Russdl

That’s got to be worth a chat with a planning consultant. Looks ideal from that image.

I went for the rather more modestly priced Accur8 6in1 circa £120 (which seems to have morphed into a 7:1 for a few more bucks).

Sounds like a Personal Weather Station for Christmas then 👍🏻 Highly recommend for weather/data watchers.

@Lincolnshire Ian I suspect so. We had the same scenario and we had to submit the Section 80. That was 5+ years ago so it’s possible it’s changed but I would think unlikely.

@Omnibuswoman you’re orientation isn’t quite right unless your roof is a funny shape? Either way I guess your east facing array is slightly north of east and your west facing array is slightly south of west. That string of figures that Steamy posted show that at 10:00 the sun was circa 70-80 degrees off the east panels and 12.2 degrees above the horizon. At 14:00 the sun was circa 50-60 degrees off the west panels and 12.7 degrees above the horizon. Some 2 hours either side of midday the sun was close to the west panels and slightly higher so if the arrays are equal the west should have produced more at those times. As your west facing array is larger they should definitely have produced slightly more. Houston - I think you have a problem.

@SteamyTea Ah, that explains it all. ⁉️

We have a standing seam zinc roof with a loft space that is open to below. It’s a warm roof construction, so lots of insulation between the zinc and the loft space and we don’t hear the rain on the roof at all so if your loft is more standard and closed off to the rooms below I don’t think you’ll hear a thing. I wouldn’t do zinc again because of how quickly the pigeons have made a mess of it that doesn’t wash off despite the endless rain. Probably most people don’t see it - I do. That really shouldn’t happen. There are numerous fittings to attach PV to standing seam roofs, I’d have flipped my lid if the solar dudes had tried to drill through our zinc roof.

They look clever/very simple and probably ideal for a low energy house. What are the negatives? Just the relatively low output?

I’ve got all sorts of different Shelly stuff dotted around the house and I’ve never had any real problem with any of it which is a minor miracle as that sort of stuff is way out of my comfort zone.

A Shelly relay may be right up your street, sale on now.

It wouldn’t be the crime of the century.

How do they compare when there’s no snow? I think vertical bifacial is the future if you have the unshaded space.

@Stones thanks for that update/great reminder. Apart from filter changes I’ve not opened mine up yet. It’s been on my ‘to do’ list for a while, as have many things, I’ll put it top of the “things to do when it get warmer” list. We’re only 3 years in so hopefully no big horrors lurking inside.

Why not lower the threshold so that you don’t need the interior ramp?

The corner pieces overlap the straight fascia bits. One of the reasons I had them locally fabricated is that the corner in the picture below is not a standard 90 degree corner but 75 degrees. I designed mine to be fixed through the soffit element (which would be hidden by the EWI) and the top of the fascia element (that would be hidden by the PVC). The hidden fixing bit worked, I’m just disappointed in the finished look - however you don’t really see it unless it’s pointed out so I should get over it eventually!

I got a local metal fabricator to make some for me for my garage roof. I screwed up though as we have an EPDM roof which is finished off with a PVC trim piece. I should have had the metal fascia the full height of the roof fascia with the PVC trim over the top of the metal but I stopped the metal short, pretty much level with the base of the PVC trim and it looks a bit rough. I’ll draw a picture to clarify the above if you’d like.

How about a freestanding carport, half a meter or so away from the house so the MVHR isn't affected. Park the truck the other way round and have a slight fall front to back.

Don’t t discount that option, it brings many pluses. Not least being that the services will most likely be there. Getting services to a virgin plot can cost bucket loads. We were looking for a plot for decades and that’s finally what we found a bungalow that had reached it’s ‘best before, date. It wasn’t falling down but definitely had had its day and we got it for not much more than a virgin plot with planning permission would likely have cost. Good luck, it’s definitely worth the not inconsiderable effort.

@Bramco great idea. Mines still very much a work in progress but the more obscure stuff (Sunamp, Willis Heaters) is covered. And now looking at that photo I realise the house nickname on the spine text is upside down. Damn, back to the drawing board!

We have a fully electric house and could get close to blowing our 80 amp main fuse if everything was on at once, of course it’s not - not normally but on the current Octopus smart tariff I want everything on from 23:30 at night. We use a Willis heater for the underfloor heating (with the ability to use 2 if it’s really cold). If both of those came on at 23:30, plus the Sunamp and the house battery started charging plus the electric UFH and towel rails plus the dishwasher plus the washing machine plus the car started charging then the fuse would go. On the Octopus tariff I don’t have a huge amount of control over when the car starts charging so because of that I’ve restricted it’s charge rate to 4kW (I’m probably starting to use the wrong units now but hopefully you’ll understand). I know not to have everything come on at 23:30 but the next owner won’t (unless they read the Haynes style owner manual I’m writing). In the winter months I probably couldn’t charge a second EV over night, I should have gone 3 phase but I didn’t understand all of this before I made that decision.

How many EV’s are you likely to have on the drive in 10/20 years time? 3 or 4? You may want something faster than 7.5kW charger. I’d go 3 phase if it’s not prohibitively expensive.

Yes. Can’t wait to find out 😃

Doesn’t sound silly to me. Even if the condensate comes from every element inside the box you’d think it would all be herded together so it would all fall out of one pipe. Well I would anyway.

Is that 'standard'? I had no idea, seems a bit odd.

I don’t really know the answer but the Geocell replaces the Type 1 and the standard insulation. Clearly it’s more expensive than Type 1 but how it measures up against standard insulation I don’t know. We used it for a detached garage and it worked really well. If I were to build another house (ain’t/wont happen) I would definitely consider it for the insulted slab over the PIR bucket.