gc100

I have just completed my barn conversion which is in open countryside. My water and electricity connection are 1km away and my internet I get over mobile network (it’s very good BTW). I would get just some quotes from local water boring companies, they will know the depths needed to hit to get to the water table. It was around 280m where I live and I was looking at about 15k cost. However the electricity was a bigger headache having to deal with the DNO. Getting access across private land is not big deal really was you have to get leeway’s - it’s just takes a very long time to deal with land owners. In the end I didn’t go with the bore hole as I just layer a pipe in the same trench as the electricity cable I bought across the 1km distance if you budget 30 to 40k for services you probably won’t be far off..

That’s one ugly house.

3g reduces solar gain a little - good in summer , not so in winter. We have very large 3g south facing windows. Its get very very hot if we don't open and let the breeze blow through. It sounds like externally you cannot do much in terms of planning as solar shading from outside is the best and cheapest option by far. It's super common on the mediterain. Google images "brise soleil" for examples. You need to go with small /limit your south facing windows - this will help with summer heating and keep you warm in the winter

We thought about these but decided against them because at some point one will break and thus ruin the whole window.

ah yes I do kind of agree with you on that. I’m not sure with vertical the canning will go. My roof is only 19degree pitch so gravity is basically making it flat again.

Not convinced about what? more info : https://sheffieldmetals.com/learning-center/what-is-oil-canning/

It does this as it comes off the roll. My roof had some but it’s starting to disappear now a year later as the metal settles. I think to will completely go by this time next year .

My house is a barn conversion in open countryside done via Q planning. If there outside the development boundary (most likely) this will be the only way you will get planning. The checkbox's for class Q conversion are quite simple but they are strict. it has to be former farm usage (you will need proof - a letter from the previous owner should suffice). I think you biggest issue will be getting a structural engineer report to say that the structural sound and can 'take a building' - LA can be strict on this definition. You have to build within the envelope of the existing building FYI - you cannot go outside. You'll need a contamination report and then deal with anything it finds. Check how much Amps the electricity connection is (are all the barns sharing it) as that will cost to upgrade for the DNO. Treatment plant for sewage is not expensive really in the scheme of things. Cost/m2 will be more than a new build as you will have to work around the existing structure all the time and this will cost in terms of time and many things will need to be made to fit. Obviously you\ll need to get rid of the asbestosis - there are companies that take the p**s with pricing. Shop around a lot. We had quotes up to 10K (it cost us 1.2K). Talk to a local planning consultant - money worth spending IMO if you are serious.

i don’ t have a thermal camera unfortunately. It’s a weird one for sure.

So been looking into this more. I have 2 strings of 9x325W panels connected to the inverter. However each string is mostly only generating 70V unless it's really sunny . Looking at the VI curves for the panels they should be generating around 300V per string even with very little light: So I should be having around 300V per string which I'm a long way off. Here is what I'm getting for example: You can see the voltage sits around 70V most of the day. My inverter has a min feed-in voltage of 80V so won't even be generating anything. Note there is also the weird voltage spike at the end of the day - I can only put that down to the voltage potential across the string as the amps drops down/up from zero. Does anyone have any idea? Something I notice is when the voltage is low the realtime Amps seems to oscillate between 3A and zero between the 2 strings backwards and forwards, like a sin wave. So one will be 3A and the other 0A, then both 1.5A and then 0A and 3A over the course of say 6 seconds. Some other days:

This

I only made 1.1kw today . norfolk.

Yes it’s a single inverter - fronius primo 5.0 I don’t think there was any ‘design’ - materials was just supplied as a system.

The panels loose the sun around 6pm at the moment. I've generated a total of 27.7KW it seems since Sat. Its currently generating 320W now the drizzle has stopped.

OK thanks. Not contacted the electrician yet - it was producing about the same when he was here installing it (cloudy) as I mentioned it, and he said its normal - they need direct sunlight. I've just been out to the inverter and have seen that at some point since install its peaked at 3.2 KW but no idea when. I've since last night setup the app to view historical data and realtime so will have to keep an eye on it. Though I thought it would be generating something more like 600W on a cloudy day to pretty disappointed at the moment. Forecast is cloudy all week though!

