markocosic

You will lose efficiency with this approach The 325ECX has flue gas heat recovery (preheats incoming dcw with a heat exchanger on the flue before heating it further via the main heat exchanger) Running for flue gas heat recovery THEN preheat THEN main heat exchanger would eek out a little more water for your gas but means fkucsing with the (water side) of the boiler internals.

Ouch! Dumb resistive loads? They're fine on anything. Incandescent lamps. Kettles. Switch mode power supplies? They're fine on anything. (Including DC!) Phone chargers. Computers. Inverter driven motors. That's new fridges for example. Most stuff that's rated for 110/230V is this type. Motors and transformers with lots of iron in them? They don't like modified sine wave (and will run hotter) but can survive. Basic microwaves in this category. Old school fridges included. Choppers? (stuff with semiconductors that switches frequently to control power) They won't like modified sine. Induction hob and speed controlled motors in this category. Chinesium power supplies? Iffy. Some particularly cheap kit uses things like capacitor resistor droppers that are highly sensitive to anything other than perfection. I hadn't imagined that you'd try to cook on an inverter. Waaay ambitious and over 1 kW. Camping stove for that. The backup power is really for lights, fridge, internets, compute, ventilation Cheap LEDs blowing up is a new one on me though. Apologies if this experiment just cost you some fixtures. These probably have "resistor capacitor dropper" power supplies in them. These act as filters to drop a pass a certain power at 50Hz frequency. At higher frequencies they pass more power. Square waves are made of frequencies from the base 50Hz up to "infinity". As you load up a cheapo inverter the waveform becomes more and more square as its power electronics and capacitors can't sustain the modified sine wave. (especially as the input voltage drops which it absolutely will with just 8mm cable at 12V) That'll push more power through these power supplies and overdrive your LEDs these will get dimmer and smellier as they heat up. Hopefully they're not terminally cooked! Suggest not going over 1 kW at 12V and if so only on a "2 kW" + rated inverter unless a decent brand. Xantrex are decent. These probably decent: https://midsummerenergy.co.uk/buy/sine-wave-inverters Haven't tried anything like this but as a charger and a potential PV input device for a shed / outbuilding they may make some sense: https://www.photonicuniverse.com/en/catalog/full/452-Iconica-1000W-12V-hybrid-pure-sine-wave-inverter-with-40A-MPPT-solar-controller-and-20A-mains-charger.html

Do go overboard on his thick three inverter cables to battery are (your main risk is due from sustained high currents and cheap cable/connector). If you draw to much you'll soon flatten the battery. I wouldn't go above 1 kW sustained draw / 3 kW peak on a 12V system. The alternator is unlikely to give full rated output at idle speed. (usually above 2000 rpm engine speed is full output) Fit say a 10A Type B MCB to the inverter output of you're paranoid. Most inverters will trip long before the MCB does. Melting cables between inverter and battery is main risk.

Replying to follow the topic

Same question here! I guess UV may be an issue. Roofing felt? (if it isn't plastic decking)

Shedding - that's the word - thanks! https://www.eibmarkt.com/cgi-bin/eibmarkt.storefront/61a550a2007e80182746ac1e0402060d/Product/View/NS7003526 https://datasheet.eaton.com/datasheet.php?model=248261&locale=en_GB Simple when you know the search keyword. Lots of other goodies to get excited about on that site too. ? https://www.eibmarkt.com/cgi-bin/eibmarkt.storefront/61a550a2007e80182746ac1e0402060d/Product/View/NS0658249 https://datasheet.eaton.com/datasheet.php?model=248847 These should be plenty for 16A radial appliance circuits, unless I'm missing something? (biggest thing will be 2 kW heating elements in white goods)

