Dillsue

We're 3 miles outside of a city of 70k people and I ride in and out several times a week without any drama as do the couple of other people I know that regularly cycle. I think people who like the cheap convenience of jumping in the car for even the shortest journey are the ones that think they'll die as soon as they sit on a bike which unfortunately is the vast majority of car drivers.

The average car journey is under 5 miles so easily done with a tired battery. 5 miles is easily cycled if you can't afford an old EV, or you want to do the right thing for the environment, your health and pocket

What on earth makes you think I'd welcome mandatory restrictions? If everyone doesn't voluntarily do their bit then yes lots of things will need to become mandatory and that would be sad, but necessary

Not sure what it is that you think you'll be proven right about?? That we should all do nothing about climate change? We should all carry on driving ICEs? You're right some ASHPs and EVs won't make much difference, but lots will. I don't believe its futile. I know that in my 60s I'm not gonna benefit whatsoever from the cutbacks and sacrifices I make, but I have kids and grand kids that I don't want to avoidably burden with the crap that extremes of weather might bring to their world in the future because of current and previous generations lack of consideration. You're right that the majority of the first world isn't interested because climate change isn't biting yet and the first world has the resources to deal with the effects of climate change, at the moment. Unless the masses wake up to the risk they are taking by ignoring requests to cut back, I believe we'll start to see more and more mandatory restrictions. If you dont think that can happen, I bet you didn't think the government had the power to mandate lock down and certainly not to use it..........

I've little knowledge of sunamps other than they come up on here regularly with problems. I wouldnt use a sunamp on a rental property unless I had a back up for hot water. Anything you put in needs to be repairable by yourself or your average local plumber so it can be repaired ASAP when you've got guests For the heating, leave the towel rail in the bathroom controllable by guests but switch the rest of the heating with a movement sensor so the heating goes off 1/2 to 1 hour after last movement is detected. Or, you could put switches on the windows to inhibit the heating if they're left open. Add a timed inhibit and the heating can be off during the day and come on late afternoon if the windows are closed. That would keep the accommodation cosy for returning guests without it all going out of the windows

The guardians mining article finishes with- "The verdict The data we have leaves little doubt that resource extraction will be significantly lower for electric cars compared with their petrol or diesel equivalents as recycling increases. And neither do the green credentials of electric cars absolve the buyers of battery minerals of responsibility for abuses in the supply chain. Dummett said he hopes the mining industy will “use this moment to reform itself”" A quick search on EV battery recycling found this site-https://climate.mit.edu/ask-mit/how-well-can-electric-vehicle-batteries-be-recycled which includes this- "However, as the world transitions from gas-powered to electric vehicles, the demand for these materials will far outpace the supply from recycling, so mining metals such as cobalt will still be necessary" Seems to me that the guardians debunking article relies on significant recycling which doesn't happen to any significant degree now and is unlikely to happen for a while until there's much larger numbers of old batteries to be recycled. That article may be valid in a decade or two but doesn't seem to be just now??

Everything I've read says battery manufacture produces significant emissions. I don't believe the raw material mining is particularly environmentally friendly either.

There's grid scale battery storage being rolled across the country to store renewables and help with the peak demand so you're already funding that through taxes and levies on your energy bills. Battery production has massive environmental impact so its ridiculous for the first world to have thousands of EV batteries sat doing nothing for most of the time when they could be productively utilised to reduce the amount of dedicated battery storage being installed. It's not your power. If you read the link in the first post Octopus are going to charge your battery for free and take back SOME of it at peak times. Net result is you get some free energy in return for helping society keep the lights on. If you are wanting a grid connection then why the obvious objection to helping society run a serviceable supply?

Yes, if the full V2G functionality was built into the car then they'd need differing cars for most countries due to diverse grid connection specs. But that could be something configurable as it is with PV inverters. Unless limited to 16A to meet G98 limits they'd likely also need an export meter connecting to the car so it starts getting complicated and easier for the manufacturers just to make the cars V2G/H ready but leaving the external bi directional charger to do the grid/car BMS interfacing.

Sounds plausible, but to be clear that's not V2L connected to the grid as its running through what's likely a G98/G99 certified device.

