Alan Ambrose

>>> Presumably they won’t take calls and this is all via email? Both - I have had the odd reply by email, often it is just ignored. Same with the phone - once I got through, otherwise I leave a message which is ignored. 11 weeks !!! It would be quicker for me to move to Scotland Alan

Hi, I'm interested in what kind of turnaround times people are getting with their local planning department? Also, how you nudge them along? Also, whether they generally keep to any of their quoted deadlines? I have a local planner who told me on 5th Oct that his response to our pre-app was 'already drafted and would be with me shortly'. And then he said that again on the 19th Oct. Guess what? This is for a plot in East Suffolk that already has permission for a dwelling - we want to just vary the design. A neighbour has had an application for a new dwelling in since February with no apparent planning activity since May ... TIA, Alan

The hatches are your extension? I'm guessing they're interpreting the 12m as an arc rather than a rectangle? Alan

Yeah, there's a good chance they don't realise you have 3P. Alan

OK a bit more info - there are 3-phase SMETS2 meters from AMR & SMS apparently. Good energy fitted at least one in 2020 . OVO seems to have some capability, and also EONNext 'in some areas'. Also a thread on BH here: Alan

As per the title Alan

p.s. I'm finding figures of 2.5 to 5 kWh for energy usage for 5-10 minute shower - which implies an instantaneous ~30kW heater would do the trick - if only using one shower at a time. I guess that's why we need to store the stuff Alan

Answering my own question... >>> Anyone know why these are not more widely used in the UK? Duh, 27kW is ~110A - so only suitable for those few domestic premises with 3-phase installed. I understand 3-phase domestic is de rigeur ('streng'?) in Germany. Alan

>>> 200mm fluffy is that an SI unit? - it should be along with 2 inches jumpery and 1 chain fleecy…

I just noticed that one of my favourite youtubers, Marco Reps, replaced the Steibel 27kW instantaneous water heater in his house with a Kospel EPME 5.5-9kW one. For our German cousins, instantaneous water heater seem to be a standard thing. And because these devices are so simple, they seem to be very reasonably priced - about £500 & £300 respectively. I can't imagine that 'the Germans' would put up with anything dodgy. Anyone know why these are not more widely used in the UK? Alan

>>> I think the general consensus is that solar thermal is at best marginal compared to PV. Excuse my ignorance, but I don't quite understand how a fairly low tech sun->water/pump->copper loop->DHW system is not cost effective compared to a fairly high-tech sun->PV panel->inverter->immersion->DHW system? I'm not doubting that you're right - but just wanting to understand how 'loads-of-expensive-tech' works better than a 'low-tech-sun-heats-hot-water'. I know that our continental cousins use the latter and they have more sun but...? TIA, Alan

Robin Clevett and his various pals e.g. Skill Builder have a few Youtube tips. Alan

Goodness the quality of the UK government systems for its citizens is atrocious - and I suspect atrocious and expensive. For example, the land registry website looks like something from the '80s and as far as I can see you have to go through checkout for every single property you're interested in. Hmmm, let me see UK productivity is ... shocking. Why is that, I wonder? Alan

>>> Of course this places greater demands on the environment being clear of obstacles. I see that PVGIS has a feature to handle that if you're a proper nerd - which I guess I am. >>> Also worth noting that if you plan to export at current rates (£0.15) it tends to dwarf any other small optimisations to just maximise total generation. Just go with South/40 degrees and you're done? You bring up an interesting point though which is that given export is worth anywhere between 2x and 6x less than reduced import, then we should focus not on summer peak but maximising the other seasons? Below are graphs from PVGIS of generation by month and generation by season for various roof slopes (all for a south facing roof). The concussions are: + for max total generation roof slope of 30-50 degrees is good. + for max non-summer generation, slope of 40-60 degrees is good. + if you weight the value of the winter electricity (to account for better value of those units), 40-50 degrees is good. Maybe I didn't discover anything new - except maybe a slope of 50 is a bit better overall than a slope of 40. Alan

>>> vertical mounted panels Ah, interesting ... PVGIS gives this for south facing vertical. Although 27% less than the optimum 40 degrees pitch roof, it has wider 'shoulders'. Alan

Depending on your DNO it may be very hard or slightly less hard to get them to move the pole at their expense. The bad news might be expensive. It does look pretty end-of-life though and the stay isn't doing anything - you could ask how old it is and when it'll be coming up for replacement. Or what would happen if you report it as unsafe. Which DNO? Alan

