Nickfromwales

And the structure, and the framework, and designed it yourself for an East / West split, and entirely self-installed it and you maintain it. Yes, completely non unique. 🤔😑

Solar slates and solar concrete tiles, plus BiPV are all niche so of course attract a higher price point. £8.5k of modular PV would be over £11k in concrete tiles for eg. £8.5k turnkey installation for a 4kWp top German manufactured panel would consume about 21m2 so roughly £404p/m2 inclusive of all equipment.

I know, and that’s great statistics. But you’re a qualified electrician, electronically repair professional, and can do this. Commercial PV installs priced to residential domestic clients need to be robust, plug and play, and forgettable. You and I, and a load of others here, know what WE could do. Folk berating an industry with incorrect assumptions, eg companies which supply out-of-the-box retail solutions at elevated costs to Drs / receptionists / other possibly non DIY professionals shouldn’t really be doing that without directly comparable evidence. Some of the Ch*****se manufacturers are avoided, by respected members of the industry, for child / slave labour reasons.

because you made a very coarse generalisation. That’s why. There are no longer “huge margins” put onto commercial equipment within quotes, and have never been whilst I’ve been in business. What do you think is huge? 100%? Costs in quotes are transparent, and you can only get “ripped off” if you do not do your own due diligence. It’s 2022, and most 11 year olds know how to use Google A non standard install with micro-grid and hybrid inverters? A lot of effort, maintenance and not apples for apples. You should reserve your comments for an off grid thread ( afaic ) as most of what you’ve posted is regards to a bespoke, home-brew system which is non standard and incomparable to a plug and play domestic retail installation. For completeness, I am installing pretty much as you are in my own home, but I understand it’ll need extra monitoring, it’s more complex, I cannot get paid for export, and it’s only the equipment which will have a warranty. Apples vs oranges sorry!

Yup. Over 6000 MCS reg companies whilst the putrid FiT scheme was in full swing. Dwindled to a few 1000, and then when FiT went it’s now a few hundred. Just shows how grotesque a scheme it was, filling the pockets of rogue installers where they’d just siphon off the subsidy element of the cost of the system. The public couldn’t give two hoots because most are going on government paid holidays each year from the income. WTF!?!?!? First time buyers or family’s on low income get the 2 finger salute. Then there’s the failed RHI scheme. £20m left in the pot which has now migrated to the Green home grant or something. Other than the residual Green grant, all it predecessors were just utter nonsense and a ridiculous waste of public money. A mechanism for wealthier folk to become even wealthier for doing the square root of fcuk all. Spoke to people last weekend who were getting £1600 p/a ( and guaranteed for the next 15+ years iirc ) and loads of free electricity to boot, who wanted to know if they could ‘improve’ their returns………… Government driven lunacy.

The argument over batteries is manageable. Self consumption ( zero export ) can be achieved with a correctly sized ( eg not too big ) array, but “we” do size to give excess in summer so you then also get some useful output in winter ( where you’ll be lucky to get 1kWh from a 4kWp array for 3 months of the year ). Diversion to DHW, timing appliances to run sequentially eg on delay timers from 11:30 to 2:30 are just a few disciplines which are very very easy to facilitate. Choosing an EV charger with “Eco mode” aka trickle charge is great for capturing export ( when the car is home ) and is fully automated.

They should go back via MCS complaints procedure and get a full refund. EVERY SINGLE INSTALL that my PV partners have done for my M&E clients projects have either met OR EXCEEDED the stated return / revenue / break even point WITHOUT EXCEPTION. The above installers must be sharks, end of. MCS software categorically cannot be exaggerated and the contents are factual. These people should have had such documentation before spending a single penny, the content of which is very easy to read and completely digestible on any level. Simple maths demonstrated over several pages. Our surveys assume 17p/kWh in this software vs the actual of ~35p/kWh so has a 50% redundancy in that provision alone. Very out of touch perspective vs what we do every week. Not good advice at all, and nor is it factual. Cheap DIY installs will not be MCS so you CANNOT get SEG payments so would extend the payback not shorten it. Also allows cart Blanche for poor installations, incorrect shading surveys / mitigation etc. Nay-sayers from 3-4 years back are now coming back on all 4’s asking for us to fit them in at the ‘then’ price. Guess what they now deeply regret not doing……? Some real nonsense being spouted here sorry. I would strongly advise anyone interested to get a FULL AND PROPER MCS survey carried out, which should be free of charge ( it is with us ) which will give them a price, kWh per month and annual generation summary, and the year they break even on the investment. Anyone who is unhappy after getting that done, who still went ahead with it, is a cock. Simples. Sone of our current proposals are showing anywhere between £400 - £800 p/a RoI. 3 decade warrantied systems showing breakeven in year 13-15, most recent one is sub 10 year breakeven. This is a non-commercial POV stating honest, genuine facts, and does not endorse any one company or product. I’ll see if I can post some numbers from recent proposals, bear with, beyond flat out atm. In 10 years time, the nay-sayers will be in floods of tears as they shout at anyone who leaves a light on or a device plugged in. Watch this space

If ducted, and in a cavity wall, they need to run downhill to the external leaf also.

