Mattg4321

Meanwhile, back in the real world… Perhaps this happens with a very small amount of equipment fitted on the premises of big corporations, but I guarantee you it does not in the case of 99.99999% of domestics, even though it might be a good idea! It’ll get fixed when it breaks. If the terminal has been correctly torqued, it pretty unlikely it will come loose. I don’t fit loads of these, but I do fit 1 or 2 a month. Mostly Hypervolt and Andersen. I’m not aware of either of those requiring any servicing to maintain the warranty, or even suggesting it at all.

what servicing needs to be done on an EV charging point?

Impressive bit of kit. Wonder if they do one for pigeons. I'm just about far enough inland that the seagulls don't visit too often, but I f*&^%^& hate pigeons. They sit in the tree and C%^P all over everything underneath (which is most of my garden as the tree is v large and the garden isn't really!)

My guess is you won’t pay elsewhere in the country currently, but I’ve not looked into it properly and the journalism is pretty poor!

You'd say an induction hob with multiple rings doesn't have multiple points of utilisation? It's a moot point really though. I have 25 years experience in this exact area, doing this sort of thing every day of the week. If someone wants to ignore my opinion, and that of the IET On Site Guide, then I don't think I'll even attempt to change their mind.

I would take a strong guess this is National Grid - DNO in the Midlands, South Wales and South West England. I can't see how anyone outside can apply it to the other DNO's, apart from the DNO's themselves. They all have slightly different rules/charges as far as I know. I've only ever really dealt with UK Power Networks as they are the DNO for anywhere within a couple of hours drive of my location.

Not true. See below in Table A2 of the On Site Guide. Yes, this is only a 'guide', but as above, I've been doing this for 25 years and have probably fitted thousands of cookers and following this formula has never yet caused me a problem and often saves my customers lots of unnecessary cost and disruption in an existing property. Correct Yes, which has a large influence on cable size. The others being installation methods, correction factors and volt drop usually. It's fairly unusual for 6mm2 not to be big enough in a domestic property. I am an electrician 😉 Diversity - On Site Guide - 18th Ed BS7671.pdf

So many people don’t take diversity into account when calculating cable sizes for cooking appliances. Add the first 10 amps to 30% of the remainder. It’s never failed me in 25 years of using this. 6mm2 is almost certainly enough unless there’s huge amounts of insulation and/or a very long run. My induction 110cm range at home is on 6mm2 and 32A RCBO when total load is over 16kW (around 70A). Don’t think I’ve ever known it to go above about 25A. Running 25mm2 is just madness. On the flip side, the amount of arguments I get into when talking about cable sizes for electric showers. People run 6mm2 when it’s very often not big enough as there is no diversity allowed. Sometimes the same guys who run in 10mm2 for a 5 ring hob, will run 6mm2 to an electric shower. Absolute muppets.

You’ll never draw that 18kW Every ‘fixed’ appliance over 2 kW should be on its own dedicated circuit really. Everything else on the ring. In practice this doesn’t usually include kettles/toasters/tumble dryers/washing machines, but does include cooking appliances. Freezer on its own dedicated circuit is a nice to have as it minimises risks of losing everything in it when a fault trips out your power.

Guessing that might be just the mounting system, without the panels?

Forgot the link https://voltaconsolar.com/products/gaia-10-degrees-rubber-self-ballasted-mounting-system-for-solar-panels-east-west?variant=52708205461838

This system claims to be only 10-11kg per sqm. No idea if it’s any good though!

Headroom not a problem if I had to lose a couple of inches. If I have to spend £600+ on structural engineer and timber etc, which is looking likely. I’ll probably bin off the idea. It just seems a shame not to use the spare MPPT, especially as I can get all the pv kit vat free still I think. And no labour costs.

