-rick-

Sounds a bit like we've built layers upon layers of bureaucracy to achieve nothing except making us an unattractive market. An argument for removing the higher taxes and also the offsetting tax rebates. 'Back to basics' lol or maybe K.I.S.S.

Should have an email/invoice somewhere also. Failing that log in to your Starlink account should show up there (though maybe not until you are setup)

Ok so it is currently 800W. They may want more but doubt this will change for quite sometime now. Politicians will call it done and move on to the next challenge.

Something I saw as part of this news this morning is that the tax on north sea extraction is 78%. This surprised me so not sure if it's true, but if true, it does seem high given the remaining oil is harder to get. If that 78% includes the government taking on clean up costs and other things then fine. But if not, then seems to me it would be sensible to lower it to encourage some further extraction. I think humanity should stop burning oil asap but until we do I don't see why we should import it if we have a local source.

Can't you just look up what model you had delivered and go from that and look at online guides specifically for that model? I think your situation is fairly common and there's lots of help/guides out there. Given its a new install most likely you have the same as Gen3 OnOff.

I think this is already a thing with bigger equipment (commercial) with the use of commando style plugs being discouraged or outright prohibitied (can't remember) when they used to be the norm.

John's copy/paste above says 800W per household. Where have you seen it per circuit?

Drain the cylinder and stick a borescope camera in and have a look? Cheap cameras are £10 on amazon. EDIT: it's a vented tank so maybe there is something other than scale in there.

Sounds like scale on the HW coil in the cylinder. Descaling likely hard, so maybe time to think about a new cylinder?

The electrical industry raised some concerns about this but turns out it isn't a bit deal. The devices work two way they just aren't tested/certified for it. Exception might be if the mains power is down and the panel is feeding power to the grid (but that can't happen due to the mandatory safety checks built in).

Solar panels are 21-24% efficient depending on model. Sun outputs 1000w/m2. So you can work it out. 2x1m panel is generally around 400-450w. There are a number of 'portable' solutions that use less efficient panels so you could have more of those but they are more expensive and less durable (as a tradeoff for weight/portability).

Nope. Just plug in and go AFAIK. It's all based on 800W being low enough and the safety systems within the system strong enough that no additional steps are necessary.

Possibly, other similar options are available and you can get continuous lengths of insulation to put over separately bought piping. In previous discussions Nick has suggested the insulation on those is not thick enough for proper insulation against cold flow temps (different thicknesses are available but somewhat hard to find). I suspect it's enough though if you are only thinking about moderate temps but not if you want to do proper chilled water (5-10C). In a new build I'd certainly hope to plan things to avoid fittings yes. Less to go wrong, less cost, less flow restriction (an issue with MLCP pipe), etc. If forced to have fittings I would do it using the same techniques plumbers usually use. If the fittings are particularly difficult to insulation you can get flat sheets of foam and cut/manipulate that to fit. Yes. Taping joints. Use closed cell insulation not open cell if possible or failing that have it pre-wrapped with a plastic layer (as I think your link shows).

While @JohnMo is right that the dew point is often around there and as long as the pipes are above dew point condensation shouldn't be a problem, personally I would plan to insulate anyway for a few reasons: 1. It's not expensive (comparatively) and buys options to lower the flow temp in future especially during heatwaves when the dew point may increase. (people here were reporting dew points over 20C in the recent heatwave, at which point keeping the cooling water above loses a lot of effectiveness) 2. If you insulate pipes then clip/secure them around the insulation, you gain some protection against noisy pipes (either thermal expansion/contraction or noise from flows/restrictions). Ideally these wouldn't happen in the system anyway but it's cheap protection. 3. It keeps the heat/cool where you want it and not where you don't. Again ideally this shouldn't matter but lots of houses have layouts that means pipes have to go through places to get to a destination and especially when the heating is on you may not want that heat in the space.

Obviously it should be your builders problem to resolve. But in the interests of making it as easy as possible, have you thought about whether there is an alternative route to run a new cold water pipe? Obviously not ideal but if there is a way to run a new (insulated pipe) without as much disruption it may be worth considering.