Bramco

How did you register for Solcast? If I go on their website, and select Home User, I get switched between 2 web pages and can't register. Frustrating..... Simon

@LnP We used Hallmark blinds -> https://www.hallmarkblinds.co.uk/ . There are other members that have used them as well. I think they are manufactured in eastern Europe, Poland? It's about 3 years ago now that we were looking, so things may have changed a bit but back then, there didn't seem to be many (UK) suppliers. External blinds are common on the continent but here, they seem to be only used on commercial premises. Some of the companies we identified had UK websites but didn't seem to have any suppliers. Our criteria were size, we've got some pretty big apertures we needed to cover and price. I don't think there's a great deal of difference between different makes when it comes down to the slats etc. They all seem to use Somfy for the controllers. Ours are all on sliding doors, so if you want to, you can open the door a bit to get some through breeze in the summer, although the downstairs overhangs on our build mean that in the summer, the sun doesn't shine into the rooms if we have the blinds up. Hope that helps Simon

Which is a Home Assistant front - and while they may be best practices, not everyone wants to go down the HA route. I've tried it several times and found it to be a massive overkill for what we want to do and massively time consuming to configure. I just need simple access to some of the dashboards that we use when at home. I've used DuckDNS in the past but we now have a double router system, so NordVPN Mesh looks like it might do the trick. Simon

Don't think so. But it wasn't something I was taking note of at the time. There's an installation guide you could check. But like I said, you can manage it all from within your firewall if you want to. Takes a bit of effort of course. If you do set things up that way, you can't access the device when you're away from home. Which can be useful if it throws some error. Or if you just want to check on what's happening. We find remote access quite useful. Simon

We have a Sunsynk inverter which can be connected to their cloud through a wifi dongle or an ethernet connection. You can also attach a modbus interface - I've done this because their app which accesses the cloud data only updates every 5 minutes, so doesn't really give real time data. So you could simply disconnect the wifi dongle and not connect a LAN connection and just use the local modbus interface - of course you won't be able to use their app but while that is comprehensive it ain't brilliant... Ours btw is still connected to the Sunsynk cloud whiel we're still tinkering. For modbus I've half-inched a nodered set of flows -> https://powerforum.co.za/topic/8451-sunsynk-inverter-monitoring/ to read the data and feed it through to a local open energy monitor server -> https://openenergymonitor.org/. The flows are very comprehensive and also include setting parameters and there's a pretty amazing nodered dashboard . I reckon if any other inverter has a modbus interface, you could use a lot of the flows with only a bit of adjustment. Not massively pretty but below is a dashboard from an openergymonitor server on a Pi Zero 2 which we're using at the moment as we get used to the new batteries and inverter. PV and house load are fetched every 5 seconds and the more slowly moving things every minute. The diverter data is from our Eddi.

Our vaulted bedrooms have the vents on the walls, while the vaulted living room/dining room/kitchen have them on the ceiling. Can't say we've noticed any difference. The issue with the ones in the living space was more to do with ensuring the battens for the ceiling were deep enough to take the pipes and the vents. Simon

Thanks - the architect is our son - we think he's done us proud! That's about what ours looks like - I think there were 3 coats on the stairs, not sure about the floor though. Simon

Which solar forecast do you use? Tried to get on one that I think is based in Australia but covers the world - but their web site kept taking me round in circles. Found a European one but the forecasts were crap. I use Openweathermap in Nodered to track the high, low, current and wind chill temperatures - I guess I should try to pick out the cloud cover forecast if it's in there. Simon

@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.