Its about 15 degrees off south (towards east) at an incline of 19 degrees. 18 panels at 325W. thanks

So its cloudy and drizzly today. My new installed 6K system is only generating 80W at 2pm. Is this normal? I've only had it running since Friday, but I'm yet to see it go over 1KW.

My folks have this type of dressing and they’ve never experienced that - perhaps they just have a lot of dressing. My fathers cousin did the work as he had a large professional company doing that. They will be doing mine.

So my drive is about 160m with a parking area in front of the house which is about 50m circumference . The roadway/drive up to this area is an old concrete road that’s in pretty bad shape and the new parking area is crush concrete compacted down. The plan is to put about 2-3 inch of planings on top and then tarmac spray gravel dressing. I’m wanting to put edging around the parking area to give it a more crisp edge and to hold in the drive buildup. (Down the drive it will just be soil either side). I’ve got some edging stone just delivered and I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to lay them. Setting out should be fine but I’m wondering how I’m going to fix them in. I’ll need to dig out a bit of of the concrete crush where it meets the garden/soil. I suppose the best thing would be to put some concrete down and bed them into that to a draw line. I’m wondering though if I could just get away with sand (what type?) as it will basically be sitting between the soil and the tarmac. Anyone know what’s best?

I’d be very cautious if I was starting a build now. I’ve been pretty lucky and have a good relationship with my BM and have been getting 20bags of cement at a time which keeps me going for what I need but they guys who built my house with me have had lots of trouble with the current job. You can get everything but prices are high and very hard to get any meaningful discounts. We got huge discounts on our build of lots of negotiations between suppliers but there’s less margin to work with now. I hear from a national BM chain that a huge amount of supplies are being bought and horded by HS2 (the most pointless reckless waist of public money ever IMO ) on top of the Brexit and COVID supply chains issues. I started my build a few months before COVID hit the uk, but being very paranoid and bought pretty much all the supplies I needed to get to first fix before it Boris and pals started taking it seriously and stored them . It kept use going through the first lockdown and beyond. I then got everything months ahead and again stored ready. I did this throughout the build and always kept the project going . I think if you are to build now you need to do something similar and have some secure storage at least .

I just installed a 6k today on my house. All materials was £3082+vat. And 2.5 electricians 1 days work (one left at lunch - he was there to just help get them on the roof). Bought from local branch of Edmundson electrical .

What happened with Anglian water ?

let me be clear I had a burst water pipe that flooded the house. On a separate note we finding having a zinc roof is adding a £200 premium to out insurance quotes

Water leak. No idea why insurance companies find zinc risky. I just suspect 99.8% of insurance algorithms are based on bogo standard houses and anything outside of that is seen as a risk (even if its not).

Just an update for those interested. The insurers refused the claim sighting the following reasons: - The property was not being used as a permanent home at the point of inception (it was a week before we moved in) - The property was not in a good state of repair (it was in perfect condition aside from the cladding not complete on the outside). - The property was not self-contained with its own lockable entrances (Yes is is self-contained and was fully locked and secure months and months before we took the policy) - The property was in the later stages of a renovations project with a value of over £20,000 (just the cladding work, worth no more than 3K) They in the same email 'voided' the policy and revoked access to the website where the policy was stored. We made a formal compliant and they came back saying ' take it to the ombudsman.' We are now writing to the ombudsman however there is about a years back log apparently. We are now struggling to get house insurance (even though the house is complete and signed off) due to the above. Cheapest quote is £800 a year ! Those thinking about Zinc roof be warned as this apparently is adding about £200 to the premium!!! Architects don't tell you about that. This is going to cost us more in insurance cost increases over the next 5 years than the damage done in the first place. Double whammy. God a HATE insurance companies. Get it writing for those in the grey area.