-rick-

Urgh, that water butt is butt ugly. Gonna find some green 'hair' to grow around it?

Send it back for false advertising and get one which is actually 'smart'?

My thought: split Bedroom 3 horizontally, u-shaped/half turn stairs in lower part. Upper part turned into dresser/walk in wardrobe for bedroom 1 and/or extra space in lounge. Replace bedroom 3 upstairs.

That's probably the best explanation of the difference between the two that I've seen. Good on Wrekin. Given your motivation for looking at this is keeping the Quooker in good shape, maybe the best thing to do is ask them what they recommend? I've always thought of the electric ones as a bit snake-oily. Someone here posted an option for something claimed to work in the conditioner way as above using a catalysing reaction. Can't remember where but that might be another option. Ultimately, you need to pick something to try so my thought is go with whatever Quooker think is better or follow the recommendations from @Russdl here as he has the direct experience of a successful solution. One thing I should mention: while looking at this the other day out of curiosity one of my google results mentioned how its not recommended to drink salt-softened water if on a low sodium diet but equally not recommended to use phosphate conditioned ones if you have liver or kidney issues (one or other can't rememeber which). Worth bearing in mind.

Mind sharing a photo? A shame, pretty sure unistrut is significantly stronger and cheaper than most of the approved fitting systems.

I agree, just thought it was interesting to share (also amusing timing as I wasn't looking for it yesterday, just clicked on it to fill time and then you post this thread this morning). Coming up with your own solution to something can be fun but it's only ever really worth it if it does something you can't find in a commercial product or it seems significantly cheaper (and even then most times by the time you are done it won't be - even if you don't count time spent).

I had a look at Sunfixings website and didn't see this mentioned there. I somewhat expect that the MCS certification mentioned in the PDF is just for the normal fixings used and the rest is considered outside the scope for MCS. In effect they are just replacing the roof tiles with a different roof and then doing on-roof solar. I've previously mentioned what I'd like to do which is similar but with trim aligned with the solar panels around the edge to give an integrated roof look. While the PDF proposal might result in lower profile panels than on-roof on tile, it does look like the solar panels will still be quite proud of the tiles and you won't have the integrated look you get with GSE or similar. Maybe ask to see an installed example to see if it's what you want.

Ok let me rephrase, it can be handled safely but there are more risks and steps (training) than just handling MC4 connectors. A DC circuit of 600V could easily be made via the ground contact or via contact with metal structures. Say you need to replace an isolator and it's case with a new one, first you have to disconnect the + and - cables and feed them through the grommet hole before you can fit the new case/isolator and then feed back in. Yes you can tape up the exposed cables one at a time but removing the cable from a gromet/conduit may be tricky and a taped up cable can snag. I'm sure you are perfectly capable of doing so but the chances of a mistake are higher than dealing with MC4 connectors. The context of my comment is that the additional isolator on top of the one in the inverter doesn't do much in terms of reducing risk during maintenance but does add risk in terms of bad connections/overheating/fire. Glad you are ok!

Indeed, and if we are talking safety with an external isolator vs not, the external isolator means there are unterminated/exposed wires that need to be screwed into the isolator. If you ever need to do maintainance involving those cables you are going to have to handle bare wire. If you just plug MC4 direct into the inverter then during maintainence you should always be handling the MC4 connectors which are appropriately insulated such that you have to be trying quite hard to expose yourself to a live conductor. Handling exposed wire like this safely would require covering the panels or working at night.

Randomly came across this yesterday if you have a 3d printer (vibrant colours optional)

An option for what? The recommended install in the UK now would rely on the inverter built-in isolator (external if it doesn't have it). If you want to add your own on top you can and it would likely be fine assuming you buy a reputable brand. Not sure why you'd want to make it more complex and expensive with a contactor?

