Vriconian Home
WHAT IS VRICONIAN ?
Vriconian is a simple to use blog-style resource providing information & experience-based user insight into becoming more energy efficient, as well as hopefully acting as your preferred information-hub, identifying and linking to useful information and tools available elsewhere.
Decisions ... decisions .... decisions ...
Yes, on many occasions our decision making process is pretty hard, sometimes seemingly impossible, this especially so when it involves a subject matter which we have heard of, but know little about ... even more-so when the decision involves our hard earned money and someone looking to sell us something.
How many times have we been in a position where we've looked into something so much that we've become totally confounded by information overload to an extent where confusion reigns? .... times where we would look to talk to someone we would trust more than companies and salesmen with their own vested interests in their own products & services .... someone who has already navigated the path we are considering .... someone with experience or ideas upon which we could call on for impartial assistance which could help in the decision making process .
How many times have we made a decision 'to do', before soon discovering that we're in a position where confusion reigns? .... times we've just given up and done nothing, a conscious or subconscious decision 'not to do'
Over the years I've been in that very position where confusion reigns, especially when it comes to energy efficiency measures, whether they be for ecological or simply money saving reasons - or even both. As it stands, what has been done to date has been successful and I certainly intend to keep it that way.
Ideas which at first seemed plausible even to me have, through applying a little logic and some basic arithmetic, been found to be more than a little 'overplayed', therefore discarded from the potential 'to do' list. Many people have applied their own similar logical tests and arrived at the same conclusion, however, that leaves a considerable number who may not have.
Unlike many resources, Vriconian looks at solutions from a user viewpoint and is here to help, acting as a simple to use blog-style resource providing information & experience-based insight into becoming more energy efficient, as well as hopefully acting as your preferred information-hub, with the spokes linking to applicable useful details and tools available elsewhere.
VRICONIAN
FEATURED
RECENT
Saving Energy:
A taste of things to come
Okay, so there's been mention of energy savings and the beginnings of a site structure, but what's it really all about, surely this is just another blog by someone who's done little else than installed solar PV ..... isn't it?
Well, yes solar PV is somewhere in the energy reduction mix, but it goes much, much further than that, probably much, much further than most expert information would dare propose possible ... so here's a quick taster of the effect, the cause being described later ...
The journey to becoming more energy efficient begins in the mid 1980s with the adoption of early generation CFLs in what would have been considered a well insulated property at the time, so we've never really been wasteful with regards to energy. Move on 10 years and we get to the present property, a larger than average detached house built in the early 1980's to insulation standards which surpassed building regulations at the time, but on occasions has still required in excess of ~40000kWh of gas and ~5000kWh of electricity to be purchased in a year, so efficiency improvements obviously needed to be made.
Low hanging fruit came first in the form of running the heating system on a timed profile instead of constant, moderating temperature settings, upgrading the central heating controls, with electrical items being replaced with with more efficient versions as and when needed, but this was on a totally unplanned basis apart from being efficiency and consumption aware. Overall energy requirements had been reduced considerably with little effort, but that brings us towards the beginning, so here's a taster ...
At the top of this article & below we have charts detailing monthly and rolling 12 month average energy consumption for the past 12 years to the end of May 2017 for both electricity and gas.
Many I talk to find it interesting that this level of energy reduction can be achieved in a property built in the 1980s, and of course, according to almost every official source this is impossible - well, apparently not, hence the reasoning for this site.
Guidance & Tips:
A taste of things to come
One of the major issues which arise when looking into anything which is unfamiliar is the simple question - 'where do I start?'
Vriconian intends to provide useful guidance & tips to assist anyone new to energy saving and renewable technologies to consider & address the necessary questions, thereby reducing both the learning process timescale and hopefully any decision making pitfalls.
Below is an example of information which will be provided in the form of an early stage decision process flowchart which should prove useful to anyone currently thinking about installing a domestic scale PV system in the UK. It may not cover all aspects and possibilities, but hopefully the level of detail will help anyone new to PV to ask themselves the right questions and have a basic plan prior to moving to the next stage and committing to any expenditure.
