SteamyTea

A diesel generator.

Yes, but then integrating the battery storage into your home wiring may be a challenge. Yes, it is what diverters do, but it is still a grey area about allowing a larger than a nominal 4 kWp system be limited by the inverter (you can search for the thread about it, it is on here somewhere). Alternatively ask your DNO if you can connect a larger system. I don't have PV, but with batteries, it is all about load time shifting. It is similar to using E7. Now my E7 price has just gone up to 12p/kWh, so if the amortised cost is lower than that, then it is worthwhile. But you need to take into account what else you could have done with that cash i.e. put it towards an electric car, you will loose all of your capital either way, except the EV may have some value in a decades time.

You can work it out. Surface area of pipe, thermal conductivity of pipe material, thickness of pipe material and the temperature differences. Just the same as working out the thermal losses through a wall or window. You may have to use a multiplier for the ground temperature depending on the soil type and moisture content. Use an indices if you want to get posh. 0 makes the number become 1, 1 keeps the number the same and anything greater than 1 makes it grow. I am not sure, after thinking about it for a decade or so, if mould is a problem. Decent filters (HEPA and activated charcoal) should be fitted, as well as insect and rodent barriers. Then just an annual sweep with a chimney sweep brush. So design cleaning in from the onset. Some sort of water drainage may also be needed.

It is the sanity checker for PV. East Anglia is pretty good for production.

Have you run it thought PVGIS

Ideally you want batteries charged from the most productive modules i.e. south facing, optimal inclination. That will reduce the amount of modules needed and reduce the exporting of power. The East-West split PV systems 'to spread the load' can now be done from the batteries. Though batteries, on power delivery, are still limited by the inverter, and may not work too well with very small loads i.e. just lighting, assuming you only have a few watts of lighting on, not kW, like the olden days.

Losses are not too bad on the DC side, usually 4mm2 cable, so don't worry about that too much. Somewhere on here we discussed the 16A phase limit, and I can't remember what was the answer e.g. installed capacity or inverter capacity. Worth remembering that a 2 string inverter cannot take the full 3.6 kWp though one string, and strings cannot be too unbalanced. The manual will say what is possible. One way around it is to use micro-inverters and then run AC cabling back to the consumer unit.

Then spend the rest of the day looking for the radio security code.

Either not on the list for much longer, or the list is just his mates numbers. Hopefully you will publish the names and two people's (Tim and his not builder mate) names can be added to another list of people to avoid.

I think it does matter, it is why thicker wall insulation reduces thermal losses. It is also why not only the thickness is important, but also the contact area.

Does anyone know what material is used as the thermal break, and what sort of separation it gives, and over what surface areas?

This is the great mystery. Usually there is one dedicated circuit from the E7 side of the consumer unit to the bottom immersion element, and a second circuit, which may or may not be a dedicated circuit, to the upper element. That secondary 'boost' circuit comes from the 'day' side of the consumer unit. My house has two separate consumer units. The Day and the Night, there is a radio switch in the meter box that switches the night circuit on and off, and I assume, though never actually checked, allows the import meter to know it is night and log all usage to the cheaper rate.

Pipes should be insulated as well. Who did this installation?

Which would also negate the whole reason for fitting batteries.

The E7 time window is what switches it on and off. So leave it on. You may be able to reduce the temperature on the thermostat. I dropped mine down to below 45°C. This reduces standing losses. There may be a secondary immersion heater in it, that is best left switched off. They are there for emergencies when all the water, heater on the night rate, has been moved (used).

You have to be careful with the manufactures HLD, they have a quirky way of calculating it. It assumes the cylinder is cold, then heated up as fast as possible, then drained of useable hot water. The losses are are calculated in that small usage window. The rest of us heat things up and use it hours later.

If done with a HP, it is almost certain that the axillary resistance element will be on at those temperatures. Though some of the CO2 HPs should be OK.

Does David Hasselhoff still excite you when he drives around in a 1982 Pontiac Grand Am. Personally I preferred Baywatch, not for the acting, or storeyline. I wonder if you can build a a kit house around some oddly sized walk on glazing.

Seems to be a battery charging off the mains, then a car charger running off the battery.

Just added in some heat losses for a thermal store.

Will be a large ASHP as well. 5000 litres raised by 15°C (35° to 50°C) is 87.5 kWh. On E7 you get 7 hours, so that will be a 12.5 kW, so realistically a 15 kW unit. You also have almost 11m2 of surface area in that size TS, so it better be very thick insulation. If you get it down to 0.15 W/m.K, then over 24 hours, with a dT of 40°C, that will be 1.5 kWh/day. But I suspect the insulation will be more like 0.5 W/m.K, so around 5 kWh/day.

May have been in 1978 when the first large scale one came onstream. Goggle Salt Caverns and compressed air. These are not a few old Calor gas bottles pumped up with a Silverline compressor, we are talking 300,000 m3 caverns compressed to 50 bar +.

Welcome. First thing to do is download the latest building regs. That shows you what you can and can't do to a certain extent. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/building-regulations-and-approved-documents-index

The manufactures are probably tied by legislation, so should still be within the condensing temperature zone, or it would make a mockery of the whole thing. No good having a boiler that only condenses when the temperatures are spot on, wind is not blowing up the exhaust and the sun in behind the yard arm.

I am not so sure about that. Compressed air storage is currently the cheapest, then pumped hydro and then batteries. Hydrogen fuel (fool) cells are one of the most expensive in £/MWh. I also think that synthetic fuels will be used in long distance transport situations i.e. trucking, aviation, shipping, military. We have a large knowledge base with combustion technology in aviation, and turbines/turbo jets are pretty efficient when it comes to kg/km. Changing from one liquid fuel to another is much easier than changing from liquid fuel to gaseous fuel. That is long time off, we have plenty of sources of kerosene. Have to be careful with that, just taking a percentage of use is very misleading, over the last year many industries have been on shorter working hours and have cut night shifts. Industry/commerce is still a large user of power.