Caddy

Not sure if this should be here or in electrics but anyway.... I'm getting a battery fitted soon and have been thinking about how the installers will get a cable to the CU from my preferred battery location. Running along the outside of my house is difficult as it sits in a stream and they would need wellies and ladders and to drill through a 500mm wall, up a ladder and next to where the main feed into the house is located. The other option is when I got the CU updated 12 months ago there was a 10mm cable from an electric shower in the bathroom. The shower was removed at the same time but I had them leave the cable in for potential future use. The rest of the cable is coiled in the loft. Can this cable be extended to reach the battery location? I'm happy for them to put an accessible enclosure of some kind in the loft for the joining but I'm sure this is non preferred option for sparks as it creates a point of weakness. Replacing the cable back to the CU from this location would be very difficult. I'm not planning on doing any of this myself, just want to make them aware in advance of any possible problems.

I need to stop looking at batteries, the sums just don't add up in my favour. I don't have an EV and I'm too light (tight) a user of elecric to make them economical even being all electric having solar, immersion heater and a heat pump (A2A). The lure of new tech to play with is battling with my common sense.

This is the data for the inverter https://www.victronenergy.com/inverters-chargers/multiplus-ii

Been looking at battery options with the upcoming change to the VAT rates on them to see if they make sense yet. I've seen this company on a few You tube videos doing some pretty complex installations and thought to have a look at what they offer. The 15Kwh Big Lemon system with all Victron kit and their battery seems a nice bundle and the price is competative. Anyone used this company before? I think they are based on the south coast near Bournemouth. https://lemonenergy.co.uk/products/15kwh-battery-5kw-victron-ess

Could anyone with experience in A2A heatpumps give me some advice if possible. Are you supposed to leave it running 24/7 like an A2W heat pump system with lower set-back temps for during the night and other times or are you ok to schedule it on/off as required, as the room heat up times are quicker that A2W? Thanks

@Bramco I was reading your reply again and wondered if you could help with a quick question? In your set up is the Eddi using the thermometers on the immersions to know when to shut off or have you got the extra myenergi relay board and a couple of ST1000 sensors to monitor water temp?

Hello, does anyone know if you can use a secondary return connection on a UVC as temperature/thermostat insert point. Can the "pockets" you can buy screw into these connections or be made to fit somehow? Thanks

@Bramco I have just been looking through the Eddi installation manual and seen this option. My Eddi was fitted by the PV installers and they did not discuss the different config options with me when installing. I'm going to look what is possible and your set-up is a definite contender, thanks for the info.

@JohnMo I probably did not explain that well, I mean the integrated HW cylinders with the heat pump on top like an aroSTOR 200 or similar.

I'm in the process of changing my DHW set-up. Currently my tank is ~100L vented system with 2 immersion elements, with the bottom element connected to my Eddi. When there is excess solar generation then I get hot water, if there is not, I just put up with cold water. The top immersion is connected to the mains I'm just too tight to put it on normally. I have no mains gas where I am and my heating is from A2A heat pump so I have no boiler and the HW has to be electric generated. I'm being a bit stupid about all this so I'm updating my system. I was thinking about a heat pump cylinder but I live in a small stone cottage and have nowhere to put one. My only space is where the current cylinder is and that is only 1200mm high and in my bathroom in the middle of the house. I was seriously thinking about a Sunamp and have been dithering over this for some months. I work with someone who has one and loves it but I have also seen the comments on this forum and elsewhere about reliability. A neighbour is a G3 qualified plumber, so I think I will take the advice of some of the members on here, keep it simple, and just go with a 200L UVC from Telford or Joule. They both make a direct model the correct size for my spacing. My actual question is what is the correct configuration for the feed from the Eddi and the mains for heating the tank? Should the bottom immersion be connected to the mains via a timer on some cheaper rate tariff for heating during the night. Then the Eddi be connected to the upper immersion to top as and when there is excess solar generation or to use the boost function? Or should it be the other way around like I have it now and have the Eddi do the night time timer function? Also am I correct in that the Eddi has 2 outputs that can be connected to resistive loads. I have a fancy electric towel rail that is 300W resistive load and was thinking to wire this to the Eddi and use excess solar for towel drying and to take the edge off the cold in the bathroom . Maybe play around with the priority settings between the 2 outputs at different times of the day if that is possible. Any advice much appreciated.

I think they balance the outlet heat/air flow at each outlet when installing, but then it's fixed and you get the same output at each vent in each room. It's this lack of individual room control thats making me pause to be honest in getting this ducted system. A wall unit system is more controllable. I could make the ducted system the same but it would be another ~£1500. The installers argument for me is that the house is so small (58sqm total) that individual room control is pretty pointless and the house would level out at a standard temp anyway.

Just had another quote from another local aircon company for 1x7kW outdoor unit and 2x2kW and 1x2.5kW indoor wall units. It was £10.4k 😮 £4.6k more than a quote for a similar system from another local company. Makes £7.5k for a ducted system seem ok to me. Prices seem to be all over the place to be fair.

Do you have an Eddi or similar solar diverter so at least the excess solar is heating your hot water during the day before any export?

