joth

So 3 months after applying, I finally got a personalized response, at 9.30pm on Christmas Eve! On further inspection it looks like a automated email trying to just bat away more applications into the long grass no doubt hoping we give up. It's complete nonsense as the quote I provided was 30% less than any other obtained, included all the information they're requesting, and is only high due to the costs of their own stupid MCS tax. Interested if others received this same present this morning ? Happy Christmas! Full text: Thank you for submitting your Green Homes Grant application with the reference number xxx for the property at yyy. During our initial review of your application, we encountered the problems below that are delaying approval of your voucher. Upon review of your application, the quote you submitted for Air source heat pump is higher than we would have expected based on average prices for work of this kind. There may be good reasons for this, such as a larger or more complex installation than usual, and you should ask your installer for a written explanation. To speed up processing your application, please provide us with your installer’s response and, if you are unsure, do seek an alternative quote. Quotes for work within the scheme should include the following information: Company name and contact details Company registration and VAT numbers (if applicable) Your name, address and contact details Full breakdown of works, including enabling works (e.g. scaffolding, lowering of the level of ground water) including costs Any relevant guarantee or warranty Payment terms (how/when will customer have to pay) How long the job will take (hours) Total price (including VAT for domestic customers) Any delivery costs Any deposit needed Details of stage payments (if agreed) Any access needed (e.g. to water/electricity) Once we have received this information, we can continue processing your voucher application which is currently on hold. If we don’t hear from you within 30 days, we will close your application and you would need to submit a new application to forget a Green Homes Grant. Please submit the requested information to zzz and include your application reference number. If anything is not clear or you require further information, please contact the Green Homes Grant Scheme customer contact team on zzz.

Sounds good, it's really a case of more of the same as we've been doing. Frustrating I've got a nice Ecodan ASHP sat here unused because the scaffold is still blocking where it needs to go. Else we could have all the heat we ever need. As it is the electrician has only commissioned a couple sockets on a 16A circuit which rather limits the amount of heat we can get in. Still I can crank up the setpoint temperature and see how we do

Yes we've tried industrial dehumidifier for a month, and windows open whenever on site, but neither these have worked hence now attempting something else with mvhr. It ran overnight, but this morning the inside of windows were still damp hence the query. Given it'll be unoccupied for a couple days now it'd be good to figure a system that actually is helping it dry. I have it set to "bypass active 24hours" yet the status menu is resolutely saying Bypass = 0% so not sure what's up with it. Thanks

We're trying to lay bamboo flooring, glue down, but it's been delayed for weeks because the indoor humidity is too high. It's a bad time of year for this I know. Plaster and screed are dumping water constantly, and our 0.5 ACH airtightness doesn't help! We turned on the mvhr to try and circulate air out a bit more, but as it's got an enthalpy exchanger I'm not dead sure what the correct settings should be. It's a zehnder Q350 The controls has "humidity protection" mode, "humidity comfort" mode, plus force bypass for 24hrs at a time. I think complex calcs involving latent and sensible energy may be required to work out if bypass will help or hinder, as it's wetter but colder outside... Outside relative humidity 90%, inside is 86% Outside temperature 8°C, inside is about 17°C Suggestions? MIs https://www.zehnder.co.uk/download/22227/90547/en_uk-59051.pdf

Milestone reached today: all the Mains dimming circuits are terminated to the panel. Slight frustration of the Weidmuller terminal blocks is the Live core is hidden under the neutral wire, so if you have a few circuits not yet terminated at the fixture end it's tricky to make them safe on the panel. In theory the spring clips should make it easy to disconnect unused cores. The WhiteWorks dimmers are very nice. The built in test modes very handy indeed.

I'm afraid you're going to be very disappointed with the this setup. The batteries are about 2.4kWh. the fridge + freezer will empty that in well under a day on their own. The 600W panels might charge those batteries on a really clear summer's day, but I take it you're in the UK so if prepping, I wouldn't plan on relying on the sun being around for survival. A generator is probably a better bet, ideally coupled with a humvee and shotgun to help secure the gasoline supply in the case of civil disturbance (literally, as seen on a USA data center tour) To the question, the single cable cannot safely serve both purposes as you need a transfer switch (break before make, to ensure only one source is feeding the domestic mains at a time) and that requires both sources to arrive in the same location.

Yeah as you can see in the photo above our new consumer unit is smack bang up against the ceiling. Renovation so that's ok. Originally I wanted to put all the rcbos in the loxone panel (hence why I shelled out for the 18th ed compliant LXN panel) but our contractor's electrician preferred to keep the rest of the electrics out of it and as I'm DIYing the loxone install I was fine keeping life easy as I can for him on the rest of the job. Should have another update soon, been a busy few days swapping in the final dimmer configuration based on final lighting design

I ordered a new Pixelbook from the Google store last Sunday evening, standard (free) delivery, and it was delivered to my sister in-law just after midday Monday. To her farm, rural Devon. Honestly I have no idea how logistics for these co.s run so fast these days.

Exactly this. I'd imagine that you just need to build a lodge out of sustainably sourced timber to claim the eco badge. In extremis, I can imagine yurt style eco lodging claim eco as it's like a tent and anticipated no-one would put a heater in it, but then glamping happened and you can't claim luxury without a 20°C+ sleeping temperature so they get jammed full of cheap heaters.

