Radian

What are the two little slots set back 10mm or so from the front face at the bottom for?

Yes I always one of those. Credit Card protection has always have been a minor miracle IMO. A case of a regulator doing something useful I suspect.

You're right. 'Twas easy. Bit of scaf pole, Workmate, counterbalance and pull. Stake in corner at half way point worked like a charm.

I've got a cable spooling frame somewhere - not sure it will be big enough but if not, or I can't find it, I can prop a broom handle between a couple of saw horses. Nice day for it anyway. Cheers 😎

It's going from the rear of our garage along a boundary wall/fence to a deck at the far end of our garden. Most will be above ground clipped to a wall. I imagine the friction will become an issue towards the end and it doesn't help that it's not a dead straight run. There's a couple of bends to negotiate. I Guess I'll drive a stake in the ground at these corners to guide the cable around.

Huh?... err? Oh $#!t how did I get so old so quick.

I wish I had ethernet in every room... for the PoE if nothing else. It recently struck me that it would be a doddle to set up a solar PV charged 48V battery system to power all the distributed processing that sucks up so much of my base load. A few DC-DC converters to run things like WiFi routers and Raspberry Pi's would knock around 200 Watts off my base load and provide inherent UPS. I'm slowly forming the opinion that instead of expensive multi-kWh battery banks, a network of smaller energy storage solutions like the above might be the way forward. If nothing else it kills the gigantic up-front cost of a power-wall like product.

2-bay Oak looks good, what does it include? Not the cladding it seems.

Thanks again @dpmiller Superlec were spot-on with an order I just received from them. Best prices I could find for the cable online and free next day delivery for >£50 order. 52m of 4-core 4mm2. Weighs around 25kg. Anyone got any tips on how to run it in one go?

It's simply the price you pay for independence from a commercial ecosystem - which would probably still require continuous tweaking anyway. My 'poor mans' approach has been to retain conventional wiring/switches/light fittings and simply populate with smart bulbs. The only 'unconventional' addition is occupancy sensors in all rooms which supply node-red with the necessary info to automate the lights. We're all used to ignoring the wall switches now we're got virtually 100% automation and voice control over everything. Given that the smart bulbs can default to full-on at power-up, replacing the wall switches with N/C momentary open switches would restore a degree of functionality to them but I've not really felt the need.

I would be asking building control if they were happy with it as is. They might be able to respond to an email with that photo attached.

I wonder who's been at fault with this. I specified the doors but didn't think it necessary to itemise every single component. The installer never mentioned it might be missing (and he was the one trying to tidy up the CT1 on the frame fixings 🙄). If it's the supplier and more than two years has gone by I'm not even sure what to say to them! I don't think there's any detrimental effect other than the visual appearance which now I've clocked it, is beginning to annoy me.

I'm currently looking into what I believe is a missing component in the supply and fit of our external sliding doors. It is a plastic infill strip as coloured yellow in this diagram: Our channels are fitted with the plastic insert shown in red along with the retaining clips which would seem to indicate that the frames should have been supplied with the drain tray but none were delivered. It's been a couple of years since the doors were fitted but it only recently struck me that the channels looked unfinished on the inside. There are even some frame fixing screw heads visible in the bottom of the channel. 🤮 My first question is should we expect these trays to have been included? My second question is how the heck to people manage such drainage details when trying to achieve airtightness???

I use patio cleaner like that for getting the algae off of fences. What I found is that just brushing on and leaving it works best. It's greatly accelerated by sunlight too. Sometimes it takes a week to fully work. Any of that wall pointing South?

How's about you make your own cables with some CAT6, RJ45 connectors and a crimp tool. Either strip down some fabric covered 3-core or try and source a braid you like but either way sleeve it over the CAT6 and bob's your uncle - or is he your nephew?

@joth can you tell me how the pzem-004t v3 handles bidirectional power? I'm looking for a CT that can monitor import/export.

Going by this post on the emporiaenergy community forum only the two Main clamps measure real power, all the others will show VA. I think this is why there's a lot of discussion going on around this subject. The real power is probably quite modest (maybe why the Mitsubishi tech didn't bat an eye) but people checking with CT clamps not referenced to the line Voltage phase see alarming numbers. I don't know how portable your Emporia Vue is but if its the one with two big clamps and 16 little ones, you could temporarily clip one of the big ones around the Ecodan supply wire and check the real standby power with that.

@LA3222 What monitoring system do these CT's plug in to?

Very much doubt that, not at 50Hz anyway. But there was some talk of the motor windings being used to double-up as heaters? So maybe some higher-frequency PWM applied to the compressor motor which would almost certainly have a lower PF. The utility companies meter would only register real power so if that was used to establish the vampire load that would clinch it. Alternatively many of the smart sockets with power monitoring can be made to expose VA and VAR if they are reflashed with Tasmota. That's how I got the insights into my fridge freezer power use (all three plugged into same smart socket):

Is this 200W real? I mean like a resistive load with a power factor of one? A crankcase heater would be but a compressor might not. My fridge and freezers have a PF of around 0.5 so they show up on simple current clamp meters as drawing twice as much power as they are billed for.

Alright, S/S although you don't see many of those in the junkyard! I was just thinking the indirect coil connections could be made off with compression fittings on both sides and the cylinder beaten flat(ish) to make into flashing. Brazing is useful though, got a carbon arc jig? One came with my stick welder and TBH it gets more use than the sticks. Especially good for rusty car bodywork.

Scrap copper HW tank & tin snips?

I think the typical application that concerns mortgage lenders is when spray foam is applied under old Bituminous Felt. The non-breathable felt would originally have risked condensation build-up on it (and the adjacent timbers) were it not for good ventilation from the eaves. But is it a mistake to assume that cutting off this ventilation by encapsulating the felt and adjacent timber is going to cause rot? Condensation will occur at the location of the dew-point - which in turn is a function of the RH and temperature of the air at that location. If it is located within the actual insulation which is non air-permeable (closed cell) then I don't understand how there is any risk. (I'm not even clear about open cell insulation in this regard).

Fair do's. Warm or Cold Roof?

Oh yes, I'm sure these inverters were the bees-knees once upon a time! But the mechanical noise is just terrible. Still, the build-quality is pretty good. If it falls over for good I've got my eye on the filter inductors and the big heatsink as parts for making a 100 Watt Class-A amplifier. ☺️