I've been getting quotes for an A2A system for my small 5 room stone cottage. Heat loss calc came out at 5.9kW and I've been getting quotes for 3 indoor wall unit systems (2 x 2.5kW and 1 x 3.5kW) normally. These have been coming out in the £5750 to £6000 range depending on which manufacturer they use. I was trying to decide to which installer/system to go with and how best to route the pipes so there is not a mass of pipes on the gable end of my house. Then, one supplier has quoted me for a ducted system with a 7kW Daikin outdoors unit with a single concealed unit in the loft distributing a ducting run to each room. There will have to be some vertical drops through the upstairs rooms to get to the ceiling of the first floor but the layout of my house makes this really simple and easy to hide. I've not really thought about this kinds of system and wondered if anyone has had one intalled? It will provide the same heat output to all the rooms at the same time and so is not super controllable by room, but I have a small house with few doors so it might not be an issue anyway. I like the thought of an A2A system without the wall units and it seems to be a fairly simple system with just the one run of refridgerant from the outdoor unit up to the loft. The return air pickup would be on the landing and as this is open to my living room as the stairs are also open, this would also pick up any heat from my stove and re-distribute the hot air around the house (and any smells?). Anyone had any experience with a system like this? The units seem to be from more on the comercial side of the industry but are all hidden apart from the outside unit which would be a Daikin Skyair Alpha. We have talked about a MHVR system add-on but Im not sure it makes much sense for me. Single person, living alone and eating a lot of sandwiches, not sure how much heat there would be to revcover for the added expense and complexity of installation. The quote for the ducted system was ~£7500 depending on control systems.

I've just been gathering quotes for an A2A system and most of the people have been commercial installation companies that are moving into the domestic market. I have a small house with 5 rooms and one outdoor unit is fine for me but I agree they seem to sum the indoor units and size the outdoor unit from that. Not sure this will work well for highly heat efficient houses with small heat requirements.

@Iceverge I been looking at exhaust air heat pumps and don't they really need to be used in conjunction with a MVHR system to duct the recovered air to the intake? I'm trying to decide whether to bite the bullet and go full heat pump with UFH and take the fiscal hit or go A2A for room heating and sort out another method of supporting the PV for HW in the winter like a stove with back boiler.

Vented currently. I know you cannot connect a solid fuel boiler to a un-vented tank (unless you want to make a bomb....). My hot water is electric currently like the OP. I've been looking at a secondary heat source for it, either solar thermal or a new stove maybe. Not enough just from the Eddi in winter.

@LeanTwoCan I ask what make and model your new tank was please? My stove and tank are to be renewed at sometime in the next 12 months and I was think of maybe getting a stove with a boiler to help with HW heating. I'd be interested to know your set-up. Cheers.

60m² total lower and upper floor. The £20,000 is the average of 3 quotes so far. Not the equipment that is anymore expensive but the labour of fitting the pipework and converting the toilet into a small plant room. 2 rooms downstairs and 3 rooms upstairs.

I came across this thread doing a search for heat-engineer.com to see if anyone had used it. Worth the £10 then @TonyT

@zoothorn Reading this thread is like reading a diary of my life 😄 Our situations are so similar its almost comical. I live in very old stone cottage in Somerset, no CH just a 5kW stove. I've never had the living room over 16°C and that was me sat in front of the fire for hours pouring in wood. My house is in the winter almost always colder inside than the outside temp, sometimes by over 7°C difference. During the cold spell before Christmas it was 3.5°C in the living room and a mighty 6/7°C upstairs in my office My floors are stone flags skimmed over with concrete and my house also sits in a stream 😄 My 500mm thick walls are white Lias instead of slate, but with the obligatory slate roof. I have wall mounted convection heaters in each bedroom but I'm from Yorkshire and never turn them on 'cos I'm tighter than a ducks.... I heavily insulated the loft area and the first time I had a bath the sloped ceilings like yours became instantly covered in condensation. This section of the roof that is not accessible from the loft is obviously not insulated and is the new coldest point in the house. I too have to decide whether to rip out the PB and insulate and replace or just go over the top with some insulated PB. Since I've lived here I've been looking at how to improve the heating situation and the floor has been one of my big considerations. Watching TV on an evening my feet would be warmer if I was sat with them in the stream. The only real option seems to be to dig it up and insulate. But to do all that and not put in UFH at the same time would seem crazy wasteful. The problem is to fit a heat pump with UFH in a house with solid floors and no existing wet heating system is very expensive. I've had several quotes for fitting just the heat pump and rads at ~£20,000 (£15,000 minus grant). Adding underfloor heating would be several thousand more on top. As someone mentioned earlier I have thought of insulating the floor and adding the pipes but not connecting to a heat pump. Get the benefit of the insulation and have the option of UFH sometime in the future. One of my other problems with an air to water heat pump is that I have nowhere to put all the equipment that is needed inside. I have a small half height airing cupboard in the bathroom and that’s it. I would have to sacrifice my downstairs toilet and maybe turn it into a small plant room. Because of this I have been looking at air to air heat pumps (air con) and I think this is the route I'm going. Quotes for this have come in around the £6,000 mark and it seems a lot less destructive to my house. I would still like to insulate the floor as I'm worried I'd have warm air in the rooms but still have freezing cold feet, with the floor trying to suck the heat out of the room. Sorry for the long post but your situation is so similar to mine I could not help but laugh. Hope your journey to a warmer floor is successful and I will watch with interest.

Some of my issue is that my living room is not a sealed room but has an open staircase to upstairs. The stove is trying to heat a cold room/house and the whole upstairs at the same time. That is why I've been thinking to get a bigger stove and potentially with a boiler to fit a wet system to help heat upstairs.

Thinking about it, would a thermal store be better in my case than an unvented cylinder. Allow heat input from PV and stove and less G3 hassle.

Loft is well insulated with 100mm PIR and 270mm loft insulation over the top. No suspended floor. Giant stone flagstones with a skim of concrete over the top to try and level them and then carpet. I should probably dig up the flags and sell them for ridiculous reclaimed prices.

Potentially yes. The stove is on an external wall and directly backs onto the lean to enclosed porch I have. But it would take about 1.5m of ducting to get to an area of wall not covered by the porch. Not sure if a Dunsley Highlander 5 can be retro-fitted for direct air? Do you think this would help?