+1, but I would have sleeved ( ducted ) the pipes as it’s a cavity.

Agreed. Which is why the issue compounds / we suffer further from these laminations. One is fixed ( death and taxes blah,blah, blah ), the other needs scrutiny. Elitism is paid for “somehow”……

With a heck of a lot more to come. Ultimately my recent 100% uplift of my standing charge will very likely go up by 100% again to further compensate for the grotesque amounts of public-generated revenue that shareholders have greedily siphoned off as income. Now that pot is running dry it comes out of our pockets again for the HUGE grid fortifications / improvements that are required for this mystical electric future. Privatisation at its (expletive deleted)ing finest. Ffs.

Ok, so, after some recent talks with my PV / battery / EV charger partner I asked the question. It is still not quite ‘common knowledge’ but I am led to believe that the chargers would have a gun and CT clamp to switch into eco ( aka trickle charge ) mode when it sees export. Other than that, it would simply be told not to hammer you with ultra high cost electricity. Most should be charging overnight or topping up with “non-domestic” chargers (?) so this is a relatively manageable “problem” afaic. I very much doubt that EV charger manufacturers would alienate self generators tbh.

Prob best edit that. Makes you look like a real armature. 😂.

I went with 2x regular MVHR ceiling valves with 2x lower extracts in 225x25mm, each with their own 92mm ducts on a previous install. Was a little less ‘prominent’ than that one. I do accept that the “joy of cool” will soon allow you to forgive and forget anything perceived as conspicuous though, as at that point it’ll defo be your best friend. I do, personally, like quite a cold bedroom. When staying in hotels I always ring ahead and ask for the heating to be off in my room.

Loads of speed, next to zero pressure whilst drilling, and a good diamond bit shouldn’t break out. If they’re very hard or very soft bricks you’ll need a tower scaff and do as per @joe90 did. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail. Simples.

Yup. I use my method for general survey and locations choices on POE only, ( as most of my clients haven’t got BB at 1st fix stages ), but I am now set to purchase a 4/5G data only router with LAN point so I can then also do speed checks off my laptop to be 100% sure. Those things are cheap enough, and it’ll be good to have WiFi on site during the M&E works as a lot of my PH clients builds get next to zilch in terms of GSM signal when inside, especially ( as you say ) when Insulaton has been fitted. Same as everything else, measure twice cut once.

Yup. Most building materials are relatively transparent, but reinforced concrete and metal structures do affect things. If you buy an AP and a flying lead you can do a ‘survey’ of where it could / would / should go just by powering it with the POE injector. No need for data, just look at the signal strength Cheap 15/20m cat5 lead off Amazon is plenty good enough. I’ve just bought an ubiquity pro6 to replace the AP lite on the landing, which will give WiFi to pretty much all of the habitable rooms in my 3-storey house. 👌. Better to have a couple of powerful units than loads of medium power ones afaic, as it’s the devices which seem to take forever to ‘see’ the stronger signal off the AP that you then roam to / from. I’ve put a TP link external unit under my gazebo and that floods all the outdoor areas with ample signal, including reaching into my metal roofed office / shed / man-cave.

My apologies 🙄. Yes, olive eating into pipe, and the fact that the whole functionality of the olive is to compress onto something rigid, which reinforces by design how it is lunacy to turn / tighten it into soft plastic. The plastic cannot offer any opposing force so just gets displaced. The nut gets tightened until ‘someone’ decides it’s “tight enough” and the resultant joint is a compromise even before you’ve put water in the pipe. The issue of the insert being used ( or not ) is of zero relevance, as nobody here can compensate or advise against idiots not following instructions. However, when the instruction is to do something poorly, and it comes from the manufacturer, go figure. I’ll not defend that any further, just a plumber on the tools for 3 decades stating what’s shite, and why. That’s impartial and free advise, given on a take it or leave it basis.

You can’t really say that until you’ve seen what is included in their quote??

That colour soon.

Using the grout colouring ‘pens’ will give you the biggest nightmare of all. Do not use these crappy short cuts, it’ll wreck the job completely. Another cause of this lightening is too much water when mixing the grout, or excessively wet sponge when wiping the excess back and polishing up. The grout rakes are ugly beasts and will VERY easily chip the edges / corners of rectified porcelain, so please be sure of whom you employ for that task, as a goon doing it will result in a complete re-tile. If you go for the grout removal, I’d strongly suggest paying a cosmetic repair company, such as Mr Magic / other and get them to do it methodically and meticulously. Anything else will end in ( even more and larger ) tears.

It’s mostly behind the laundry basket where he can’t pee straight when he’s drunk.

Grant do an oil hybrid ASHP, which may allow you to retain the existing rads. Would need some numbers crunched first of course, and would require the oil tank to remain. You would gain a cylinder, and a device for producing 2-3x the heat energy from 1 unit of electrical energy. The oil burner side of the hybrid kicks in when the heating load exceeds the max efficient operation of the ASHP side. Have a google

Spot on. 👍

Life of plumbing and seeing these fail. Splitting hairs, it’s not every one that will leak, but how many potential points of failure do you install on the basis of “it SHOULD be ok”?