markharro

We are currently trying to get planning permissions to demolish our existing house and then build a new passivehouse. The build wouldn't start for at least another year. I am giving thought right now to things like TV/broadband/wifi/security/electric blinds etc. I have to declare that I approach all of this as an amateur but we simply don't have the budget for fancypants consultants for this so I need to find easy solutions. So to throw a few things out there - 1 We don't need a landline for phone calls but obviously require an internet connection. Is 5G becoming an option now in terms of cost/performance to run a whole house's requirements? 2 Should we plan for ethernet wiring throughout the house or rely on wifi? I do have concerns about the potential health issues of a strong wifi signal but it is hard to understand if these are justified? 3 I suspect that we need some ethernet wiring at a minimum. In simple terms do we just need a router to take the incoming signal and then a big enough ethernet switch to handle all the connections needed? 4 For future proofing will CAT 6 cable be sufficient? I am thinking that we need provision for 4k right now but does CAT 6 handle 8K? 5 Intruder alarms - any recommendations for DIY systems either wired or wireless? 6 Any simple solutions recommended for lighting eg to set up random on and offs when you are out to look like someone is at home? 7 Blind automation - this could be important for passive house to address potential overheating in summer. Are there any simple solutions that can trigger a blind to be lowered when eg a temperature sensor records above a certain level? Any other things I should be thinking about. Don't worry about music as I have old school hifi separates that are good to go and am thinking of supplementing with a Plex media server etc. thanks

This is interesting. In our current house we use an aerial in the attic for Freeview and it works albeit passing lorries can shake up the signal from time to time. If all goes to plan this house could be demolished in about a year to make way for a new passivehouse. I am giving thought right now to things like TV, broadband etc. We can get by with Freeview and iplayer so my question is - obviously you can access the latter via a broadband connection but is there anyway to access Freeview through the internet instead of through a rooftop aerial? Or will there likely be in the next couple of years? thanks

Thanks for the comments.

I was hoping to make use of my existing Google (nest) fire alarm and buy more of these but it turns out that they don't make a heat detector and have no plans to so another solution is needed. From a quick bit of googling these appear to be options - https://fireguardplus.co.uk/fireguard-product-range/ and https://www.safelincs.co.uk/fireangel/ Can anyone endorse of suggest something else? I have been looking at intruder alarms recently as well - the Texecom Richocet system appears to include smoke/heat detectors in a single unit. Does anyone have experience of these in an intruder alarm system? Would these comply with the new Sottish rules or do you need a standalone heat detector? thanks

I am pretty sure that 0.6 would be more than thick enough. It is going to be screwed on to supporting battens along the top of the wall. I need 4 lengths - 2 of around 6m and 2 around 3m. At the price quoted for 0.9mm it looks like 20m worth is going to be around £300 at that guage but I think in any event that would be too thick for the purpose as I need to be able to bend it easily to cater for the undulations in the (lime) wall. Thanks for the advice - will try roofing merchants - it is a long shot but can anyone recommend any good ones in or near Edinburgh?

I need about 20m or so to complete an uplighter detail so for internal use and it needs to be thin enough to be malleable. Searching online just seems to produce craft supplies at crazy prices. Can anyone suggest a source at a reasonable price? thanks

Thanks Dave but thats begs the question can a G98 inverter service an 18kW array allowing you to self-consume as much as possible and only throttle when export is going to run over the 3.68 limit? This is what I don't understand. Is a G98 inverter simply one that has the throttling function built in to it?

I asked some questions about DNO approval on another thread and this has opened up more questions. We want to install about 18kW. My understanding is that I can do this and fit an invertor that maximises self-consumption eg electric car and ASHP and as long as it automatically throttles export at the 3.68kw limit then there is no need for DNO approval? Is this correct as I don't want to and cant afford to pay £100s just to be told that I cant install so many panels even with throttling or I need to use a much lower capacity inverter for example? All this stuff just seems a total nightmare to understand when you move above the standard 4kW array size.

We don't even have planning yet so don't have that level of detail. What I do know is that our shading is likely to be 25% so we are thinking to use a Solar edge inverter along with their optimisers. Don't we just need an inverter rated to deal with the maximum the panels will produce at full capacity but that is also capable of the grid throttling?

Thanks Dave but this is just adding to my confusion at the moment. Can you comment on the basic points I have enquired about so I can understand if I am on the right track with those? Thanks

Thanks AL I think I understand this but for the avoidance of doubt lets say its a blue sky June morning and I hook up an EV with a drained battery and we have the useual household load as well. Assuming say a a spare capacity of 70 kWh in the car's battery to charge will we get the full benefit from a 18kWp array in charging without any throttling with the standard export limit. My understanding from what you write is that we will and that its only after the car and house batteries are full and generation starts to exceed our background house demand that we will have the inverter restriction kick in. So in essence the only financial loss to us is in a lower potential export income? The greater loss to the planet of course being that available energy for export is lost?

