Eco-conquering the washing machine: part 1

The other day a clever man suggested that instead of running our washing machine directly from the generator, our solar/wind-powered system could handle a cold wash on its own.

Until now I've been too frightened to even consider trying to run the washing machine without the generator. All that water-churning and spinning must, I assumed, take loads of power: too much perhaps for our little alternative system. As a consequence, doing the washing is a noisy business with the washing machine and generator thundering away together; and not very green or cheap at all as it uses up half a tank of petrol (and, incidentally, about 80 litres of water).

What I do know about washing machines though is that heating up the water takes the most energy out of of the whole cycle. As I needed to wash some sheets and I didn't want to wash them in cold water, I decided to experiment.

I ran the first half of the wash as usual from the generator. This meant that the water was heated up to 40 degrees by petrol power. Then I switched off the genny (oh, the silence!), crossed my fingers and plugged into the other system which was being powered up nicely by the midday sun.

With my hand hovering over the washing machine's off switch in case anything suddenly went horribly wrong, I watched how much energy it was using. It turned out that the sun could manage perfectly well - the machine's needs were relatively modest. (For anyone interested, it took about 15 amps to turn the drum around each time during the rinse cycle, and spinning took about 29 amps.)

A success!

Next step: to reduce the machine's water and energy consumption by getting the ecoballs out of the box and cutting out a few of the three or four rinses that it seems to think that it needs.

Next step after that: to supply water to the washing machine which has already been warmed by the sun (or at least gas until we get a solar water system).

• Spotted today - a lovely big hairy bumblebee and - I think - a hummingbird hawk moth.

Face to face with praying mantis

Found while gardening...

Bugs

There are lots of dragonflies around at the moment. On my first evening back from England I sat on the terrace as the sun set watching their wings flashing in the fading light.

David spotted an odd-looking beetle a couple of weeks ago. He called it Dali.

And in the evening, the best entertainment is to sit on the terrace and watch as the geckos race each other to snatch up the moths that flutter around the light. I don't have any photos as they're far too fast for me to capture. But I did manage to photograph the praying mantis that turned up one evening.

Some days are better than others

It's not all wonderful views and non-stop fiestas, you know. Today isn't going well.

We had been feeling really pleased with ourselves for learning to manage our off-grid power system. We've been diligently making sure that everything's well charged up and we've been trying to be as nice as possible to the batteries (how to care for batteries is the source of much debate among the off-grid community). Then this morning, just as we plugged in the generator to boost the system, suddenly all the power disappeared from the batteries. They'd been reading that they were 97% charged and they plunged to 0% for no apparent reason.

So it's now 6.30pm and we've had the generator on since about 9.30am trying to get them back up to 100%. We're still only on 62%. I've been trawling the internet to try to find out what went wrong. All I'm finding is more things to worry about (why we're not getting a full charge, whether the solar panels are working properly, whether we've got too many things pulling power out and not enough going in...).

On top of that, there are loads of wasps taking a peculiar interest in my pot of mint outside the front door, and I'm too scared to move it. I moved all the other plants in case they too became similarly affected and I've just discovered that the protective lid has blown off the salad seedlings and they've all perished in the sun.

I got attacked by a swarm of black flies earlier. The tiny mosca negra is much dreaded in these parts - some people are allergic to their bites and they're said to plague the Ebro region. I hadn't worried much about them as I hadn't seen many - until today. So I went into panic mode, coated myself in some honey moisturiser which is supposed to fend them off and sprayed fly spray around the house in case any had come inside. (I know fly spray is bad, but there is a time and a place for it.) The cat then ran back inside the house - right into the toxic fumes - so I had to dive in after her - fireman-style with my hand over my mouth - and pull her out. The spray didn't kill any flies anyway.

And in addition to the generator thundering away all day, David has been strimming while I've been trying to concentrate on work. So much for peace and quiet - grrr.