Bramco

@Russdl you should try to get on the intelligent Oct Go. Then it's 7.14p for 6 hours at night and 15p for export. We actually exported enough yesterday to cover the daily standing charge as well as running the house all day long, oven, washing machine, DHW for showers, heating etc. We went for a Sunsynk system that we self installed 15kWh for £5k. Haven't worried too much about not charging the battery at night, as the export rate is high enough so that on a passable day, we're about break even and on good days we're up in terms of costs. Today however...... 😞 Simon

Hi Kelvin, take a look on our architects web site, lots of photos -> https://lhc.net/projects/ashcroft-creating-a-low-energy-family-home/. If you need a close up I can sort one out. Our 1st floor is also light oak (Brooks - Balmoral Rustic Oak). So the stairs and the 1st floor flooring were both treated with the Osmo oil. The Osmo oil label just says '3040 White'. We're not keen on oak when it goes orange, hence the use of Osmo white oil. We bought some samples from Osmo and tested them out on a sample of the wood that would be used for the stairs before deciding which one to use. Simon

Ours went in pretty late and like @Kelvin it's oak and it was protected by cladding with hardboard and plastic sheeting. We used a light (whiteish) Osmo oil on ours - no carpets - everyone to their own.. Simon

+1 to that - just helped my son build his shed which is exactly how he did it. Does depend on the ground conditions of course. Simon

Overhangs are great - in the summer months, the sun is too high to give much solar gain and in the winter months you get the solar gain. Add external blinds and you can control the solar gain. We've found that with the blinds level, then they start to stop the sunlight at around the now, the spring equinox and start to let it in again at the autumn equinox. See attached image. All the south facing rooms on the front have external blinds. More photos here -> https://lhc.net/projects/ashcroft-creating-a-low-energy-family-home/ Personally, I'd try to future proof by having a master bedroom + en-suite downstairs and forget the lift idea.

The only gotcha could be the time limits for sending the commencement notice and the final Part 2. It all seems to be an excessively complicated and onerous process BUT if you make sure that the forms are submitted on time, then everything should be OK. And it doesn't matter what is being built, this is all about the fact that a new dwelling is being built and for each new dwelling there is a levy for infrastructure. AFAIK, some councils have a lower threshold for the number of dwellings where the CIL is applied. So in some cases, if a developer is building less than say 5 or 10, then the CIL isn't applicable. Sounds like you, like us, are in an area where every development has CIL applied and then self builders like yourself have to get the exemption. The process is overly complicated but easy to follow - just remember to do it! Simon

I've been graphing the difference between OAT and the wind chill temperature (WCT?) which is often 5C lower at night. This can add 20% to the difference between the inside temperature and outside which isn't taken into account with the heat loss calcs which use OAT. I'm trying to find a 4 ranges between zero difference and 25C difference for the heating needed. We run the ASHP predominantly at night on the cheap Octopus GO rate so the strategies would be maybe 3 hours of ASHP (night), 6 hours of ASHP (night), 6 hours of the ASHP (night) + a few hours of buffer tank immersion boost, then on really cold windy days add a couple of ASHP hours around lunchtime when there might be some solar to cover the electricity. Obviously the ranges wouldn't be equal parts of the 25C difference and there might be ways to also use the WCT-OAT degC to manage exactly when the additional heating is needed. Has anyone else looked at the wind chill factor when doing the heat loss analysis? Simon

PS to the last post - you need to scour the area for newish self builds - go and ask them who did their build - they'll soon tell you if they are happy or not and what went well or badly. It's best to knock on their door but if you can't, send them a letter. Simon

We had something similar, an MBC frame but with their foundations. Windows were outside the remit of the builder and there were a lot of items which we supplied, e.g. sanitary ware, rooflights etc. This was during the pandemic but we did manage to find a builder to do the groundworks. MBC did their thing and Express Windows fitted the windows and sliding doors. When it came to the tender for finishing the build, the only quote we had was from the original builder, everyone else was too busy with projects on the books (larger companies) or too busy building to quote (smaller companies). We managed through some compromises and the efforts of our architect to get the price to something workable and we're very pleased with the result. The drawings were important as the build progressed to check that things had been done according to the specs. Should add, the architect is our son, so there was no sacking him off.... Simon

There's a bit of gash in there as well £650 for a couple of miscellaneous electrical items - that's a LOT of wire and connectors.... Maybe worth pushing a bit on those line items? Try a cheeky £6500 for parts for you to be able to go ahead? Simon

Our types of construction are atypical, so they just apply their rule of thumb which includes a big margin of error - they know lots of clients are disappointed with heat pumps, so the answer is much bigger than you think Mr. Client..... 3 bed semi X kW, 4 bed detached Y kW. And you wouldn't believe the admin for an MCS install which bumps up the labour to £7k for 2 days work.... Sadly there are enough punters out there who for whatever reason, environmentally feel good factor, one-upmanship etc. will sign on the dotted line. Hope this works out - sounds like an ideal offering for self builders - they could get busy. It would be interesting to know what the quote is like - without going into details of course. It does make you wonder whether more suppliers will head down this route - there aren't enough skilled tradespeople out there, so this type of approach could well work. Simon

