I misunderstood completely or it's yet another premium product.

[@stephendoherty8291]

Are there not apps that only sell the excess power to the grid when all other local sources in the home are not needing it (warm water/radiators/heat pump/BEV/storage)

[@grahamjohnson4702]

OK so it's Monday morning you have 100% battery in your EV, you go to work and in the evening you get home and you have used 20% of your battery so you plug in to give the grid some of your electric back but later on you want to put electric back into your battery for next day going to work, so what is the advantage and what happens at midnight and an emergency crops up will you have any power in your battery to use your car.

[@IDann1]

This is a good series to show to my client to get a better built house.

[@michac3796]

This is a good series to show to my government to get a better built house. Since the world seems to move on, yet we're here burning coal, like there's no tomorrow.

[@cliffkennedy7883]

Hi Fully Charged - for the next video, could you interview someone without a company logo on their shirt?

[@jezlawrence720]

Can you guys press some more of the system owners (tado, myenergi etc) about interoperable APIs? It's crazy that these things will work with things like nest/Alexa but not with each other! The "one app to rule them all" world is only possible if lots of apps can rule the world: that's how you get the best one. Otherwise it's which proprietary system rules the world and not only have I had enough of that crap, it's also a barrier to people building systems piecemeal when they can't afford to do a full rip and replace without getting tied to one supplier in the future. I mean that's business I guess but it seems against the ethos that most of these companies espouse.

[@boycie1150]

I am about to move to a house that has no gas supply, but is heated and lit by a combination of grid electricity and solar photo technology. It is a new area for me and I was looking forward to this series as a resource for education. I'm afraid I'm not going to bother with the remainder of the series as so far, it has been little more than three glossy infomercials. Shame, really. Normally, FC does a brilliant job. This ain't one of them.

[@MarioCrispino]

I'm not sure about using your car battery to power your home or the grid is a good idea. Car Batteries will only last a certain amount of charge cycles before they need replacing so essentially using your car battery in this way only makes your car old quicker. (Rather like adding more miles on the clock of a combustion engine) I should imagine it would be very expensive to then replace a cars' battery too. However, replacing batteries in a power wall I would suspect would be much cheaper because it would be much easier. Also discharging your car battery only means you have to recharge it again to drive it and I believe there are losses involved in charging. I'm all for renewables but it seems when you look closer at this idea I'm not so sure repurposing your car battery is worth it. I could be wrong here so please could you let me know. Thank you

[@joshuasmith7369]

You keep saying "stop burning stuff". I want to burn calories before I put on weight. Before I forget; Dan I would like to apologize for all the times I bugged you at Fully Charged live in Austin, Texas 2020. You are a very patient person and did a wonderful job taking care of the events and discussions in Robert's absence. Great job. Texas fan of Fully Charged.

[@adamkiddle]

Loving the titular nod to Tomorrow's World!

[@Richard-fx6go]

Yes, there are a lot of companies talking their products up but I'm assuming the idea for this series was based towards newcomers to the idea of renewables and the ways we can move forward. In that regard it's a great series, well done fully charged. There are a host of youtube providers talking in depth about each facet of the series, if you want further info. P.S. I enjoyed it regardless.

[@ΘάνατοςΧορτοφάγος]

Do you have any info on: GAC Aion V Charging from 0-80% in 8 minutes?

[@BritishAnts]

As a life time renter I’d love to see energy saving solutions that are mobile and can be removed when i move property, currently substituting house power with 3kwh bluetti solar generator (attached to shed roof) :)

[@johnpragnell977]

I am sure the first one said they didnt do anything just enabled people to use wind power. How is that different from choosing a supplier who uses renewable apart from put someone else in the middle to take their cut? Shame the one app to rule them all was then just a short clip. No sure about using the car battery for V2G does it reduce the battery life? It would be nice to see the stats. As said just look like adverts with no stats.

[@northernoz]

Love to see a program dedicated to virtical loop heat pumps

[@marc0523]

When the last lady said "you can tell the car, when you want to go to the shops" does that mean you don't just unplug it and drive, do you need to update the app? If so, that will not scale. I wouldn't use it at all like that, and I am watching fully charged, the average Joe will never accept that.

[@James-zu1ij]

Does anybody know why my electricity has gone up from 15p to 19p /kWh when I am using 100% green energy. I am very confused and disappointed. It doesn't seem to make sense.

[@mariecrowe8843]

Could someone please explain phase 3 and if it’s really needed to increase my solar capacity

[@reubenwilkinson845]

Why not visit a few houses that have installed different solutions, show us those solutions and go into detail about install costs and running cost savings vs what they did have? That would be useful . And not a sales pitch by various companies but real world experience

[@colincampbell437]

Exactly. That was what I thought they were going to do ,,,,

[@freeform33]

This has been a pretty lame series so far .Mostly evangelists for their products preaching to people who need much more detail to make a choice for the way forward .They need challenging on the assertions they make .Not sitting passively soaking it all up like a new convert.

