Omnibuswoman

It looks as though the information I have access to via the app is limited, unfortunately. I can’t interrogate the inverter activity other than with respect to the four main parameters, and in watts or kilowatts only.

I do have an app - Solis app. I’m not sure how to view input voltages. I’ll find out!

You guys!! Honestly, I’ll never get the house finished if I let myself get distracted with this kind of thing, which is right up my street… I will add it to next year’s Christmas present list, IF I’ve finished the house… Meanwhile, there’s clearly a problem of some kind with the West facing array. This is yesterday’s output: I haven’t yet mapped it onto the available data but the chances of that being a true reflection of what the sun was doing is nil. I’ll get onto the installation company for the issue to be investigated.

My suspicion is that the spike is what the generation should have been at that time, as the sky was (unusually) perfectly clear. However I will continue to monitor the generation data and if there are any more aberrations I will investigate further. I’ve already sent the info to the installer and asked for their view, but haven’t heard back as yet.

the graph at the top is yesterday’s Wunderground data on w/m2, which maps quite nicely on to today’s PV graph (at a lower output level as it was overcast), and demonstrates the aberration on yesterday’s pv generation graph. I’ll keep a close eye on this and will see if there are any other odd results.

Thank you @SteamyTea. You’re right that’s not far from us so likely to be v accurate. I will map the values onto a chart to see how it corresponds to the PV array output over those three dates. Where did you find the data?

this is a fairly typical graph from the export tab in the energy provider app - I wasn’t here on this day so I’ve not been drawing on the pv power at all. Not sure what the weather was that day, but looks like it was at least sunny from late morning onwards.

yes it is one inverter and two strings. It’s a simple pitched roof of around 30° pitch - broadly E/W. The East has around 3kw and the West around 5kw array. I’ve only just had the software to monitor the inverter installed so am not sure what the performance was exactly previously, however according to our feed in graph on our electricity provider app the PM has always produced more. @Russdl is correct about the orientation being slightly to the north of East and to the south of West. Based on the above I will look back at the data I’ve got for the last few weeks since the Solis app started working and will compare this to the previous feed in data that I have.

Thanks @SteamyTea This is a bit beyond my capabilities at this hour of the morning, but I will have a closer look later on.

Thanks @Bramco No I didn’t do any of the installation. I’ll continue to monitor and will ask the company that installed the inverter to have a look. I was going to contact them in any case as the batteries start charging at 22:00 despite my having set the controls to start charging at midnight. Moving the charging time makes no difference, which is annoying as it’s charging them using day rate electricity rather than our overnight 7p rate.

I’ve become very keen on monitoring the inverter function on our pv array and battery system (and monitoring our use/ToU shifting). Yesterday was a gloriously sunny day - not a cloud to be seen, so I was interested to see how the panels perform in the optimal conditions in the shortest month. We are on latitude 50°30’N and 4°W. The East facing array (3kw) performed well, but as the sun moved round to the West where we have a 5kw array, output plummeted to 200w. At 14:30 I went to the other side of the village have a look at the array from behind, and there was nothing shading it. It appeared to be in full sun and yet not performing. The only thing I could think of was that the angle of the low sun was insufficient to generate power, but that would also have been true of the East panels in the morning. There was a single spike of generation at 14:45, just after I got home from looking at the panels from a distance. Then production fell again. The house is oriented roughly 64°E / 262°W. Below is an image of the generation graph. Any ideas as to what might be impeding their function?

My parents have a spring-fed system with UV sterilisation under the kitchen sink. Annual testing keeps an eye on the level of nasties in the water (which are pretty low). Waste water is via a Klargester and soakaway. Saves a fortune in mains bills. When the summer is exceptionally dry it can cause shortages, but not out and out failure of the system. Could you not simply rely on the spring and jettison mains?

We found a lovely Italian wood effect tile (by Rondine) at CTD a few months ago and negotiated down to £34m2, but didn’t order straight away as it was a bit early. Now CTD have gone into administration and we are kicking ourselves!

We are currently looking at wood effect tiles in Topps. The shelf price for the top-end Elevo is something insane like £64 per m2. Which one did you go with, and how did you get such a good discount?

The value of this thread is a legacy for future buildhubbers. I relied on previous such threads, and as a result we now have heating mats going under the bathroom tiles for nice cosy toes in the mornings, which was not in our original plan.

I would have checked the window cil heights and window sizes more carefully. There are several where I can’t easily reach the handle to open them as they are set too high in the wall. I would also have spent more time on site making sure the workers felt accountable. Looking back, they took the piss quite a bit (late starts and early finishes most days), and as neither I nor the building company owner/site manager were on site much this behaviour continued for too long. I’m now resentful of all of the things they didn’t do which there was plenty of time for them to have done, that I’m having to do myself.

Brief update: The builder has returned from holiday and replied to our email. He said that he is prepared to address the issues without arguing the toss (although he did then go on to point out why he thinks it’s all a big fuss over nothing…) He has said that he won’t replace the little OSB packers that sit under the joists on top of the ground floor wall as he believes the compressive strength is sufficient for them not to compress over time (he quoted a measure of 15.4N/mm2 compressive strength on horizontal use). I don’t have a problem with that. Whilst we didn’t much appreciate the tone of his response, which was rather tetchy and a bit defensive, we are expecting him to now put things right. Watch this space!

It’s not OSB on the floor - it’s actually muddy concrete! I think it’s a artefact of the photo that makes it look a lot like OSB.

I did wonder that myself@SteamyTea But I imagined not as it’s a question of negligence which he is unlikely to have been indemnified for.

yes, it looks as though this is the relevant part…

We did, and I may need to fall back on that if he starts developing sloping shoulders…

No I’m not qualified in any way, and am having to learn enough about each element as we go along. I have engaged a plumber, electrician and plasterer for these skilled tasks, but HWMBO and I will be doing battens, plasterboard, second fix carpentry, flooring etc. It’s a steep learning curve, and wouldn’t be possible without the enormous amount of fantastic information here on BH, and on t’internet more widely. I’m managing the work at a pace that allows me to learn enough at each point to take it forward with sufficient confidence, but of course there’s no substitute for experience. What I lack is the knowledge about where to plan 10 steps ahead. Luckily I have some people I can ask for help with that thinking. I guess I’m doing what most builders do at the start - make the mistakes as I go and learning from them. What I’m not doing, which I think is less common, is hiding or covering up my mistakes behind a facade or some expanding foam. I try to put things right as I go along. By the time I’ve finished the house, I should just about know enough to build one 😂

yes, this is the most concerning part as, on a quick review of their new website I was surprised to read that he is a qualified engineer. It didn’t specify what kind of engineer though, or qualified to what level. I will continue to insist that a fully qualified structural engineer is the arbiter of what is needed, and how it must be done.

No, we ended our contract once the house was weathertight - we are doing the internal works and managing subcontractors for the skilled first /second fix work. Dan, the owner of the building company, was the project manager for the build, and was, or at least should have been, supervising his team. The architect didn’t take any role in supervising the build. My husband and I did the air tightness taping ourselves, and the house passed its first air tightness test with flying colours. 0.28ACH @50pa!! 🎉 Thank you! Yes, I’m relieved that this isn’t all hidden behind plasterboard and plaster that needs to come out!! I’m optimistic that these issues can all be remediated, and hopefully without too much argy-bargy ☺️

I engaged the builder, largely as he had undertaken the passive house design course taught by Peter Warm’s team, but also because he seemed to have good attention to the detail necessary for building to passivhaus standard, and was relatively local to us in Devon…