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Yeh if it's a case that the financals work out for 30 years but the plant has been designed to last longer then fine. Someones planning for future profits, that's a different issue. If we get to 30 years in and they then turn around and say we need further massive investment if you want to continue for another 20 years then given the previous massive investment it's very poor planning.

Hi Alan, we would love to come, but in a frantic dash for move in at end of May, (no it won't be all finished), so unlikely we'll make it. Hope all is going to plan J

I suspect the design life is to justify the high price they want per kilowatt as if they gave it a 50 year life the capitol rite off costs per year would be 50% CHEAPER

looking at it again I would go back up there when its raining the stain on ceiling will most likely caused by water -- not bee/wasp residue

Sure. I would expect that for a plant opening today that very few of the components would be original in 30 years time. But that to me is maintenance. If our existing fleet is running for 50 years, it just seems like we should design new plant to have the same life (with the expected maintenance). It's the parts that can't easily be swapped out that need to be designed to live the longest. And if we have managed to get parts that we built 40-50 years ago to live until today then we should be able to design the new parts to do the same. Not maintenance free for 50 years, but to last 50 years with planned and scheduled maintenance. Most importantly with a design that allows for all the maintenance tasks we have found necessary on the old plant to be possible and planned for on the new plant.

That's a long design life for industrial equipment. Nuclear design life's for equipment is generally way shorter than the same piece of equipment in general industry and it's maintained multiple more times frequently. Think the issue with nuclear plant design is the reaction containment and it's certification. The balance of plant i.e. Pressure vessels, steam turbines, water pumps, piping etc will be overhauled and recertified many time in 30 years plus, with the pressure containing parts regularly recertified, following inspecting for cracks, material loss and wear etc.

Suppose depends if you call it PV or black glass fence panels. And how you interpret permitted development rules on area for a ground array, is it ground area or panel area. 16m x 35mm isn't much ground area. Do it in bifacial panels, so it looks pretty (black glass) both sides rather than black glass one side and white plastic the other.

Hongfa seem to be reasonable. They are stocked by RS (socket, relay) and Farnell (socket, relay) TEM (socket) https://www.hongfa.com/product/relay-socket/41F-Sockets https://source.hongfa.com//Api/DownloadPdf/201 Aliexpress are just a bit cheaper than most places for them if they aren't knockoffs which is hopefully unlikely. It would be good is LCSC did them A 20way solution with a GPIO buffer would probably run to 2*£30 + £20 = £80 which shows the good value of the Waveshare options not to mention the really cheap ones.

You have been lied to.

In the grand scheme of bureaucracies, the actually paperwork for MCS on each job, is probably not that bad, but it does take a few hours to complete. Most of it's done when doing a proper design. But the issue was more the actual process of gaining the MCS certification to begin with and the ongoing required QMS stuff - not designed for small businesses at all. Yes, looked at those. My issue is the permitted development limitations. I keep on getting conflicting information about this. We need to replace our south facing fence, which would give us a stretch of 16m of fence to mount the panels and would be ideal. Some say I need planning, some do not. And our local planning dept don't seem to know what they're talking about as I had one tell me heat pumps can't be installed in conservation areas!

Or, I'm told, the omnibus on Sunday is good.

That's good to know👍

I am sure some economists, accountants, engineers etc go through all this at the initial stages. 30 years ago, no one bought a car thinking it would last 20 years, let alone 30. But we have a lot of 20 year old cars on the roads these days (mine is 16 years old). But then, 30 years ago, no one would have thought a Ford Escort, no Focus, would be a £30k car. Or that PV would come in at 10p/W.

Nice: https://thepihut.com/products/modbus-rtu-32-channel-relay-module https://www.waveshare.com/wiki/Modbus_RTU_Relay_32CH Waveshare are normally pretty good. I can't see any CE mark statement though. Pros: Cheap: £2 / channel -> £3 / channel with RS485 converter and PSU OK ON power: 11.7W / 32 = 366mW / channel Reputable: medium/high though question on CE mark Well supported Cons: It does have significant single points of failure though. I'll always be able to get DIN mounted relays. CE mark? I like Modbus / RS485 and have used it in some fun applications but it's overkill for my setup since they will be co-located. That said, it's a quick solution to the interfacing challenge. Waveshare make some other interesting items: 8-Channel ESP32-S3 WiFi Relay Module with RS485 (PoE Option) £48 30-Channel Ethernet Relay Module with PoE £67 sold out 16-Channel Modbus Ethernet Relay Module £53

Prices at Bimble Solar don't seem much higher than last time I checked. Guess they have older stock but worth looking at if looking to buy.

Well done @RedRhino @SimonD PV vertical panel fence, or ground mount. Vertical great winter performance at the cost of a small hit in summer in ultimate production, opposite true for ground mount. DIY install, apply for export via octopus - no MCS in site, or needed. Only issue is panels have doubled in cost over the last 3 months. But still cheaper than a fence panel.

Well quite, it's why I'd expect a new plant to be designed to last at least as long without the expensive life extension. Obviously maintenance, even fairly expensive maintenance, will be required to last that long. But if planned for upfront it's a lot cheaper than just building for 30 years and dealing with extension at a later date.

Honestly surprised by this They extend the life of them, at great expense. https://www.imeche.org/policy-and-press/from-our-perspective/energy-theme/nuclear-power/about-nuclear-power/the-future-of-nuclear/plant-life-extension

Was a while back, and things have changed, but when we were doing MCD PV, we got asked to do an ASHP and the MCS paperwork was quite minor as we already had most of it.

OMG! 😁 My wife mentioned this in passing the other day - asking if I shouldn't start doing solar too. I reminded her of the pain of MSC certification for heat pumps, lets do one thing at a time, and she went quiet. But on a more serious note, I have done an initial design for the house which could solve the problem 😊

My go-to is the Waveshare 32ch modbus RTU relay - been running a a few for over a year now, very stable. However i can't see evidence of CE mark now. Not even the old incorrect kerning "China Export" variant

Yeh you clearly have the design right for the 'rip it out and replace with dumb wiring' option. But personally I want a solution to be that plus 'if the central hub fails, the light switches still work'. This is easy with sonoff style smart solutions (the switch modules can be programed to work like normal switches if the central hub is down). Little more difficult to find solutions with centralised dimmers. If installing a relay based solution then the european way of doing it works well (assuming you can get three way retractive switches and use latched relays). Switches on the wall are directly wired into the on/off coils of the relevant relays and in parallel you wire your smart system. Thus a switch on the wall directly triggers the relay but so can your smart system.

Honestly surprised by this. Given the cost of it (financial and environmental) I was thinking it was more like 50years. AFAIK, the last gen of nuclear is generally delivering 50 years ish of life.

They'll have something to remember me by when they are sat in the dark 🤣 Have have wired the house so that it can be converted to a conventional switch based one by only making changes near the consumer unit. That said, it would be good to have the type of relay that has a switch override so that all could be left switched on and then smart bulbs used instead.

*tongue in cheek* That's not the answer I expect from someone who decided there weren't any good heating installers so became one himself. Time to become a 'pv and heatpump' specialist