pulhamdown

Sounds like a plan. Thanks

We built a near passiv house in 2012. At the time, we received a SAP report giving us A100. May have been slightly optimistic, but that's what we got. Fast forward 12 years, and we applied for a grant to fit an air source heat pump, to replace an old oil fired boiler, in Scotland. Heat pump installed, although a bit complicated as I wanted to retain our thermal store with thermal PV and a log back boiler, and working extremely well. We needed a new EPC for the grant requirements. The EPC was done, and we received a rating of C74. I knew when the guy arrived that things were not going well. He was not interested in the house specification documents I offered him for inspection. After showing him the current, albeit out of date EPC, he said he'd never given a rating higher than 80, and this house wouldn't be that high. He also asked if he could access the underfloor, in a house built on a 12 inch insulated concrete slab with underfloor heating! So after a bit of research, I realised why. When a house is newly built, the house is assessed by a SAP report. Once the house has been built, a RdSAP is used. Reduced data SAP report! So the date of the build is entered, and minimum building standards from that year are assumed! So my near passiv house has the same rating as the Barrett jerry built houses down the road! Also, mains gas is still the preferred fuel, as the data is at least 10 years out of date, so electricity is still provided by coal! I believe that heat pumps are still not on the system, so are considered direct electricity! Thus proving comprehensively that the current RdSAP is totally worthless, even in a standard housing estate house. So my £180.00 for the survey was a complete and utter waste of money. I will now find an assessor who can carry out a SAP survey, based on the specification of the house as built. No wonder the government is struggling to persuade people to build better housing! Who knew there was a two tier SAP system? Not me! Post Script. When I asked him how to improve our score, he said convert to mains gas, and install a wind turbine! You couldn't make it up!!

This meter was installed in 1969 when my parents built a Colt Cedarwood house. It rotted, so we built a new house on the site in 2012. Scottish Hydro took out the meter when we demolished the house, then put it in as a temporary supply, then put it into our new house in 2012! So they are aware of the situation.

The inverter and solar panels are both in the shed. It's a Sunny Boy string inverter, and connected to the house via AC cable. We are lucky enough to still have the old disc electricity meter in the house which runs backwards when we are generating, but not using the electricity.

Thanks for your replies. There are indeed other installers who I can approach, but I just wanted a second opinion on whether it was feasible or not. I suspect the original quote was from a company just wanting the easy jobs, rather than someone who fully understands the issues involved.

I am currently in the process of having a heat pump installed, and asked the installer for a quote for Givenergy battery storage. The house is 10 years old, and near passive. They came back saying they couldn't provide a quote, since my solar panels are on an agricultural shed some 50 metres from the house, although connected to the house. So my question is - can a battery storage system be devised to operate with the solar panels and inverter being situated away from the house? I assume the battery has to be located next to the solar panels. The electrical system in the house is up to date, and I have a Zappi car charger in the integral garage. Any help appreciated.

I'm not surprised your house was warm yesterday. Lots of sun all day, and no doubt you've got triple glazed windows. You can probably just about see our house in your photo. We're just next Larghan park, in a house we built around 10 years ago. Still nice and toasty this morning without heating on!

So, are you saying that Grant heat pumps use Carrier units?

I used Burton roofing supplies in Brechin. They have a depot in Livingston, but that's still a long way from Kintyre. Mind you, everywhere is a long way from Kintyre! They were very reliable, and good price for Cupa 3 heavy.

There's a lot of competition out there.

That's exactly what I plan to do when our oil boiler expires. We built a well insulated low energy house six years ago, but retained the one year old oil boiler from our old house. We have a thermal store, supplied by the oil boiler, solar thermal, a log burner burning our own wood, and three immersion rods. We also have a 3.7kw PV system. Apart from the expense, I can't see too many problems, except perhaps finding someone enlightened enough to fit the new kit!

How long would that distance need to be, to be considered too long for a monobloc ASHP?

