Radian

This is what, I think, is the most useful take-home about baseload - when it represents the minimum power draw from a house. Dynamic loads like fridges, lights and central heating pumps are all very dependant on occupancy and time of year and are best represented by averages. But the minimum power draw is a figure that we can use to spot problems that are costing us unnecessary expense. Having read how @jack had a UFH pump running unnoticed I've now implemented a node-red function that monitors daily minimum and sends me a notification if it's exceeded by more than a threshold value over a 24H period. Going to be a bit of fine-tuning to get it to the point where it's useful but I haven't seen any obvious problems yet.

Are you sure that's possible? the manual I found makes it sound like it's automatic: "Boiler Setting To ensure the elimination of Legionella Bacteria in the Hot Water Cylinder, at least once a week the Cylinder should be heated to 61°C. This is carried out automatically by the ESCTDEB. The Boiler Thermostat (output temperature) must therefore be set to maximum and homeowners 9 should be made aware that once a week the hot water will be warmer following the automatic “weekly boost”. We also therefore strongly recommend the use of a thermostatic mixing valve (TMV), these blend hot water with cold water to ensure constant safe shower and bath outlet temperatures, preventing scalding."

Galaxy as in MPV? I'm confused.

That wouldn't work on my system as I have the flow temperature set to 60oC to keep the boiler in condensing mode and it has only the one flow temperature so once a week it would stay on 'forever' while attempting to complete their Legionella program.

I'm slightly more attracted to the Latvian one on ebay. Fairly low risk financially, although you'd need to do a bit of coding to automate the data collection. Maybe a macro in Excell or something in node-red.

I had to parse that twice. Somehow I misread 'sit in their vans' 🤣

Shanghai VEVOR Machinery Equipment Co.,Ltd. Chinese with logistics warehouses in the US, Germany and Australia. Not had any experience of their stuff so can't comment.

IMO, the expense of a heat exchanger for a single extraction point would take a long time to be offset by the relatively small amount of energy lost through just dumping the warm air with its moisture outside. Given the low SHC of air, heating the replacement fresh air will not be particularly energy intensive. When you mention keeping the shower light, do you mean you have a combined extractor/light in the shower ceiling? I've got one of those and find it very efficient when coupled to an inline extraction fan. I went through the same thought process and came up with the above conclusion.

I'm guessing it's spread of fire from flat to flat through ducts that they're concerned about?

Well yes, there's a thousand ways to implement such a thing - it all depends how much from first-principles you are happy to start with. Assuming you'd rather not create your own temperature sensor from a forward biased diode I'd suggest using a ready made temperature sensor like a DS18B20. Then you grab a raspberry pi and follow steps from any online tutorial like this one to hook it all up. That link has a video tutorial as well. If you were to follow it you'd end up with the temperature on a display. The Python code example could then be tweaked to operate a 240V relay board to produce a boiler demand contact closure at your chosen set-point. A relay board like this for example... ...Can plug straight on to the Raspberry Pi pins. You could put probably it all together for under £50. Once you have the basics working there are numerous ways to go about making it smarter should you wish to.

I started a similar topic back in september: The big benefit was to be blackout-proofing for the essentials like internet and heating. I concluded I needed 2.4kWh battery storage and 800W inverter to be useful. Unfortunatley the required outlay of around £1300 proved too much for a 'nice to have' at the moment. My baseload ignoring fridge freezer is a fairly predictable 200W which is mostly the routers, NAS, Sky box and a handful of Rpi's plus all the smart gadgets sprinkled around: The mouseover above at 6:20 is in a gap where the fridge and freezers (little red blips and yellow humps) is a fairly predictable 200W. These power traces are superimposed on the total grid measurement in purple.

How handy are you with a soldering iron?

But all of them surely? Near-infrared radiation is what you feel coming up from UFH and at close range to a water filled radiator. If you put a thermometer in a transparent vacuum chamber then the temperature it registers is the result of electromagnetic radiation. Aren't we just getting hung-up on an assumption that IR=resistive electric heating when it can come from a variety of different sources?