Ah, it occurred to me that there are two other practical difficulties with 3-phase: + it's hard to get a 3-phase smets2 meter installed - see e.g. Octopus 'no can do'. + 3-phase also makes PV install and battery much more expensive and probably less efficient. That's because (a) you'll probably need 3-batteries and 3-inverters etc, and (b) you'll have to balance all the house loads (which are nearly all on single phase circuits except maybe GSHP and high-power instantaneous water-heaters) against the PV / inverter / battery set-up on those individual phases. Alan

>>> if you split SE/SW you might see some extra benefit See below - the same thing with SE+SW. So apparently not much benefit in deliberately splitting the roof orientation away from South. But ... less harm of course in doing SE+SW so as you only lose 1% / 8% / 16% of best case Southerly output in Summer / Shoulder / Winter respectively. Numbers for straight E+W are 6% / 25% / 49%. >>> If you're looking to size a battery Yeah, for battery I need to model daily consumption data plus some indication of the variation in generation. Alan

Hi, I've been fiddling around with PVGIS daily data vs. roof orientation - actually the objective was to get an idea of battery sizing. This is for East Suffolk, 30 degree roof pitch. I think I've figured out that ... if you have the option ... that south facing panels really are better than split East/West panels. Maybe that's not a surprise, but I was assuming/hoping that splitting East/West would be very handy in order to flatten and widen the output curve - which would provide more useful power. Well it looks like it does a little bit in summer, but in spring and autumn and winter it seems to not help at all. See below: Alan

>>> I can piss faster than the hot water comes out of that btw. There will be some members on here, including me, that can't Interesting thought, not crazy expensive ... and has the advantage of being fairly straightforward tech. Alan

Ah, that's interesting - I hadn't seen that product. A stretch to get the ducting to the outside but may be possible. I see max 20m of 160mm insulated straight ducting or less if it has bends. Claims 33 dBA. Has a separate immersion for backup. Funnily enough, my downstairs neighbour contacted me to see if we 'had low water pressure' yesterday - I think he probably meant flow rate. But that leans towards keeping the pumps. Maybe there's some fancy cold water accumulator / pump which would guarantee pressure for the unvented Dimplex product. I can't imagine who specified this set-up originally - this was the early 90s - 400L of cold plus 300L of hot plus 3-phase power ... in a 3-bed flat. Alan

OK thanks interesting. Heat pump isn't possible as although there's a small patio, it's nowhere near the cylinder and linking it up would involve ripping the flat apart. I think I'll see if I can get a pressure data logger and then proceed down the well-insulated 'vented without pumps' or 'unvented cylinder with pumps' as required. Alan

>>> my equal parts loved yet maligned PoE powered toothbrush charger) Love it - somebody has to Thanks for taking the time both to describe your set-up and your thoughts on (not much) improving it. That's where this forum is so great. Alan

Apologies for yet another tank question. My objective is to get a more energy efficient set-up. In my 5th floor flat there is a 30-year old vented set-up. It has two big custom made cube-like tanks (almost 1m cubed each) tight in a cupboard and two Stuart-Turner 3 bar twin pumps (hot and cold) for pressure - one for each bathroom. (Some time, way back, I had a second one installed so we could shower even when one pump failed.) The upper vented cold tank is about 1m off the floor and there's a hot tank underneath, with thin-ish insulation and heated by two immersion heaters. (This was from a time when designers were scared of gas in flats and the flat has electricity only.) The incoming pressure is about 1.5 bar and I'm not sure whether or how often the mains pressure dips under that, but my upstairs neighbour has been having some trouble with mains pressure. I've applied a bit of extra insulation to the hot tank but it's not possible to get all around it and the temperature still falls off quite rapidly. (I've a Heatmiser system and can see the temperature fall-off quite easily and accurately.) I know the fall off is much faster than another more modern unvented set-up I have data on. There are some fancy taps and shower fittings here which need a minimum of 1.4 bar. So the question is, how can I get a better insulated system without risking dodgy water pressure? The options seem to be: (1) Replace with a more modern vented set-up with immersion heaters and keep the pumps. (2) Replace with a more modern unvented set-up with immersion heaters, lose the pumps and take the risk on low water pressure. (3) Go a bit off-piste and use something like a 12KW Heatrae Sadia electric boiler, lose the pumps and ditch all the tanks. Take the risk on low water pressure. I think a downstairs neighbour has something like that set-up. Any thoughts? Alan

@joth - so you have radial 12V, 24V and 'active' PoE into each room? Goodness 'PoE' seems a mess atm. Did you consider 5V for charging or is that a step too far? Any recommendations gained from your experience of doing all that - or is that just the best solution? Alan