Not worth it IMO. 15 litres for 11 hours at 1875 watts. Probably won't be much less at part load as efficiency falls off a cliff. Noisy as all heck. Would you actually use it? Do you drive? A modern car probably burns <0.5 litres per hour at idle, comes with a 50+ litre tank for 100+ hour runtime, has far cleaner exhaust emissions than any genset will, and is probably quieter. Alternators will do about 100A at 14.5V. perhaps a little less at idle. Easily 500W. Maybe 1000W. More than enough for "the essentials" as it were. Buy yourself an inverter: https://www.beal.org.uk/inverters.html (they lie about their true ratings - I'd go for 3 kW and assume that it can do 1 kW continuous...) Buy yourself some Anderson connectors to hardwire onto your car battery: https://www.beal.org.uk/anderson-connectors.html Choose where to put the inverter (on top of something to keep it out of the water, under something to keep it out of the rain, and close to the 12V battery) and add the appropriate amount of cable. Cars with 12V batteries in the boot are handy. And buy yourself an earth rod and one of those "caravan hookups" that have an RCD and MCB etc in it to power the house. This was my answer when looking at generators. Standalone kit is rubbish. You're absolutely laughing if said car is a hybrid with a DC-DC converter between the main pack and the 12V pack that'll auto-start itself to recharge occasionally. If I were to do an off-grid build a smacked-up Toyota Prius costs pennies for what you're getting... https://www.plugoutpower.com/

Unless we pay more we will be on a constrained electricity supply - 7 kW 3-phase - which isn't many amps per single phase circuit / appliance and there's a risk that two appliances on a single phase might trip that. I'd like to have appliance priority such that we can temporarily kill interruptible/resumable loads such as the heat pump / boiling water tap / washing machine / dishwasher etc if big surprise loads like the water pump / oven / hob etc decide to fire up. This prompted the thought: https://www.quooker.co.uk/229-accessories/powerswitch-31-253-03.html Is there a more permanent / DIN rail-able version? What does one google for? The heat pump has a "disable" input for this purpose. The white goods will be chosen to have auto-resume-after-power-loss-without-being-beeping-resetting-or-being-annoying (most euro market white goods already do to be fair).

I'll let you know after I take the inaugural poo sometime in 2022... ? Probably not too relatable though as it's a folly / cabin / airbnb / holiday home rather than a permanent house. Load profile will be all over the show.

The company that fitted it advised this yes. Not in operation yet so can't say if it's working. You'll probably know if it's working by the smell and colour though. Anaerobic effluent isn't clear and the smell is awful. Aerobic effluent is clear and doesn't smell awful. Trouble is it takes time to rebuild the aerobic beasties if you've let it go anaerobic, and if you fill a (small) drain field with gunge meant for a leach field you might end up ruining it. Not errors that you want to make!

Also FYI: https://www.auer.fr/en/products/heat-pump-water-heaters/ Place air sourced ones in bathroom to dehumidify bathroom air and extract heat. Water sourced ones nick heat from UFH return.

I'm...impressed by how robust the Quooker elements are to abuse by previous owners. I'm...less convinced I'd always want tea made from one of these if I don't know the owner though! Bought used for not a lot. 4 years old. Shouldn't think it's ever been serviced. The mind boggles at the how some folks think things should be maintained. (the woman just replaced the entire tank and tap thing at full retail plus fitting) It's been given the Cambridge treatment (no prisoners taken with descaling around these parts - 80-20 warm water and brick cleaner every other month if you're a kettle) and will be happy one it's got an outlet filter again. For what it's worth the service items are surprisingly reasonable for the Quooker units given what the original items retail at: £30 for a tap valve https://www.quooker.co.uk/tap-valve-31-103-00.html £25 for the filter https://www.quooker.co.uk/catalog/product/view/id/180/s/hitacr-filter-31-004-00/category/46/ Or £95 for a complete set of internals: https://www.quooker.co.uk/pro3-vaq-internals-31-196-00.html ~12 mins to recharge 3 litres at 1600W ~15 mins to recharge 7 litres at 2900W Unsure which to bring with me back to Lithuania as yet.

Following with interest - also a new aerobic tank owner that raised an eyebrow at a 50W pump! Wastewater aeration is a huge deal - bubbling sludge is easily over 1% of western electricity demand so monitoring bacteria in commercial plants and minimising the leccy used to aerate them is worth a fortune. https://www.ssiaeration.com/improve-aeration-efficiency/ Dunno how you do this on a domestic scale. We were advised to run 100% for the first month of use then 30-on-30-off. I suspect the amount of shite matters quite a lot...

