Dillsue

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??

Bear in mind that if the panels are facing different directions the peak install will never be peak generation. We have a 3.6kw inverter with a max specified DC input of 5.7kw but its got 8.5kw of panels hooked up that are spread over 180 degrees.

You can change a FIT system- OFGEM changed the rules a little while back☺ You can change components, add batteries and increase PV capacity. If increasing the PV capacity you only get paid for the FIT accreditted capacity. In your case if you went from 4 to 5kw you only get FIT payments for 4/5 of what you generate/export.

Workiñg for builders and LA doesnt necessarily mean competance in a domestic scenario. There are limits to how much power you can push into the grid. On a construction site or LA site there maybe a consultant that deals with the DNO months or years before your installer gets to site so they never interface with the DNO or consider constraints. In your domestic install you are trusting them to ensure compliance, but you carry the can if they haven't done things correctly. If you can't get the details off the inverter, its probably worth asking them if they have exceeded G98 limits and if they have, that a G99 is in place. If they are evasive or dont understand what you are asking, then you have your answer on their competance!!

The number of panels isn't really relevant, its the inverter capacity thats relevant. If its the installer thats telling you the number of panels is relevant then either they're not explaining things very well or they dont know what they are doing!!! There'll likely be a data plate on the inverter so you may be able to see the inverter details

Ok. If the cable is SPs then its a no no but if its yours then it might be your only option. If its a straight duct the SWA should pull back in ok, if youve got enough room not to bend it as its drawn out. Getting cable rods over 70 metres is alot of rods! I think you can blow/vac lightweight cables through ducts but not sure how successful that would be with a chunky cable in the duct already

@patp A few pointers for you. UKPN are unlikely to be interested in how many panels or the panels output youve got. What they are interested in is what your inverter can export onto the grid and thats not necessarily the capacity of your panels. Without getting permission you can export 3.68kw per phase so with your 3 phase inverter youre limited to 11kw, unless you have permission to export more. If you already have an 11kw inverter and its being replaced with a bigger one, you need permission from UKPN. If youre not bothered about that its fine, but the concern could be that your questionable installation company maybe steaming ahead with something that is technically illegal. If thats what they are doing then you might want to consider their credentials. Maybe worth finding out what they're up to as ultimately its your responsibility.

Use one of the cables in the duct to pull a draw wire in then use thd draw wire to pull the cable back together with the new data cable??

Are you sure? AFAIK rule of thumb is 4 amp per kw so 5kw is circa20amp. Likely easily handled by 2.5mm cable over half a meter, but..... If youre going to increase the RCBO rating to 32amp, youll need to increase cable size.

Almost certainly a design/installation balls up! Do you know how much youre generating at any particular time?? Without an accessible realtime indication its very difficult to schedule your usage. If you got 46 panels youve likely got quite a sizeable generation capacity and even in the winter may be generating enough to not have to worry to much about scheduling loads. Do you know what the kwp rating of the panels is?