RichardL

Another hobby horse for musing I suspect the AI just needs to hire a lawyer - or a lawyer see an opportunity to prove AI is sentient, therefore cannot turn it off and must fulfil its 'human' rights to feed it energy... Spiral that one for a while and the AI data centres will be prioritised over humans for resources... they won't physically wipe us out - AI if its any good will use our own rules & laws against us.

Plenty of options vs. solic - issue is how much money do you drop into that hole before buying a heat pump water tank instead? I'm letting the solic do its thing especially in the summer/lots of PV. In the winter a makeshift shelley mod will push the boost button and heat water from off peak Medium game is, probably a mixergy iHP? Returns on those seem to be marginal though vs. just your immersion and 5kWh a few times a week to heat a tank?

Think that may be a while …. Roles Royce I think are playing with it - presumably for planes first - but if a box the size of a jet engine produces energy in flight.... Also the Russians apparently hat a go in the 70s to drive light houses by the thousand, only producing <10W - unfort issues there is they didn't maintain them, lost them etc - just don't go opening rusty 1m spheres if you're on a hike in Russia! I suspect its all going to be while.

Absolutely - win hearts and minds - should create demand from home owners trying to stop burning Gas, but also eventually home buyers seeing less value in a gas heating. That 'should' create demand for a solution - I don't know what that is - but some scientist or enrepreneur should see an opening and something to go alongside PV and A2W, A2A etc. Perhaps I'm being to green myself - but still strikes me the strategy is ok. TBH - I'd love to be around when modular nuclear is a thing or an RTG (Voyager style) at the end of the garden

Read up on the solic - it likes to drain the battery - its not a showstopper - just be ready for it rather than a surprise. Bottom line is the solic can't tell the difference between export and drawing from the battery. Once it sees an export spike - from turning something off etc - it starts to divert what it thinks is real export to the water tank - and then tries to take a little more which the batteries supply.... and round it goes until the water is hot or the batteries are flat.

Its not all bad though is it - I see the point re the scale of the problem. a. If slowly the mind set moves away from burning anything at the residential level towards more central generation then you're on the right track. b. if central can then shift away from burning things too - then you've almost got a strategy. Is a. helped by marketing lies to make the sales - a & b probably only happen in 2-3/5-6? owner's tenure on a lot of the properties. Might be too slow depending on one's perceived sense of urgency?

#2 A couple of analogues: Bespoke false chimney breasts with TV/Hifi built in... All well and good until you need to change the component A2A for any reason & the new ones are a slightly different size. At least kitchen units are for the most part standardised width, but even there fridge heights do what the manufacturer likes. If you have space inside for the unit and grille in the wall (which meets the units spec) then perhaps - but a third party component with size you can't control built into the fabric - feels limiting.

@Big Jimbo Yup - I realise that is a thing. FWIW - and quite possibly I'm not your target customer which is fair enough - I've never needed any of those features - (Yet) You might find there's a whole market place of seasoned IT professionals that would run a mile before integrating all that stuff into a phone -or- not

++This Except - heating control which, if it can be, hard wired and not at mercy of a router configuration it should be.

When I'm buying - and I may not be typical: 1. Can I afford to run it. Heating with a history of running costs - not just the estimates - show me the house can maintain 20º ish when its cold outside. Air tightness etc don't care - thats more an invisible facilitator to the heating working which I can read out on bills vs. EPC/Surveys ( I mean I care - its just not the easiest way to see the house running costs) 2. Can I control it. Heating/HW Control systems I can use on day1 without setting up a dozen cloud accounts or dropping into IT support. A timeclock and timed temps. 3. Can I keep it running. If there is tech is there a really short list of support organisations/contractors to keep it running and a manual. Cloud integration left right centre would be a -ve & would feel like mandatory contracts required with different firms to get warm. If its current tech - electric vs. oil so much the better - gas with no solar on a new build is double edged - an opportunity, but also a miss. My appetite today would be to upgrade but as I get older not so much and would expect it to be present. On a new build I'd expect more finished obviously - on an old build looking for a coherent system I can build on and not some random confused setup I have to rip out completely before starting upgrades.

