Thorfun

update.....UKPN wouldn't accept the original application and so i went ahead and created a new application using their Smart Connect portal. The system consists of 28 x 375kW panels (10.5kWp) with a 10kW Solaredge inverter and a LuxPower LXP3600ACS AC coupled battery inverter. i had a response from them but i'm not sure i understand it and my sparky is currently unavailable! isn't the export already limited to 10kVA due to the solaredge inverter? i didn't think batteries exported to the grid. if i do need an export limiting scheme is anyone able to give me a link to what i need to get to do it please?

i think i'll set the blinds to come down after dark and then randomise the lights for various times depending on the room. should be able to simulate a lived in house.

interestingly they changed presence simulation about a year after that video was released and the new version seems to be a randomisation of controls within a set time period for each controller rather than a 'replay' of how you actually use the house. seems like a backward step to me! i liked the idea of replaying your movements as humans tend to be creatures of habit and no one would notice unless they monitor the house for a few nights and note exact timings for each simulation activity.

amazing. thank you.

greetings Loxonists, i was reading this blog on the Loxone website and there's a bit of text near the end that says anyone know how to get this to work as it seems like a pretty cool feature to enable while you're away?

I prefer the phone.....it's more immediate and I'm not waiting for my letter to get to the top of the pile. 😉 anyway, had a really good chat with a very helpful person at UKPN today and he is looking in to seeing if we can simply use the original application and acceptance letter and will get back to me. he said if we can't then we can raise a new G99 application form (I have the original one) and that will be sent to the projects team as I'm over the 5kW generation limit. we also spoke about if that happens if I can use their new Smart Connect portal which is what I assume @MikeSharp01 is using to submit the new form which is another possibility if it comes to it. now all I need is to get the commissioning documents from the installers so I have them in either case. fingers crossed they just accept the initial application though!

it's worth a shot i guess! i'll give them a call tomorrow morning and see what they say.

the G99 approval says that the commissioning doc needs to be submitted by a certain date which is long gone and so i believe a new approval doc is required. but i think i'll try and give them a call to confirm.

ahhh.....i didn't include all the details so may have painted an incorrect picture. as i said it was a long story cut short! in as much of a summary as i can do, our M&E consultants (Enhabit) applied for and obtained G99 approval for our array and a Tesla Powerwall. they then got taken over by Green Building Store (now 21°) who decided that they weren't going to do Solar/batteries/ASHP in the south of England anymore and so left me in the lurch halfway through my solar install. they refunded what i'd paid for the Solar PV install, Powerwall deposit (which was ditched for a LuxPower system in the end) and ASHP install and left me on my own to find someone to finish those jobs. The installers finished my solar PV but as they were just sub-contractors it wasn't their responsibility to submit the G99 commissioning docs which was Enhabit's job but they had been taken over and no-one at GBS gave a shit. so it never got done. not the installers fault but just another bag of crap i was lumbered with due to the acquisition of Enhabit. now after 14 months of Octopus making numerous cock-ups on my SEG application they have now turned around and said UKPN don't have our G99 commissioning paperwork so i've only just found out that it was never submitted. The solar was commissioned in Sept 2022. the whole process is a very long story and is a shit show. i'm now just trying my best to get everything in place so i can get my export MPAN and start getting money for my exported solar generation. Octopus have said they'd compensate me for their poor customer service and performance and lost income on a process that should take 8 weeks but we're now in to our 15 month of waiting. only time will tell if that ever happens though.

Well that’s two contrasting opinions there then! 😂 we are UKPN here and I was thinking of asking if the original G99 can be used with a minor adjustment as the battery system is a little different. but I’m now thinking that I still have so much to do to get BCO sign off that I think I’ll leave it up to the installer. it’s hard to let go though sometimes!!

long story short our G99 installation form never got submitted to the DNO and it has now expired. The PV installers who installed our system have said they will do the application for me but I'd like it done quickly and they're kind of dragging their heels. I was wondering if it's something I could easily and quickly do myself? I would then, once approval has been obtained, need to submit the commissioning paperwork. would I be able to do that too or would I need the installers to do it? if they need to do the G99 commissioning submission to the DNO then I might as well stop being impatient and get them to do it all but if it's something I can submit in it's entirety myself and it's not too onerous then maybe I should just do it. thoughts?

just install AC. We did and love it. We have external blinds which shade nicely but have big windows that we like to look through so sometimes want the blinds open when the sun shines. other areas have large windows that we can’t shade so the heat comes in. we just turn on the AC which is powered from the solar so we just use it and enjoy our house. we also leave it on overnight if required to maintain a nice temperature in our bedroom. It uses very little electricity to maintain a temperature. love it. So glad we installed it.

