ToughButterCup

Had a test yet?

Hello, welcome. To lower the risk of misunderstanding, the one thing you will not get here, is proper expert advice. Some of the contributors here are indeed expert , for example @Nickfromwales, @nod and others, but none of us - expert or otherwise - can actually see the bit of work you have in hand. Your job might need more than the recommended nail spacing because of factors we can't see. Or less, perhaps. It would appear from your other posts elsewhere that there is another agenda here: one in which we simply can't involve ourselves. May I suggest you ask a properly qualified tradesperson?

I thought for a minute there you were talking about a manufacturer of an altogether different item : the one that is at the bottom of the market, as it were. There but for a vowel .... (bowel?) go I Eye-test Monday then eh? Yeah, good idea.

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Welcome. Second learning eh? Hmmm... might want to extend that number by a good few hundred. Trust your gut after having done too much Due Diligence . And you can't do enough Due Diligence. The trouble with this place (BH) is that we talk a good talk. And take absolutely zippppo responsibility for what we write : and the Mods take care of that. (Thanks Mods) . Its good to feel your fizz for your build. I'm at the other end of the process - may I offer the following Persistence. Guts. Compromise. Budget. Systems and people show themselves for what they really when the soft and smelly hits the fan: not when everything is ticking along just fine. The systems and the people will test you. Self-building hardens you off.

Ordered. '...a framework ...' (above) like a coding framework - say JQuery [ I suspect that's an inadequate analogy ] ? I'm beginning to think, now that I'm likely to make myself make time for stuff other than building, that I might just dip a toe into stuff I found hard at skool: like maffs. I'm beginning to be more able to take a joke than I was in the last few years. But, @SteamyTea will disagree I suspect.

That there is one of the reasons I keep coming back to BH. I have not got a clue what QE is, but I'm going to have a nice 10 minutes finding out. Now, coffee and toast ....

There's loads of online guidance about SUDS schemes. Choose one and adapt it to your plot. Our BCO could not have cared less about what we did. Didn't ask, didn't look.

The guidance is all online here

Really? I mean .... honest? I think I get through 5-7 kWh every shower. Yes, I could do it in 2kWh: but our shower head is one of these massaging things - it does wonders for my shoulders. So I linger. The key is is self-consumption. There is by turns no incentive to save hot water (because there's loads of PV) every incentive to save hot water (because there's no PV) And thats the point of the post: how does a SunAmp owner optimise self-consumption in the context of the expected amount of solar PV and potential demand on hot water? Given that there's both no indication of how much energy left to heat water and the vagaries of local weather patterns, I think its too difficult to guess accurately when to boost the energy level in the tank (by importing power from the grid). But its good fun trying. And clever folk like you could maybe make a gizmo that would satisfy that demand.

Exactly right. But sometimes the fuel cost is pre-paid (upfront purchase, and maintenance costs ) or import from the grid. And when - by accident - (I try hard to self-consume) 'my ' power I export it , it makes me cross ( @SteamyTea's right, I get cross about loads of stuff these days) Today is an excellent case in point. Fully loaded yesterday evening : then 1 bath, and 1 shower - at a guess 10kWh's worth of PV self-consumption . So, there's a bit left in the tank (13.7 - 1 [heat loss o/n] - 10 = say 2kWh) Have I got enough left in the tank to have a shower this morning using PV alone? Depends on how much PV is generated between dawn and .... when I get back. Doesn't look too good does it? Off to the gym now, so I'll tell ya wot happened when I get back......

CDM 2015 does not apply to self builders. Because self-builders are domestic clients.

Yes lads. You two have forgotten more science than I'll ever know. First class opportunity for intelligent bods like you two to come up with a nice little after-market gizmo to tell us plebs "Ow much 'ot wada's left then?