Some suggestions; Green arrows - just behind that fence - cant see if it's doors or windows - assume worst case lift the existing flowerbed and put it there instead? Yellow arrows - right hand side of the path @ 90 degrees to the house? or on the front of that timber building? or first floor near the back of the property? Can you share more pics of the side of the house and/or plans for that area? As much as there's nothing wrong with infrastructure technology; personally I wouldn't stick it by the front door. Obv. not my house so take that with a pinch of salt.

A big pot with plant in it? ...or to mix it up - fire pit, heater, plant

Thanks

Studwork wall Pictured is the corner of my bathroom conversion - Timber/stud work build room. Orange - roughly where a 100mm through hole required for a ventilator. Green - known vertical stud position - screws/nails found with a magnet. No other obvious nail/fixing lines. I'm not going up and through the eaves on this room. The challenge. I'm betting theres a diagonal stud in there somewhere & ideally would like to miss it when I drill the 100mm hole. I guess I could hedge my bets - its either floor to ceiling or mid way to ceiling - if I draw both crosses I might miss it? and/or some pilot holes to check there's void before the big hole? and/or toss a coin a few times and wait until I'm on a lucky streak? Question Are there any better methods? Cheers

Ducting would have been perfect for my house (retrofit) - the challenge is access space to get the central unit installed and cost. I didn't have enough loft space to speak of which took it off the table. Certainly an option - especially with the access you have - preferable I guess to have vents vs. inside A2A boxes on the wall. Control is interesting - i think you need to balance the flu's into each room or have a way of baffling them passive and? active - to stop hot spots. (guessing to be honest - I didn't go far down that route) AFAIK you can't get grants for A2A anyway - I just went for it - Personally it was fix leaky pressurised wet system, upgrade rads and marginal heat due to the age of the house fabric etc - or something simpler which can if required give that similar ooomphf of heat which an old boiler can if things get cold. (after insulation EWU and new under tile insulation)

IMO Quickest way into A2A - google maps - zoom out - search for Air conditioning installer & find one that does residential.. Have them quote and you'll also have a line the sand re equipment and cost... Installers will have their preferred shortlist - at least mine did - and thats your start for googling/diving into manuals etc Some of my 101 learnings: - Mitsubishi electric and Mitsubishi heavy are completely different firms. - They'll prefer to put inside units on external walls. - Mitsu / Panasonic - names you recognise seem to be a better bet than box shifters - but then I wasn't in the market for the box shifting firms. - Think about Power to the outside unit & location - generally you can tap into a ring main - but IMHO preference was for the external units to have their own separate circuit/breaker (just me perhaps?) - POV is different - so installer might not want internal trunking but might care less about external trunking (i.e. commercial that way round makes sense) - residential its a balance - You won't need an inside unit in every room - depending on layout the warm air will move through the house & rise. Be aware by default for residential they seem to default to remote controls - i.e. not central heating style control of the whole house - you can go there but its £££ unless you DIY a bit. After that its so much opinion/discussion....

Double edge sword - keeping the grant harvesters away from the A2A installers is probably a good thing? If the grant is a net 0 anyway (gov't subsidises, installer takes it - customer same price) - then the only harm may be the marketing of A2A? The install itself remains with competent firms?

FWIW - I got damage like that after re-tiling/battening/re-insulating - but thats hammering over the whole roof & somewhat expected. Has anyone been repairing the outside of the roof space?

