Gone West

We were a couple of miles inland. Hidden pins.

We had a late Victorian cottage years ago and that had cavity walls.

Our Canadian WRC ended up grey and no staining from the fixings as they were stainless steel. We were in East Kent at the time though so low rainfall amounts.

I'm not hung up on where the report came from but more interested in the fact that the Ofgem are considering scrapping standing charges which will help those who have spent money and effort in reducing their energy usage.

Plenty of other ways to tax those owners without hitting everyone else.

What a good idea! Ofgem considering it. https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-11031939/Scrap-energy-standing-charges-prevent-fuel-poverty-says-charity.html

It's wrong not to pay someone you have employed to do a job. If you don't like the quality of the work ask them to redo it. It's your fault for employing them. I employed a carpenter, who was recommended to me, on my build and his work was very poor. I had taken time to explain exactly what I wanted done and why and supplied all the materials. I paid him for the day and told him not to come back and why I didn't want him back. I think that is fair.

"Start with inflation. Barring some unspeakable catastrophe in Ukraine, inflation will be falling rapidly from this winter onwards. Pantheon Economics, an independent British consultancy with a good track record, has done some number-crunching. It concludes that while there will indeed be a peak of around 11 per cent in the consumer price index in the autumn, next year inflation will fall right back. By the end of 2023 it will be below 2 per cent – so below the Bank of England’s target level." https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/technology/inflation-to-fall-right-back-down-and-other-good-news-about-the-economy-yes-really/ar-AAZ0z5A?ocid=mailsignout&cvid=c306b256e82d42e6be8deb924d9926b9

They are blackfly and the ants eat the secretions from the blackfly. The ants will carry the blackfly to other parts of the plant and effectively farm the blackfly. The best way to get rid of them is to encourage blue tits which will eat the blackfly and ants and also blackbirds which will the ants. https://www.rhs.org.uk/biodiversity/blackfly

It looks like, as from today, you will not be allowed to fit a dumb EV charger. You have to fit a smart charger with a data connection to discourage some daytime charging. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1078138/Guide-to-evscp-regulations-2021-V2.1.pdf https://www.gov.uk/guidance/regulations-electric-vehicle-smart-charge-points

You can hire chimney scaffolding, not something I've ever done or would want to do though. This is the sort of thing builders have used in the past for me. https://fossewayhire.com/type27p/chimney-scaffold/

What I was hoping to do was, to put all the PV output, whenever it's available, into a thermal store, rather than run other things in the house and only use the excess to heat the thermal store as a Solar iBoost would normally do. When the thermal store is fully charged the PV output would go back to powering other things in the house. This might reduce oil consumption was the reasoning behind the idea.

Thanks for the offer, but not what I'm looking for unfortunately.

Thanks for all the comments. It seems it would be a complicated solution to a less than good idea. I think the idea of two immersions is simpler so will aim for that, plus thinking about it, at the moment, oil is a third of the price of electricity.

Sorry for all the questions, but do you know the thickness of insulation on the TS. I've seen up to 100mm shown in adverts.

But won't there be situations when I would be using the PV to heat the water rather than burning oil? This is making my head hurt 😁.

Thanks, that's useful info. So is your TS direct feed to the UFH or is there a heat exchanger in the store.

That's right, it does, but what I'd like is all output going to immersion first, then excess going to the rest of the house.

OK thanks, so as large tank as possible running at 70C in winter.

I think Grant recommend a return temperature of not less than 50C to stop corrosion. I'll have to check that.

I currently have a Solar iBoost which feeds excess PV output to an immersion in the vented DHW tank. Is it possible to have a system where all PV generation goes to an immersion in a thermal store, first, and then excess generation goes to the rest of the house?

I'm hoping to do as you suggest but I was wondering about the oil boiler not being in condensing mode if the thermal store is heated to more than 70C. Does it matter?

For eight to nine months of the year we heat our hot water tank with PV plus diverter and solar thermal.

Possibly, I don't think there is any point in rushing into any change at the moment as the market is too volatile. Grant quote 90% efficiency but I know what you're saying.

It doesn't even make sense for me to change from oil to ASHP in order to save money. Oil is 10kWh/litre and £1 a litre roughly, so 1kWh costs 10p.