Dillsue

Yes. I'm sure theres folk on here that have said their DNO has given permission for 5kw export without batting an eyelid??

G100 is in addition to G99 so you apply for G99 and if you or your DNO want to limit export you have a G100 application as a supplement to the G99. That's the way that our DNO does things which I beleive is the same across the UK. Certainly for us, G100 means you must use a professional installer who can set up the limitation with factory/engineer passwords to prevent the user altering the settings. It also means your DNO will want to witness the limitation at a cost of several hundred pounds. Not really DIYable with G100. If you want to add AC coupled batteries best speaking to your DNO to see if theyll accept 2 x 3.68kw. If not maybe replace your existing inverter with the hybrid unit so the inverter limits total export from batteties and PV to 3.68kw If your SWA is the right size/spec you can move the the inverter to wherever the batteries are and bring the DC from the PV through the SWA.

You can have as many immersions and heating coils as you can physically fit in the cylinder. You need to work out the sources of heat you want and how much hot water you need before you tell your installer which cylinder to go for. I beleive you can get 2 channel PV diverters that will power 1 immersion until that cuts out and then switch to second immersion until that cuts out. If you want to maximise PV self use for water heating then get a cylinder with an immersion near the top and a second immersion at the bottom. Have a fast recovery/high efficiency coil fitted somewhere in the middle that will be compatible with a heat pump but can be used with your gas boiler. Speak to a cylinder manufacturer and they will guide you on sizes/capacities/positions. If youve got the space get an extra inch or two of insulation to help keep the heat where you want it. There's a copper cylinder manufacturer in Newark that I found very helpful when we had a custom cylinder built

Ignore the pair of them and get MCS involved. I'd be fairly confident they will advise on any and all remedial work that needs to be done and likely ensure that Mr forceful gets things done to MCS instructions or pays for someone else to sort it out for you. The only place Mr Forceful should be living up to his name is with his staff IF they are taking the p. As a lay customer, you shouldn't even be aware thats his character.

I sympathise with the hassle youre having but don't waste your time with NICEIC as they're not the horse for this course. A complaint to MCS is the route you need to be taking as all the issues youve got will be dealt with by them. As youve now got 2 'professionals' arguing over whats right and whats wrong, you dont want to be piggy in the middle so a prompt complaint to MCS should get some expert help on your side

The architect is echoing whats in the Arostor manual!!!

A2A cant heat your DHW but you don't necessarily need a cylinder with A2A as you can have instantaneous water heaters. From the Architects comments you posted, I read it that the architect is saying the vents need to go outside, not the Arostor itself!!!

If you put the Arostor outside youll have big losses year round particularly in the winter as the cylinder isnt particularly well insulated. What's the Architects rationale for putting it outside when theres a ducting kit available for the heat pump?? Any cylinder with an immersion can work with an Eddi. If you are looking to ditch gas, how will you heat the house then?? Aside from A2AHP, whatever you heat with will likely be able to heat the hot water so are you sure you want the expense and complexity of a heat pump dedicated to just DHW??

How are heating the house?

If the heat and hot water cylinders 'work' with the agile tariff then that would be quite a complex controller that can access the published half hourly rates and run the heat pump whenever youve configured it to run. Is that what it does? If thats a 3rd party controller then it will likely work with any DHW cylinder The Arostor stores hot water like any DHW store. It would need a colossally big heat pump to supply hot water on demand without storing any hot water. When you talk about COP and the Arostor being within your house remember that if you dont duct the heat pump to outside, all the heat put into the store will have to come from within the house which will cool the house.

They stopped our FIT payments a few years ago due to an admin error when they lost the record of a FIT meter inspection. Despite the inspector confirming the inspection and SP verbally confirming the inspection had taken place, they didn't reinstate the payments until an OFGEM complaint hit their inbox. Unbelievably disorganised but I think they got a slap from OFGEM for it. Surprised theyre still s**t but if its the same office handling SEG as it is that handle FIT, I can understand theres still problems!