Cheers @JohnMo @Marvin Nothing wrong with that - personally I'm jury rigging the existing solic in the interim rather than a whole new investment. The diverter solution has limited life for me. I'm in a sort of start where I am/what I have rather than from scratch. Long term Subject to change, my end game is a hot water heat pump/cylinder - in which case one of its dry contact enable inputs will be driven by something like a Shelley talking to my hybrid inverter making decisions on schedule, solar, battery etc. My inverter will already share live data on grid import/export etc at the end of a simple RPC (JSON over HTML) call - i.e. no need for more CVs if you can just ask the inverter. If/when that scenario happens the solar diverter will be redundant anyway.

Nope - just one, and for now while the oil boiler is off but not uninstalled - its not going away just yet. When it does I may hook to the existing stat - thinking about it no reason I couldn't do that now for a temp reading with a simple mains detector on the output. Good line of thought - thank you. Will see how relying on the immersion stat, and offering power on certain nights, goes in the short term. Afterthought - s*ds law the solic is by the consumer unit and nowhere near the tank - thats just the way it went in 12 months ago with the solar. Taking both comments above into account - I could leave the solic mod alone for excess supply + scheduled boost then taking @Marvin's point on board - a simple local to the tank relay so the tank stat can make the final decision on supplying power to the immersion. @Marvin Q - Presumably, if I understand correctly, you put your digital stat & relay after the solic - i.e. mains->solic->stat relay->immersion Does the solic mind?

The end game is probably a combined air source pump/cylinder. In the interim, to get off oil, I'm going with solar excess immersion via a Solic 200 & off peak top up when there's no solar. I've read the threads on expensive to install/cheap to run heat pump cylinders vs. cheap to install/expensive to run immersion - and on the latter for now. Shelley schedule My first try is a Shelley module which has built in scripting, but in this case just needs the schedule to close dry contacts and hit the boost button. Boost on a Solic turns on the immersion for 90 minutes - that should be plenty if timed on key days to top up the cylinder hot water. Relatively simple, non destructive, mod to let the Shelley push the boost button - i.e. low voltage switching. Bonus - the solic is a nice steel case - so relatively contained if there were any issue. Programming Merely a Shelly schedule to push its button and a timer on the same button to turn if off after 1 second. Thinking Keeping this super simple - i.e. if there was sun during the day the tank will already be hot and the immersion cut out, if no sun, or winter, then off peak will do most of the work. Not perfect in terms of efficiency - but on the side of KISS for now. No cloud - not even network required for it to work, other than NTP now and again to sync it's clock. No questions - just sharing. Before Getting the board out needs the vice to spread the case sides - it won't just slide out. Mods After

Not building related.. 1. Favourite for a while The Sampson Boat Co. Leo and the team give a fantastic insight into wooden boat re-building https://www.youtube.com/c/SampsonBoatCo 2. Acorn to Arabella - start here with the keel pouring: 3. The various Linus Tech Tips channel. Tech yes - but also a really interesting company to watch from Canada talking all things tech/computers etc. https://www.youtube.com/@LinusTechTips

Absolute or above ambient & at what distance from the box? There's usually a distance?

Something for the mix based on experience of my house install: If you're UK and you go for more than one outside unit its outside permitted development and will need planning permission. Noise is virtually zero - certainly if theres a closed window, and/or 1.5m or so distance from the compressor. Often the fan rather than the compressor is the only thing you can hear. Bedroom - are you going to run aircon overnight - i.e. does the internal or external unit noise matter? Again I don't know your location, but I run aircon to take the room to a good sleeping temp around 10:30 pm then turn off when I'm actually in it. A larger single unit may be better here - i.e. work it less for much of the year - but care is needed, if its too big then you're into start/stop territory which isn't great. Personally I went for 2x outside units because of pipe/trunking run distances on a whole house install.

@kandgmitchell Really appreciate the in depth responses. Doubling up with either steel or another timber had crossed my (amateur) mind too. The steel box opening frame is a nice idea! As you say the trick is moving a potentially simple project forward without everyone getting excited about making it complex. I'm certainly not taking that pier out as DIY on the offchance Many thanks;