The Languedoc Page - articles by Derek Andrews

So now we have to get down to the nitty-gritty (or more like with me... when the going gets tough... the tough go shopping).

I think I may have been a bit over technical for some on the first two pages, as one email went, "What's a CFL" ??

A CFL is one of those (in their first generation) light bulbs with two or more U shaped tubes, that were immediately boycotted by Madame who said they were 'moche', true, very efficient, but not esthetically pleasing.

Things have come a long way since and now they have been reduced in size and even (on my bench) look like normal bulbs now, but with a great difference. They consume even less, fire up quicker, and produce a much more pleasing light. One of the best I have found for use in the office is a Philips Softone Model T65, screw mount, 20W which produces huge amounts of light and is actually better than a 100W normal bulb... even better with a 6 year guarantee... they've been given the seal of approval by madame, so they must be good. (Philips Code 658906xx).

Newbies for 2007... 12V and 230V light spots in LED... 5W led units that directly replace 50W halogens... whiter light, 92% efficiency and 100 000hrs life... will soon have some supplies of these direct from the factory in the USA. Not going to be cheap (€40 each) but think that you will NEVER have to replace a spot again in your lifetime (think of all those saved digits that would otherwise get singed when changing halogens!!)

Here in France, things have gotten a touch simpler over the years. Not long ago, personal turbines in the back garden were shunned and the paperwork involved caused many grey hairs and coronary bypasses. Not so now... all that is needed is... a DECLARATION DES TRAVAUX for a turbine that has a mast of less than 12m high. You now only need the dreaded PERMIS DE CONSTRUIRE if you want to put a 15m tower or bigger.

Here I sell, and can have installed for you, turbines from 200Watts through to 20 000Watts. I can go to 50KW, but it's overkill!

A recent installation for a British couple in dept 50, ran to €2500 TTC for a turbine, controller, 12V 300AH battery, the mast and a 1400W inverter and a days installation included to give power to an old pigsty being turned into a workshop... now complete with light and power.

If you take a standard home with a 6KW supply from EDF, remove phantom loads (all those things you leave on standby) and economise your demands with low consumption lighting, energy efficient kitchen equipment and no electric radiators, you can reduce your demands down to very little.

A recent survey for a Brit family in Brittany revealed that 'left as before' the house (180m² and 5 bedrooms with 4 kids!) used over 6000 KWH per month, but with all the lights changed to CFL, kitchen appliances modified or changed (modified means putting in an OFF switch into the wall where the plug is), heating changed to other forms and LED lighting in the garden, the demand fell to a miserly 2000KWH per month, or a saving of over €250 per month (EDF bill). We are working on how to lower this even more by switching the pool heating to sunpower and putting in 'PFC' (power factor correcting.... much too complicated to explain here) units onto things like Playstations, PCs, TV, video, dvd etc to get the phantom loads to go away. -

Phantom loads (things left on or in standby that do nothing!). Set top TNT / Freeview / Sky box consumes 10WH.... 240WH per day...87.6KWH per year.... €0.02 per day... or €7 per year.

PC with 17 inch TFT screen, adsl etc consumes over 32WH... 768WH per day...280KWH per year.... over €21 per year.

Add up in your house what is left on standby and the imagine the savings you could make, when all is switched off.

With the house in dept22, the phantom loads alone reduced the monthly EDF bill by €46, that's €552 per year to start with.

So once all the economies have been started, a turbine or a turbine with solar panels can be built to give you effectively an opportunity to use your own power generation for (1) power cuts or (2) with a shunt to trip EDF off (but you still have to pay for the abonnement).(That we all have to pay, unless the stately ruin you buy to renovate has no hookup then the renewable possibilities come into their own.

A complete hybrid system is underway in Brittany, turbine of 1500W, 800W of solar plates, 6m² of solar heating tubes, 800W heat pump and 6m² of solar tubes for the pool and a nice battery and several split charge inverters all for an initial outlay of €50000, but this is only a third of what EDF wanted to charge for 1400m of electricity hookup to the national grid.

OK then... turbines. Come basically in two types... the horizontal axis (like all big turbines today) and the Vertical Axis. The vertical axis is the most pleasing to see, as it is just like a rectangular box that pivots on its base. These are much more efficient than a horizontal one as they do not have to waste mechanical effort to turn into the wind... the wind finds them!!

Anyway, in the next instalment, we shall look into the turbines themselves and see how everyone could have or use a turbine in the day to day running of the house, home and garden.

Derek Andrews, is a happily married ex-pat Brit living and running a small company based in Saint Malo specialising in the economy of energy, the production of electricity in all its forms and the safe usage of this energy. His website is here.

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One of a series of articles about electricity and alternative energy by Derek Andrews