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From the perspective of a sassenach, the Scottish government seems to do a better job of providing for their citizens in a manner that makes the majority content. We look slightly enviously at some of the more joined up thinking that seems to prevail north of the wall. Most of the issues there seem to stem from deciscions further South... I'm not a fan of Adam Smith - even for his time (when there was a greater sense of civic and brotherly duty in all classes of men), he overstated how well self-interest promotes the common good. His neo-liberal free market ideas have a lot to answer for in recent governments policies, and they have hastened the predictable decline of societal cohesion and the rise in social economic inequality. With modern political and societal morality norms, he wouldn't earn enough shillings to pay for a single sandal he could stand on. The amount of aggregate employment depends on the amount of aggregate demand. The amount of aggregate demand is composed of the sum of the amounts which the community spends on consumption and on investment. The propensity to consume determines how much of a given level of income will be devoted to consumption, and consequently determines the amount of employment which can be sustained for a given level of investment. Thus, for any given state of technique, resources and costs, the level of employment depends on the level of effective demand. John Maynard Keynes Or in the contemporary language: Low demand (or competition) = unemployment / low pay / lack of incentive to do better for the customer Private sector won’t spend enough Therefore, government must regulate demand or mandate outcomes Pure market economies always fail to deliver socially desirable outcomes. Therefore, government intervention is necessary to ensure fair access and prevent abuse of market power. But it does depend upon a sense of civic duty in those who govern, and the idea that making the poorest lives better can raise all the boats so to speak.

They don't do that. In cooling mode the 4 way valve starts in cooling mode. Otherwise it would end up chasing it's tail. But in periods between cycles (circulation pump on) it may see this as heating or cooling dependent on what temperature is see on the flow or return. But as Vaillant is a default heating ASHP with an additional widget to get cooling, it may just count everything that is not active cooling as heating anyway. It's energy used one way or another so would be included in the CoP (EER) calculation if your doing that.

It is really frustrating when a planning authority requires things that other legislation already obliges you to do. Why screw down the water use to 120l/pppd with a Section 106 agreement when Regulation 36 of the Building Regulations - which you will have to comply with says: Water efficiency of new dwellings 36.— (1) The potential consumption of wholesome water by persons occupying a new dwelling must not exceed the requirement in paragraph (2). (2) The requirement referred to in paragraph (1) is either— (a) 125 litres per person per day; or (b) in a case to which paragraph (3) applies, the optional requirement of 110 litres per person per day, as measured in either case in accordance with a methodology approved by the Secretary of State. 3) This paragraph applies where the planning permission under which the building work is carried out—      (a) specifies the optional requirement in paragraph (2)(b); and (b) makes it a condition that that requirement must be complied with. (4) In this Part, “new dwelling” does not include a dwelling that is formed by a material change of use of a building within the meaning of regulation 5(g) So rather than all the time and cost of a legal agreement they just have to place a condition on the approval requiring the optional 110litres figure and Building Control will check it on site where a planning officer will never tread.

The picture has not displayed as clearly as i recorded it but close examination shows that some of the hour columns do not have any orange topping to them. Due to the very low number of cycles per day i dont think this is a factor. Its not a problem as the house is nice & cool but it is curious which is why i asked here if anyone had any insight.

Just embrace them, make them a feature. Be proud to be doing your bit for your pocket first and the environment second. Nothing wrong with panels on show. In six month time you will going out to see they are still there, because you and no one else really sees them.

More than likely sloppy app design/programming. Hmmm I need a column where I can put the values for heating and cooling. I'll put cooling in blue at the bottom and heating at the top in orange. Now simply drop in the values... Net effect the interface code which is no doubt a package will display the elements in the stack, even if one is zero. Probably never tested in earnest and even if it was, it probably wasn't seen as something that a user might question. One test would be to hover over the sections in the column to see if the orange one displays zero? That's assuming they implemented that. The Octopus app is similar, in it's display of cheap rate and normal rate usage for an hour. There's always a normal rate block even though you haven't used anything.

How slimline/innocuous are yours? Do you have a photo? One of my key concerns is the panels will be on the car port (which is integrated into the house roof) which means that they will be front and centre to anyone approaching the house. So, I want them to be as innocuous as possible. I could accept something very slim and low profile but clunky panels stuck on with half a Lego set would be a big no-no.

Does the HP always start up in heating mode before it switches to cooling so at the start of every cycle they'll be a short period of heating.....circulating pump running to establish flow is always done in heating mode??

