MikeSharp01

Is this your house in Kent, as was, very tidy piece of work although there seems like a lot of isolation valves!

https://alertelectrical.com/beadmaster-square-74-for-single-socket-or-light-switch-bm-square.html?variant=51288796561754&country=GB&currency=GBP&gad_campaignid=208985893

I am a great fan of dungarees when working on the site, to get them to stay on the shoulders I have to cross the shoulder straps behind my back (see image one). Yesterday the latest copy of 'Narrow Gauge Times, I appreciate it's not for everyone and not much to do with self building, dropped into the letter box and so I spent a happy hour thumbing through. I came across this photo of a world war one derailment of a stretcher wagon and the team working away to get it back on the rails and the stretcher case back to blighty. (see image 2 - attributed to the Imperial War museum) One thing I noticed immediately was the way the guy on the ground pushing the wagon back onto the track was wearing dungarees with the shoulder straps crossed and it struck me that the problem of the shoulder straps falling off has not been solved in over 100 years, wonder why? Image 1 Image 2.

Tomorrow I need to install three pattresses - exactly the same so easy to make and fit. I already did the one we have planned for the snug but I think it sensible to install these three for future users, just plaster over the back boxes with those little covers and put an accurate drawing of their locations in the house file. I will run cables to the local power and AV connections and leave them covered up in the back boxes. I know it seems like a lot of work but at least one of these spots will probably get a TV in our time but we are trying no to sully this 10m x 3m wall with anything but Art at the outset - pretentious I know! Anyway deciding to put them is not the problem here. I am wondering, give the future proofing thinking what layout of pattress and service back boxes to use. Only one rule really - The other half of our relationship hates seeing wires so all the services MUST be behind the TV. It comes down, I think to one of two - see below. For the various possible bracket options really. LEFT (Flat to the wall) or RIGHT (floating bracket.) is either of these approximately future proof. I have used a 55" TV but my research tells me the same bracket area could go up to a 70". Any thoughts anyone?

Yes they have extra strong plasterboard on the ceiling below so all will be well - until it isn't

Yes, as I understand the simple export system. The 30 minutes readings however are critical if on the 'agile' tariff as this needs to be absolutely clear how much went in and went out in each of the 30 minute periods as a gap could be much more difficult. As I said the back end tool ( https://www.octopriceuk.app/missingData) as @Rob99 points out above can see our missing data, as I show just below rob99s post, so I assume octopus must use that to do the 30 minute calcs for Agile working out. It would be good if I could get a local reading of the smart meter but I am not sure this is possible although I hear tell of wifi smart meters - anybody know if a local reading is possible?

Yes we did and two things came out if it. Firstly the data was in the Octopus back end all the time as I could see it via the detail tool, it just was not copied across to the main viewing system. Secondly the way billing works on the simple Octopus export, not agile, is that they use the last meter reading of the month and so errors from intermediary readings don't matter a jot BUT if that one reading is wrong then the bill will be wrong! So I have added a line to my logger to record the total exported by the inverter at 10 seconds to midnight on billing day, and every other day actually, so I can check the bill readings.

Wow that is some battery! Not a massively difficult task and you may be entitled to grant for £7.5K to help you get it done. PS I see this is your first post so welcome to THE forum for people like us.

Not us yet we are going through the process - we have prepared all the ground including UFH, manifold, In and Out 28mm pipework, control cabling, power supplies. We are just waiting for the chosen ASHP to get its MCS certificate.

In my day, young man, we worked such things out with a slide rule!

Sounds like fun and welcome to THE forum for people like us.

Where do you get a tariff like that we are on 25.97p import!

Someone like @JohnMo must have done that somewhere on here?

Interestingly not shown on the single phase diagram - we are going for an invertec model and it clearly says it can do cooling so I would expect a way to switch this over on the board.

I hadn't spotted that one I must re-listen.

We think so as long as we can meet the MCS requirements e.g. the size of the tank. As such we can always not bother with using ASHP to heat the water provided we meet those requirements to get the system across the line in the first place and then extend the capabilities of the tank through auxiliary immersion use to boost the water temp when we have guests. we will be cooling the slab and the MVHR feeds to the bedrooms. I notice today that there is talk of extending the grants to cover air conditioning but that will come too late for us. (https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/air-con-for-your-home-could-become-part-of-7-5k-heat-pump-grant-3799614)

Caught really interesting and easy to understand piece on the BBC's more or less programme today. It explains why our electricity prices are so high, how they are made up and how marginal pricing works. Catch the piece at 12 minutes in. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002fj8f

The one we are targeting says it has a range from 1.85-6kW ( https://coolenergyshop.com/collections/pro-inverter-air-source-heat-pump/products/pro-inverter-air-source-heat-pump-ce-ih6plus ) which seems like a good range, has all the integrations we need / want and can be sourced via the company's umbrella scheme.

Yes it is small and the Willis route has been examined and was my choice - following @TerryE's brilliant work at the outset BUT the SAP / EPC plays against you if you do because direct electric heating is frowned upon. We are set about with downsides so a smaller cylinder and an ASHP running at its lowest setting will be our way forward I think.

We can't fit a 250l one in, back in 2016 the architect sized the utility for a combi boiler so no tank and now we have lost the boiler and gained a tank, we have literally mm to spare 550mm dia and 1500mm high is all we can fit into the space - hence me trying for a 200l Tempest - I will know in the next couple of weeks if the MSC umbrella company will accept 200l. I guess I can work out a heating strategy that will suit us. We shower first thing and can use an overnight smart tariff to do that with the immersion heater or have it heated from the PV during the day and pay the overnight loss in the morning or run the ASHP to do it when not charging the slab or, on the odd occasion, pay for full price leccy into the immersion.

Why the M2 surely that is hundreds of miles from you. Good for me though.

Bit harsh implying @Pocster is an 'odd drip' he may be odd but he is no drip or have I got that the wrong way round.

We don't, we need about 1.2kW at -2°C OAT. But 6kW is the smallest I can find and the 6kW will do the DHW.

No, not as yet but we have put it in just in case we need it as we get older.

Had a look at that (https://mcscertified.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Domestic_HW_cyl_selection_guide.pdf) just left me confused, as in nowhere near covering all the combinations. Ours is a 2 bedroom place with one bathroom but also has a wet room downstairs - does not have a bath so is not technically a bathroom and if you take the US interpretation of a bathroom the downstairs WC would also be one but has no shower or bath. We need a 6kW ASHP so which cylinder do I choose, 180l? or 210l would a 200l be OK - I guess its up to the MCS crew to sort it out - Telford don't do a 210l they do a 200l and 250l Tempest with 3m2 coil. It cannot be beyond the whit to have an upper and lower bound equation with all the factors.