All Activity

Just a thought, possibly a bad scenario. If there are a number of grid connected system, and one of them is an islanding system that is incorrectly wired in, so it does not disconnect from the grid, would the other systems still be connected and running? I know that most inverters check that grid impedance as part of the running/disconnect protocol, but that may be within tolerances in a rural setting. An unlikely scenario I know, but with millions of systems fitted, unlikely becomes inevitable.

Ah, Trenton, PA, part of the rust belt. I lived in Meltdown Midtown, PA, slightly more classy. Unless she is on the NJ side.

The brush on stuff is good, just when you use it it tends to either need to be lathered on to allow the fibres to bridge stuff (which means it takes days to dry) or you brush most of that back off. It’s a bit of a fiddle to get used to applying it, plus you then use a lot more than perhaps you needed. One benefit, as it says it’ll plug 5mm pores, is you could miss the parge work out, but it needs more coats lathered on and lots of drying time vs parge and thin coats of the liquid AVCL. If times against you, I’d parge.

I completely agree. Investigate first. For example - when we bought our shell for development, the bungalow built in the 1920s, which we had to live in for a few years was extremely damp - I installed a pretty heavy duty extractor in the bathroom as a first step because there wasn't one in there. We found problems in a few of the rooms that had to be addressed and when we stripped out the old kitchen, we found black mould completely covering the wall behind the cupboards.

Use flexible tile adhesive instead of sand / cement, you’ll thank me later Use the standard set not rapid, and mix it to quite a stiff consistency. You don’t need a 5mm thick layer so don’t go wasting time / money getting these perfect and uniform. Just get it on, do a couple of reveals, go back to the first and trowel it to get it half decent, and then go over with a wet sponge an hour later to get a ripple free finish. Couple of hours later you can paint the liquid AVCL over the parge. Moisture will soak into the mortar so don’t worry about it not having fully dried out. I do about 150-200mm of parge, then about 100mm of liquid AVCL, minimum 2 coats, leave to fully dry (this is very important) then tape to that. How much of the cavity closer will be exposed between the frames and the tape / parge?

Daughter lives in Trenton and Electricity is 12c per Kw/h and monthly charge is $6...she has 15Kw of panels which cost $30000 but then claimed a third back from state grant and a third back from Tax as well as capital allowance on full cost on federal tax. Her meter builds credits during over production then uses credits during lean times- so free battery! she gets carbon credits at $900/ year and end of year payment on any outstanding meter credits-which were $1200 last year. She has paid only $60 per year for the benefit of using the grid network. We are mugs in UK....

I want to ensure the laps/wings of the plastic closer have a good seal to the inner block work and need the closers fit before Tuesday windows. The brush on soudal lq has reinforcement fibres in and is a paste and much thicker than what will be sprayed onto the inside block work later on using their sp version. Its already bought. Passive purple is great but the price was far too expensive.

I was with your old Mayor on Tuesday, he is a relative on mine. Did not mention your problems as he now deals with nuclear stuff. Was interesting as we had not seen each other since 1968.

Hi, I'll reply to you both. Correct me if theres a better order to do this before or after the windows are fitted next week. I was thinking i need to do some upfront work. See picture for my window reveal. Its 100mm dense block inner, 100mm pir set back by the depth of the plastic cavity closer 25mm. 50mm air gap, 100mm facing brick. I'm going to fit the cavity closers this weekend before the windows go in. Im modifying them and adding 50mm thick pir to make them 75mm total, the extra bit wont bridge the cavity, but will overlap the set back window frame. I'm using soundal soudatight brush on around the reveals, the rest of the walls will later be sprayed after chases are completed Cant get anyone to wet plaster so dot and dab boards. I planned to paint the reveals this weekend to seal up pores in the blocks, then add the cavity closers over lapping, then tape closers to blocks, then windows fitted with the straps drilled into the inner block work, and then touch up over the brackets and screws with tape or more membrane. That way any air tight tapes are adhering to painted blockwork and will adhere much better than to bae dusty blockwork. I thought if i fit closers, then windows in, then try to paint over it all and tape closers to blocks it will get messy. It sounds like i need to parge coat the reveals with sand a cement asap, then add soudal liquid membrane paint, then cavity closers, then windows fitted, then tape over? @Nickfromwales

Its not electrically the same if the DNOs cable gets disconnected/severed which seems to be your concern?? Outside of your house isn't under your control but inside your house is, so you can ensure that link remains. If your inverter meets UK grid regs then there will be people at Growatt that understand the UK grid so should be able to clarify things for you??

