ProDave

I once has the uneviable task or repairing a tv where the cat had sat on top (when tv's were big enough for a cat to sit on, and usually warm as well) and then peed down the back of it.

Currently paying just under 12p per KWh (single rate) and just over 20p per day standing charge. Comparing that to @SteamyTea E7 tariff, you would not need to use many daytime units to offset the huge premium he is paying for day rate vs only 3p per unit cheaper at night.

It is still a tough one. I maintain with today's low FIT you need to WANT PV and be happy to spend the capital as just another part of the build. Otherwise if you look at it purely as a money exercise, the big question is "what if we sell before 11.7 years?" It will by that measure have been a "bad" investment.

From Scewy's website "Unfortunately this product cannot be delivered offshore." Somebody needs to look up where Ross-Shire is, then look at a map.

For all it's failings, at least the Scottish system of having a home report before you put a house on the market, you as the seller know up front exactly the condition of the property and any work that is needed. I hate the English system "I paid for the survey so you can't see what it says" attitude, and the next buyer will pay for another survey........

Ah I see now. To get to those I can simply cut with the multi tool to join the 3 holes I have drilled into one big opening, so easy to do in situ. Shame there was no mention of them in the instructions.

Where are the filters? There are none on the input or output ports and no mention in the instructions. There are two "unexplained" screws on the front labelled H and L are these what you talk about? I assumed there were high pressure / low pressure adjustment but have not touched them because again no mention of them in the instructions. I can drill further holes as long as they will be covered by the front plate.

Possible if it was a tile. This is a 2400 by 1200 sheet of "wet wall" and the way it joins in the corners into extruded profiles, you would sequentially have to remove 2 other panels first. Hence it has to be servicable from the front.

Thar's the price I would expect. Based on I expect to be able to buy a system for DIY installation for under £2500 that confirms the "mcs premium" is in the order of £2000

Here is something I suspect a lot of people overlook. The thermal mixer cartridge is quite big. To stand a chance of being able to change it in the future, you need quite a big hole. I drilled one 65mm diameter that is just about big enough. It's quite tight. Only about 6mm either side for the cover plate to cover, you need to be quite accurate with your drilling. The two black pen marks show where the cover plate covers to. I wonder how many people just drill a smaller hole like I have done for the top and bottom valves. That would be plenty to fit the cover tubes, but would be impossible to ever remove the thermal mixer cartridge and be "challenging" to later enlarge the hole.

Another issue for me is how long will you be in the house? We are building this one as our retirement home for the long term, but who knows, plans change. The point is, unless you KNOW beyond any doubt you will be in the house > 10 years, then there is a risk that should you move you will not have recovered the mcs premium before you move. And don't expect the solar PV to add any value to the house or make it attractive to many buyers. It is only 6 years since we installed the solar PV on the old house, but the much higher (original) FIT rate means that has all been paid for now. So I accept i won't add value to the house but at least we have recovered what we spent.

Picture please when you do it.

When you work out how to do it, let us know. The only way I can see is cut the bottle in half make the joints then glue or tape it back together.

The way I see it, the MCS company should charge a fair price for the labour they supply and charge a fair retail price for the material they supply. It irks me that they seem to charge way more than this because they are the only ones able to sign the paperwork for the FIT so abuse that position. The result is the only people that now "benefit" from the likes of FIT and RHI are the installers that end up with most of the payment in their pocket.

So that's in total of 6.44p per KWh (generation plus 50% deemed export} On a 4KW system here generating typically 3100KWh per year (a bit more down south) that would be a total payment of £199.64 per year. Assuming the "mcs premium" for having the system supplied and installed my an MCS contractor is £2000 (compared to a cheap DIY system) then that is 10 years payback time for the mcs premium. You may decide that is worth it? If you look at the total figures of an mcs system costing say £4K to install, then it will take the whole 20 years of the FIT contract to recoup the initial cost. You really have to want solar PV mostly for self usage to make it worthwhile. Gone are the days when the FIT payment would pay for the system in 5 or 6 years.

If you installed it yourself then take a photo and mark it up with dimensions so you have an accurate record. Of course all cable runs will be in safe zones won't they?

It is only the tundish that makes the D2 vent pipe open to the air inside the house. I think we talked before of enclosing the whole tundish inside something like a clear plastic bottle sealed at both ends so you could see it, but it would be sealed. The alternative is discharge internally into a stack pipe using a hepvo waterless trap. You must use ABS not PVC pipe for the run from the hepvo to the stack as it potentially may contain boiling water.

I haven't looked it up lately but even with the export payment it's well under 10p per KWh

The bit in bold seems unnecessary. Why take a spur to another pole. All I see in this situation usually is the transformer mounted onto one existing pole. You don't want them adding extra overhead lines across your land. They may need to add stays to that pole but that is usually the extent. You could do as some of us have done here. Make your meter box a permanent structure on a bit of fence or wall close to the pole. You can use it as a site supply there to start with then take your own feed from the meter box to the house rather than getting your supply moved.

Keep an eye on ebay. I have seen 4KW kits for as low as £2K I don't think the SAP cares if it's on FIT or not, the point is the house generates power so improves the SAP rating.

You are welcome to visit our build. If you don't already know our house is clad in wood fibre board and rendered.

We are a bit more down to earth up here. When we started we were living 2 doors away. I offered our loo at that house for the builders. They just "made their own arrangements " (went behind a tree to have a pee). Their vans were all the shelter they needed. I have worked on many individual builds and this seems to be the norm here.

Himlor bender. Yes that is the same valve.

Here you go. Sorry about the poor picture I just could not get the lighting right.

When I bought our floor tiles they were cheap end of line tiles. They only had just enough tiles of the same batch code, so we bought 1 spare pack of the same colour but a different batch code, thinking if we needed to use them, they would go along the back wall hidden behind the bath.where you would not notice. As it happens we didn't need them, but in any case I could not tell any difference in colour. We ended up using them as skirting tiles.