[@ferkeap]

Can I have energy shares from a nuclear power plant?

[@singalongguys]

Can we please have episodes on PVs and types

[@nabeelmajeed4815]

For seeing that it has a Cadillac Escalade ESV Electric like the 2020

[@chillmeister]

I looked at Ripple but was concerned about getting locked into an energy provider to make it work, and for a huge period of time.

[@xlphos]

suppliers really need to crack on with V2G, enough trials, loads of 24kWh LEAFS out there almost 10 years old capable of this. Saying that as Chademo is disappearing going to be even longer before V2G is made use of, more CCS "trials".

[@michaelviney3737]

Well what a disappointment………the usual sharada of wind energy pricing. I am now retired but about 15 years ago the company I was involved with did the then Dti studies on the cost of all forms of generation. The most expensive was off shore wind and from memory was about £150/MWhr. The installation costs are high because of subsea foundations, subsea cabling,maintenance costs are high because of location, reliability poor, life span 20 years. But most importantly the utilisation factor is around 27%. Ie because the wind does not blow all the time you only get 27% of the rated name plate capacity. The result is you need an equivalent generating capacity paid for and installed ready to pick up the load. The study showed the cheapest form of generation over it’s lifetime of 60 years was nuclear and that included decommissioning at end of life. So how did wind energy suddenly become cheaper? Yes there have been improvements in manufacturing and reliability but the vast difference in cost shown in the latest government studies is the invention of the carbon market and carbon pricing being applied. So the latest studies show the carbon price for conventional gas and coal generation and the price of carbon that would have been produced by gas fired plant is deducted from the wind generation costs thus giving a massive drop in price. There is a massive cost of going to zero emission which is of course a good thing…..however it will be carried by all people including the less well off. A time bomb for any government! V2 G is unlikely to succeed but V 2 H is a winner. The big thing now is new battery technology for local power DNO network storage so that when the wind does not blow there is stored capacity. Eg liquid metal batteries , rust reversal batteries, however all are in development phase at the moment.

[@CrashUK28]

Be nice to have V2H with solar diverter.

[@mikeedwards8694]

Really interesting thanks

[@kevinisaac9139]

What about using your battery power you have to recharge it and how can you guarantee you have a fully charged battery when you want it

[@xlphos]

I could run my LEAF 24 by going to work and using the energy in the battery when i need it, then charge at night whilst i sleep. V2G needs to be available at a reasonable cost.

[@paulaschofield]

It's a shame that solar batteries are so expensive. We recently looked at getting a Tesla Powerwall to go with our Solar installation, but only the v2 was available meaning that the cost went up to $30k NZD for the complete 4.8kW installation :-(

[@Dickie2702]

Go buy a Sono Sion it has 11kw V2L via it's charger no need for house batteries, car is €25,000 by the way. All car manufactures should take note and look shamefully in the mirror as they were out thought a decade ago by three 18yr old Germans in a shed!

[@michaelmartens6878]

How about Vehicle to Vehicle???? Will we be able to charge each others vehicle....

[@JohnDoe-bd5sz]

With vehicle to load you can. But dont expect fast charging. The slow charger should be able to plug into the other VTL vehicle so you could slow charge another vehicle.

[@sjcsystems]

Yes, that is a feature of the Ioniq 5 but it's only a granny cable, at the moment.

[@Gazmaz]

So much potential for this series, and something I asked for in the survey that was put out, however it seems that the potential for content has not been any where near what I hoped for. If this is a taster of things to come then OK, however that’s not how it has been delivered. I hated the piece how how much room we have, but come on it’s not that simple. And don’t go on about battery driven cars that is not the answer to a green planet. Sorry guys but this series needs a revisit.

[@mrlover4310]

What's wrong with having a magnetic turbine no wind is required and it will work 24-hours a day come rain or shine.

[@darksun4523]

A single rotation can power a home for two days 🤯🤔

[@TelmoMonteiro]

This audio stereo panning is painful to hear with headphones. Please, don't. Just center it

[@TheKhirocks]

Sorry Fully Charged. After persevering with the last advertising episode, i made it 5mins before stopping this advert. I get enough ads already. Sad to say i had high hopes for this series but its just ad after ad and very light on details.

[@huwevans2653]

Please explain how the green power from my part owned windfarm gets to my house for me to use, when there is a coal/gas fired power station closer to where I live. Surely I will be using the coal power not the green power. Thank you.

[@JohnDoe-bd5sz]

As they said, they make sure that you get exactly the electricity your own windfarm produced. (In reality, as i see you know, it's a complete hoax, there is no way of sending you any specific power through the lines, you only pay to be able to say "Oh, im posh, i pay for green energy")

[@xlphos]

its just discounted off the bill, no direct wind energy.