Yea, same with systems we use in swimming pool halls, so the buildings constantly depressurised. This promotes chlorine being evacuated vs the space being pressurised and it then trying to find a way out through the build fabric (or into the house). Learn some odd facts along the way when dealing with loads of different / bespoke projects, and I’ve picked up lots of important things you’d (and I’d) otherwise never have thought twice about.

Sorry if my post wasn't clear enough. There's the unfortunate tendency in construction of using terms interchangeably in unhelpful ways. By sarking boards I do indeed refer to the 100 or generally 150 x 22mm boards and not the woodfibre sarking boards. If you were to use woodfibre sarking boards your roof buildup would change dramatically and you would dump the pir and instead use woodfibre bats between rafter with woodfibre sarking boards on top, then battens running inline with the rafter fixed through the sarking to the rafters then 150mm sarking boards/plywood, membrane, standing seam. This gives you a cold roof, which is still preferred in traditional standing seam roofing design due to the requirements of very careful detailing if doing a warm roof. If you wanted to go down the warm roof, then have a look at the buildup provided by pro clima, but which uses woodfibre batts between rafters, 150mm sarking, pro-clima metal roof underlay, metal roof. https://proclima.com/products/external-sealing My view is that if you're going down the route of natural materials such as woodfibre or celulose, or even sheepswool, you stick to a buildup with all those materials as a homogeneous system. Likewise, if you want to go down the route of kooltherm/pir, then use a system buildup as specified by the manufacturers. This reduces your risks of cockups, misunderstandings and mistakes during the build, especially when you might have trades that don't know the system. JMHO.

Even if the link was in the grid somewhere, isn't it electrically the same? The trouble is it probably covers different countries and is a bit generic. I am wondering what UK people think. The Sunsynk manual has the same schematic.

Our appeal win was largely down to the public benefit of having a high EPC rating, so it really is important early in the process for some.

I agree with this, but was just commenting on the MVHR balancing point (and not suggesting the MVHR is the solution here). @Potatoman, for a short term fix while you figure out what's happening and what to do about it, consider getting a dehumidifier. They can make a world of difference and aren't expensive to run (pennies per hour). If you consider this option, look at Meaco. They're a British company who make very good quality units for not crazy prices. Three year warranty as standard and I've heard of them helping people beyond that time too.

One of my kids lives in Amsterdam. The roads near where he lives are being redone. It's taken a year but you can really see the quality of the work.

I'm not paying £220 however good it is. I might get the Einhell pruning size as I have the batteries and my tools remain faultless after 10+ years and a lot of use.

The Dutch redo their streets on roughly a 30 year cycle. But they plan ahead, and invest, and have decent design standards, all of which are anathema in the UK. Here's a video an online friend made when his was done. 12 minutes.

Does nobody agree with me that the first issue is find why it is damp. It is unlikely to be a sealed building so extract fans will find air to pull in. There is a tendency to throw expensive technology at an issue before proper investigation. Gutter, dpc, render? @Potatoman where is the damp? On windows, walls, generally?

It depends if anyone notices. Horse stiles need "repairing" by removal of the pieces that block wheelchairs. Sometimes.

The system should definitely be balanced by system design, but some units (including all Brink ones, I believe) auto balance by adjusting relative fan speeds. I seem to recall that some actually allow you to set a slight bias one way or the other, to slightly pressurise or depressurise the house.

As both the house loads and the inverter are connected to both the earthbar and neutral bars in the schematic, I take it that Growatt expect that E-N link to be within your house. It's a poor schematic if that's depicting the link to be out in the grid somewhere. Probably worth asking Growatt for clarification??

Gonna be a while….

One pothole at a time.

And that, exactly that - is the point. I'd love to be challenged. The local paper can do with some relevant content. 50 meters away is a similar size pothole that has been filled with concrete. The repair is at least four years old. It's a beautiful neat job. Nobody was taken to task about that. ( A local business owner sorted it out quickly, quietly) It's stopped raining - if I get time I'll pop out and buy some quick-dry, and document the repair here. Up The Revolution Citizens!