We woke up a bit chilly and a bit damp but had slept better than expected. It was a slow morning. We managed to fire up the generator and get the Nespresso coffee machine working. Julia bought it from Facebook Marketplace for £30 which was a bargain. We now own 3 machines - one in the Alps, one in Edinburgh and one on Coll. That might highlight the importance we place on our morning coffee!
I was procrastinating. We had to test the Nissan power supply and I was slightly dreading it. It was a big risk. We had bought a new car just days before because it had the potential to power our house in times of need. The Nissan Leaf has V2G (vehicle to grid) technology enables it to “export” electricity as well as import it. This is however slightly exaggerated. A few trials have been done with grid tied systems to use EVs (electric vehicles) as balancing batteries for the grid. The theory is that they can export unneeded power when grid demand is high and import it back to their batteries when there is a grid surplus. A network of electric cars then become an intelligent battery supply to the grid. This is a lovely idea but it is just that! The “intelligent” bit has proved too complex and to date there is no effective scaled application of this theory anywhere in the world. And, for us off-griders, there is nothing developed. Nothing except for one Chinese company that has developed a “machine” that you can plug into a Leaf and export up to 6kw of continuous power. This piece of kit costs £3,500 and you need to import it from China. I am the second owner of one of these bits of kit in the UK so I was perhaps understandably nervous about trying it out maybe to find that we had (a) wasted £3.5k on a useless box and (b) had by default chosen a Nissan Leaf as our next car without even comparing it to anything else.
I picked up this “machine” from a guy about 2 miles from Stonehenge which somehow amused me. Such an ancient place to acquire a bleeding edge piece of tech. We finally tested it and thank God it worked. And to top it all, there is a free fast charging station in the village, so in theory we will have unlimited free power. Let’s see…
Meanwhile, Julia had unpacked and built the new strimmer and got to work - cutting down the 6ft high reeds to reveal the ground where the house and the garage will be built. That went well although she ended up with a huge blood blister and various bruises from the pull start. Pull starting an engine is a difficult thing to explain how to do. You develop a feel for it which I’m sure she will have very soon!
We went to the village, bought a new gas cylinder from the hotel. It was a bit like a socially distanced drug deal in the car park. We are expected to quarantine for 10 days on arrival on the island which is a very sensible local policy.
We charged the car and had showers in the village hall. Luxury!
The weather and the Gods have been kind to us so far.
When we remember to do so we will take a photo from the same spot every day overlooking the plot so you can see the evolution (or not!). Here is the first one…
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