Russdl

Thanks @Declan52 it’s certainly on my ‘to do’ list to see what I can use it for.

@SteamyTea & @Conor yep, absolutely. My mistake was thinking that the house is starting to cool down so we’d best make the most of all the sun we see, so we let it in not realising how quickly it would reverse that cooling trend. We haven’t seen a huge amount of sun throughout the days but in the morning it’s been there, warming up that gable end and I think warming the incoming air much more than I bargained for.

I though I’d just add a bit to this overheating thread. We’ve been having to cool the house down for the last 24hrs as last weeks blip of mild temperatures (high teens Celsius) had us hitting 23-24 degrees in the bedrooms. The house is passive standard with external blinds on all bar one of the east and south facing windows and this last summer - fleeting as it was - didn’t cause any greater problem than we’ve just experienced. Two things caused it I think. The first was as summer started slipping away we started opening the blinds when it was sunny to get the solar gain, we perhaps went too early on that (it’s our first year in the house) so next time round we’ll let the internal temperature dip a little lower before we start inviting solar gain in. The second element, and this is a complete guess, is the black timber composite cladding on the gable end where the MVHR intake/exhaust are. The gable end is facing just south of east and it gets warm pretty quickly when the sun decides to show and it looks like this is boosting our intake temperature by several degrees. As an example, at the moment it is 11 degrees outside but the intake air is arriving at the MVHR at 15 degrees (from intake grill to MVHR is about 2.0m) I’ve had the bypass open for 24hrs but still the supply air to the house is 1.5 degrees hotter than the intake air, I guess it’s gaining the temperature from the MVHR and ducting despite the bypass being open. The house temperature is slowly falling towards 21 degrees. I never expected to be having to cool the house in late October. I’m quite delighted to be honest.

Bugg*ry bollox. I’ve just watched the little vid on that Shelly website, is there nothing Shelly can’t do! I’ll give a lot of it a miss, (especially the camera in the hallway!) but thanks for the steer I shall definitely look in to the 1PM. I’m sure I’ll be berated for being a Luddite for not knowing about this stuff but how is this different/better than other home automation stuff? (When does school end, I’m almost full up with learning?)

@James Newport looks like that’s the route to take. @PeterW what’s this Shelly thing? Have you got a link?

Does anyone have experience of using a smart wi-fi spur with IFTTT and Ocotpus Agile? I’d like to use one of these to tell my Sunamp (and Willis heaters when/if we need them) to fire up when the Agile price goes below a set figure. Would one of these do the trick? https://wifi-smart-home.co.uk/smart-wifi-spur-switch-32-amp-pure-glass/

Plunge pricing alert for Octopus Agile electricity. First time in weeks that the price has dipped below the 35p/unit cap by more than a couple of pence. Tomorrow morning they’ll pay 2.21/unit (just for 30 mins) but between midnight and 06:00 the average unit price is 5.602p. Sunamp, washing machine and dishwasher will be in the starting blocks at midnight. I may even get the boss to run the vacuum round and bake a few cakes provided she doesn’t wake me ?

I suspect you’re right. That’s why the door is on the opposite side of the room to the skeiling. Bloody lucky I planned it that way I guess... But thanks for your input. Incase I didn’t make it clear, the ceiling is 2300mm

?. It was planned from the outset. To get the ridge a bit lower. Nothing oppressive about it, as I said neither feature is noticeable and the combination achieved the aim - but thanks for your input all the same.

To keep our ridge height down we had skeilings at 2000mm and a 2300mm ceiling height, neither of which are really noticeable.

@joth that looks really impressive. I can’t help but feel a pang of jealousy! I’m hoping to build a carport with a completely solar roof and was rooting round the gb-sol website yesterday so it’s great to see a picture of your installation. Thanks for posting it.

Or... a battery system that you fill up with their ‘bargain bucket’ 35p stuff and sell back to them at over £2 a pop. Just a thought...

My thoughts exactly. Ive seem all of those letter before, but I’ve never seen them arranged in that order ? What is it?

As it happens, we’re not. The Agile import rate is hitting its capped price of 35p/unit early in the morning, 07:30 today, and staying there til late at night, 23:30 today. It’s a similar story most days. The export rate exceeds the import rate at 16:30 today (49.49p a unit) and stays way above the import rate til 21:00. It peaks at 235.93p/unit at 19:30 - over 6 times the import price! It was way above 200p/unit yesterday evening as well.

@pdf27 that’s an interesting/troubling report.

@SteamyTea interesting stats but why does the first day back at school cause such a spike? @joth Agile has been very hit and miss for us, they seem to have plenty of problems but so far, with time, they’ve fixed our import/export issues. It took months and it’s all going Pete Tong again now but I trust them to sort it... eventually. @pdf27 so why the high spot gas prices? Is that all connected to the kids going back to school? I don’t get the connection at all. I guess I’m just slow!

Octopus Agile prices are going off the scale, yesterday it was at its capped limit of 35p/unit for most of the day. Agile outgoing rates were equally wild, at one point reaching over 60p/unit for export - all be it for a brief period, I’m pleased to say it was a brief period that the sun still shone on my panels. Equally nuts today. What’s causing this? Light winds and not enough sun?

@puntloos we have the Internorm 3G windows with the Venetian blind on the outside. The Venetian blind unit is combined with a battery pack and solar PV to re-charge the battery, so no drilling/wiring etc. All of this is protected behind a forth pane of glass that is hinged for access. The blind/battery/PV can be removed in a matter of seconds. We’re very happy with them. Throughout the fleeting sunny spells they’ve been titled to keep the sun out but have let oodles of light in. Pass. Standard Venetian blind privacy performance, you can flash to the neighbours should the urge arise or keep it all well hidden. Again, standard Venetian blind stuff here, light leaks through when it’s fully closed. IMG_9045.MOV

@richie9648 you could use a pedestal system to support the new patio

@Ralph I hope it helps, the current arrangement looks pretty unsatisfactory. (FYI the link I posted was just an example as opposed to a recommendation)

If that will introduce an unwanted cold bridge then you can get GRP angles that will overcome that. Our doors and sliders are supported on them.

That’s a fair point. I guess you could commission it prior to closing up the plywood boxing. Another fair point. I haven’t got around to it yet and it seems to be performing just fine.

Seems like an elegant solution to a tricky problem, I can’t see why it would be a problem.

@ProDave I’m on Octopus Agile Outgoing and use the on line portal, I have the app as well but prefer to use the portal. I have a SMETS2 meter but there have been problems with being paid for what I’m exporting, it gets fixed every now and again but the last time I spoke to them they said they should have a proper fix some time this month. I’m thinking of switching to their ‘Go’ tariff over the winter when there is likely to be even less sun than there is now so that I can charge the Sunamp and run the Willis heater when required on the cheaper overnight tariff.

@Triassic I’ve got the all electric Sunamp so no ASHP in the equation for me but plenty of solar PV. Works a treat, but I suspect our first full winter of occupation (which seems to be fast approaching) will highlight how little the sun will play a part in our master plan.