patp

We are going the battery route but waiting for the garage to be finished to install it. We are waiting for the MCS number to register it with Octopus. Again the contractors are blaming the office manager for all these failings. We have a very good relationship with them but might have to stand our ground if it proves to be their failings that have cost us money in the long run. The chap who owns the business is a bit of a wiz kid with solar and has been granted, since we were sold our deal, huge contracts with local authorities etc. I think we got lost in the productivity drive The 46 panels were sold to us on the basis that we would get a 5% discount and that we could cover all our costs and sell what was left over back to the grid. I will try with the photos tomorrow.

From memory! The house is on one phase, the garage/workshop (not yet built) is on another and the third was to export to the grid in return for payment.

As I use a laptop the photo thing is hard for me to arrange. The easiest thing for me to do is to the main guy out from the electrical contractor. We got on very will with him and he is a wiz with solar. As I said above we were promised a visit by their solar main man that never happened because of staffing problems at the company. We need to discuss a battery installation so that will give them an incentive to come out and talk us through what is going on Ah! that is very interesting! Yes it is 3 phase.

It is not that I do not realise that solar will be much less during the autumn/winter but that I am thinking that it is not connected to our supply at all. As I said the contractor had problems and we have only had the sparky that does the house electrics here. He confesses that the solar is not his "thing". Once the solar was installed, therefore, could it be that it is not supplying us at all? We have a small box (emlite) that tells me that, since installation, we have generated 8500 kwh. Have any of those kwh gone to towards our consumption or could it be that it is not configured right and is just going straight to the grid? As I said above we were due to have their solar guy come out and talk us through all the ins and outs of solar generation but that did not happen.

It is above the horizon!

Having travelled extensively in motorhomes of varying sizes I can give you a few tips. The bed takes up a huge amount of space and we sourced a motorhome where it was on a hydraulic assisted lift and could, therefore, be pushed up to the ceiling when not in use. They often also use two bench seats either side of a table that, when the table is dropped down and covered with cushions can double up as a bed. Other than that the shower and toilet compartments are often combined as a sort of wet room. All seating etc is pushed close together with only a body width between them. Floor space is always kept to a minimum. Many people would ask how on earth the two of us plus two dogs could live in such a confined space but we found it fairly easy. After all a body only needs a certain amount of square footage doesn't it. The rest is all wasted space;

Update on this thread. They have not chased the amount outstanding (£1200) and it is not mentioned on our recent bills. Now I have a different query from you wise ones. Remembering that we have 46 solar panels and live in sunny East Anglia do you think that a bill of 212.6 kwh from 10th October to 4th November and 94.2 kwh from 4th November to 10th November sound right? It is a three bedroom bungalow with a separate dining room. There are just the two of us. We do not have any hobbies that use electricity. Husband does have a mobility scooter that he uses daily to go the village shop. Otherwise we just use normal amounts of power. The heating has not been on. I try to use the washing machine and dishwasher when the sun is out. I am a fanatical scrooge over electricity and always turn off lights and appliances that are not necessary. I am wondering if the solar panels are not connected properly to be powering our appliances before the grid takes over. There is a little light that blinks all the time the solar panels are collecting power but is it being used to power our appliances? Octopus has asked us for a number from the Electrical Contractor so that they can start us off on a feed in tariff but the Contractor has not supplied it yet because they have to get it from UK Power Network (groan ) Not that this, I would have thought, has anything to do with our solar panels powering our appliances. Or does it? The sparky that did all our work tells us that they have had a terrible time with a duff office manager making all sorts of errors. No one ever came out, from the solar panel team, to give us the promised talk on the use of the solar and the installation of a battery.

North of Luton machines seem to be much cheaper

My brother was telling us of a lady who has MS. She keeps a couple of horses and she has a digger to do all the stable work around the place

That website looks great thank you. Have been looking on Facebook Marketplace but there are some dodgy people about on there:( It is too much money to risk.

These comments are interesting. He is not a fan of hiring as he has an over developed sense of responsibility. He will fret that they are waiting for the machine to be returned. Because of his health conditions he cannot rush anything and he fancies the idea of pootling about on his machine doing jobs as and when he feels like it. He also does love a machine I will broach the subject though.

Have thought about this too so will be interested in any replies. Another one that has been suggested is a wildflower lawn with plenty of Yellow Rattle in it. Yellow Rattle is parasitic on grass. This gives the wildflowers a chance to establish. Again it reduces mowing and is bee friendly.

Around 1.5 ton. With cab. Budget up to £10K. Build nearly finished just need it for tidying up and landscaping. East Anglia preferred but will travel.

We removed some hawthorn hedging and our bco made us dig extra deep footings to compensate for the change in the soil movement that he predicted would happen. If we had left the hedge he would probably made us dig extra deep to keep the roots out!

Wildflowers will grow on good soil but they get smothered by grass and other plants that like it too. Yellow rattle is parasitic on grass so might be worth considering?

We have just finished ours and starting on the garage. We are not too far away in Norfolk Be prepared for lots of trial and tribulations and allow tons more time than you think you will need! Are you involved in the build or employing a builder to do the whole job? We project managed ours. It was very hard work but kept the marbles active

Thanks all. I will give ole Greg a go and then get on with my life. I do, however, feel a letter to my MP coming on about the atrocious service we get from all the utilities.

No, not me @Dillsue. It sounds interesting though! I am so tired dealing with these utilities :(. It puts me off contacting them. Took us a year to get Openreach to lay a line about a hundred yards. Anglian Water charged us £17K to move a water main. Now we have to fight Octopus

Crazy situation! I wouldn't mind but I had to chased them for an invoice. I had heard nothing from them since the installation. I heard recently that if you have not been billed for a year they cannot ask for retrospective payment. Of course I only heard this after I had chased them for the invoice. Over £1200 to find for them now. These utilities are a disgrace!

Having had battles with all the other utilities why would the electricity companies be any different? We have 46 solar panels installed. During last winter we had an emergency 3 phase meter installed. It was an emergency because husband was undergoing cancer treatment which gave him heart failure and we were living in our caravan. Fast forward to now and we have only just been billed. It is Octopus and they have not allowed for any of the solar that we have been exporting. They say we do not have a contract to sell it to them. Is this right that they can collect our solar output with no payment for it?

Ah I thought I had seen/heard of something before. Wales seems likely as bartering is still fairly common among the smallholding community.

What about offering to charge electric cars for the the local community? What about offering to do washing/drying or filling your oven with other people's casseroles? Rechargeable garden tools could also be charged. Then there could be a community large battery storage unit for the benefit of local residents? I know, I know I have been visiting cloud cuckoo land again!

That's an interesting solution. We have access to both of those resources. My only problem would be that the following year might be a difficult one? We are getting on in years and really don't want a lot of work. We are thinking of a wildflower garden which would mean the opposite to your solution. We would need poor soil which would mean disposing of our heap of topsoil. Seems such a waste I suppose we could try a half and half solution by making one half wild flower meadow and the other a more productive area. Our garden wraps around the bungalow.

An experienced gardener told us the that runner beans can be perennial?

I will try to pm you too @Kelvinif you don't mind?