[@chrischild3667]

Come on guys. A quick google tells you how it works. Yes the electrons may come from coal but your supplier offsets that with purchases of green sourced energy. But dont let that get in the way of some classic grumbling/trolling.

[@huwevans2653]

@@chrischild3667 If you listen at 2.41, the lady says that the green energy is delivered to the houses. This is part of their selling pitch but not strictly true and so does nothing for their credibility and in my view the folks at Fully Charged should explain this.

[@chrischild3667]

@@huwevans2653 yea you're right. She's not clear, which isn't helpful. She says into your home via this and via that which sounds like the wind power flows through a series of players into your home, which wont be the case.

[@antonydanby]

I'm afraid I'm also going to add my disappointment to the mix too. I was hoping to hear some really good advice on setting up my house for green fuels and advice on things like mixergy and solar and how to go about integrating and what are the best things to do... Instead I get spoon-fed one commercial after another after another ... Such a disappointment... Makes me feel like cancelling my Fully Charged donations .... The cynic in me is wondering how much kick-back cash you earned from these "info-mercials"..... So unhappy right now !!

[@EX_WIZARD_YT]

blah blah blah, commercial, advertisement, some people talking while having some tea, more blah blah. i was expecting this series to actually learn something usefull. show us how they work. teach us, why and how istead of advertise.

[@markreed9853]

V2G is not going to be good for normal people's vehicles. The Chademo standard is the only one that supports it so far and is now dead in Europe and with CCS vehicles not currently supporting the standard, it's not going to be viable. Also added to the fact MOST people's vehicles won't be at home during the day to charge on excess solar/renewables and may return home with an empty battery so will be unable to supply a home at peak times. I do see it working on a business scale though especially with fleet vehicles like buses and vans where it could support the grid and help to pay for the extra costs of using EVs for a company. Also, the extra hardware costs would not be such a limiting factor. Battery storage at home needs to be accessed to charge or power 24/7 to make it work fully and the unreliability of the access to a V2G vehicle just does not give that.

[@SadmanStudios]

The music and graphic intro is so Stranger Things

[@jimmyryan5880]

I feel like you forgot to establish what that street is you keep showing.

[@falconeagle3655]

It's an interesting idea.

[@nealm1814]

Less infomercials and more journalism please

[@JB-xu1pm]

I would like to see a V2G adapter that would work with all EV's. I don't know if that is possible. Seems like the Nissan Leaf is the only mass market car that can do that. During the power outages this winter(Texas) I would have loved to tap into my EV's stored energy and keep the basic functions of the house running. I can see that the battery has more potential than moving the car. An EV has more potential uses that going to the store; I would love to harness that potential. We have to depend on Europe to prove and implement the technology. I don't see any organization in the states working seriously on V2G or V2H. Not even Tesla has announced those features. I would choose V2G or V2H over autonomous driving if I were looking at another EV. Agree with the comments, no hard examples of the technology just marketing.

[@petearmstrong2778]

Vehicle-to-grid - what is the impact on battery life with increased charge/discharges involved over time? Listening to all these solutions I reckon only a small percent of people can afford these. The total cost will dwarf the Pandemic costs to convert homes. Need some kind of payback over the life of the device although people would say 'but mine works fine now' so why pay extra. Big selling project to the public required - not something this Govt is good at!

[@examinerian]

I've not heard anything specific, so Nissan may be learning as much from this as the providers. One thing I do know, from info provided by OVO in their trial, is that Nissan will stand by battery warranties of cars involved in this, apart from the smallest 24kWh ones.

[@MrGMawson2438]

Good Idea

[@aabhisheks]

Can’t hear on speaker have to use headset for clarity

[@Dickie2702]

Sono Sion vehicle to load 11kw via it's charger. So you don't need house batteries to store solar or just use your car to power your house during peak demand then recharge on cheap EV tariff. Tesla are you listening??? There are such yawning gaps in the logic behind some of this stuff it beggars belief. Sono Sion £21,500, not available in RHD yet. Proper EV of the people. Best review of it is on this channel, 19mins of nodding and smiling guaranteed.

[@anwarmahmood573]

It's a shame he didn't ask whether investing in this wind farm was an alternative to -or complementary - to PV/PVT panels. (I might be able to Google that myself, but I think it should have been covered. After all, Bobby hasade a massive investment in solar himself.)

[@xlphos]

wind farm invested just results in a discounted energy bill, you don't get wind farm energy. You could have you own home solar + turbine on top.

[@anwarmahmood573]

@@xlphos thanks Power generation fluctuates over the year. In summer, wind generates not enough, solar generates too much. And vice versa. At a national level, if planned correctly, they can balance. But on a single household basis - and on a rate of return basis (given substantial amounts under discussion) - which is the best "value" investment? (assuming it's one or the other). It can be a wider discussion (CO2 avoided, etc, long term risk of wind farm investment that is subject to government whim, etc) but keeping it simple.

[@aabhisheks]

Vocal volume is less please amplify a bit