Yes you can, so long as there's no chance your batteries inverter can connect to the grid. If a grid connection is possible then you need to comply with all the DNO/ENA specs. ?? You've already got this?? There's plenty of systems that will island you house so it can run autonomously from the grid You can't hook up V2L to anything connected to the grid. V2L is for powering a drill from your car or powering camping lights/telly. Its for anything mains powered when youve got no grid power but can use the cars battery to provide the power. If you can reliably island your house from the grid then you could use V2L to power the house but only up to the load that your cars V2L is rated for. Youre not likely to be able to run an ASHP/elec shower etc so it wouldn't be Business as usual

The only thing governments can do is mandate that we pay taxes and spend those taxes or mandate that we behave in certain ways. I'd prefer they didn't have to unnecessarily do either. Having recognised there's a problem it's probably far easier for consumers to sort out the problems their consumption causes, in the case of this thread by cutting peak demand by allowing free eleccy to be returned to the grid when needed. Not sure if there was any government involvement but Octopus seem to have worked out a way to help with the problem

AFAIK they are different things with differing kit, other than a connection to the battery/BMS. V2G compatibilty means the vehicle has a DC connector to allow an external inverter to draw power from the battery, via a CCS or Chademo connector. V2L is an on board AC supply where the vehicle has its own on board inverter to provide a local AC supply

Not sure if thats what youre suggesting but V2L doesn't include sending power to the grid.

With V2G/H the car becomes a generator and if you want to connect it to the grid or grid connected house then the charger/inverter has to comply with all the requirements of G98/99. V2L isn't intended to connect to the grid so doesn't have all the G98/99 functionality

Maybe to stop a coal fired power station from starting up, or remove the threat of blackouts, or keep a gas power station on peaktime standby rather than running, or store some wind generated leccy rather than turn turbines off. Whole host of reasons when you look at the bigger picture, in addition to free charging

I'm guessing that Octopus have a cunning plan for this but seems there's no approved Wallboxes on the ENA inverter database. I guess if you were on one of the V2G trials you could use the tariff but seems that everyone else will have to wait for Octopus to show their hand? Anyone know differently?

Seems you've got a grip on the design, but.... You'll be aware that some of your strings could have 400+ volts on them once connected?? You seem a bit vague about hooking them up to isolators so you really need to to plan your final isolator positions and cable from the isolators out to the roof before you connect up the panels. If you do it the other way round you'll be handling live cables in the loft!! If you've got an electrician on site doing the house wiring maybe get him to give you a hand so you're clear on a safe method of hooking things up??

I'd take a step back and sort out your design and inverter before you start wiring. Youve got panels over 3 differing compass points so they will be generating at differing times. If you wire them all together they'll likely affect each others generation at differing times of the day and you'll not get the best out of them. You may also be over the inverters max input voltage. You'll likely want to wire them in 3 groups, one for each group facing the same direction. Each group will need its own MPPT input on the inverter. I'm not saying you should use a pro installer but the £6k quoted will likely include design and a warranty that things work, as well as installation. There's more to an install than the materials you've mentioned- inverter, isolators, meter, connectors, elec certification, DNO paperwork, crimper, connection to CU. Assuming you're grid tied, have you got DNO consent to connect a 12kw system. Hopefully your installer had included to sort that out??

You mentioned previously that your main priority is ROI so you need to work your own figures and do a load of research. Plenty of discussion on battery ROI and to me at least its not clear cut that batteries make financial sense. If you go down the battery route and are constrained now, then design your system for how you'd like it to be and ensure your design allows for expansion when funds allow. Have a look at Enphase for micro inverters and Tigo/SolarEdge for optimisers as they all explain the advantages over conventional string setups. Disadvantages are additional cost and access for replacement if they fail but that's only applicable to roof mounted systems and likely won't apply to your ground mounted system. You can avoid some of the extra cost by buying surplus kit online- Solaredge optimisers can be had for £20 new rather the usual £50-70 but don't rush into buying until you understand what you are buying.

Be thankful you got the right letters and in the correct order. It was the thought of another bollocking that reminded me to add the "h" but doing 1 fingered caps on a tablet is a few keystrokes too much

Whether a 3.68kw inverter makes better sense than a 5kw one only you can decide. Sticking to 3.68kw means you could install under G98 and avoid the G99 application fee for a 5kw inverter- £300 fee for us in 2022. Down side is the peak generation from 5kw of panels could be lost for a small amount of time but if you are charging DC coupled batteries then you won't loose so much as you could be charging your batteries. How have you decided on 5kwh of batteries? As mentioned above and on the other thread, you need planning for an array over 9m2. If your array is hidden from view that might not concern you. If you want a flexible system then you can't beat micro inverters/optimisers for facilitating add ons and also allowing different wattage panels to be used in the same string. They'll also improve generation if you've got partial array shading

If that's the probe that's controlling the hot water, which it probably is, it seems obvious that with it near the top youre only going to heat the very top of the tank. It's hard to understand their rationale for putting it there especially if you queried it! If you've also got issues with the heating I'd be tempted to get some body competent in to check the whole installation over.

If 27c is the limit of the glue, could you not use a floating floor

If you avoid switching multiple loads on at once there's a fair chance you'll be able to stay under 3.68 kw for most of the time, but it can take a while to get into the swing of not switching everything on at once- 18 months for my wife to sort of get it!!