EasyGrid 10000 Case Study
When you are based in Sunbury upon Thames, a busy London suburb, you wouldn’t think getting a grid connection would be tricky. However, the Feltham & Twickenham Piscastorial Society who have run an angling club at Sivyers Lake for 40 years, have never been able to get a grid connection due to prohibitive access issues.
For the last two decades, the club has grown their membership to 1000 members with the lake supporting over £100,000 worth of fish. The whole facility was powered solely by a diesel generator which was both expensive to run and noisy for their neighbours.
The club needed to source a reliable, efficient power system with a large enough capacity to cover the site’s essential loads, including the water pumps (splashers), an underground pump, borehole and general loads in the outbuilding such as the fridge/freezer and lights.
The splasher’s are an essential tool for the club and are just used in summer when the water is warmer and does not hold as much oxygen. The splashers pump water from the lake up into the air - like a fountain - allowing it to gain oxygen before going back into the lake, effectively providing more oxygen for the fish. In winter the splashers are removed as the water naturally holds more oxygen in cooler temperatures.
Kevin Compton at the Society spoke with Energy’s Off Grid team after a visit to one of the company’s off grid open days. He explains: “We needed a system that was completely reliable. The Splashers are essential to keep our fish healthy and the club busy. We felt very comfortable with the EasyGrid Off Grid System - it offered silent power with effective use of solar energy but the confidence of generator power for peak power and back up. The Off Grid team helped us pick the right elements for our needs, both now and in the future and offer us a great level of back up technical & service support.”
Gurvinder Johal at Energy Solutions further explains: “The system has an integral 3G router which allows us to monitor and access the system remotely and make small adjustments if needed. It also gives the owners remote monitoring, so they can see what is happening with the power even when they are off site. The system was also specified to include an additional solar charge controller. This allows the Society to add more solar panels at a later date to make even more use of renewable energy.”
The system has been in operation now for a couple of months and is a wonderful example of how off grid power can work to reduce fuel costs and diesel emissions whilst using renewable energy to power busy social and leisure facilities.