Bought ours second hand from eBay. They delivered for a fee.

I get the impression you’re already broken.

I stopped writing the blog once the internal work started. I was just too busy doing the work to carry on writing about it! headlines are simple. follow passive house principles. a continuous membrane layer around the external walls of the house and taping all windows and doors. I did a lot of reading on this forum as there are many knowledgable folk on here who have done it all before I even started down our self-build route. my first hint is to do a search on here for Tony tray. get that right in the design stage and the rest should be simple. my second piece of advice is if you're going for a warm loft then consider a cut roof rather than roof trusses. even with attic trusses we had it was a real pain to maintain the airtight barrier up in to the loft and around the trusses. with a cut roof it would be a lot more simple. this might be a good place to start https://passivehouseplus.ie/magazine/guides/the-ph-guide-to-airtightness? then see where your research leads you. I guarantee it will be a rabbit hole but you'll come out of it wiser and with a plan of action.

Are you sure about that? His senses tell him that other dog/horse/cow shit is nice to eat. 😂 Belt and braces! Tape everything meticulously. 😉 i’m sure it’s documented on here somewhere. I’m out and about at the moment but will write something up later for you if you want.

it's lovely! 🙂 very few external noises but we live in a very quiet area surrounded by trees (drone photos on my blogs will attest to that) so I might not be the best person to ask. although in the old pre-fab bungalow the dog would bark at the slightest of external sounds or if the neighbours across the road shut a car door etc. now he doesn't react to noises until someone actually knocks on the door. so the sound reduction is much improved over the shitty little bungalow if that helps! 🤣. I don't know how just using PIR would've been to live in I just didn't want to take the chance and, as we installed all the insulation ourselves, using glasswool in between the studs was a lot easier. if you speak to an insulation manufacturer (you'll need to choose one that does mineral/glass wool AND PIR they will do a condensation risk analysis on your wall build up for you. then the risk is put on their shoulders. We attached our IntelloPlus on the inside of the PIR so all our insulation is beyond it. I did that as I was paranoid about off-gassing of the PIR in to the house but I'm also convinced it just makes the condensation risk reduced and simpler to calculate.

@Pocster I don’t understand about you needing a spread to re-plaster after cutting a square of plasterboard out. Surely you just put the same square back in and then just easyfill around the edge? 🤷‍♂️ glad you got it sorted though

Wish I’d known about these before! But with nuts as big as @Pocster I man’d up and did mine free hand.

Crack porcelain tiles? I don’t know if that’s possible. It’s hard enough drilling through with diamond bits! that bit you linked will do the job nicely. I used the Erbauer diamond bits (8, 10 and 12mm) and not a crack in sight

Yes but bear in mind that some architects are wed to Kingspan and specify it without extra thought. may I suggest speaking to some TF companies and asking to visit previous builds and talking to the owners? MBC do a glass wool/PIR wall that will suit your needs and maybe all you need is to see one in real life. Do your research and then tell your architect what you want. It is your house after all!

+1 i used Jeremy’s heat loss spreadsheet and airtightness had a much bigger impact than U-value. iirc 140mm frametherm 32 (other manufacturers are available) and 50mm PIR gives a U-value of 0.14. If I was the OP I’d be looking at that with a 25mm service cavity and not bother with the internal OSB layer.

They’re run perpendicular to the timbers to reduce contact points as they’re mostly for reducing impact noises. so you could run horizontal battens across the TF and then run the resilient bars vertically. But then you might as well run vertical battens and horizontal resilient bars and can run cables behind the bars!

thank you. my first time fitting guttering. I was very happy with the outcome. 🙂

zinc guttering isn't necessarily stupidly expensive! I fitted zinc gutters to our place and, yes they're a lot more than plastic, but totally worth it and not amazingly more than aluminium guttering. some pictures and details of where we got ours from in