@Bird https://www.easywatercalc.co.uk

When I did a degree in 2001, one of the topics then was global warming, strange weather patterns and prolonged draught periods. Then the sea levels rises and floods the aquifers with sea water - then the next major wars start, over possession of water rights - Joy

Just ban it, just as Singapore did and put in place a law for the "greater good".

As I understand it these regulations refer to SACs and SPAs [Conservation Areas] and Protected Species. In other words, the regulations are NOT applicable in the vast majority of the UK. The Regulations have a reasonable and reasoned purpose. They are not imposed across the board to Planning Applications. So in the Due Diligence phase of applying for Planning Permission, we all have the option not to apply in those areas. Or wait. Or do what they do in West Lancs : Deliberately, knowingly kill Protected Species in the area a year before applying for PP Pay the fines for being caught doing so Form little protective cabals of Local Councillors who can be persuaded to [... ignore ... delay ... facilitate... contest ...] Fell any number of trees that could be 'in-the-way' and pay the fines for being caught doing so Or just BloodyDoIt anyway and cope with the consequences. Where's my evidence? Read the local papers . Last year, Radio 4 had a particularly interesting program about a local Planning Agency. We too had an 18 month delay while ecology sorted itself out. Once I had got over my annoyance, those 18 months provided valuable planning time.

Don't you have dial a bus? Thought most places in rural Scotland had it, plus if your over 60 it's free. A mate used to drive one of the mini buses and people would take a ride from here to there and back again, spend 5 mins doing something while the driver waited then took them back home

Or a Scott. It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages. Nobody but a beggar chuses to depend chiefly upon the benevolence of his fellow-citizens. Even a beggar does not depend upon it entirely. The charity of well-disposed people, indeed, supplies him with the whole fund of his subsistence. But though this principle ultimately provides him with all the necessaries of life which he has occasion for, it neither does nor can provide him with them as he has occasion for them. The greater part of his occasional wants are supplied in the same manner as those of other people, by treaty, by barter, and by purchase. With the money which one man gives him he purchases food. The old cloaths which another bestows upon him he exchanges for other old cloaths which suit him better, or for lodging, or for food, or for money, with which he can buy either food, cloaths, or lodging, as he has occasion. Adam Smith

Lots of issues with the way we deliver houses. Perhaps we need to create public housing corporations to manage access to building land, rather than let the large housebuilders buy it up and dictate the market. Regional corporations could also ensure that we aren't building 'anywhere towns', and keep to the local vernacular, which would keep the NIBYs happy and make for nicer environs. They could also ease the burdon from BCO if managed holistically. Of course, we'd need a sensible country like Holland to manage it all for us. We just don't have the skill base or personalities in our population to make things better for our selves. Toby-Lloyd-2.pdf

Is it always the same height? Could be a drawing error in the app, where even 0 shows up?

No this installation does not short cycle. 2 or 3 cycles per day typically. The colours are as you say and as i described. The curiousity is why it appears to have a small amount of heating recorded on most of the hour divisions when it is in purely cooling mode.

Is the heat pump running for long periods or is it cycling. If you get a short running cycle it may detect it as heating instead of cooling. But think from looking elsewhere, orange is the colour for heating, red DHW and blue cooling. So it's detected something as heating.

More details, please! Maybe in a new thread. I personally would not put resin in any house I planned to breath in, but every day is a school day... I live on chalk rather than clay, but we do have wychert-built houses in the area which apear more durable than clay-based cob, so it is worth some experimentation. I'd like to try it in my workshop (with UFH) since earthen floors are less fatiguing to stand on for long periods. The cost of linseed oil is gives me pause though, as does the amount of time required to experiment and finish. I'm 12 years in on my build and really want to see an end date!

With water consumption, we normally fill out a spreadsheet with the proposed fittings and their maximum consumption. Does not require a legal agreement.

And THEN the government wonder why not enough houses are being built.

Apologies i thought this would be more familiar. Vaillant app, cooling has been on for about 4 days, no heating of course. There is a small orange section on top of each hour division, not very clear on this image. Orange represents heating normally. I cannot understand why there would be any heating recorded. The RED columns are the DHW. They are not of interest here.

Sorry not read whole thread, but can see the steel lintel, have you plans to mitigate the cold bridge that will cause?

Give us a clue, what are we looking at is this heat pump energy consumption? Red could indicate heating and blue cooling. Did you have DHW heating selected in the red zones?

I hope the picture shows the artefact of interest. There is a very small orange bit on the top of the cooling values for each hour. I wonder what this represents, does anyone know?