Gone West

We've done the opposite and although this place is warm and dry the energy consumption compared to our PH is amazing. I much prefer living in a PH but you can't have everything, perhaps I'll win the premium bonds.

We recently moved into an old bungalow created from a pair of 650mm thick sandstone walled cottages which has later additions. We are going to live with it for a year, burning oil, to see how it performs before making any changes. It has gypsum plaster inside and concrete render outside and has been like that since 1970. I've read over the years about how terrible that is but I have decided to wait and see. It's quite small, 120m2 and I've calculated the current heat loss is 17.4kW. If I do all the relatively easy improvements I should be able to get it down to 11.2kW. I don't know how that compares to yours but I've decided to stick with oil even though the latest R290 ASHPs are better at producing hot water, around 70C. When ASHPs definitely improve maybe a straight swap would be possible.

We have used Sennocke in the past for this type of insurance. https://www.sennocke.co.uk/

There was a frost here at the bottom of the valley this morning, first this season. The garden and car are clear.

Up until the last few weeks the weather has been much drier here that I was expecting. Over the summer there's been less rain here than in SE London. At least I don't have to water the garden as much as I used to. I much prefer the weather down here and no cold east wind.

IIRC it's 1.4kW and it helps to heat the 140l vented DHW tank.

It's a 3.84kWp system. When we get sorted we will probably have a 250l or 300l thermal store which will be heated with the ST and PV so we can have mains pressure hot water. Something we miss from our last house. We may at some point get an EV which should soak up some as well.

We are lucky having bought a place with PVs and ST and we didn't realise initially that it existed. It'll be good when we get our first FiT payment.

Thanks, yes I understand that, it was the wording that I found confusing. The 'Dedicated 20A supply from main consumer unit' wording, as it said from CU not to CU.

Thanks John, it's good to have recommended local trades. We're ok at the moment, I was just interested in why there was supposedly a dedicated PV circuit in the CU and apparently it isn't dedicated.

Yes, but I've owned it for less than six months, so would like to understand how it's been wired and to use it most efficiently. Trying to get SSE to move at anything faster than a snails pace is impossible. They have had all the paperwork for ages but we're yet to see any payment. To be fair it isn't that straightforward as there was a double probate and the property had been empty for a year before we moved in.

I'm not understanding, but is that because it's not really a dedicated PV circuit as stated on the drawing. I get what you're saying about the two supplies being lumped together but the drawing says it's a dedicated circuit which to me means a separate circuit isolated from the mains. I hope it's not really a dedicated PV circuit.

So how is the PV MCB circuit wired, is it only supplied by the PVs and therefore when they aren't producing there wouldn't be any power on that circuit?

So I have to find what is at the other end of the PV MCB circuit, if anything, and then that will be solely using PV output I guess. If there is nothing connected to the PV MCB circuit how does the PV ouput get used by other stuff on other circuits. How is your solar diverter wired up.

I've got a PV array on the roof, installed in 2012, and there is a 16A MCB in the CU labelled PV. Is it normal to have this arrangement and does it mean that only what is connected to that MCB can use power from the PVs and that if nothing is connected all the PV output goes to the grid. The PV diagram shows a dedicated PV circuit.

Thanks, I've not seen one of those before, excellent value for money.

I accept what you have done but a wood burning stove on for a few hours in the evenings isn't the same as having heat pumped into every room in the house 24 hours a day. I suspect it's what steamytea told me when I mentioned about my house in another thread which was that drying out the fabric of the building takes more than twice the energy of heating the fabric of the building. I do hope you manage to sort something out so you are comfortable this winter.

@MarcoP87 What is on the other side of the wall in question? Is it a cavity wall? Is there any correlation between the noise and wind speed? I have heard a similar noise in the past which was a piece of roofing membrane vibrating under the gutter.

We moved into our latest house which is an old stone walled bungalow, with later additions, in mid May. The bungalow had been empty for a year without much heat and we found it took a couple of months for the fabric of the building to warm up so the air felt comfortable. We have had the oil fired central heating all the time since we moved in. It is controlled by a room thermostat and TRVs and the building is now a very comfortable 23C all the time. It does take a very long time for an old building to stabilise the temperature but once that's done the boiler doesn't come on that much.

Yes I've seen R290 ASHPs advertised as straight swaps for oil and gas boilers but R290 monoblocs aren't common yet.

AIUI R290 is a refined type of propane and allows the water temperature to go up to 75C so ordinary radiators can be used. I wouldn't huff it myself .

That's good news. Do you happen to know if the new monobloc will be the latest model with R290 refrigerant gas.

We have a Miele 600mm fully integrated dishwasher. I screwed the fixing brackets to the back of the door cover which then hook onto the dishwasher door and a screw at each side holds it tight and adjusts the height. The door opens towards the end of the drying cycle and then turns itself off.

We used 'skirtingsrus' for our skirting and architrave, but it was around six years ago. No problems but we only used a narrow bullnose type. Basic but adequate packaging.

I bought a Vitrex bridge saw and cut all the floor tiles, roof tiles and paving slabs with it. I was pleased with it and it worked well. https://www.vitrex.co.uk/products/versatile-power-pro-900-bridge-saw/