Exciting step forward today - LXN5 panel is on the wall. I start my Christmas "holidays" tomorrow, may the extensive termination festivities begin!!

Not as such, but you are supposed to first complete the energy savings trust questionnaire on what measures are suitable for your home and that might have a built in limit on EPC https://energysavingtrust.org.uk/advice/green-homes-grant-scheme/ I had to run through the survey a few times as we're mid-renovation, if I gave before vs after figures it gives very different recommendations. In the end, the grant application merely asked me to confirm I'd done the survey, not for any evidence as to what it had suggested me

Well don't ask me how, but we received it today! earlier than expected, before paying for it, before the GHG voucher is approved, and before the site is ready to install it, but whatever, WE HAVE IT! Big day as well as ASHP the staircase, Quooker, water softener and Loxone panel all arrived on site today too.

Yes, isn't that thing called a buffer tank? I'm confused why anyone would consider the expense of installing and servicing and maintaining 2 gas boilers when you could just have one plus a buffer tank?

Yes, this is documented in the "SMETS2 polyphase" requirements, i.e. if you have a v2 smart meter it should work this way. I understand commercial contracts maybe (very) different on this, with a requirement to balance phases and stuff, but in general domestic customers shouldn't be penalized for microgeneration with imperfect load balancing. But if you don't have a smart meter (or, maybe even if you do) there seems to be a very real risk the supplier will configure the meter incorrectly and bill on some other basis.

Yes

Hmm It would be illegal to commission the > 3.68kW system without approval in advance from the DNO, so no idea how you proceed there! The DNO application will need to know exact design, schematic and BOM for the install in order to approve, but you have most of that already. FWIW my original G99 went in for 7.36kW (i.e. 2x 3.68kW inverters) and that took months to approve (in parallel to the PP for it), but when we swapped to the newer 8kW single phase inverter (SE-8000H) then it was a couple weeks to get the existing approval updated. I'm not sure there's any downside in over-specing the inverter now and not installing all the panels to it until a later date; if I thought I might expand the system in future I expect that's what I would try to do.

And I'm sure you'll end up with something with all the cohesion and charm of Hearst castle

Dumping temperature and dumping energy are not the same thing. If you slow the pump to a virtual standstill you'd expect the difference to be even larger. Conversely running the pump at warp speed, even a few °C decrease would equate to a much larger energy transfer. There's probably an analogy with packed cars in a traffic jam vs nearly empty cars on a motorway and which one delivers more people per hour to their destination.

Tangential, but this is fascinating to observe, as we nearly went multipanel everywhere having read about it here, but our main contractor had never used it and wasn't clear on the benefits so we just stuck with tiles as that's what they know. I think sometimes things that make sense for self builders (especially that are time rich but might lack specific trade skills like tiling/grouting) are not necessarily best for a contracted build where the trades just want to crack on using techniques they already know and not learn something new. I sometimes wish all us "custom specifiers" had a very different avatar style so people easily tell if they're getting "self build" or "self specify" advice/opinions ? (Obviously it often makes little difference, but occasionally the material vs labour trade off leads down a very different decision tree)

Ours was an independent designer and for similar size property it was £750 for a developed concept (stage 3 plans) and the same again for a detailed costed design and lighting schedule (stage 4 plans). Additional fee to oversee installation and commissioning but I'm doing that myself You can get much cheaper / free design services by going with a shop's in house designer but they'll obviously aim to make that back on the sales. One nice thing our designer did was negotiate trade discounts on the fancier architectural fittings and pass the savings fully to us. Up to 50% off the massively inflated list prices (still not cheap but made it more achievable). Not sure how common that is but worth asking

This reinforces everything I understood about him being the kind of person I'd really appreciate real life conversation with and just enjoy having a pint down the pub with too. For avoidance of doubt my "someone is wrong on the internet" quip was not intended as a serious criticism. I've been using various internet groups/forums for technical conversations for 26 years now, and lost count of the times I've see character conflicts that appeared insurmountable online but quickly defused with 20 mins IRL chat and a beer.

ASHP confuse matter as the COP changes the faster you try and heat the space, so a little and often approach will work out more efficient than occasional big blast, for identical values of actual heat output

I think the key info is how often is the building occupied? If some one is in it 24/7 then yes heating constantly might be best. If someone only there every 5th day it would be very different I know our own house (very poor insulation while we rebuild) heating is very different this winter Vs last as we now work from home rather than away from it for 10 hours every day

We spoke to a couple IDs exactly for this, and quickly realised they really didn't want to help and it was a lighting designer we really wanted. Fell in love with the first LD we spoke to and made a massive difference to our plans (and, bank balance... ?) We're now just doing the paint selection ourselves, various shades of white everywhere except the snug which is thick with F&B brinjal estate emulsion. We'll regret one or the other (or both) of these choices, but... we'll learn from both the decisions and paint is easier to change than moving/adding light fixtures

Just got informed my Ecodan R32 is ready to ship Monday and they need payment now else I'll lose my place in the queue and probably won't get one this winter as they're not taking new orders. So my GHG application will be wasted effort for whoever eventually processes it, given I don't even have a way to cancel it.