This is interesting terminology. There is no direct transfer between the AC side and DC side. For transfer to happen the Inverter has to be actively switching so the Inverter itself can be seen as the load, especially as some will power up if they have solar power and absolutely nothing else connected (suspect they do this using direct DC - as in they will successfully power up without starting the inverter switching). Obviously you should always shutdown the inverter before using the isolator switch but I believe they should be rated to handle live disconnect because of the above mentioned operation and also to handle fault conditions. For example, the user interface software on the inverter crashes preventing you using the controls but the inverter is still switching. In this example disconnecting the AC side will not remove all load from the system and if you have batteries the inverter might still be under full load charging the batteries. See here for a teardown of a DC isolator that can break an active circuit as generally required:

Option 4. Install a combimate before the quooker, use the whole house softener for everything else

As others have mentioned there are other solutions that are seen as preferable for a drinking water tap. (The phosphate ones). The whole house softener is good to reduce scale build up on other appliances, showers, etc. Did Wreckin bring those up?

The manufacturer will have a spec for this. Look up the product you are using. I think the silver ones tend to last longer but bog standard ones are about 6 months exposure.

It got me (briefly) thinking why is it stuffing the Longditude into LAT and the KEY into KWP. Definitely a cheating anti-pattern.

This is similar to the idea I had when I first started thinking about it. I'm pretty sure it would work. Wouldn't meet MCS standards though (they require you to use an approved mounting system - and recently removed the ability to deviate with SE signoff). If you used MCS approved mounting and there weren't issues with fire (as discussed above) then should be fine. My most recent plan is do as you propose but with cheap metal roofing instead of EDPM with closed cell foam + sealant between the panels on the frame to stop the bulk of water (doesn't have to be 100% as the metal roofing is a barrier) and then metal trim (likely backed by OSB for strength) around the edges and joined to the mounting system to present a continuous roof without it technically being an integrated one. Ventilation at ridge and gutter line under the panels with mesh to stop nasties setting up home underneath the panels.

No thats just the random number generator they added to make the models seem more human. Apparently the earlier versions didn't have the RNG and you could get reproducible results but with other downsides.

FWIW (not much) I thought ChatGPT was one of the worst for coding. Others Anthropic?? being much better.

Careful with that. Peoples interactions with AI keep popping up in search engine results unintentionally. Most AI companies are using user interactions as training for future models (some in more limited ways than others). In general you will have control over this but dark patterns seem to be causing leaks when users expect privacy. Less than that these days. Many of the 'pro' models will happily go out and search the live internet for you (at a cost in more tokens).

Definitely a trade off, but the data shows that isolators are the most common cause of fire (at some random point years after install) so that seems like the bigger risk to manage vs the need to take suitable precautions handling connectors in the once every 10-15 year activity of changing an inverter.

I agree, though my main concern is not really the fire risk itself, it's concern that insurers or mortgage providers will turn round at some point in the future and say that the roof represents a big risk now and therefore either bump the price or refuse to engage. Obviously this would be a wider problem affecting a wide variety of installs. But living in a flat I'm currently unable to sell due to cladding issues (which as far as the surveys go was installed in a fully compliant manner at the time of install) makes me especially touchy on this subject.

The point of the isolator is to break the circuit. Once the circuit is broken the MC4 connector should be relatively safe to handle. Otherwise, installing solar would be a much riskier job. An isolator on a broken inverter can still break the circuit and once broken it should be safe to remove/replace and the new inverter will be installed with the isolator in the off position, ensuring no current flows during install.

With addressable tape, AFAIK, you can set the output to 0% and get no light even though the strip is powered on. Obviously there will be some extra current draw, but I wouldn't be shocked if normal LED controllers leave the power on all the time anyway. The 4 core cables you have are thinner than I was imagining and you have cat5e rather than chunky cat6. So overall the conduit is less stuffed than I thought but still given the awkward bends over the joists less is more. @andyscotland repeated my point about spacing the joins. I suspect your 4-core cable is stranded (maybe labelled as flexible) which will make it easier to pull. That CAT5 cable is probably solid core. If you wanted to pull CAT5 through conduit then getting some stranded would likely make things easier. (Its usually used for patch leads). As a complete aside, why did you choose addressable strips over normal ones? The added cost seems hard to jusitfy for me.

It was more that I thought I've seen that some of these systems overlap/interlock the panels. Saw something showing panels being riveted in place (didn't look hard enough to see whether the panel was still removable with rivets in place but if not looked like a bit of a job to remove).