How to make your household energy independent?

On January 27, NGO «Ekoltava» has arranged a webinar “Affordable solutions for energy autonomy of a household”. Its participants were members of non-government organizations, representatives from territorial hromadas, small and middle entrepreneurs. The webinar was conducted by energy system engineer, junior scientist, Institute of economics and forecast, Ukrainian National academy of sciences, Andrii Semeniuk.

“To my mind, energy independence for Ukrainian households rapidly develops now and is to skyrocket after the end of war. People cherish home electricity and heating as never before. Energy independence becomes utter when implemented throughout hromadas, not only in separate households”, – pointed out Andrii Semeniuk.

In peace time, heat insulation was done primarily for considerations of sparing resources. In nowadays circumstances it is about avoiding freezing inside one’s apartment or stretching battery life to supply power for boiler, refrigerator, even home illumination. Andrii Semeniuk gave a typical example of how energy efficiency give help during blackout. 

“A battery of 500 W*h capacity provides only 5 hours of work when used for a 100 W light bulb, whereas with LED-bulb of approximately similar brightness the lights may stay on for even 100 hours”, – tells Andrii Semeniuk.

The speaker has considered the most relevant solutions for autonomous electricity. In the time of absence, one may power appliances with multiple-purpose batteries, charging stations, generators, or photovoltaic power units. Though, as Andrii Semeniuk stresses, every single variant differs in use. 

“Generators are of conventional and inverter kind. Inverter generators produce electricity more steadily in terms of voltage, and thus are good for direct powering sensitive electronics like desktop computers, – says Andrii Semeniuk. – They are allowed, though not recommended, for indoor use, definitely set in vented balcony to withdraw the exhaust beyond. Conventional generators are good outdoors only. They are much more noisy, produce more exhaust gases and require better cooling. They are capable to cover household needs almost completely, save perhaps powering electric cauldron, as it requires over 30 kW”.

Andrii Semeniuk has also told in details about probable approaches to autonomous heating and hot water supply, that is, the peculiarities of gas and solid-fuel cauldrons and water heaters, liquid-gas heaters, aerothermal and geothermal heat pumps.

Link to recorded webinar: 

https://www.facebook.com/100065374803545/videos/1324001098455414/ 

The webinar was held within the Initiative for development of environmental policy and advocation in Ukraine, implemented by International fund “Vidrodzhennia” under financial support of Sweden.