Surely there's no "smart meter" bright enough to detect the difference between a car charging, and a dishwasher on a midnight mission.?

Apologies if this is in the wrong section. I couldn't access the one I wanted. Anyway, I see SSE has introduced a "1 year fix and drive tariff", allowing up to 2000 kW hours of free charging between 12.00 midnight, and 7.00am. A "smart meter" is compulsory. This looks like a no brainer when we get an EV, as we already have a fully paid off solar PV system. It looks like an off peak set up, but without a separate meter. Has their "smart meter" actually become smart? What's the catch?

Common misconception. A 32 tonne gross truck will not carry 32 tonnes, but will carry around 17 tonnes.

I think mortgage and insurance companies are happy with timber frame construction, but it is the outer skin which may cause issues. They like brick or block outer skin, but more risqué materials - such as cement board rendered over, or timber cladding, as our house is - are just too much for them. However, specialist insurers can often provide cover at less than "conventional " houses.

Crikey! The sun must be hot down in Notts today!

Firstly, thanks for your replies. It's always reassuring when others have noticed something similar. I'll try and get a closer look, as I have a Velux window close by. So, it sounds as if this is an external issue, and nothing to worry about, other than being a bit unsightly. Needs cleaning off, though, so I need to get my thinking cap on as to how to access the roof safely. Thanks

I have a 1.5 storey T/F house built to near passivhaus standard, built in 2013. I have a Vent Axia Sentinel Kinetic MVHR unit, which vents out onto the south east facing sloping roof. All around this vent, there is a sooty deposit on the slates. I clean / replace the filters every six months, and wash the main filter body in the bath every 12 months. All are scrupulously dried before reinserting. There are never any signs of soot on the filters, or on the filter body. Does anyone have any idea of what's causing this, and if so, what to do to remedy?

Unfortunately, they are large farms and probably at least 2 miles apart. No power stations here , but we do have a large anaerobic digester turning out gas for the grid, on the other side of the village. It uses a lot of spent grains from the whisky industry. That spent grain used to be used as pig feed. Not the quiet backwater that many people assume it is.

This is not for growing potatoes, but for storing potatoes until the market is ready for them.

No, it's definitely for cooling in the summer. I'm guessing that they need to be kept at a precise temperature to prevent either sprouting or cold damage. But yes, it will be interesting to see how this progresses. I'll speak to the farmer and find out exactly what the system is, and the theory behind it.

I'm sure you're right. Not having heat pump tech in my house, I hadn't really thought this through. So the heated water from the ground goes through the heat pump, powered by electricity which then cools the liquid in the potato store cooling system?

Our next door neighbour has started digging up one of his 40 acre fields to install ground source heat recovery. I'm assuming that he will use several rather large heat pumps to generate electricity for cooling his potato stores during the summer. I haven't had a chance to talk to him in detail, but needless to say, he is getting government grants to install. Payback he reckons is around four years. From his point of view, an absolute no brainer. I would imagine that 40 acres of ground source heat slinky would generate a huge amount of electricity, and still be available for stock grazing after installation. This is the first I've heard of GSHP generation on this scale in agriculture. My neighbour the other way is currently erecting around two acres of really high glasshouses. I'm assuming for growing tomatoes. He is using biomass at the rate of around 4 x 25 ton timber trucks a week. Some of that is for heating polytunnels to get an earlier crop, and some for drying excess fruit for inclusion in breakfast cereals. Needless to say, more government grants being available. Agriculture has certainly changed since I was a boy! I guess global warming has certainly played a large part in driving that change. There are even cherries being grown in polytunnels not far from me. And blueberries are being grown just across the road.

Today I received a letter from BT Solar ltd. They say that my inverter warranty has now expired, correctly, and a health check and service is required to validate the warranty. I wonder how many people fall for that one. But just out of interest, is there really anything in an invertor to service, and how would they go about doing a health check. It either works or is doesn't, surely? And what is a good life for an invertor? We've had our Sunny Boy for seven and a half years.