You would like to connect PV panels - without an inverter - to an immersion heater? Bad plan. 1) The inverter isn't just making AC. It's also doing MPPT tracking (max power point tracking) so ensure that the "load" seen by the PV panels results in the highest possible generation from the panels. Direct connection won't have this. 2) Value for money. I also have a rubbish PV array - 2 strings of secondhand panels in bad orientations connected to a secondhand 2 string inverter. It saves far more money running the fridge / internets / mhvr / computer (and sometimes air conditioner) during the daytime than you'll save by doing diversion to an immersion heater. Buy a little inverter and hook up to the mains to divert to either fridge/internets (most of the time) in my view. https://midsummerwholesale.co.uk/buy/sofar-inverters/sofar-1100-tl-g3 Registration...? ? Buying an "island mode" inverter just for an immersion feels like a waste of perfectly good PV that could be running your office and A/C during the summer. (or charging a car etc)

Looks sharp!

If chuck in a split air to air heat pump to the main living space now just to supplement the space heating load / substitute since oil. The cop will be decent as space heating only and a low temperature rise. Won't beat mains gas but will certainly beat oil, and if base loading single year payback assuming DIY install. (non fgas unit)

Look for the target deltaT and minimum flow in the heat pump manual. Mine wants 5-7C for example. 11C is high. (old school non condensing gas boiler high)

AC... AC pipework typically goes through a 70 mm diameter hole ... including the drain pipe and the insulation and the cables etc It'll either be 1/4" and 3/8" (mine is .. and runs through an old silicone sealant tube through the wall along with drain and cable) or 3/8" and 1/2" depending on size. Insulation is about 15 mm thick and soft. 100 mm you could almost throw it through. ? Buy from the likes of Saturn air sales if you want to preinstall. Leave oodles of slack. Flare some brake fittings and bleed nipples onto it for closing it off. Or pinch shut/bash flat, fold over on itself, and seal with a blob of solder. Don't get flux inside it. 1.5 mm x4 core more than enough for most ac units. (most power tends to be supplied to the outdoor unit, with only a little power needed by indoor unit) Throw 5 core 2.5 mm SWA up and out to cover all possible scenarios...or just a good bit of UV resistant rope/galv fencing/draw wire. (most rope dissolves in UV by the time you get roundtuit)

How short is short for short cycling? Can you control hysteresis (integrals even?) on the boiler such that flow temperature in CH mode is allowed to vary a lot (ufh not caring, rads not caring much either) to mitigate that short cycling in CH mode? Probably needs boiler OEM thermostat to support differing types of call for heat? Else set flow temp and the anti cycle delay to prevent firing again unless you're temp head dropped enough. Eg flow temp 55 (for rads), anti cycle delay 30 mins, and if only ufh is on and the temp hasn't dropped enough after 30 mins it just waits another 30 and sees if it's low enough. Ufh won't much care about the incoming unmixed flow to varying. Rads will pull the flow temp down fast enough that the anti cycle timer has no effect?

Definitely. So not Brookvent. Those sharks refuse to sell spare parts if, for example, one fan motor dies. (must buy entire MVHR unit)

