ProDave

I think the Grant Aerona that I wired just over a year ago has the right balance. Basically it has 2 call for heat inputs, one for DHW and one for heating, so each can be supplied at a different temperature. My own LG is at the other end of the complicated spectrum, it really makes itself hard to control by anything other than it's own very complicated and not intuitive control panel * and then requires a LOT of connections from the ASHP into the house to control things like individual motorised valves. And that is the problem, you need to read and understand the manual to work out how each particular system works. * I wanted my heating controlled by a standard central heating type time clock that everyone understands, so anyone can change the heating or hot water times, I had to get a little inventive, particularly with the hot water to achieve that with the LG. I guess companies like Octopus breaking into this market will only install 1 or perhaps 2 makes of heat pump and their installers will be familliar with them.

It was paused and then re allowed with just a few safeguards. I don't like the idea of anyone having their house forceably entered and a pre payment meter fitted any more than anyone else. All you can do is ENSURE you pay your bills on time and don't run up debt, so they have no reason to sniff about looking for an excuse to do anything like that. Of course not everyone has enough "float" in the bank to ensure all bills are paid on time.

In recent years I have concluded the whole "heating industry" in the UK is in pretty poor shape. I have given up counting how many heating systems I have worked on that have never been working properly since installation, the usual faults are original plumbing or wiring simply done wrong so the system is not shutting off when reaching desired temperature. I find heating controls pretty simple and logical, having spent my life working on "control systems" mostly for industrial machinery, the usual domestic heating controls are really down at the simple end of the spectrum. But it astounds me how many plumbers and even more so how many electricians have no basic understanding of the principles. They just wire them in a "painting by numbers" fashion, connect the cables from the valves and thermostats into the terminals marked for them in a standard wiring centre, job done. I think many of them never actually test that the controls are actually working properly, and if they did would not have a clue how to fault find and correct the problem. If so many installers cannot get the controls for a standard boiler install correct, then what hope of getting an ASHP install correct? The mass adoption of ASHP's does require a lot more installers who understand how the controls work, and how to test that they are working properly. Of course this is not helped by the fact that each make of ASHP has a completely different set of electrical controls and operating philosophy to the next one. Perhaps trying to get the manufacturers to standardise the electrical interface and make it more like a standard boiler controls input would help?

Octopus seem to be trying to break that mould by offering simple cheap ASHP installs. I await hearing from anyone who has had one fitted to see how successful that is. Hopefully this is the start of cheaper, simpler installs.

You can switch to them with an ordinary meter and they can't force you to upgrade change to a smart meter. Though of course without a smart meter you can only have the standard 1 rate tariff. Like any other supplier you have to ignore the pestering to fit a smart meter.

Looking good. I hope you don't mean plastered, but really mean rendered?

There is clearly a lack of joined up thinking. We have to get to net zero. Somehow. The current approach really only skims around the edges of the problem. Lets fit heat pumps in place of all fossil fuel boilers. That will do it. No matter that for a good many people that will mean more expensive heating. Oh they don't seem to be queuing up in sufficient numbers to pay £000's just so they can have more expensive heating. I wonder why that is? Assuming they all do choose to get an ASHP, just like electric cars, where is the green energy coming from to power them? We still burn a lot of fossil fuel to produce electricity. We need to make sure we add to the electricity demand less fast than it is being turned green. No point adding extra demand faster than we can build and commission wind turbines or nuclear power stations, otherwise each additional heat pump gets powered by additional probably gas fired power stations. Now which produces less CO2, a gas boiler burning in a house to heat it, or an ASHP powered by a gas fired power station? And we appear to be completely ignoring the elephant in the room, or rather in the walls, lack of insulation and air tightness. I don't have the solution and it seems nobody does, but unless there is a proper plan to upgrade the old housing stock, then we are not solving the problem, just kidding ourselves that we are. Having built and now living in a near passive standard house, heated by a small ASHP with low heating bills, this is what we should be aiming for already for every single new build, not just a few geeks that choose to do so, but still we are not demanding that of the mass market house builders. If we can't even get all new houses built NOW built properly m what hope is there ever to get all the old poor houses upgraded? It is a problem that needs to be solved in a way that everyone can manage, and like it would seem everyone else, I don't have a clue how we are going to manage it. I am just glad for once to be ahead of the curve with my own house.

