Nickfromwales

My previous point. What if it isn't ever partially discharged? What if it just nucleates and turns into one hot frozen lump as quickly as you see the little demo sachets change? I genuinely cannot see how that reversal could be stopped, or even slowed, but I am just a lowly plumber from Swansea and the only white coat I've ever worn did up at the back Its also got to be the fact that theres no network of pumps, pipework and what-not acting as mini radiators with the UniQ vs the tin of spaghetti thats in the upper section of the SAPV. @Alphonsox I lost about 15 mins yesterday watching your avatar. Bills in the post mate !

Early failure is not a problem, these things will attend your funeral ( on a good day ). @JSHarris Its my assumption that SA hasn't cracked the stop-start of the 'freezing' of the PCM, more that it is so well insulated it just shoots its bolt ( sorry ) and the heat energy sits there waiting to be utilised. The get out of jail card is that these are aimed at the domestic sector, in the UniQ form, and therefore are assumed to be getting recharged every 24hr period, hence they can get away with not stopping the phase change. Would you concur?

I was actually thinking the same thing last night tbh. They need someone who is both a consumer, an installer, AND is someone they don't directly employ ( so can tell them "how it is" without the fear of getting sacked ). The problem with most good staff is they don't want to rock the boat, not a problem for me as I told my old employer to take his neanderthal way of doing things and to shove it right up his arsehole ( as I was the one taking the flack all the time ). He was stuck in his ways and couldn't be told.

Wood burning stove, and live in the woods probably.

I’ll get some specific feedback on this.

Grout will fill the gap, ooze behind a tad, and grab like hell to the dry ceramic. Doubt you'll even get to the board behind unless you go bananas.

They're looking at a model that is good for mass housing / high volume sales. Folk like us are the niche im afraid.

Most of whats here bears relevance imo, just didn't want to have the useful topic of batteries lost here thats all.

Could we divert that chat into a new thread please, and we can pop a link here to steer folk to it

I shall update after I get further updates.

One of my suggestions. Duly repeated

Chainsaw. My mates neighbour had a row of conifers between the houses and they basically kept growing out and blocking my mates path. He asked nicely, they got trimmed. He asked again, got ignored. He told the guy, cut or lose....your choice. 48 hours later........ziiiiimmmm.ziiiim. Phut. Mates out there with his wife pleading for sanity, whilst he felled every last one of them. He then dragged them into the guys front garden and simply, and politely, states “the offer was there”. Said neigbour asks for ‘permission’ to put a dwarf wall up. Mate says that’s more sensible and agrees. Mate comes home to find two brickies cleaning up and packing the van. Neighbour has built the wall, wait for it......completely on my mates path, reducing it to 3/4 of its width whilst neighbour enjoys a full width path. When asked he says it’s becsuse he paid to build it.........wrong answer. Mate then proceeds to pick each brick off and lob them into the guys front garden. Guy knew not to come out until he was finished Ask for the cost of replacement used panels to be met. They’d ask you in a heartbeat. “Do unto others as they would do a shat on to you”. No retreat, no surrender.

I had this phone call, literally yesterday, and after an hour of deep conversation, with one of the most helpful guys on their books, I was informed the logic has ( past tense ) been amnended for the options of charge / call for heat to go as high as 20% discharged = calling. There are some clever folk working on and developing the SA units and controls and I have already had a few simple suggestions, that I made, rebuffed. In the light of the responses I got as to why those ‘ideas’ could not be implemented, I now know a decent bit about the product and the huge hurdles that have been jumped to get the product this far. I’m going to afford them some credit for that tbh. Their aim is to have a reliable, off the shelf item that can go into a domestic dwelling and then require no intervention whatsoever. When I was asked what I was going to do with a SoC ( state of charge ) indicator / display I was a little stuck to reply. It’s not like anyone is going to sit in all day staring at it, what would be the point of that? It’s also impractical to ask an end customer to check in on it daily to see if it needs boosting or not. Not going to happen. Boffins, and folk ( such as myself ) who are curious enough to want to know will naturally be disgruntled at not being afforded this insight, but the product simply isn’t aimed at us at this moment in time. It is something that’s on the cards, possibly for Q4/2018 - Q1/2019, but it’s not a high enough priority is what I’m led to believe. My own perception. I aired my own frustrations re more complex controls / status monitoring etc and was simply told that that is / was not on the immediate list of things to cater for due to ( deemed ) lack of necessity / practically. Remembering that PCM doesn’t stratify like water does shows the complications of obtaining reliable temperature readings throughout the charged / part charged cell. Also let’s remember that the PCM gets killed by overheating it. As PV is introduced via a 3kW immersion, it’s imperative that that does not get over-energised as it’ll only serve to cook and kill the PCM immediately local to ( surrounding ) the immersion element. I dont envy SA”s task in achieving the middle ground, but looking at it kW for Kw, it’s still the most efficient way to absorb and store excess electrical energy ( E7 / E10 / PV ). Looking at the alternatives it still seems to rank highest AFAIC. Some fleas do seem to come with the dog, but hopefully with the newer logic, eg more varied SoC / demand control and some basic indicators, ( personally I’d be happy if each thermistor ( ~33% - ~66% - ~100% ) light an led, would be better than nowt ), it should appease the ‘general public’ accordingly. I’ll get my tin hat.

Taking shape nicely. Just angle the tiles back the few mm needed to clear the window bead and job done. Put a straight edge across both the tiles whilst the adhesives wet so they follow each other.

You're not my type. ?

Dodging.....

Kinda what I meant. Was just about to type that. Restrict the tanks acces to grid electricity in time with 'peak' Dhw demand. Agreed. Nothing's ever straight forward is it ?

In that scenario I'd just boost with the immersion as its cheap enough and cost pennies to replace compared to running the ASHP too had too long and then also ending up using an immersion for defrost anyway. Get the tank to 42/43 and then get to 50 with immersion.

Point being, try turning your shower up more than 38 and see how uncomfortable it becomes. Remember big shower heads will allow the water to cool slightly as it falls.

It's nowt to do with what's stored in your cylinder / other, it's to do with what your shower is set at Typically my shower is set to 38 and that's fine for me. The kids and wife have it MUCH hotter, so in order to reduce my annual energy consumption........they've got to go ?.

As they're cheaper than shoplifting, I'd be inclined to get two and halve the duty of each unit. As the temp would still be high, I wonder how doubling up would improve things.

Very much worthy of further investigation. I'd be very interested in the reliability / longevity when it's routinely driven at these higher temperatures. Higher output has to come at some price?

I only know what I’ve read in @Ed Davies‘s posts ?

Agreed, as long as you’re allowed to fit / have the opportunity FOR a ground mounted array. My replies are tailored to the specific circumstances not general / rule of thumb.

When you’re off grid, any power is good power