ProDave

I hope all will be revealed when I see the meter pics. There will almost certainly be a "radio teleswitch" which allows the supplier to turn on and off the off peak rate when it likes. You need to tap into this to control the boiler. I know how to do it with conventional E7 or E10 but I am not familliar with how your system is wired.

We currently use a 4KW stove, so probably 600W goes up the flue. I have no reason to believe it is significantly more than that.

The point I am trying to make is separate the actions of heating up the store and the times you use heat from the store. The most economical way will be have the boiler coming on only for the 18 hours when it is at the cheap tarrif. It will stop when the tank is up to full temperature so you won't be wasting heat. Bit I am pretty certain you won't be able to do that without some alterations. At the moment there is a fair chance that a lot of your heating will be done at the cheap rate but also it will be certain much of it will be using the peak rate at the moment.

For low power stoves, look at the Springdale 3KW stove available with ducted air intake kit http://www.stovesareus.co.uk/burley-springdale-wood-burning-stove.html This is almost certainly what we will fit. I wired a straw bale house a few years back. They found a stove for that that claimed to put 10KW to water and only 2KW to the room. It was installed in a big double height living room and heated a massive (I believe 2000L or something like that) thermal store. The thermal store provided DHW and UFH. The theory is you only need to light the stove every few days to top up the thermal store.

Which means the boiler at the moment is only operating 6 hours a day with no guarantee that those 6 hours fall within the 18 hours of cheap rate (some of it will but probably not all)

That confirms a 3 phase supply. Can you post some more pages, specifically there will be a couple of pages "schedule of test results"

I missed that. Her it i again for anyone else looking https://www.electric-heatingcompany.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/COMET-f.495.pdf The manual is not that useful as in this application is it not "heating only" or "heating and hot water" it is "heating a thermal store" The closest would be the "heating only" installarion but substitute cylnder thermostat for room thermostat (Figure 8 in the manual) HOWEVER it is not that simple. There is no point whatsoever using a programmer to turn it on and off as you have an off peak supply with unknown on times, you know how many hours it will be on, but not when. So if I were doing it, I would use a relay, that is energised by a feed from the E2000 supply and substitute it's normally open contacts in place of terminals 1 and 3 of the programmer shown in Figure 8 Exactly how to do that I can't say until I see the meters and consumer units.

I have to go out now, I will look for the manual later (unless someone finds it first and posts a link) Do you have a 3 phase supply? I assume so (still waiting for pictures of your meters and consumer units ) Otherwise 24KW (105A) is too much for a single phase supply

make and model of the electric boiler would be handy

Buy a trailer. Go on, you know you want to.

The boiler must be on whenever the economy 2000 rate is on. So ditch that controller. I suspect the power feed to the boiler is wired wrong and comes from a permanent supply not the E2000 supply. Check your bills., you should be metered for peak, off peak, and E2000 as 3 items. The boiler should be the only one using the E2000 tariff. Can you post pictures of your electricity meters and consumer units please? This is problem No 1 to solve. As @PeterW says the hot water in this case comes not from a simple coil but through plate heat exchanger. The pump for that should turn on whenever a flow switch detects flow to the hot water taps, so that is more wiring that needs sorting out.,

I think the real issue with a WBS is you cannot turn them off instantly. Perhaps people stoke them up too much to get nice dancing flames then find out the room is hot enough but you can't just turn it off straight away and by the time it runs down, you're too hot. The issue with a passive house is it then takes a very long time indeed to cool down again.

Okay back to the boiler and tariff You are on the Economy2000 tariff. I had not heard of that one so had to do some research. As you say that is a tariff aimed at electric storage boilers. It gives you 18 hours of cheap rate electricity at the supply companies choosing (when they want to dump power) but with a guarantee that there will be no off period of more than 2 hours. So first thing to sort out is the boilers controls. You do NOT want a programmer on the boiler. There should be a high current switched supply that only come on during the 18 hours of cheap rate. I would expect this to be connected to a small consumer unit and the boiler fed from that. So whenever the cheap rate is available, the boiler will heat the thermal store, only turning off when the tank thermostat says it is hot enough. Sort that out FIRST so you always have a piping hot tank of water. And as you are never more than 2 hours from a re charge, it should stay pretty hot all the time. I don't see a tank thermometer in any of your pictures but just by feeling one of the pipes emerging near the top of the tank you should be able to get an idea how hot the tank is. If it is not piping hot just about all the time, then sort that out first. Until you have a reliable constant tank of piping hot water, it is not going to work properly. If you need an electrician to sort this, tell him it is just like wiring a big storage heater, the boiler should come on whenever the economy 2000 cheap rate is available and must be connected to the tank thermostat, A statement in an earlier post worries me. "no hot water unless one of the pumps is running" You should not need anything "running" to get hot water. As long as that tank is full of piping hot water, then domestic hot water should come out of all your hot taps, even if there was a power cut. My suspicion at the moment is the boiler is only running and therefore only heating the tank when the UFH is on, which is wrong. As I have said before, charging the tank with the boiler is a completely separate thing to using that heat. I see solving this as a 3 stage process. 1: get the boiler working properly so there is always a full tank of piping hot water: 2: let the plumbing experts pick the plumbing to pieces and sort out the controls for that. 3: sort out the heatmiser controls to get the heating working in all rooms.

It came from one of the Inverness merchants, might have been pasqals but I am not sure as the builders procured it. I know they ended up getting a larger beam than the SE specified as that was all that was available. To get the correct sized one it would have had to come from the south with a huge extra transport cost, so it was cheaper to get the over sized one available locally. Nothing wrong with over sizing a beam. I think it was originally specified by the SE as 70mm wide and we ended up with one 90mm wide.