This is what worries me. There's very little experience being shared about this system. Everything I found when I looked into it a year or so ago seemed to be positive spin from vested interests. I'm not saying to avoid it, but I wish it was in more widespread use. We know plenty about mineral wool fill and the kind of applications it isn't suited to. When we finally settled on EPS bead fill I had an interesting conversation with the installer when I asked him about the types of fill they're removed (it's another service the company offers emblazoned on the side of the van). I half joked that they wouldn't be removing spray foam but he said it was done and described a 'powered whip' that is introduced into holes and used to break the foam into granules that are then sucked out. This suggests it's not all sweetness and light.

I finally got around to using the tube I bought and I'd agree that it's a bit on the wet & sticky side which makes tooling a challenge. In your photo, is that the Soudal fix all? It looks very neat. One thing that was unexpected is the smell. It hangs around more than most sealants!

Oi! I'm trying to sell a mower here 🤣

You're going to need a ride-on mower. Our corner plot is about the same size as the one you're looking at and the whole area was turfed initially. Had to get a ride-on to avoid spending half a day pushing a mower. We've since done a couple of extensions and lots of hard landscaping so the lawn has shrunk enough to allow a push-along electric mower to take over since a drive belt broke on the petrol one. Must fix it and sell it on to make space in the garage.

What form of heating are you thinking of?

Just join L & N and test between that connection and earth as well as the USB pins. I'd want to know if the hf transformer insulation had broken down. If it can't take 500V it has no business having peoples phones plugged in to it! I agree they're a bit of a worry being on 24/7 and potentially on a 32A breaker. A PCB interfacing directly with a 7680kW capable source seems like asking for trouble.

Damn excellent space. I assume you're going to build an external staircase to that door. Would be nice to make it a platform with balcony out there while you're at it. I've got a 17m long garage with two 'rooms in roof' divided in the middle. Only fitted out one half to save a bit of cash but already laid in pipework for a loo in the other half. Workbenches fit quite well under the sloped ceiling but I do miss having vertical wall space for shelving. It's a bit like fitting out the inside of an aircraft. If you divide it you could put the loo off to one side and have a walkway off to the other. This way you also get a proper vertical wall and a break between areas.

Quite possibly a MOV surge protector in the mains facing side of the USB PSU. These things are all over the place and get increasingly leaky with age (cue the humorous quips). But your IR test suggests otherwise. What it won't reveal though is the transient current through EMI filtering capacitors (AC to earth) so providing an additional leakage path. The more devices with switch-mode PSUs on the ring final, the more chances an impulse somewhere will trip an RCD. Maybe the additional USB socket was the straw that broke the Camel's back. I meant to update this thread with a 'funny' that happened a few weeks ago. I had yet another nuisance trip. Went hunting again and eventually found low IR on the same circuit that caused trouble back in August. It was even more like groundhog day when I finally located the culprit: an identical 6-way mains distro with built-in surge protection. I totally forgot I had two the same, both lurking at the back of a workbench.

Probably means the cavity is on the small side. If it's 50mm or more it would certainly be suitable for EPS bead fill and would reduce your heat losses. Contractors tend to specialise in only one type of fill so if the one who measured up was using a mineral wool system they might have been picky.

I'm going to add that your roof is beautiful. It may be a little wavy here and there but it's made using quality materials that attract a heavy premium if faithfully reproduced today. Your biggest gains will come from loft insulation (including the loft hatch), draft exclusion, double glazing, and a correctly set-up heating system. Draft exclusion includes sealing between floorboards and also filling gaps under skirting boards as well as around all service penetrations through walls (e.g. waste pipes). Do you know if your cavity walls are filled with insulation?

Thanks for that. A scene that's going to feature in my nightmares from now on. 🙄

Always love a corner plot. Opportunity to have a 'wrap around' garden.