IMO ditch the ye olde dryer. It's an electricity chewing monster that costs more to run than it does to replace if you use it much. It'll also fill your MVHR filters in short order. But do extract from UNDER a heat pump dryer. Wait to pickup a heat pump dryer when they're on offer. 2 kWh for a full 8 kg load if it's averagely wet. (so £0.40 every time; though new washing machines probably 1400 spin the clothes drier than this and if you only part-dry in the dryer then hand the slightly damp clothes to air dry you reduce energy usage and...avoid creases..and they're dry an hour or so after being removed from the drier) Heat pump driers run cool so won't shrink clothes or burn hour house down. Max power draw so good for maximising PV use if you're a thoroughly lazy person. Beko are as good/bad as any of the faux-premium brands like AEG/Bosch/Neff/Seiees etc. I have one of these: https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/household-appliances/laundry/tumble-dryers/beko-pro-dhx83420w-8-kg-heat-pump-tumble-dryer-white-10181344-pdt.html They're usually on offer at £300-400. https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/household-appliances/laundry/tumble-dryers/beko-pro-ironfinish-b5t4823iw-8-kg-heat-pump-tumble-dryer-white-10227216-pdt.html Or better yet the A+++ rather than A++ version. Spendy for the savings / out of stock at the moment though. https://www.toptenuk.org/consumer/product/view/5023790043175 Plumb it in (it needs a drain; can be shared with washing machine) Install it over a tiled floor and don't skip the UFH under the dryer (they such from the front and vent out underneath so can, if your floor is cool you can get damp underneath them) Better yet if you're not a short person install it on a plinth (raise it 20+cm off the floor) so that you don't need to bend down. Suck your MVHR from underneath. It will be well lint-filtered from a heat pump dryers as it has to filter the lint internally to avoid blocking its own heat exchangers. Install inside a cupboard because they're fugly and noisy. Stacking onto a washing machine in a floor to ceiling cupboard is great. Or have a clothes rail above it and use the space above as your final drying area for shirts etc on hangars. I tend to grab the load and spread it out on teh bed once part dry, hang the shirts, then gather the rest an hour or two later once dry enough to go in a cupboard. A condensing dryer will use about 5 kWh for the same load. (So £1 every time) https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/household-appliances/laundry/tumble-dryers/beko-dtkce80021w-8-kg-condenser-tumble-dryer-white-10211744-pdt.html Vented units will be in similar territory. Older ones will be worse. Over 10 years you'll soon recoup the £300 in leccy savings if you use the thing.

Are you at your PV limit? If not PV the roof and rely on PV plus ASHP for hot water. You'll produce more than enough hot water and the excess electricity is worth far more to you than excess heat.

Cut through the panels to see if it's the blue fungus. We have some cladding boards that are streaked through with blue/grey - even when cut through. They're always the lightest and barkiest ones (sapwood verging on mill ends) and no change in 6 months. Black mould, white mould, and full on mushrooms after only on the wet offcuts left in a heap outside. Stack them - covering only the top of the stack NOT the sides - and it appears to stop if not die as it dries. Probably not helpful for a building sorry; but for storage...

Single block on flat "piers" then resin fix studding through a few of them into slab for uplift? Suspended floor atop that. Mineral wool fill. Slab is acting as oversite and footings. Unless you're expecting flooding that brings structure more than high enough off slab for the water landing on the slab to drain of to the adjacent ground. What is going to sit on top of the exposer border of the slab? How high relative to garden room floor? How high is adjacent ground? If it's only damp not standing water that you're concerned about then floor could be floating independent of walls on top of some closed cell foam insulation sat in a dpc pond without risking it floating up into the room.

I have a fence / deck that wants oiling again. (Cambridge this time) When first built I used this to try avoid rot:: https://www.everbuild.co.uk/products/wood-care-and-treatment/treatments-and-preservatives/sikagard-universal-5-star-wood-treatment/ And this to try keep it dry: https://www.screwfix.com/p/no-nonsense-timber-decking-oil-clear-5ltr/44785 The biocide/fungicide emulsion (5 star wood treatment) should still be ok. The oil wants redoing. The Screwfix stuff was spendy for what smells a lot like straight naptha. Anybody used bulk alternatives? Google suggets: https://www.ryeoil.co.uk/shop/deckingoil/ Whose Amazon listing suggests it's a replacement for texnap https://www.amazon.co.uk/CEDAR-CLADDING-OIL-LITRE-CLEAR/dp/B01G3WXFN2 https://colthouses.co.uk/colt-built/cedar-oil-texnap-22/ And the Texnap description says...non toxic naptha...aha https://www.lubricantsupplies.co.uk/buy-texaco-texnap-22-x-208-litres.html But related Amazon listings show this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Decking-Clear-Finish-Guard-Litre/dp/B08R3ZFRFK/ref=pd_lpo_2?pd_rd_i=B08R3ZFRFK&psc=1 Which leads to this at around £1.50/litre https://www.smithandallan.com/products/wood-treatment/4485-smith-and-allan-cedol-wood-preserver-clear---decking-oil/ (plus £7 a bucket if you're not from Darlington and would like it delivering; so just over £2/litre; or £50 for quite a lot once you're at pallet quantity) Know of anything better? Creosote is also still available to the pros! ? https://www.smithandallan.com/products/wood-treatment/1681-bartoline-100-coal-tar-creosote-dark/