Just a note on the solar thermal. Again that is a separate thing in it's own right. The way they work is this. It's controller will monitor the temperature of the water in the thermal store, and the temperature of the water in the on roof tubes. When the water temp in the tubes exceeds the water temp in the store, it will turn it's pump on to circulate the water from the tubes to the store. It does this by passing that water through a heat input coil in the bottom of the tank. So on a sunny day the pump will be turning on and off to move water around whenever it is hot enough to heat the tank. This heat just adds to what is in the tank from the boiler and so reduced the boiler load and hence saves you money. It's circulating loop will be filled with brine so it does not freeze on the roof. Don't expect it to do anything at this time of year.

I have a warm roof. definitely much simpler and it means any eaves spaces or loft spaces are also warm so no problems with services in them etc.

Okay some more thoughts as you posted more pictures while I was typing. The little black tank is a cold water header tank. That is normal, a thermal store is full of water that unlike a normal hot water tank, never changes, and that cold tank feeds it to ensure it never runs dry (if there was a leak) and has somewhere to expand to when it gets hot (it's a feed and expansion tank) That under floor heating manifold is a bit basic. Normally they have a thermostatic blending valve, so regardless of the temprature of the water in the tank, they mix it down to a low temperature for the under floor loops. There is usually also a pump. Yours don't have these so at the moment what is pumping it and what controls the water temperaure in the UFH is a mystery. One of those controllers, probably the top one, will control the boiler on times. The heatmiser controls will control the UFH on times. (hot water remember is "on" all the time) I don't know why someone has put a room thermostat in what I suspect is a cupboard.

Hi Lets start with some basics. How big is the house? How now or more importantly how well insulated is it, particularly how well insulted are the FLOORS? Has the system EVER worked properly? Is the electric boiler on an economy 10 tariff, or at least an economy 7 tariff. Now I will try and explain a few basics. A "heat store" is just that, a big water tank that sores heat. The idea being the boiler heats the heat store, and then the heat store provides the hot water and under floor heating. Remember that bit. The heat input control is quite separate to the heat output controls. They need to be analysed and investigated separately. Assuming you have economy 10 (I really hope so otherwise it is going to be expensive) then you want the boiler programmer set so the electric boiler is on at all 10 of the cheap rate hours in a day and will heat that tank quite hot, probably 70 or 80 degrees. There is often a thermometer on a heat store tank if you have one what does it say. Domestic hot water is just achieved by cold water in through a heat exchange coil in the store and out as hot water. If the tank is hot then you will get hot water, which will gradually reduce in temperature as you run it unless the boiler can keep up with the rate you are using heat. If you can only get half a bath, then the water in the thermal store is nowhere near hot enough. Now the under floor heating. I am not familliar with that exact system but I know the heatmiser system uses a 4 core cable and all thermostats are linked to the same cable. You set a code inside each thermostat with a switch so the controller know which one controls which room. I suspect the question marks either means they are not set correctly, or there is a cable fault. Hence the question has it ever worked. When it is working, then whenever a room thermostat calls for heat, it will turn on the manifold pump, open some valves on the manifold and send heat to that rooms heating loops, all the while taking heat from the thermal store and cooling it down. I am pretty sure I could get this going but I am at the wrong end of the country so not practical for me to travel but I will help all I can on the forum. Start with answering those questions and see how we go.

Tried that months ago. They will only take instruction from a local authority.

Can you tell me exactly HOW you contacted RM I have tried 3 different methods and every time they say only the council can inform them of a new address. I even tried arguing it is not "new" and has been in use for 2 years and they still said the council must inform them before they will add a new address to the postcode database.

The VOA is much more pro active here. When we finally moved into the static caravan he revealed he had visited the site for a snoop around look 17 times. I am willing to bet he is still snoping ready to pounce when he think the house is complete enough to be listed. In our case he listed the caravan at the address "Caravan, house name, village name....." he said this is so when we move into the house, the caravan will be removed from the council tax list and the house name alone added to the list. The house name thing I have mentioned before. I have refused to fill in the form and pay the extortionate fee of £150. Our house name is on the council's list now and there is no problem with utilities or getting post. The only thing "missing" is the council refuse to inform Royal Mail unless I pay the £150 fee, so it is not on the RM postcode database. So at the moment it's stalemate with me refusing to pay £150 just so the council can notify RM of one address already on it's own database.

I just used builders that I knew who were not bothered. Indeed they altered the scaffold as and when they needed to. As it happens, I didn't have enough to scaffold my whole house, so the back and 2 ends were done with my Kwikstage, and the front they used their own Cuplock scaffold. NONE of it was erected by professional scaffolders and none had a weekly check. I do find the use of system scaffold like Kwikstage and Cuplock much more common here in Scotland, and it is also very common for small builders to just bring and erect their own.

Why that level of precision? All my planning was done and agreed with reference to my TBM no reference whatsoever to and absolute height. What's the height accuracy these days of the average GPS?

There is a set time for an appeal. Make it known immediately you wish to do so and ask for the application form. Your task then is to find as many properties similar to and close to yours that are in a lower band, estate agent websites are your key here. Meanwhile they will try to find as many as they can in the same or a higher band. As far as I could tell the appeal process would be both you, and the council valuation officer, would get a set period of time to stand up in front of a panel to explain why you thing the valuation should be altered. I was prepared for that with all my documentation, but the day before the hearing the valuation officer said he would reduce it 1 band if I withdrew my appeal. I still wonder if I should have taken it to the appeal as I was seeking a reduction of 2 bands.......

You don't need an absolute datum. I hammered a row of nails into a substantial fence post at the highest corner of my plot. That is my "Temporary Bench Mark" and all my heights for planning on all the drawings were referenced to that TBM (it is still there should anyone wish to check anything)