Rubecula

We have an Ecocent 300L not installed by ESP so they won't maintain it. They gave me the number for someone who could do it but the phone is never answered and messages don't elicit a reply. I was told they live in Henley and we are in Gloucestershire so I'm not sure if they would come this far. The first question then is do you know of an Ecocent maintenance engineer living closer to us? If not, do you have any advice on DIY maintenance. The unit is about 2 years old so I think it will need a new anode and possibly a new immersion heater element. I presume that I will be able to buy them from ESP. Questions I have: Any special tools needed? Any issues encountered that are not covered in the Ecocent Installation and Operation manual? Thanks, Robin

Thanks all for your input. I understand that using the energy cost for comparison is not ideal. In the mistaken belief that energy costs here would be less than our previous house I destroyed all our previous bills and so cannot compare Kwh consumption. I think that we have got the system set up correctly but my objective in asking the original question was to see how energy consumption compared to similar properties. I now see that there are probably too many variables to make a useful comparison. TerryE, other than your use of an immersion heater in lieu of our ASHP the properties seem very similar in terms of construction and maintenance requirements. For comparison our combined ages are 146!

Thanks all for your very helpful responses. You've given me a lot to think about. I'm going to be busy for the next couple of days but will come back to you when I've had time to digest all you have told me. Many thanks, Robin

Hi, I introduced myself saying that I had some questions about living in a passive house. Some of you thought the questions might be interesting. I suppose what questions I have will depend on your answers to this first question. What is your annual ennergy bill? Based on our living here from last June to February Shell Energy has forcast an annual cost for electricity of £1900. Our last house was a 1970's conventional brick structure where the combined gas and electricity bill was £1050. Maybe I'm naive but I hoped the bill would be less not nearly twice a much! Both houses are 4 bedrooms and there are only 2 of us since the kids moved out over 10 years ago. Oh, and we have a tariff fixed until mid-2023. Briefly, it's a highly insulated, triple glazed property, permeabilty 0.23, with air source heat pump, mechanical heat recovery and hot water heated by recovered air. I guess you will need a lot of information about the house to provide us with some guidance but rather that overload you with the full house specification I'd first like to know if £1900 is what you would expect. If you think it is then we'll just have to live with it. Thanks, Robin

Hi, We are not self builders but have recently bought a passive house that was self-built. So I hope I'm in the right place to get some answers on living in such a technical house.