SteamyTea

When I moved in 20 years ago, I was using around 11,000 kWh/year. Been slowly reducing it most years, even when I had a lodger (once trained) my usage did not increase too much. What base temperature did you use for your HDDs?

I am with EDF and also on E7. Apart from EDF being total (expletive deleted), the E7 Smart meter worked well even when it stopped communicating. Do you have a proper E7 Smart meter i.e. more wires out than in. I am led to believe that the time switch is built in. I fell for the lie about switching off of the radio signal is going to happen soon, but probably not this year.

This is my favourite chart at the moment. The big drop 3 years ago was the secondary glazing I added to my double glazing, making it triple glazed. Getting harder to use less now. There is a load of PU foam boards at work which I intend to have away to add to my loft insulation.

Get yourself a cheap IR thermometer and see what the temperatures actually are. Would not be unusual for an aluminium frame to cold on the inside, the thermal conductivity in around 236 W.m-1.K-1 I think glass is better than that.

Right, in the best 4 Yorkshiremen manner. Ere is my December.

@Muellar As it is New Year's Day and we are closed to the public, I have been looking at the last year's energy usage. Couple of charts, first one is a bit busy, but shows Mean Power, Mean Delivered Power (what is actually drawn over a half hour period), Percentage Zero Power (how often power is actually drawn), Internal Temperature and Temperature Delta (IAT minus OAT). Now I am on E7, fully resistance heating and DHW and a single occupancy household. It should be possible to scale to suit other households with some adjustment. The second chart is much simpler, just the magnitude, and time, that maximum power was drawn. Maximum can be 1 instant.

So did you got misted and plastered last night.

If you get the largest you can fit in, then you have room for monitoring gear. You cannot beat analysis your energy usage on a rainy New Year's Day. Get the prettiest, or most space age looking one. All your Buildhub friends will want to see it when you have the 'completion certificate party'. Then we can all bitch behind your back about bad choices.

Not really sure what this thread is all about. I am in jeans and a jumper. Same winning formula I have been using for over 50 years. Swap jeans for shorts come summer, and remove jumper to show old t-shirt.

Sometimes when I go up to Aylesbury, which is frequently, it is lovely and warm, other times, really cold. Down here it seems to have been just wet.

Something to do instead of going to work. This will be the first full year that I have Smart Meter data to compare against. Our old mate @Ed Davies recently compared his Current cost data against his Smart Meter, think he got to within 3% agreement, I did a quick analysis on my better CurrentCost with the optical sensor, rather than the current clamp, and got to 1.5%. but I know I lost a few days data (when I put my collapsible garden chair over the transmission path). Hopefully I will know more tomorrow.

Yes. Wish I had known that there was a career in data analysis 50 years ago. Almost the end of the year, shall be updating my spreadsheet in the morning.

Look after the pennies, the pounds look after themselves. More to spend on trinkets and froth later. Reminds me of my apprentice, we went metric during that time. Most of the machine tools were imperial though.

Just struck me that one of the problems of getting a heating system more efficient, and especially true of gas, is that the usage monitoring, and the energy usage when the outside temperature varies is non-existent. It will be impossible for most people see a difference in usage. Taking this winter, I have still not turned on my storage heaters, it really has not been cold enough. Most days I have used less than 10 kWh.day-1, and someday only 5 or 6 kWh (most of that will be DHW). Globally, 2024 is on course to be the hottest year on record.

When I was at university (both as a student and a lecturer), the local public library had a very good selection of engineering books (mostly about mining as I am in a mining area and CSM was based in the town). Might be worth a visit to your local library (when I worked in London, my local library was the British Library, and I managed to con my way into the Bodleian in Oxford as well). Failing that, you can always borrow a Jean-Paul Sartre.

SHC of water (~4 kJ.kg-1.K-1) x Flow Rate (kg.day-1) x Delta T (Flow Temp - Return Temp) x 0.00027778 = kWh.day-1 I think that is the proper way to do it, though I am not sure if that is how the Seasonal Performance is calculated.

In the days of old, when we all drove BL cars, balancing a set of SU carburettors was a challenge. One way to do it was by listening down each inlet barrel and matching the pitch. I am not sure of something similar can be done with water pipes, phones have useful sound analysis software on them these day.

While there are problems in education (I have been out of it for a decade now), I don't think that the basics curriculum and assessments are particularly bad, or of too low a standard. The structural lack of investment in education is the real problem, and it is not just financial investment. It goes wrong way too early in a child's learning to be put right later. It also does not stop they day you leave school.

Pest are really down to the food hygiene practices of the owners. Those vermin will find a way in to steal your crackers. Useless Knowledge: Rats dislike potatoes, so chip shops are very really bothered by them (they like fish and burgers).

The bait in our traps at work (pest control is a legal requirement) often seems untouched. We do find the odd 'dopey' mouse that you can pick up by hand, so must have been licked/nibbled. Our biggest pest is a magpie. Stole my sandwich. It comes in the building and pecks at the food waste bin. Not allowed to kill those I think. There is a case, on a new build, for fitting steel cable conduit. Then let the sparky pull the cables through. May work out cheaper overall.

This is a bit of a red herring. It will only get a reduced output when it goes about 25°C, and the radiation is above 1000W/m². So a few days a year, at a time when PV is producing the most. Most PV modules will have a greater output than the nameplate rating anyway, that way, as they age, they stay withing the guaranteed output. It is never worth chasing the last few percent of efficiency at the extremes.

@saveasteading I find you civil. (Always wondered what your background was)

I am struggling to follow all this. You seem to want to heat in 'bursts' when the imported energy is cheapest and you also want to heat different rooms to different temperatures. So if I understand your wants, you are looking at the best method to control it all, is that right?

A British engineer is anyone that wants to call themselves an engineer. it is not a protected term. We had our automatic sliding door belt break, the company that made it sent 'an engineer' with a spare, toothed rubber belt and a step ladder. Half hour later, and with £800 in his pocket, he left.