Radian

I've often wondered about that. I have an isolated AP that I use exclusively for Chinese bulbs etc. but even if I connect my phone to that AP I've yet to see the network check work - reporting that the device is not nearby. The phone can ping the IP address of the device OK so I'm not sure what they're actually doing.

Probably. When was the last time you saw yourself on a cctv or other video recording and didn't recognise yourself immediately?

Out of curiosity, what wattage are they? Thinking about how direct connection to PV modules would work out. The DC resistance of the heaters will change significantly with the heating effect of I2R compounded by the VI curve of the PV so it's all a bit fluid. I'm even struggling to write it out in English let alone modelling it in a simultaneous equation. Still, I haven't had my morning coffee yet.

But; Bus companies aren't immune either.

Isn't that a funny coincidence, we both got our PV from failed installers. Must have been a tough market at some point. Trying to think when I got them: (looks up Amazon orders for MC4 connectors) August 2017

That's curious. These generic Tuya products can all be used with any of the badged apps so, for instance, you could use the smart life app or any other (Midea if you have any Air-con). You just have to put the device in setup mode again and add it to the app.

Didn't look it in the photo! Good luck with your project.

That's a bit jammy! Wonder why it was up for grabs? Since April I've been 'in training' with 5 x ancient 250W panels and an inverter that was in need of repair. The panels were out of a local solar showroom that went bust donkey years ago so I've been playing with around 3kWh, on a good day, that's cost me something in the region £150. No complaints about the economics of that. I say 'training' because I'm six months into a waiting list for a 3.3kWp installation so I've been using the tiny amount of PV I've got now to test a home-brew immersion diverter. The advantage of propping the PV modules against a fence is I can shift them around to get the best amount of power (if I can be bothered). If only the Sun would stay up in the sky as it has done since April, what I've got would almost do. 100% self utilisation has been totally achievable. The extra 3.3kWp would obviously extend the year but I'm under no illusion that it will do much for us in the winter nor that I will be able to maintain 100% self use in the summer. Not without battery storage (which I'm already thinking about hacking together). Just brought this topic up as I'm expecting the Solar PV installation peeps to turn up sometime next month and I can still wriggle out if I wanted to. Not that I do... I think.

Gotcha. I can't help wondering what constraints you're operating under. What I mean is, demolition of a sizeable house like that is expensive. Would there be no mileage in extending and converting it into two semi-detached properties? Or is the demolition in some way mandated as part of the planning for the development? Our previous house was the site office of the developer that built a large housing estate. They'd set themselves up in one of the king sized variants of the houses they'd built and added an extension on one side and converted the garage into another room on the other side so it was pretty big. plus it was bristling with telephone points and mains sockets. As soon as I pointed out there was no garage they pointed to several still unsold and said take your pick.

Sorry, not been following any of your exploits. Are you saying you now own this old house that straddles the developers plots 1 & 2 or have an option to complete plot2?

OK good. Of course there may be no mechanical relays, it could be all solid-state. Blown triacs often fail short-circuit. Easy to spot with a simple multimeter. If remote diagnostics do reveal a fault it's odd your display doesn't report anything.

If you're considering replacing the control unit yourself, then you will have to go most of the way towards diagnosing the actual problem with it. A stuck relay might just respond to a sharp tap on its case for example. I'm very used to prising these things open and looking for the problem but I appreciate not everyone is like-minded. Still, there would be several people I can think here of who would be more than happy to look at photos and try some remote sleuthing if you're interested.

I keep meaning to start a topic on this. If I set my boiler below 65oC then unless I also drop my HW cylinder stat the same number of degrees below 55oC the boiler spends a long time going on and off as it's modulated down to its minimum but still seeing too small a delta between flow and return. E.g. to run the boiler sensibly at 60oC I can only have the HW at 50oC which is a bit lower than I'd like.

If the relay is stuck on, how are you able to isolate the oven? I picture it being permanently on. If not then something's interrupting the power to the element.

Another factor that appeals to me is the psychology of 'actively doing something positive' when otherwise being at the mercy of factors outside our control. It's impossible to put a monetary figure on that. The recent price cap hikes are killing the joy of cooking meals, having baths and watching movies, when all the while a meter is ticking away in the background. Mention is rarely made of the other uses the funds available for the installation might have. Foregoing a few holidays, for example, might cover the cost of a small system and restore the joy. Like holidaying at home.

The Gaurdian recently published a letter from a home-owner responding to one of their previous articles covering pack-back periods for solar PV. In his letter, Harry Noyes describes how his 4kW system has produced about 4,000kWh a year for the last 10 years and doubts the Gaurdian's estimate of a 7 year pay-back. Is he right or what's Harry doing wrong? Or do we have to make too many assumptions (e.g. what he paid for his system) to be able to comment?

Were those purchased recently? Tuya have been busy releasing patches that hobbled tuya-convert. The first one I got off Amazon wouldn't flash with errors showing up in smarthack-psk.log so I just took the nuclear option. I doubt that the preflashed ones come ready calibrated but it's simple enough if you don't have lots to do.

Not sure what you mean when you say: I can only think of 'flying blind' and not knowing what energy things are using 😃 Just to make sure you know that the https://www.mylocalbytes.com/products/smart-plug-pm is pre-flashed with Tasmota. This is quite a big deal as I've been buying the same looking thing for £12 then cracking it open, de-soldering the ESP8266 from the main PCB and hooking it up to an RS232-USB lead before putting it all back together with polypipe weld. Having done four all ready, I'm definitely going shopping for these next time. I guess it may be the rest of the process to log the data somewhere that's 'the project'. Probably the path of least resistance is setting up a Raspberry Pi with MQTT and Node Red (plenty of easy step-by-step tuts on this) which would give you a jump-off point to a database and some DIY automation. However, Node Red can easily plot the data in the first instance.

It's tantalising to be sure, but I'm afraid the functionality you'd like is currently only available if you're prepared to roll up sleeves and do some tinkering. Tantalising because the £10 smart sockets are very capable indeed - I have several giving me accurate power readings with 1 second granularity into my own database (not a Chinese cloud) and they account for real power (unlike inexpensive clamp meters) and also respond to Alexa. The logging you're going to get from a free cloud based system will be very coarse indeed and may be shut down at any time. edit Rob99's link was dead. Here its is revived https://www.mylocalbytes.com/products/smart-plug-pm

Kitten Reunites With Mama Cat After Harrowing 40 Hours In Drainpipe On second thoughts, I bet you hate cats.

You're a star! The loosely fitting protective sheath is 40mm OD so probably a 32mm pipe inside.

You may be aware that it almost certainly doesn't take into account Power Factor, so may over-report. You have the right approach in using the utility meter to check consumption as these do account for PF and truly represent your billed usage.

By "installed volume of gas" do you mean total max gas rate in m3/h for the two boilers because I'm assuming that flow restriction must not be such as to reduce this amount. The below-ground plastic pipe is 17m long then will run for 7m in 22mm or 28mm copper above ground to the boiler.

That's interesting. Didn't realise the meter could be the bottleneck!

Smallest one is 25kW. While most boilers can be rate limited I suspect the engineer will insist on signing-off on the highest setting.