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Blogs

Back on the self-build waggon...

Battery Storage - Nearly 2 months in

As promised a little update on the Battery Storage. Firstly i'm very glad I bought when I did, as everything battery storage wise has skyrocketed in price since, even the prospect of adding a US2000C seems unlikely for now, though to be honest, going on my usage I don't think it would add a great deal of benefit.   So I'm running the Solis 5th Generation AC Coupled Inverter, which does have a couple of niggles, which at present are reducing its savings potential. Those issues are:
The Windy Roost

Breaking Ground

Wow, we have finally started, and what a journey.  The goal of the last 8 days was to try to make the the stars align. We had planned several meetings / connections deliveries all to happen the 1st week in April, and this was it, lets see what unfolds. Firstly, the plot, being located high up on the East coast in the highlands, which is basically a large un-serviced field has a few logistical issues, the main one being storage, the second distance. We had quotes for containers to
A woodland house

Finishing up

As predicted, progress has been a bit slow. We've been working away on internal joinery/finishing and a bit of outdoor landscaping when the weather allows (in-between baby-management and working). We got our building warrant completion cert. and VAT reclaim back about a month ago which has also helped.   Costs For reference, our finalised costs were just shy of £1300/sqm including all professional fees/admin, site setup, construction and fitting out costs. I think this is a fair r
West Sussex Forever Home

The roofs, the windows and the solar PV array

Well, it’s been quite a while since my last blog post but we’ve not been idle but I do admit to having been slack in updating the blog.   At the end of the last blog we had a superstructure and the roofer was about to begin his journey up the scaffolding. This is where that tale begins…..   ’Twas a sunny November morning when all was quiet that a white van man arrived at our site to felt, batten and slate our sloping roofs. And he wasted no time at all in cracking on with it
A Rainfuel project

Rainfuel

Rainfuel is a concept that has recently come to my attention. Like all inventor types into not wanting to buy power, the mind jumps to having the whole of the north facing roof covered and obtaining power when wet, day or night!   The principle seems to be (I am now opening myself to being corrected) that each rain drop falling form the sky has a small charge and collecting all those small charges could produce sensible power.     The first things I want to know is will this
The Fun Irish (House)

2022 Update

After giving up for a year or two, my stubborn side has gotten hold of me. I've been looking at direct labour and surmounting the crazy compliance regime in Ireland when building a new house and involving a bank. As I can't afford an Architect or a builder I needed someone else to sign off the build stages & compliance paperwork. Well, I finally found someone for 5K so that hurdle was crossed. I then went about examining the planning permission I had previous obtained. There was a compliance
Back on the self-build waggon...

Battery Storage installed

After pondering battery storage for many years, and then the energy prices rocketing this last year, i finally decided to give energy storage a shot, working out how it would sit financially was extremely difficult, and a little bit of a finger in the wind, but as the batteries have a designed lifetime of 15years now, and energy prices rarely go down, I figured it would pay for itself with some profit over the long term, whilst also reducing my carbon emissions and reliance on the grid.  
ASHP, MVHR, PV and EV combo

Combo

Running all 4 in the winter is quite interesting:   PV generation: About a week with overcast skies and then a couple of days of sun.   January is supposed to be the low point for PV generation. Based on the EU calculator we should produce about 180kWh in January. We measured 195 which is about 6.3kWh a day on average. However generation happened spasmodically along with the weather.  For example 14kWh on a good day and 0.86kWh on a poor day.   EV Having t
ASHP, MVHR, PV and EV combo

Fitting and running an ASHP

Since January 5th we have used 222kWh on the ASHP over the last 26 days. That's about 9kWh per day for heating and hot water. However some days the hot water temperature has been boosted by the PV excess power going into the immersion heater so let's assume 8kWh per day for 100m2 home. The heating is running 24 hours a day at an average of 20C. The outside temperature has been low (I will look up the records later) with only about 4 nights of frost.   Results from trying different
The House at the Bottom of the Garden

The Economics of our SunAmps

We use 2 × SunAmp PVs for our HW system in a household of 3 people. According to our water bills, our consumption is about 83 ltr per person per day. Our pattern of use is pretty even across the year: more showers in the summer; an occasional shared bath in the winter.   The year round average temperature of our rising main is 11.3 °C (Oh, the wonders of logging everything in a DB and knowing how to do SQL subqueries).   The H/W manifold is mixed to 53°C (perhaps a li
The Windy Roost

Plans and Planning

The story so far. My background of building has helped; our modest budget dictates the house will be modest and simple. Highland planning guidance wants single or 1.5 storey houses, ideally traditional looking, or architecturally beneficial.  Architects as a whole are probably the most important people to take Ideas and turn them into a deliverable home.  Unfortunately an architect for us is unaffordable.   We have a budget, and we have to squeeze and leverage every penny fro
  • Jenki
The Windy Roost

The Windy Roost

Over the years, 24 and counting, as a couple we’ve never settled, bought a house needing doing up, renovated it, lived in it, whilst bringing up our son. Sold, moved to rented, bought and renovated others. Sold and moved on, but never settled.  Thought about emigrating, a disastrous foray into overseas property and we still found ourselves unsettled. The thought of doing something different with our lives and possibly working together was always there.  Over the years I’ve built
  • Jenki
The House at the Bottom of the Garden

An Overview of my House Heating and Controls 4 years on

We moved into our new build mid-December 2017 in time to host an extended family Christmas.  We are now over 4 years into living in our new home.  We have lots of accumulated experience and made a few small tweaks.  However, we are delighted about how the house has turned out, and we love living here.  There were no material cock-ups, or regrets on design decisions, so we have probably fared a lot better than most new purchasers or self-builders.  Maybe a general experiences post should be on th
ASHP, MVHR, PV and EV combo

ASHP Performance

There have been lots of discussions about the effectiveness and efficiency of an ASHP and so I am keeping basic records. I have my own electric meter on the supply to the ASHP so I know how much power has been used whether from the mains or the PV.   The result so far using the ASHP installed is 123 kWhs have been supplied to the ASHP from Jan 1 to Jan the 21st to heat the building and hot water. As it is difficult to split the power used for hot water (and we have an immersion using t

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