SteamyTea

"Standard" insulation levels are pretty good in reality, that isn't really the problem. Though increasing the level in the largest surface areas, or the coldest side of a building can pay dividends. Air tightness is more than just stopping drafts, you don't want cold, outside air, to be able to bypass the insulation and get behind any interior surfaces. This is why building a are wrapped in Tyvek, or similar. They let moisture out the insulation, but don't let the wind or rain in. But because it is harder for water vapour to escape, we reduce the amount by fitting a vapour control layer, which is anything that is basically gas tight. This is not to stop drafts. I shall repeat, this is not to stop drafts (I hope I have spelt draught right). It is purely there to reduce the air mass in the house, which will be at higher absolute humidity and higher temperature than the outside, escaping. This is why MVHR is fitted. Basic fans can be used to just expel the moist air, but why throws the energy out with it. You can still open windows if you want to. So basically, it is not a trade-off with one thing or another, it is a combination of all things. Like a car, I can get away with budget tyres on my low powered C-Max as it is driven steady, but if I had someone else's Porche, or C-Max for that matter, I would expect decent tyres as I know I would drive it like a (expletive deleted) at their expense.

Do you mean compare the kWh used, a gas system will not use much electricity. What puts most people off then comparing is the "known unknowns". Or the weather and build quality. Weather can be calculated pretty well within small errors, build quality can't. Why it amazes me that people don't get an interim air test done while it is still possible to easily fix things. £250 for a test, people spend more on a tap.

There was almost certainly going to be mission creep when it was announced that no new had boilers could be fitted. Same will happen with cars, pure ICEs will be banned, and like CDs, the hybrid will be a short lived format. The CEO of Stellantis had already said that it is legislation that is forcing the EV route. There really is no need to continue developing combustion technologies now, our the resources into HPs and better building testing.

It is worth asking the question "What are you trying to achieve?" Are you after the cheapest system to buy, run, claim subsidies, lowest energy use, reliability, comfort levels, etc. I often see a price comparison, never an overall energy usage. If heating was purely down to price, then open fires, burning rubbish, with a large kettle to boil water in, would be the easy option.

This, without doing the calculations, would be my concern. Not sure if there is any real advantage, except in lightweight, prestressed concrete construction.

Good old Wikipedia explains why they are called what they are. My Father was an electrical engineer, a dreadful commutator. The origins of electromechanical inverters explain the source of the term inverter. Early AC-to-DC converters used an induction or synchronous AC motor direct-connected to a generator (dynamo) so that the generator's commutator reversed its connections at exactly the right moments to produce DC. A later development is the synchronous converter, in which the motor and generator windings are combined into one armature, with slip rings at one end and a commutator at the other and only one field frame. The result with either is AC-in, DC-out. With an M-G set, the DC can be considered to be separately generated from the AC; with a synchronous converter, in a certain sense it can be considered to be "mechanically rectified AC". Given the right auxiliary and control equipment, an M-G set or rotary converter can be "run backwards", converting DC to AC. Hence an inverter is an inverted converter

1 They won't work with an ASHP. 2 They won't work. 3 They will stop working. Physics wise, the thermal losses will be higher than a single cylinder. Is there enough room to 'box them in' with insulation?

Never ever take your own advice. I would still be a prisoner if I did the things I suggest to others.

Yes, but it is still a nonsense term in my opinion. Why I dislike it. Engineering needs clarity, just like other industries, with the IT field being the worse, apart from Chemistry that is, they just make up long words to sound impressive (and spray spittle over everyone). Why don't they just call it a converter.

It is a dreadful, and not very descriptive, term. It will mean different things in different installations i.e PV or HP. And then there is the common usage meanings. If I invert my mug of tea, I then need a cloth to clean up. If I invert my partner, I get told off on here. So, if you invert a DC current, all you are really doing is reversing the electron flow (which isn't a real flow as such, more a jiggling). But if you invert your HP, you vary the power capability. A stupid term.

From whom. It seems to be one of those zombie myths that will just not die.

Used to deal with WP on a weekly basis, found them very helpful and understanding. Not sure what will happen now that National Grid has taken them over, I notice the signage has been taken down on the local office.

Welcome Get a security camera on your build, who knows what may turn up.

Welcome @joe90 is mid century.

It is sealed off like Royston Vasey at the moment. A camp has been built between PZ and Helston for the extra security staff, helicopters and extra police cars about. Almost like London after 7/7. Drains and lampposts have been inspected and tagged, and the larger potholes in the A30 repaired. Still wondering who is going to fly into Newquay, or Lands End International. Probably into the Base at Culdrose. Except a plane crashed near there the other day. I would have put them all at Lands End, then just cut that bit off from everyone. One road and two footpaths, easy. And plenty of space to land helicopters.

