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4kW Hiaer heat pump £2050 incl VAT from Wolseley (you may need to buy an indoor unit also now). You will 2x anti freeze valves an isolated valve and couple of flex hoses. Install direct to UFH manifold. Buy a direct cylinder and just heat via immersion about £500. Any plumber can install your cylinder. About £3k for parts plus labour to install.

Is the barn yours and on the same site ? If so I do not understand why you cannot come from there. Is it worth talking to your electrician?

Hi Everyone, Received quotes back from DNO for New Build, they have come in at over 16k for single phase, 23kVA import capacity with 25kVA transformer or over 23k for 3 phase, 40kVA import capacity with 100kVA transformer. Both require a post and relevant transformers. Power lines run along one side of our plot so distance isn't a factor. Our set up will be 12Kw ASHP 21 x 510w solar panels 12Kwh back up battery Fast charge EV charger Induction Hob Small workshop Usual household appliances etc. These costs seem excessive, frustration is there is already 3phase to existing barn but we cannot use this to reduce cost according to DNO, their quote to upgrade existing transformer came in more expensive. My question is, do we go with the single phase or 3 phase given this is our only source of power and we want to future proof as much as possible? Quote between contestable and non-contestable costs are less than 1k so not sure where savings can be made.

I think the core point is that the majority of the rise in electricity prices is down to the rise in gas prices rather than "net zero"

A reasonable point. The growth in renewables since 2010 has been pretty remarkable 2010 less than 5% 2015 about 25% 2020 about 40% 2025 about 50% 2015 was when the carbon emissions from our grid really started dropping. Back then UK gas was about 35p a therm. So the rise in wholesale prices over that period is even more - so presumably the rise in electricity prices attributable to gas prices would be similarly steep.

Hi All. I am looking to have a heat pump and 250l cylinder installed in Somerset. I have had 2 heat loss calculations and two quotes. Both come to over 12k for a 4/5kw heat pump and cylinder system. The flow and return pipework is already in. UFH and manifold on the ground floor. I don't know how they can justify that cost but unless I can find an alternative I am going to have to go with it. I have already had the BUS voucher (which has expired but I am eligible). I have wasted 6 weeks while my useless plumber goes back and forth with the plumb centre and they are quoting to install a pre plumbed cylinder with a buffer tank. I absolutely don't want/need a buffer tank or zoning. I have had to take out a bridging loan to complete the build so every month wasted is costing a fortune so I am looking at all options, one of which is forgetting the BUS grant/MCS and just getting someone to get on with it, hence my question here. I am all ears if anyone can recommend an alternative course of action. The heat loss for the house is 3.2 - 3.4kw. MVHR is installed. It is a 3 bed detached new build with UFH on each floor (the first floor is yet to be done but I have a design and think I will get the builder to do this.)

I looked into this a few years back, there should be something about it posted up. Pretty sure that in the inverter data sheet it states what the minimum load is, but I really can't fully remember now. Can make running a few low wattage lights on an off grid system a bit tricky.

Having had our battery up and running for a few months I've noticed that the battery inverter seems to allow up to around 300w of power to be drawn from the grid before it starts to ramp up battery power to supply the house load. If the house is load is 200w it all comes from the grid. If the. house load is 500w, 300w comes from the grid and 200w from the battery. If this grid draw is at peak rates, which it is through the day, it adds up to £100s a year! The grid draw is roughly the same on the inverters meter on the house incomer and on the smart meter display so I think the meter and the reading displayed on the inverter are correct. Anyone come across this issue on a Solis inverter??

@Spinny thanks again, I appreciate your input from experience. We're doing quite a bit and have an architect and an initial set of requirements from the SE. It's an old building which needs some shoring up and I have no idea how they'll be tackling some parts so insurance will be vital. You've given me quite a shopping list on insurance so it is good to have time to sort this out. It's also something that I didn't include in my (very rough) costings!

Not sure using 2020 as a baseline is really helpful when talking about the cost of renewables. Go back to 2010 and the answer may be somewhat different. Though this does highlight that while there may have been past costs due to renewable policies the recent impacts are limited. It is still the case though that we have relatively high and structurally high prices. Really any discussion about prices should be holistic. I continue to believe that there are likely cheaper ways to achieve the same result

I joined Axle in the last month via a referral in this thread (thank you) Since then we've had 4 events paying about £5 each time, therefore so far had about £45 (Note to self - change to a tariff with better export rate) NICE!

