Bramco

We have zehnder - it was professionally installed. But having seen the guys do it, it's something someone with DIY skills could do. We didn't bother with a manual boost, we use the auto boost feature which boosts soon after someone starts a shower and clears the steam within a few minutes. One of our bathrooms doesn't have any opening windows, the others have roof lights. The one without opening windows takes longer to clear than the ones with roof lights (assuming of course you've cracked open the roof light a bit). We installed the interweb gizmo, but never use the app, the unit just does it's thing 24/7/365 and occasionally asks for new filters. I guess on reflection, having the interweb gizmo and the app is useful, in that you get a notification a few days before the filters need changing.

I wonder how many of these there are..... Maybe we need a new section for folks to upload their manuals (duly redacted) so that other folks can glean useful help/ideas, re headings, cross referencing etc. Even whole sections could be plagiarized, for example one on Sunamps...

There's been quite a bit on here about 3 phase smart meters being a pain to get hold of and (iirc) being difficult to re connection to the suppliers. Given a new build will have 3 phase to the meter box, you can have a single phase meter connected for the supply and then at a later date trade up to a 3 phase if needed.

AFAIK, what's down the road is 3 phase and in the past, they tapped a single phase off for each house, having a balance of houses on each of the phases. Again AFAIK, all new builds have 3 phase connected to the meter box, future proofing things for when everyone is all electric. So the supply to the meter box is 3 phase. Then, for a normal house, they tap off a single phase with a 100A rating, i.e. fuse. This is then your supply. Our region is National Grid. They did a site visit - it's more to work out how much cable is needed, where to tap into on the road and to sketch out where their cable will run. So don't worry about the site visit, unless you're kms away from the nearest road. We load our batteries, run the ASHP and have the DHW immersion running at the same time on the cheap night rate. Sometimes the dishwasher will also be on and the highest I've ever seen the load is about 12kW, which is well within the 100A rating of the supply. It's normally about 9 or 10kW while everything is on. I guess, with an EV charger pulling 7.5kW it would take you close with absolutely everything on.

So how many have you got?!!

We looked at Scotframe but found the pricing for the erection difficult to navigate and we wanted something a bit more turnkey, so went with MBC who do the insulated slab and timber frame. We found a local builder who would do the foundations, that left the insulated slab and frame to MBC and the builder came back to do the cladding, roofing, internals etc. It was 2 separate contracts with the builder and we asked 3 or 4 to tender both times. The builder was main contractor for both of those phases. So it is possible to do it. I should add that we also separately contracted for the windows and sliding doors. So we had effectively 4 major contracts to sort out which worked for us. Simon

I would ask this of our MVHR supplier but he's in 'fit and forget' mode, as in not responding to voice or email..... The question we have, is whether the position of the fire dampers on the inlet and exhaust for the MVHR should both be within the plant room from a fire safety perspective. Due to various reasons, the inlet is within the envelope of the plant room but the exhaust damper is outside the envelope. The dampers are designed to spring shut at temperatures just above 70C, so you could imagine that one might trigger but the other one not. We're a bit concerned that if they don't trigger at pretty much the same time, then there's the potential for fire to spread. There isn't any gas in the house, or open fires or log burners, so the chance of fire is pretty small but nonetheless.... Anyone any expertise in this area? Are there any standards that should be adhered to? Simon

Be careful what you wish for - we have black corrugated cladding and roofing on the 2 storey section of your build. Looks great and fits in with the rural location. But in the summer months as the sun comes up you can hear bumps (best word to describe it) as the metal catches the sun and begins to expand. I'm assuming this is the same for SS? Wouldn't change it for anything though, it's just one of those things you hadn't thought about and have to learn to appreciate. Feature, not fault... Simon

To avoid a penetration in the roof, we ran a pipe parallel to a downpipe outside the house. This was connected to the last manhole before the long run to the main sewer. The top of the pipe was fitted with a slatted vent and sits up against the gutter. It was a suggestion from BC when we asked how we could avoid penetrating the roof. Simon

Maybe something for another thread? But I'm guessing that if it has degraded to 0.8kWh, then it will only take 0.8kWh - why would it require 1.05kWh to charge it to 0.8kWh? Our Sunsynk inverter app shows the rate of charge and discharge which seems to show that there are higher losses when charging or discharging at low rates. Ours is a hybrid inverter, so we couldn't put any kind of meter on the system - would be easier with separately ac coupled PV and batteries.

But they are 11.86 vs 7 on Int Go. So a no brainer if it works for you to use Int Go rather than Cosy.

Haven't seen that and don't recall any condition like that. We actually have 2 chargers (planning condition!!) - only one of them is connected to the Octopus app. So how could they know whether we'd charged or not? An EV is easily sorted though, if it ever rears it's head.

Isn't there something to be said for it being environmentally friendly to only use off peak electricity? I think peak time electricity is the 'dirtiest', i.e. gas vs nuclear or renewable. Simon

AFAIK, you have to have one of their accredited chargers.

We haven't. Can you borrow one? Can't remember the exact sequence of events but we installed solar - just needed the sparky sign off, not MCS. Then applied for Go (although we may have already been on it). Then applied for Intelligent Go - you need a specified type of EV charger - ours is OK (ZAPPI). Once you are accepted based on the EV charger, you need to attach an EV for the final step. Our nephew has a Tesla, so came along one Saturday morning for a bit of free charge and hey presto, we were on Intelligent Go. Which gives you and extra 2 hours cheap rate at night and the 15p export. We installed the batteries after being accepted onto the Int. Go tariff.