The ASHP and immersion will likely work separately from each other and it looks like your ASHP set point temp is 48 degrees and the thermostat in the immersion is set to around 55 degrees. If your ASHP heats the tank to 48 degrees the immersion will always try and heat to 55 degrees, if theres power available. If your priority has now changed to export rather than divert then you need to turn the immersion stat down to just under 48 degrees to stop divert into hot water, or bin the solic!

If youre not confident on a ladder, or dont have one, pay a roofer/handyman to cover them up in turn with a sheet of cardboard cable tied to a roofing batten while you check the generation. Assuming it's not a bungalow, its gonna be quite a challenge to hold a sail steady on the end of a long pole while the monitoring updates

With a typical PV diverter as soon as the thermostat in the immersion opens the diverter cant push any more electricity into the immersion and the excess starts to go to the grid. If you want more export at the expense of hot water then either turn the thermostat down or turn the diverter off. Just be concious of legionella considerations, if that concerns you.

Solaredge do 3 phase batteries and I'd hazard a guess others do too?? http://www.windandsun.co.uk/information/solutions/on-grid-solar-pv-battery-storage-solutions/solaredge-3-phase-storedge™-battery-storage-system.aspx#.Y_Er03SnxxA You might want to try other installers?? The hybrid inverter comment means the inverter can have PV connected and handle battery charging all in one unit.

I beleive the optimisers on each string regulate that strings voltage. You have to have compatible optimisers on each string so they can work together correctly and a minimum number of optimisers to ensure minimum voltages are reached. If youre planning on mixing optimisers, SE produce a compatibilty table that shows which models can go on the same string

Assuming you got an SE3680H or smaller inverter, if you take the cover off youll likely see 2 pairs of terminals for the DC connection. One pair is used and the other is spare. There's also space on the bottom of the inverter for a second pair of MC4 connectors to be fitted so its easy to add a second pair of connectors if you want. If you look at the larger inverters they have 2 pairs of MC4 connectors as standard. I think the rationale is that the smaller inverters can normally be installed with a single string of 25 x optimisers whereas larger inverters need dual strings to get to max capacity. Instead of adding extra connectors to the inverter you can parallel up the strings using an MC4 Y piece or a junction box. If you get a big enough DC isolator you can parallel up there which is how my original 2 string MCS install was done

Yes. Max cable length for a single string is 300m so you'll likely be able to wire a house and nearby garage within that length. You might find it easier to run two strings, one for the house and one for the garage. There's a minimum number of optimisers per string which is 8 or 6 depending on the optimisers youre using- see the optimiser data sheet. We used 6mm 2 core SWA for external wiring from garage to ground array, check the cables DC voltage rating is higher that the SE string max. There's a limit to the inverters DC input so worth checking you're not exceeding that, but I dont think it's double the AC power rating. I did read somewhere recently that the limit had been lifted so definitely worth checking.

We have a propane back up boiler in the centre of the house with no concerns about 47kg bottles of gas connected to soldered gas pipework. Much lower pressure but the connected volume is massively more.

Ah! I thought a previous post said you were adding PV to existing but if its not a hybrid youll need a new hybrid inverter or non hybrid plus G99

The inverter you already have seems to be a hybrid so can have solar panels connected as well as the batteries you already have. Did you tell those quoting that you already have a suitable inverter? Not sure why they seem to be including for an inverter when you seem to have a useable one already??? If you pay by credit card the supplier has to pay a fee to the card provider which I think is 1.5-3%. That's quite a chunk of cash so I can understand why they dont want you to pay with a credit card

I'd imagine distributing the surplus evenly to the rental houses would be technically quite complex, maybe bespoke and likely costly. Given that it's free electricity being dished out which is more or less the same as giving cash away, I'd imagine it could cause some friction if it wasn't shared evenly.

If you want to future proof any cable requirements, you can run a conduit past any areas that will become difficult to pull a cable in the future. Drop a draw wire in to!

Maybe think along the lines of exporting surplus to the grid helps you local hospital or school run on greener electricity. Your DNO doesnt trade in electricity so they're not taking the mickey.

What's the inverters rated max output?? With the PV and battery coming through the inverter, its likely the inverters output that limits the max draw??