Can we presume that you have asked around within the company your work for. Someone else may have already looked into this? If not, then you may get noticed as someone who is looking to improve things for the company :-) - a good thing for you

As we’re using Home Assistant we should be able to get some kind of trigger into that, which would allow us to run a Dali lighting scene that’s basically “everything on, full brightness”. I was hoping to be able to get more specific data, like the first sensor to be activated, so we could use text-to-speech to say “smoke detected in the xxxxx” across all the house speakers, but as JohnMo said above there’s a danger of overthinking this and ultimately the main objective is to enable everyone to get out quickly and safely…

I did consider using plasticiser, and would have done for render, but didn't use it for the screed, as I wasn't sure what affect it would have on a semi-dry mix. I used Mannok Master Grade cement.

https://www.carbonbrief.org/revealed-expensive-gas-behind-nearly-90-of-rise-in-uk-electricity-bills And to look at the 2nd biggest chunk of the increase - network costs.... "According to the Energy Networks Association, up to 80% of the investment in electricity grids is required to maintain existing assets, with the remainder going towards expansion for net-zero." A reminder that the backbone of the grid has a design life of around 60 and was built in the 60's. And also "Notably, household electricity prices have increased far less rapidly since the Hormuz crisis than gas bills, with higher clean-energy generation helping break the link between the two."

It looks like it. I should have added that, in principle, Cavius makes that easy as they have a cheap RF Relay (CV9004), though you'll find it here, rather than on their own site.

I'd get them to come out and do a service on your unit at the same time.

I'm interested to find out more - are you saying that you can link up the lights in the house to come on when the fire alarm goes off? Does that mean you need some sort of a receiver or some special type of light fitting for that to happen?

The builder's insurance is primarily to cover him don't forget. So it may cover say a brick falling off scaffolding and killing someone, or possibly an accidental building fire damaging his tools or materials. However I would have thought you are likely to need more. In the event of something major happening his insurer may try to weadle out of it, so rather like with car insurance you will likely want some insurance that is covering you and will fight it out with legal costs covered. Unfortunately the ramifications of a major building problem can be severe - imagine if half a build had to be abandoned for 2 years while a court case took place to determine who would pay etc. Imagine if your builder died suddenly after knocking holes in your house - it might take 1-2 years just to find another builder willing and available to take it on. Renovation insurance is expensive. If the build is delayed by problems then you likely need to keep the policy going. I thought we would be paying it for 9 months and it ended up 2-3 years. Obviously a lot depends exactly how extensive the works will be, whether it is an empty property, etc. Not sure if you are using an architect or anything, but for structural work having a structural engineer you can call on can be very useful. Ideally once you get planning someone would be doing some construction drawings/lintel specs etc, but does all depend whether you are just taking a door out, or big knock throughs and steels. We wanted to hide a lintel in the ceiling and our SE specified it. Make sure you have a written contract with the builder. It is good that you are looking at it now. I only realised I needed to get my act together re insurance when I phoned my house insurer about 6 weeks before work was going to start and they said - you will not be covered - your entire policy will be void.

To test turn the CT clamp around when you are actually importing. What that will do is see power being consumed but think it's power being exported. This should, if everything works as it should, fire up your immersion heater. If it doesn't you have an issue with the diverter. If you see all working fine, revert the CT clamp to the correct direction and look at the settings of the diverter maybe the expiry threshold is set to high and you are getting too much electric being exported

Are we related...?🤣

Yes… I appreciate I’m perhaps over complicating things, but at the very least, if there’s an alarm, it makes sense for the lights to all turn on 🤷🏻‍♂️ The system won’t be that expensive and it seems like a reasonable place to spend a little extra “just in case”. It’s only 4 bedrooms, but a reasonable size. We have quite a few rooms that need covering and a sort of broken-plan layout on the ground floor that includes a kitchen/living space separating two staircases, an open mezzanine etc. I imagine we could get away with less, but it would still be more than Aico can accommodate 🫤 I’ll take a look at them… thanks @Mike

Has an arrow an it's the right way.

Thanks everyone. I'm starting by requesting a copy of my builder's insurance and will then look at my current policy to see where the are gaps. As with everything... [sucks teeth] sounds expensive 🤣 @Spinny thanks for that sobering list, it's very useful to have concrete examples.

Bromine is just as bad I believe for 304 stainless if that's the material of you heat exchanger. Mine is easy to plumb, as it's a wooden HT with side connections