We are hoping to put about a 18kWp array on our PH+ ultimately. We are in Edinburgh. I am assuming that even with a battery and EV and working from home to soak up generation in summer that will still leave an excess at peak times which ideally we would want to export to grid. The consultant I have asked basically says that we either restrict output to the 3.68kW max without permission or pay £600-800 to the DNO for them to consider and they MIGHT allow more export either with or without cost to upgrade their equipment. Who in their right mind would gamble this amount of cash for a possibility when the whole enterprise is so marginal with the economics in the first place. Surely the DNO should be forced to assess for free so householders don't run the risk of throwing a significant amount of case down the drain. On a connected point I have never really understood the consequences of fitting such a large array and then throttling its export. Does this throttling just reduce the export or does it also reduce the total that you could otherwise self-consume? thanks

Has anyone heard of this website that seems to offer some very low priced (used) panels? - https://www.secondsol.com/en

Can I ask where you got the quote from? I will eventually be in the market for maybe 54-60 panels of around the same wattage for our proposed passive house + build and its only going to happen if I can source the kit for really keen prices. I had previously been looking at panels by the pallet load from Bimble solar but those were quite a bit more I think than your quote of £74 per panel. Are these new standard size panels for that price? Thanks.

We are with Bulb. I have thought about switching to Octopus but we dont have a smart meter and I am hoping that this may be the last winter we will have to endure in the current house.

I am not sure you do have the record AliG....17,000Kwh must equate to a bill of between £2000-3000 pa? We share some similarities - we live in Edinburgh, own a Tesla and my daughter has a (paddling) pool. Now where we differ - our house is ramshackle, freezing and damp and much smaller I'd guess at around 95m2. At the moment we have no solar and the car is charged via public chargers. Our electric storage heating runs pretty much constantly as does a woodstove from about now until March. I would wager we are paying about the same for our electricity as you. Having said that if all goes to plan we are hoping to transit to the other extreme (passivhaus) which should help a little!

What is so special about solar edge inverters?

Can anyone offer a simple explanation of G100 and G99 for a complete numpty? We are planning a 10+kW installation and I am really struggling to understand the export rules and processes and potential costs etc. Thanks

I see micro-inverters cost about £100 a piece. That's a lot for a 40+ panel array ie it basically doubles the cost of the panel! Or does it come to about the same as the big inverter you would otherwise need? Oh and another thing what is the difference between a microinverter and these SolarEdge Inverter Review - Power Optimisers ? thanks

I'd never heard of the Scottish Government self build loan scheme. I have googled it but cant see any reference to the interest rate. Does anyone know what it is? Also is it only for bare plots as our plan is to knock down our existing house and build a new one?

Wow first of all thanks for all the contributions to my post. I had no idea this forum would be so active or knowledgeable. My problem is that I can see that my own knowledge is totally rudimentary reading through some of the replies. I need much simpler explanations. If it helps our internal floor area is planned to be around 180 m2. PH+ was my idea rather than our architect's and I have modelled my thinking on this built project in England - https://www.bere.co.uk/architecture/lark-rise/?acceptCookies=5f40eb7ebbf92 There is lots of data on this on the architect's website. Its further south than us but from memory about the same sort of size we hope to build; it has a 12.4 kWp PV array and a Tesla Powerwall battery. Given our more northern latitude I assumed that we may need a bigger array eg 14kw or so? I have to say that I am now a bit puzzled by Dan F's comments that he is planning on 27 x 360W panels ie around 10kW for a substantially bigger house! Can anyone comment in simple terms on how my logic might be out? On a separate point, my thinking was that to make things affordable sourcing used or budget panels might be the only way we could afford the 50/60 that would be needed for an array totalling around 14kW. Has anyone experience of using this (German) site to source used panels - https://www.secondsol.com/en/index.htm - as it seems possible to buy very cheap panels by the palletload from them! thanks

Thanks. Yes we have the plot (and existing house) in Edinburgh. How much research have you done so far? I am still trying to get my head around the issues surrounding the massive PV installation needed and how you confer with your local grid company to a) check they can deal with the export and b) find out how costly any upgrade to the infrastructure might be - which presumably the house-owner would have to deal with?

We are in the early stages of planning to build a new house to the PH + standard. At the moment I am researching various incidental technical matters.