No worries about intruding on a room below. The flat roof is above a utility room 80's extension with 6x2 joists (same 2.4m span) and also a garage as previously mentioned with the 4x2. There's nothing below the joists in the garage so easy access. No idea of the cost of a structural engineer for something simple like this, anyone like to guess? If it's as potentially simple as sistering the joists, I may look into it as without strengthening the joists and the costs involved in that, payback time is going to be around 2 years according to AI, so pretty attractive. Current joists go into pockets in the brickwork of the house and then overhang the wall plate on the other side by a few hundred mm to create an overhang outside. Presumably any sistered joints would just need to sit on the wall plate (not all the way to the fascia outside), but if the joists are deeper than the current ones, the bottom would need notching out at the wall plate? Assuming these would generally then be bolted to the existing joists. I'm also not sure what the approved practice would be at the junction with the house. I assume create a pocket in the brickwork for the joist to sit in.

The problem with that is that it starts to push out the payback time. I suppose it depends what strengthening work might be required. Anyone have any idea what might be typical?

I think you're right. Will be giving this a miss then.

I've got a spare MPPT on my Sunsynk inverter. I've got a garage (flat) roof on the side of my house I could fit 5 (or possibly 6, I've not bothered measuring yet!) panels on, landscape to reduce height. It's south facing, with only moderate shading early/late in the year. Half the year it will be in full sun all day. I'm sure it would payback within a couple of years or so as I can fit myself. I don't want any penetrations through my flat roof and I don't want it to look awful. Are the ballasted systems any good? Roof structure is early 70's and in good condition. 4x2 timber. 2.4m span. Not sure if I will require structural engineer? What's the lowest profile flat roof system? Do I require planning? All input appreciated!

Don’t worry about the inrush current, it’s hardly likely to make any difference whatsoever to a mechanical part like a switch. Use the Jeani switches. They’ve proven their quality for decades

There's absolutely nothing wrong with a decision to spend extra for Cat 6a, but it's simply overkill for nearly all foreseeable uses in a domestic setting, with a few exceptions, generally for people who are really into 'tech'. I've installed 10's of 000's of m of the stuff for clients, and although I don't get too involved in anything past that normally, I've never once heard an AV/security/smart etc installer say that cat 6 wasn't up to the task of what they needed it to do. In fact they often get Cat 5e to do what they need where existing cabling is in place. I personally can just think of better ways to spend my finite amount of money! If jim is on a tight budget it's highly likely Cat 6 will be more than good enough. I pay roughly 50% more for Cat 6a over Cat 6 at trade prices, for good quality cable. Cat 6 can easily be found at around £105+vat from a quick google, which is only slightly more than I am getting it for.

Thats extremely likely to be Copper Clad Aluminium (CCA). Keep away from that junk. You want solid copper or don't bother! Decent quality Cat 6 is fine for 99.9% of domestic usage now and foreseeable future. Anything above that is like spending 500% the going rate when buying a SCART lead back in the day, because it had some fancy marketing.

I hope it can be done here too. But Spain is a smidge sunnier and warmer than here! Much much easier for them to do.

It’s not just the cost, it’s the security of supply. There’s also a benefit for the treasury in the amount of tax that can be taken from producing it at home. And what’s to stop new licenses for exploration being granted to a state run company (other than them no doubt f’ing it up). Or the state could take a stake and leave operations to someone who knows what they are doing. Perhaps we need to start thinking about burning coal in the short term again until we can finish a transition away from FF. I’m seriously worried about the economy. Tax/costs are already at unsustainable levels for business, making the product unaffordable for the average consumer, yet the treasury is still going to need more of our money as it’s still bleeding cash. This is before the impact of this new war. We need to do something fairly drastic imo.

£280 wouldn't even get you 2x labourers or apprentices in the south east imo. It seems roughly correct for a groundworker, although I'm not familiar with the rates they can charge.

That's what I had to do. Had to break out a load of concrete to get access though, which is why I was looking for a short cut. Decided to do it properly though

It's an option, but more hard work than connecting directly into the access chamber!