Mike, you might be asking the wrong people the wrong question. Most heating system suppliers do run of the mill jobs and work to their 'rules of thumb', so if they always quote for a buffer tank for example, then you're going to get a buffer tak in your proposal - it's easier for them. They work to a formula - it's not worth their time doing some fancy (in their terms) special for a clued up client. On the wrong question front, we had our plumber install the UVC, UFH buffer tank both with double immersions. They installed the manifold and connected it to the buffer tank. So something any plumber could quote for. And nothing covered by MCS. We then got a quote for an ASHP, all MCS certified and with the grant application. So maybe you need to split the job into it's constituent parts and ask for 2 quotes. Although you will have to be quite persuasive to overcome the ASHP suppliers 'knowledge' which will have them telling you, you need a new UVC, a buffer tank and that your heating demand can't possibly be right.... A good example of this was someone on here, or maybe another forum bemoaning the fact that they had had great use out of a 2 immersion PV diverter for many years, but now Octopus were installing their ASHP, they were ripping the old UVC out and replacing it with a new tank with only one immersion, cos that's the way they do it. So only PV diversion to the top of the tank. We gave our ASHP supplier a full room by room heat loss analysis done by our M+E engineer, they simply duplicated this in the MCS pack. After some persuasion, they accepted that their real role was supply and fit of the ASHP and controller and connecting said ASHP to the buffer tank and UVC with a 3 port valve - so it is possible. Finally on point 4 above, you'll be lucky!! You might have to take what you're given and then replace it if necessary - it almost certainly won't be open. Simon

If the GivEnergy inverter is a hybrid inverter and your PV inverter is near to the panels, then this may be the reason - although I thought GivEnergy had both hybrid (PV and battery) as well as normal single source inverters. Assuming your PV inverter is close to the panels and the system is ac connected to the main house, then you'd need battery with single source inverter system - there are plenty around and many cheaper than the GivEnergy systems. The downside of having 2 inverters, is the interplay between them - you really need to be able to manage when the battery is charging and discharging in relation to the solar PV output. Inverters from the same supplier generally have ways to manage this. One thing to bear in mind, is that hybrid inverters use the DC side to charge the batteries from solar, so there is little loss. If you have separate inverters, then the PV has to pass through both inverters to charge the batteries with the associated losses. DC to AC and then back again to DC. There must be other installers you can ask for a quote. Simon

They are meticulous but the fabric can be good while windows, rooflights and doors can still let things down. Would be interesting to check the difference between 0.25, 0.5 and 0.75 on the heat loss spreadsheet - is there a big difference? Simon

Have a read of the Victron forum post I linked to above - there's some advice about how to deal with a 'computer says no' from Octopus. Simon

NG And I didn't phone them, just waited until I had the PV installed and then filled in the forms. As I said we needed the electrical sign off. So if your sparky is OK with that then you should be OK. I don't think building control care about MCS but I may be wrong, they didn't in our case but we put the PV in after completion. AFAIK, as far as the DNO is concerned it has to be electrically signed off to be acceptable. I think where MCS comes in is that some suppliers won't accept you on an export tariff unless you have an MCS certificate. Although legally again AFAIK, there is no reason why they shouldn't accept you. Octopus will accept a self install. If you have some time to spare read this post on the Victron forum - https://community.victronenergy.com/questions/131033/uk-ess-self-install-mcs-certification.html it explains a lot. Simon

We did a self install 6.5kWp ground mounted PV array - DNO were' fine with it - they did want the electrical certificate but were happy with everything else. Octopus were also happy after the DNO OK'd things and put us on export on Octopus Go - that's at the 8p export rate. At the weekend we moved onto intelligent Octopus Go, so 7p at night for 6 hours and 15p export. So it is possible to get on the more advantageous rates with a self install.

Surge protection. Again, not sure this was necessary but... Simon

Interesting - I did wonder about putting one onto our system - especially as the inverter has a DC switch on the side - so a separate isolator was in my thinking overkill - but I went ahead and put one on as the installation manual had that as one of the steps. Simon

When NG put our connection in, they told me all new connections were 3 phase as there was marginal cost to them in terms of cable. The meter isn't anything to do with them, that is supplied by the Leccy Co and AFAIK, 3 phase meters (maybe it was 3 phase smart meters) were few and far between, i.e. a long wait. Our connection was set up as 100A due to the solar PV, car chargers and ASHP etc. Simon

That's 3 phase to the house, not necessarily a 3 phase meter

Also, if you get them wrong way round, the new switch may not work as it won't have a live going in. But maybe you'll test that hypothesis for us ;-D Simon

One brown wire should go into a hole marked com or something like that on the old switch and the other into a hole marked 1. The one in com is the live. Often there is one hole on it's own on a switch and 2 others side by side. The one on it's own which should be marked com or L is the live one. But be careful. Simon

Yes - stop worrying.... Depends what you put down them. Some users tend to gunk any plughole up with all their creams etc. We had this on a sink with the tap over the plughole, so not sure that makes a difference.

These are fine - drain easily. We have 2. They don't stain - not sure why you think they might. If they did, IKEA would have withdrawn them years ago. You can't use taps with a handle to lift the plug and if you want a pop up plug, then you'll have to buy a low profile one but there's plenty around. Simon