SteamyTea

Can you get compressors that run of ICE engines. Had one on the dive boat back in '72, so probably still get them.

Had a few lodgers that I should have locked up in the shed as well.

About a quarter of my annual usages, thanks for sharing your energy, keep up the good work.

It is more complicated than that. While CCGT can be ramped up quite quickly (minutes usually), they are not instantaneous. Battery storage is the quickest, and has the advantage of having low standing losses. Diesel ICE generators are similar. Thermal biomass and nuclear are probably the slowest. Pumped storage is fast to get online, but needs management at a higher level. Wind and solar, by their distributed nature and modular design, are useful for balancing as it is easy to turn of small amounts i.e. 1 MW at a time. They do have network constraints quite often, which the older thermal plants tend not to have.

Well it is a setup. As @Nickfromwales points out, probably needs some isolation on the heating return.

Didn't look at the picture. Seems to have at least 3 pipes connect, so yes, a buffer. Need some insulation on the pipes. Get the installers back and get them to correct it to the drawing.

No it isn't. It is how business works. Power delivery is a business after all. You are now virtually retired, and put a value on your free time (not earning) higher that the value of working. That was not the case 40 years ago when you were starting off as an electrician. So not silly at all. Most if use put a value in things, even if we don't realise it at the time.

Hydro is an inertial system, with pumped hydro being capable of very quick deployment if things get really bad (pumped us probably being recharged at the moment). The exporting and importing 'quirk' could well be contractural. We have a centrally managed grid system, it isn't left to its own devices with the generation companies switching power in and out willy nilly when it suits them. Near my old college was a large substation, I seem to remember that there were large flywheels and capacitors there to help with frequency.

Depends if you ask a Brexiteer/Reformer/Tory or a Liberal Democratic/Green. Usually worked out on the earning potential and number of years of life left (with some adjustment at the extremes). Worth remembering that compensation is purely to cover costs, it is not to do with hurt and suffering. Probably not as a drawing not showing something is not likely to cause a fault in normal operations. In your example of the hole, there should have been a due diligence check. An old girlfriend of mine set up a company that logged all the types and positions of buried services. She sold it to GE, took the money and ran.

Your 'buffer' looks more like a volumiser, if it is getting warm when heating is off, but DHW on, then there must be a path if least resistance through it. Are the pipes to the UFH manifolds also getting warm?

I can't remember, but if N means normal (no faults) and the number is the number of faults, then it makes sense. Then I studies Environmental Economics (was very interesting), part of the course was valuing nature. There are a number of ways to do this, one is to just put a price in things i.e. a tiger is worth more than a worm. Another way us to ask people how much they are willing to pay to save/see something. Another is how much they want to be paid for the absence of something. So there is a lot of chat about the high price of electricity, and how we are all being lied to. But, as @Dillsue points out, not much chat about the people who pay for an incredibly reliable service, via their investment. So @ProDave, how much compensation would you like to not have mains electricity? And where should that cash come from?

Yes, that is the most likely.

I seem to remember they call that N+1, N+2... conditions. An N+1 is easily dealt with, N+2 is a major problem (had one a while back when a gas plant went off line, causing a Windfarm to be disconnected, and the traffic lights in London to stop working). N+3 is catastrophic. Then repowering the grid is a major problem. Renewables are easier to reconnect than large gas and nuclear.

Yes, looks like a thermistor (thermal resistor). These are dirt cheap components, just a case of finding on with the right temperature/resistance scale if you want to replace it. Thermistors are generally reliable. It does not look damaged though, so is it possible that the connection at the other end is loose.

Post up a close up picture of the temperature probe and cable.

Do you have lots of hot water? I have a cheap indoor outdoor thermometer. For some reason the outside probe started reading way over temperature. Bringing the probe into the house and it started to read correctly. As it is a cheap thermistor, I have assumed it has got wet, changing the resistance, which changes the readings. Now you mention a mop.

Cut out will be under that white cover, with the thermostat. They are usually combined. Often there is a small red pin that is used to reset them. Though not on all of them. Follow the cable and there should be a switch somewhere. Though it may be inside your diverter.

The immersion should have its own over temperature cut out. It may also have a manual thermostat. Switch it on when the PV stops producing and check on it every 20 minutes. Or keep an eye on the smart meter display and wait for a 2.8 kW drop.

Does it have an electrical immersion heater that is coming on? Many reasons why a temperature probe may stop working. Hard to tell from picture, but looks like only one wire is attached. Usually have 2 or 3.

Only if it doesn't fit.

Or the installers.

I would love it come, but the price is going to be way higher than the public are willing to pay. At 33 kWh/kg, a kg of hydrogen needs to be around £3 at the point of domestic sale. Rather optimistic that is. They will close down as, like wave and tidal power, they are relying on government grants (know a couple of people in the marine energy field, they are in and out or work).

Why has this not happened. Hydrogen was known about before natural gas, probably before town gas. Electricity has been around for 120 years, mainstream for the last 80. None of this is new technology/science. I have not seen anything on the horizon that can electrolyse, process, store and transfer hydrogen cheaper than electricity, or heating diesel for that matter.

Really. Unless the oil industry, who are the experts at deep, directional, drilling convince the government of the day that there are unbound, deep, hydrogen reserves, right underneath finite, geological methane reserves, it isn't going to happen. Hydrogen is pretty poor energy carrier, and we would not be burning it anyway, it would pass though 'fool's ells".

Using modern adhesives is generally quite easy, though often messy. My go to timber adhesive is now Lumberjack. It is a low expansion polyurethane, comes in a tube. Many people say that foaming PUs are the way to go on rough surfaces, and making the surfaces wet helps. I am not sold on this for structural usage. The more bubbling you get, the less adhesive there is holding it all together. So while many modern PU adhesives say they use moisture to aid curing, I suspect that it also reduces shear and peeling strength. Rough cut timber may need to have the worse of the splinters removes, and be made dust free. Washing with water is ok for this, but allow an hour or two for drying, you don't want it dripping wet. The most important thing is the clamping together of the two parts. Don't be tempted to just clamp at ends and middle. Even low expansion foam adhesive can exert a lot of pressure. So lots of G-Clamps and some sturdy 50mm by 75mm (or deeper) thick timber to spread the loads (note plural, PUs expand, then contract). Don't be tempted to take the clamps off before fully cured. If you are worried, try it out on some test pieces. You will learn so much about using adhesive.