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.

Hi James, I don't think you should see our build as a special case, it should be seen as a target for all new builds - but that aside... The Cosy tariff can maybe be seen as a battery tariff but one with a very strict matronly view of when the battery is available. For example, it's a grey day here (again), the oven is on to bake some bread and the batteries are providing the power at 7p on Intelligent Go because we loaded up last night. Anyone on Cosy would have to time this to fit in with their cheap rate. Last night, we dumped about 8kWh at 15p before recharging the batteries - a net gain of 7p - not a lot admittedly but do that every day of the year and it soon adds up. Something you can't do without your own batteries. And the advantage of our build is that all our ASHP usage can be done on the v low nighttime rate. In fact, as I said earlier, due to the batteries all our usage is at the low rate of 7p. So no higher rate usage at all. Simon

Rubbish - ours runs at 35C and we don't run it during the day. So no impact on CoP or need for extra daytime/peak cost. I did say, if you have an insulated slab...... And it's not about designing around a tariff, it's about designing and building an energy efficient home. Working out which tariff is most cost effective is then pretty easy. Simon

If you have an insulated slab, PV and batteries, then Cosy would be an expensive way of doing things against Go Intelligent. Export is 15p and import is 7p for 6 hours at night (might have changed a tad with the recent increase). With an insulated slab, you can charge it at night on the 7p rate and it'll keep things toasty all day long, so no need for any boost during the day. The batteries and PV make sure you can get through the day without using any expensive peak time electricity. So essentially all electricity is either free (PV) or 7p. We also dump what's left in the battery just before the cheap rate and then re-load, so can benefit from the export/import rate differential. Simon

There's a trick you can play with Worcester - or at least there was a while ago - you could take out a service contract which could be cancelled after 6 months and wasn't that expensive - certainly less than al the call outs, replacing random parts and never fixing the problem. The service contract meant that Worcester had to fix any fault and if they couldn't, I think they had to replace the boiler. We took one out on the boiler in a rental property that several local plumbers had tried to fix but had never succeeded in really getting the bottom of the problem. After a couple of Worcester visits on the service contract, it was finally sorted and we duly cancelled the contract at the end of the term. Simon

Can someone pin that to the top of this section in the forum? Maybe with a bit of explanation? Simon

It would be exported, so we'd gain that way but.... Hadn't thought of that!! V good point - making my little thought experiment pointless!! Ah well... 😄 Ours is also set to somewhere in the 70s and in a highly insulated tank but it still loses some each day - from memory, when we've been away, about 3kWh per day (I'd have to check that though). So there's a constant 3kWh/day load. Thanks for the replies @ProDave and @Marvin maybe some day someone will come across this who hasn't got a diverter and will find it useful that there are such devices out there. Simon

Hi, I can see 'smart' immersion heaters that reckon they can work out how much hot water is required but we're looking for an immersion heater where we can control the temperature setpoint remotely. We use a diverter to dump excess solar into a 300L UVC with 2 immersions. There's only 2 of us, so normally we'd be OK with the setpoints set to say 45C but when the family is here, we use a lot more water, so could do with the tank being hotter, say 70C, so that we don't run out of hot water. Another scenario where it would be useful, would be when we're away for a while, if we could lower the setpoint until the day before we return, more solar could be exported, rather than being lost through the heat losses from the tank. Not sure we'd ever recover the cost of replacing the immersions but ..... Anyone seen such a device? EDIT - found one, the Tesla T-Smart -> https://www.tsmart.co.uk/ allows you to replace the thermostat in an existing immersion and control things from an app - nearly £100 on Amazon though...... Simon

So long as the underlying policies haven't changed, then the case law still stands - and sometime the case law influences the changes that have been made. I found the book a great help - although only the few pages that related to our green belt issue... Don't think we'll be building again, so shouldn't need to shell out for the 2nd edition but I'll bet it will be a great help to some folks in the future. Simon

We referred to this in our appeal - but again if you read the wording it becomes a subjective reduction on planning balance.... They pretend the process is rigorous and clear but the whole shebang is full of weasel words which makes it subjective. It seems that governments want to create laws that appease as many sides as possible and rely on the us the electorate to take cases to court to actually define what certain terms mean. But good luck with everything - really hope you perseverance and research pay off. It did for us. Simon PS there is a book written by a planning (Q)KC that we bought that lists all the case law. You've probably already found this.

Yes - dump it in a battery and then let it discharge when you're getting paid for it. A hot water tank is a kind of battery the only difference is you can't reconvert it to mains electricity. We're not on the flexible tariffs with Octopus but we do get a 7p rate for 6 hours at night and 15p at any time for export. So we let the batteries discharge to 20% before the cheap rate comes in and then charge them up again at the 7p rate. So 10-12kWh export, then recharge at a net cost to us of -7p. So 70pish per night off the bill. You do need to make sure you disable any diverter when you do the discharge of the battery or a lot of it can end up in the hot water tank - although that simply shifts the time when the tank is heated up a bit. Simon