Roll up Roll up! There’s a new game in town - the SunAmp Guessing Game. No, I’d never heard of it either until I was forced to play it. It goes like this. Install a SunAmp Uniq summat or other (14kWh - Ok, 13.7) Hitch it up to some solar panels Wait for the sun to kick the PV to life Watch the electrons being converted (via that Mr Eddi and Mr Solis) from this-to-that-to-the-other. (Very pretty little animation too) Look at the readout which tells you how many of those tortured electrons are sitting in your SunAmp waiting for you to Have a shower, wash the dishes, scrub grandchildren clean before their mother sees them Easy innit? Well no. And thats the game. See, SunAmp hide vital information from you. Like how much ‘hot water’ is ‘left’ in the tank. (Sorry nerds, can’t be arsed to describe it more accurately). Lets imagine the tank is full. Its been a lovely sunny day: full-speed charging of the SunAmp. And I take an 18l per minute shower (excessive I know but want, want, want). 10 minutes later I’ve got rid of a fair bit (say at least 160 litres - you can’t change the flow rate on the part of my shower that I use [iBox]) SWMBO has a bath - say 50 litres. Both at an unknown temperature but above 20. How many kWh’s worth have I used? No, I’m damn well not gonna take a thermometer out and measure the temperature during my shower or in her bath. So I can only guess how much ‘hot water’ is left. Anyway, couldn’t do the maths. Interesting. Next question: In relation to tomorrow’s DHW needs, Boost or Not to Boost ? (shunt mains electricity into the SunAmp instead of PV) What hot water are we likely to use before tomorrow? Some/any/nowt? Lets say nowt .... Well wassa weather forecast for tomorrow then? Partly cloudy for NW Ingerland Hmmmm, got enough water for our showers tomorrow ? So how many kWh is that likely to be? The only way I have solved this question (have we got enough hot water ‘left’ for tomorrow) is empirically. And annoyingly, the answer to this ‘game’ depends on how much cloud there is locally. Heavy clouds, easy, no cloud, easy. Partly cloudy: nightmare. Too little PV, I need to boost. Too much and PV generation goes into the grid. Sod that. The problem becomes guessing: how much sunlight will get through on a partly cloudy day. where is the sun in its cycle how many leaves on the trees the local wind effect on cloud (we live within the coastal strip: ie. in the ‘cleaner’ air mass) All because SunAmp can’t / won’t / CBA to give us normal users an indication of how much energy is left in the tank

Here's what you need. Follow the links in the page(s). In brief CDM 2015 does not apply to self builders. Take all reasonable care. Follow Best Practice. Do not do anything that suggests you might be a Client, and therefore NOT a Domestic Client. Be sure to know the difference between the terms Client and Domestic Client . That distinction is critical. I am not an expert. I've just done the hard yards doing the research so others can benefit. Do not follow my advice as if it is expert advice. It isn't.

use a micrometre son... you know it make sense

He's wrong. I'll leave the technical bits (of how to achieve it) to others, but I suggest that you should consider the need for your building to be as unreactive to temperature change as possible. Slow to heat up and just as slow to cool down. (Called a 'U Value' if you want to research further)

For each critical measurement, I now use all of the following: a (German) yardstick, a laser and then a (Swedish) steel tape. Sometimes I wait, do something else and re-do the measurements. If I can't get a consistent result, I use a story-stick, and measure that. I've recently taken to marking wood with a craft knife, not a 3H pencil. Maybe thats the difference between the different Fit Levels. With 3rd-fit stuff you can't mutter quietly " Nobody's gonna know" Each instrument has its strengths and weaknesses. But I remember @Nickfromwales advice about the issue (years ago). He was right - measure at least twice.

1.4kWh from mine so far today. Via Eddi.

I still want it. I just can't grow flowers for the life of me. And planting a dozen of these would show Debbie that I care about gardening. 🎱

But I want one. Now.

QS will be just as cheap and likely to be able to recommend the cheapest local deals - our QS marketed himself on the basis of that local knowledge. With a bit of luck a QS might save you some money.

I'm almost sure - without definitive evidence - that this is exactly what happened in our old cottage. The guy fitting the CWI mentioned the need to keep the cavity wall 'breather' brick open, but then promptly blocked it up by putting CWI inside the cavity. He tried to convince me how impossible it was (?) to ensure the airway was left open. I suggested that the sector must have a standard procedure for making sure that CWI didn't block the wall. You can't make this next bit up...... I had to leave for work, so nobody other than him was on site. He put a cowl on the outside of the one wall which had CWI in it (the others were solid - a meter or so thick) : it masked the fact that there was no breather grill behind it. And promptly left the site. I rang to complain. Was dealt with politely. And nothing happened. Except the growth of mould on the inside the wall treated with CWI. So I put a small bookcase in front of it. (If our car engine makes an unexpected noise I promise I don't turn the radio up louder to mask the noise.) Job's a good'un

No. Focus on issues Material to the Application. Everything else is hot air. Here's a good overview of what they are- and what they are not. https://www.charnwood.gov.uk/pages/material_and_non_material_considerations