He will know, was he ex Holman's. I used to know Don that run the food bank. Good bloke. Camborne, Pool and Redruth was known as CPR, been renamed to Camborne, Redruth and Pool. CRAP. There was a sign up for over a decade that said 'Pool is the Future'. It was modified a few days after installation to 'Poo is the Future' noone put it back. Just left it there for 10 years. I think they will be bypassing the area when the G8 is one. They even put the Communication Centre in Falmouth, an hour from Cardis Bay. Heartlands is 20 minutes from there. But why show them one of the poorest places I Europe. Show them the vibrant, pretty but.

Or a larger cupboard and put a decent amount of insulation in it. Just make sure that it is also airtight and the insulation can be easily removed for maintenance/G3 testing. And make sure any power cables are upgraded and installed correctly.

Also means we could but with cash and move house a lot easier. People fret over the number of years that a PV or ASHP will take to pay back, but once inflation is taken into account, many people are taking 40 years to buy a house, and are paying twice what they initially thought the price is. I saw an identical house to mine advertised at twice the price. Probably a chancer hoping to cash in from a paranoid Covidiot, good luck to them, but they will pay the price later though.

How would people feel, if over a decade, house prices rose at the general inflation rate? Or even better, if they had the same deflation rate that white goods and technology has had over the last 30 years.

Try boiling it in water, or oil. You can probably get a replacement. They Isaac Lords in High Wycombe. https://www.isaaclord.co.uk/product-category/ironmongery/door-furniture/ Then do a Google image search and buy it cheaper.

Make sure the paint is the right viscosity for spraying. My Chinesium sprayer came with s gauge. Still in the box as I have not got around to using it yet. Regarding mist coats, before I had my eyeballs drilled, lenses liquified and replaced with new, shiny bright acrylic, everything was misty.

Some is turned into thermal energy by the inverter, then the system may go well over limits and shut down. But I think you still need permission if you can potentially go over the 16A per phase, so the system size is based on module capacity, regardless of what your inverter/diverter does. Always ask your DNO, there is then no confusion at all and you can make a proper decision. I once made the decision to ride my motorbike, very drunk, home one night. Often people get away with this, but that night I didn't. Luckily it was the 1970s, so a 50 quid fine and a year off the road, and no real affect on my insurance. Now I would be a social outcast for bring irresponsible, but I was a teenager then. Wish I was now.

It is quite normal. All I am saying is that we can build better systems at not too much extra cost. I could probably modify ab Ecocent type system and run both my water and space heating from it. But that is because, like you, we have very low energy needs. In a larger, not so efficient, household, water heating may dominate, a system designed purely to heat just hot water may well be much more efficient i.e it would not have to modulate, could use a different refrigerant, run at higher temp with a larger radiator. The UK is only at the start of the HP journey and there is a lot of friction to overcome. Imagine asking a plumber that is used to fitting gas boilers for the last 30 years that they now have to think differently. They have all the skills, but they will struggle to overcome their old prejudices, let alone explain to a customer that they have to be left on all the time. Not mentioning any names here, but we all know the kind of customer I am talking about. 1kW for 24 hours is the same energy as 2 kW for 12 hours, except the efficiency loses are greater at elevated temperatures. (If thermal boilers were so (expletive deleted)ing great, why is CoP less than 1, when I was a kid we had a gas powered fridge in the caravan, why is there not a gas powered heat pump. I know the answer)

Because for very little extra manufacturing costs, you could get a system that is more efficient. Basically a normal HP is being asked to do two things, at different temperatures, and for different times. Combi boilers are the same. It is akin to asking a car to be small, economic, high speed and spacious. Easy to do with a 2 seater (small heat loads), just put a box on the back and call it a van, not so easy to do with a 6 seater (high heat load), they end up like the Fiat Multipla, which was rubbish at everything.

That is possibly the mean run time. It is the power distribution that is important, generally the lower power output, the higher the CoP. This is why HPs are oversized by peak power output. 70% if the time they will be running well below capacity, only a few percent at maximum, then auxillary heating may be needed. This is the same as most heating systems, except will some thermal ones, as they modulate downwards, the efficiency follows. It is all a numbers game. As always, if you can reduce the power losses, the problem becomes easier to solve. I often think two ASHPs are needed, a basic one for water heating, and a more sophisticated one for space heating. They could share a box and many of the parts inside i.e radiator and fan, electrical and electronic interfaces. Only the actual compressors and pipework need to be separate so they can run two output circuits, a high and a low temp.