Crofter

So I'm going ahead with my plan for a ground mount array and a diverter. What's best practise for placement of breakers, isolators, etc? Thoughts on SWA vs a duct for the DC run? The inverter in using is IP rated but I think it's best to plan for it to be in the house anyway? It's about a 25m run from the array.

I'm not sure I've ever found Wikipedia to be wrong.

That's exactly what I've done. The A2A just runs off the cheap rate. OVO are trying to sell me their E9 plan which has off-peak dotted throughout the day, but of course none of the times really match up with when I'd want to run the A2A. And the off peak rate is only 1p less than I can get a single rate from another supplier. So the obvious thing to do is jump from THTC straight to single rate, but they aren't offering that. I'm not sure what the implications are for the wiring in the house. I mean, worst case, can't they just install whatever meters are required and just bill me at the same rate for everything that I use?

We're on the archaic Total Heating Total Control which was pretty common for houses using storage heaters, but is now being phased out. The Radio Teleswitch system is to be turned off imminently and we're being barraged with warnings from OVO, the electricity supplier, to get the meter swapped out for a smart meter. This is all well and good (assuming we have a good enough signal for the smart meter to work...) but they will not allow us to keep the current tariff, and are only offering us two flavours of dual-rate as a replacement. From back of envelope calculations, I can see that both will end up costing us more than we're currently spending. It looks like we'll be much better off switching to a single rate (especially once I have done my PV/diverter project) but they aren't offering that. Will I need to get them to install the smart meter first (which they won't do until I've chosen a tariff) and then move to single rate, possibly with a different supplier? Just FYI, we are using A2A heating so low overnight rates are of little use. Good for the immersion heater but that's all. What we want is the lowest possible rate accessible 24/7, as the times that we tend to run the A2A don't line up with off peak hours. And once I have my panels and diverter in place, I'm hoping that our immersion usage will drop substantially over the summer months, which is when the house is mostly occupied.

You're best to crack on with the loft insulation, this will help prevent the water from condensing where it meets the cold air of the loft.

No, the jackets are the big yellow structure at the bottom of the tower. Heavy steel, nothing like as complex as the nacelle.

Yes but Denmark and Germany are, and they are the main manufacturers of wind turbines in Europe. It's almost as if being the in the EU isn't actually that bad an idea. Ah well, what do I know.

I'm quite surprised that they can do that in a common market.

It's been tried. The Arnish yard up on Lewis was making jackets for offshore turbines for a few years. I don't what causes it, but any sort of manufacturing on the UK just doesn't seem to stand a chance against the competition. And it's not like we're being undercut by China on this- it seems to be most Germany and the Scandinavian countries that are building all the turbines. Not low wage, low regulation economies. So we have to choose whether to build domestically and accept the consequences (whether that be higher cost, outdated designs, slower production, etc) or outsource to somewhere else and get a better product cheaper and faster. It's not just turbines that are affected- same story for ferries. And the politicians who make these decisions are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

I think the ones who take the effort to engage with us plebs on the forum hey a free pass. The comment was somewhat in jest, but at the heart of it is the distinction that amateurs, generally, have both the luxury of time and the need to live with the finished product forever more. Whereas professionals must be cheap and fast if they are to stay in business. At the end of the day professionals who don't cut corners are likely to be priced out by their competitors. There aren't enough punters willing to pay more for quality workmanship.

"An amateur does the best job they can; a professional does the worst job they can get away with".

I put planings down about five years ago a steep driveway with a tight turn, in an area with high rainfall. It's held up amazingly well. I'm going to patch a few places this winter but all things considered I would certainly recommend. I find it looks pretty much like tar, nothing wrong with the look of it at all, so long as you pull out the chunks of road paint and cats' eyes...

What's your intended final finish?

I did consider Eurocell. They could do uW 1.1 for the sliding door and uW 1.0 for the window. It would have been very good value and given they have a showroom in Inverness, it would have been very easy. Ultimately, though, I spent a bit more money in order to get u values that are substantially better. And don't get me started on a certain 'big name' outfit who, now that they have my phone number, won't leave me alone. Their quote was laughably bad. The sizes bear no resemblance to what I asked for, the colours are wrong, and they won't give me u values for anything. These places operate as finance providers and don't seem to know anything about windows.

Assuming it's a 'cold roof' construction, where there is a loft space left uninsulated, then you will need to add insulation above the ceiling and also add ventilation for the cold space- preferably at both ridge and eaves level. If I'm correct about it being a flat ceiling and cold roof, then there's not really much advantage to doing it at the same time as you board the ceiling- you'll have to board the ceiling first anyway. Although if your loft hatch is small, you could chuck the rolls off insulation up there first. If you can't (or don't want to) fit high and low level ventilation, you might be able to put vents in the gables instead. If you've actually got a vaulted ceiling, then not much of the above applies.

Here's a much better plan, sell it to me 😁

It would be easier to drill new holes in the plastic boxes than to drill new holes in the wall, by the sound of things.

Having lined them all up for comparison, it's now very hard to look past the Eddi! Hopefully something will crop up on eBay.

Absolutely. Just because somebody else benefits, doesn't mean you are losing anything.

@Roger440 how much of the gear have you already bought? The only way to guarantee no benefit is to leave it uninstalled. Just because you can't get the optimum use out of it doesn't mean it's pointless. You have to install the panels etc eventually, might as well do it now and you'll offset a bit of energy. And you can feel smug because you're doing your bit to help decarbonise the grid.

You could load shift to when the sun is shining. Better than leaving those panels sat on a pallet. Link?

Does this AI-generated summary of different inverters sound about right? Makes the Eddi look the best by far. Especially considering in the future, when the house is no longer rented out, I am hoping to get an EV and charger.

Yup, overnight boost on off peak rate (currently pay around 23p/kwh for that) with a boost function that they can use. Most people figure it out, but some manage to drain hundreds of litres of hot water and then phone up to say it's broken. I presume they're used to unlimited hot water courtesy of mains gas combi boilers. Not an option here! All they have to do is wait half an hour after hitting the boost button. Too complex for some people!! The PV+diverter would just supplement the existing setup. It's quite tempting to fit a dual-element immersion, so that the solar one can have its thermostat set higher.

That's all good info. Specifically, what did they want to know about the structural side of things? I looking at a DIY ground mounted approach.