SteamyTea

So I got my EDF bill today. The new rates on it are as follows: Meter Rental Day Charge 56.28p/day Day rate 44.04p/kWh Night rate 15.37p/kWh Then they take off the £66/month, which actually leaves me in credit on my usage so far. I was paying, until 01/10/2022 Meter Rental Day Charge 55.10p/day Day rate 33.33p/kWh Night rate 17.68p/kWh So day up, night down and a penny of the meter. Now going back to the new rates they sent me a while back by letter. Meter Rental Day Charge 59.10p/day Day rate 64.99p/kWh Night rate 33.99p/kWh The update that @Nick Thomas posted up Meter Rental Day Charge 59.10/day Day rate 54.16p/kWh Night rate 13.01p/kWh So it seems to me that the EDF don't have a clue what they are charging.

How many philosophers does it take to change a lightbulb? "The bulb wants to be changed"

I have had diesels since the mid 1980s. Been 30 years since it was cheaper than gasoline. It was to do with the tax banding more than anything else. Still cheap at 18p/kWh.

Keep an eye on bond prices, thy are the inverse of interest rates. https://tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/government-bond-yield

Except some A/C units do not recycle cooled air. Many are work just the same and just use external air only for the thermodynamic cycle. It always has been, I hate it when an ASHP is referred to as a 'fridge in reverse. Really a case of asking your venting architect to do some sums and show that the unit will have sufficient airflow without affecting performance. She will probably only believe her own figures. Check her homework though.

I can tell you that wind and solar are currently producing about 20% of the UKs power. Almost twice what nuclear is. We are currently consuming about GW of power, twice what we do in a hot summer. Oddly though, we do not dismantle the 'extra' 20 GW of capacity in the spring and rebuild it in the autumn. We also have at least another 30 GW of capacity not currently being used. There is a huge difference between total capacity and management of that capacity. We could easily put (capacity wise) another 7 million EVs on out roads.

Used a lot in environmental surveys. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-49495145

Very useful. Thanks.

Here is the MCS spreadsheet. Not looked at it in detail, but it is what official installers have to use here. https://mcscertified.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/MCS-Heat-Pump-Calculator-Version-1.10-locked.xlsm

Take more that a bit if rubbing down, really need to remove all the top/flow coat. Top or flow coats usually have a wax additive in them. That has to be removed. Large, slow speed angle grinder with a sandling pad would be my tool of choice. Same as above, then make up a polyester filler mix, spread and sand, recover with some GRP and then flow coat. Both jobs will make you itch. I still itch, but then have been involved with the shit since 1975.

You can get split ASHPs. The fan unit should have less mass than a monoblock, and the 'pump' unit can go in the shed/outbulidling.

They used donkeys back in the 1990s, who would have thought the Olympics would end up there.

Outside toilet, very retro.

Yes, was when the slump was at its worse. Could have bought cheaper on Portland, but then have to put up with Portland people. Well when I say people.....

Got to add the two together to get the total, then dived into the day or night.

Was higher in the early 1990's But we did only borrow 3 times our wages and you could by a 3 Bed, with garage, in Aylesbury for £37,000. Or a two bed cottage, in Weymouth, for £36,000.

So roughly 75% on the night rate, that is actually pretty good. 7 kWh a day is pretty good as well. So say you use 2 kWh during the day. That is about £1 to £1.30 a day. A battery system would have to be around 5 kWh to give it a decent longevity, and be able to reliably power a decent size inverter, around 6 kW so it could cope with kettle, oven and a cooking ring (hopefully you have an induction hob as they are just better all round). Now I would think you would be looking at around £8,000 to have something like that installed, and it should last 10 years, so £800/year, plus the running costs i.e. the night rate electricity. If your night rate is around 15p/kWh, and you can get 80% efficiency on the charge/discharge cycle, that is 54p/day, £200/year. Not looking good. But you will save on the high daytime rate, that is between £365 and £475 a year, a real saving of between £165 and £275. Not looking good at all as it cost approximately £800 a year, a you are in the red somewhere between £525 and £635. You could probably save more by showering for 1 minute less each day, or 1 inch (25.4mm) less bathwater.

The MI may show the power of the crankcase heater, but if you don't know the conditions it is activated, it is of little use knowing. Also, if you have a small usage i.e. 3 kWh of DHW a day, delivered, burning 1 kWh a day to warm the crankcase is going to half your CoP. A proper meter like this is only a few quid and easy to wire in, even as a retrofit.

Two things. Is that a total of 7 kWh a day, or just the 17 of day rate. You can work the long term average out from the meter, it will show t, for total, 1 for day usage and 2 for night usage. Second thing is it is kWh, not kw/h, that is dividing power, which is energy per unit time, by time and will give misleading numbers. The unit of energy is actually actually the joule (J, named after the man Joule). Power is the watt (W, named after the man Watt). Power, multiplied by time, is energy. There are 3,600,000 J in a kWh. k is 1000 W is J/s, where s is time in seconds h is hour (3,600 seconds). Multiply them all together and you get: 1000 x 1 (W) x 3,600 (hour) 1 kW x 1 h 1 kWh

I always do mine at night, my washer has a delay timer on it. I lune dry. Never use the tumble dryer. Not a huge saving, maybe 30p a wash. Don't think a lizard is going to take much, unless it is over lit (assuming IR heater here). Lizards were like vermin where I grew up. Working from home need not increase usage much. I am at home during the day, I work the late shift. Laptop is permanent on, kettle on a fair bit, usually cook lunch. Use about 1.3 kWh/day. I lit the the E7 window to between 3 and 4 hours a night. No need to charge the DHW and storage heaters up before they are needed (storage heaters close a flap when charging, then release it when not charging, so some savings to be made there). My ratio of day to night is approximately 1:4. My biggest saving is having almost nothing drawing power when it is not needed. Easier to do than many think.

Would need to know of there may be an 'over temperature' problem. This could come about if the refrigerant gas gets too hot, or too high a pressure because there is not enough air though the heat exchanger for the fan speed. I think it is heading for problems.

Could have got these. https://i-button.co.uk/ But they seem to be expensive now.

Only if there is little resistance from any ducting/vents. What you need to do is make sure that many tonnes of air can pass the the ASHP every day. Any restrictions will lower the CoP. ASHP units are large because of the size of the fan and heat exchanger (which is just the same as a car radiator) and fan. Increasing the fan speed (mass air flow though the heat exchanger) would work , but would make the unit noisy as it forces even more tonnes of air though the heat exchanger. If you only have one place (the doorway) to introduce and expel air, the efficiency is going to be reduced. This efficiency reduction is two fold, one there is less air passing though, and the other is that half the air is cooled air, and half is warmed air. This reduces the overall temperature difference of the ambient air. Any ducting, vents, twists and turns (posh name for vortices) is going to reduce efficiency.

@Adsibob Have you put a thermometer (probably and IR one) on the cylinder when it is fully charged. Then you will have an idea how much difference the jacket will make, compared to adding extra to the MVHR. As you have the jacket, you may as well use is anyway and then worry about the thermostat. When I say worry, I mean forget about it.