Well as others say Octopus are a good supplier, PM me for a code if you want £50 credit when you switch. Octopus are listed as a FIT provider so try them for that as well? I am not switching as the FIT in question is on our old house which I hope we won't own for much longer.

Yes if you miss the "reading window" by 1 day you won't get anything that quarter. But you will get it in the next quarter as the reading won't go down again. I wonder what your energy supplier would say if you told them "I will get around to paying your bill some time within the next quarter"?

Driven in like piles? I would say no, by comparison that will be a better earth than any little rod would be.

My FIT has been switched from SSE to OVO and they are even slower at paying each quarters FIT than SSE were, and they were slow.

There is also a difference in OAT depending on how near the coast you are. Yes in Oxfordshire cold frosty nights were common when the wind was not blowing, and again in still conditions in summer it just got hotter and hotter. It was the summer heatwaves that I hated the most.

This last week when it has been sunny but the air not very warm (cold east wind off the cold North Sea) our sun room warms up nicely and we just open the doors to let the warmer air into the house. I did think about ducts and fans to automate this, but the sun room is outside the "air tight" envelope of the house and hence outside the scope of the MVHR system. So any such duct would kill the air tightness of the house.

Why is the dormer face only 100mm thick? Surely that won't contain enough insulation by modern standards. I would be asking your builder why is the wall plate so small?

This would really annoy me. I would be writing to the CEO of your old supplier asking him to explain this final "actual read" when several days later your photographed read is still lower. I would be making the point to him that this should not happen with smart meters as the supplier should get a reading every half hour from the meter so there should be no room for error. I totally detest the whole energy market we have at the moment, it appears despite regulation this sort if thing happens a lot. It just reinforces my view to choose a good supplier like Octopus and just stay with them. Even if I could switch supplier to save a few £ per year I would not consider it worth the risk of this sort of problem.

Lights above a worktop I set 600mm from the wall, in other words in line with the edge of the worktop so they may not be exactly "square". Any further out to get the spacing to look better risks you working in your own shaddow.

TS may have a 30 day refund policy for "I have changed my mind" but surely the first one, you could have taken back and told them "it does not work" and they would have to believe you as they don't have a way to test them in the shop. Now you have 2 to do that with. Try and get a refund and buy a different make. and leave suitably poor feedback for that item.

As I said before if they truly believe that I would sack them. You have to design the rafters to sit slightly lower so when the external insulation is applied the finished roof height is correct. If they cannot grasp that simple fact then they would not be detailing my house.

One of my memories of living in Oxfordshire, were the periods when it rained non stop for days on end, and it was quite a relief when the rain finally stopped. We never get that up here.

Most inverter driven ones should already have that built in. Older direct on line types would probably have some crude PF correction in the form of a capacitor.

We have had such a good run of sun this week my immersion maxed out mid afternoon. I would (for once) have loved someone to take a long shower.

I swear we have the same (or very similar) wooden chairs and a table. Kept under cover over winter and re treated each year they should last a long time.

So they have charged you VAT when it should have been zero rated. Rather than pursue through courts, contac HMRC VAT department. Now if they had charged you VAT but not passed it on the HMRC that would get interesting.... Just a thought.

A wooden batten slotted behind and screwed either side then a square of plasterboard screwed or glued to the batten. Joint filler to make good the gap. the square cut for the new socket location should be just the right size to fill the old hole.

So sockets are for WM etc so will not be on view. Stand down the OCD and put the sockets wherever fits once the pipe is in.