Marvin

Aren't those stats designed to be installed 1/3 of the way up the tank?

Hi @lakelandfolk It might be good to sketch your system. So people can understand the system you have. The devil is in the detail. I think of kW as the power flow rate, and kWh as the amount of power counted. 2kw heater running for 2 hours gives 4kWh used. M

+1.

Do you realise how many 4 inch nails would be bought if you did this?

I am late into this but surely the only thing that can be deduced from the trial is that people involved in the test reduced the amount of power they used during the test period? Surely the only conclusion is that if you incentivise people to avoid using/use less power during a short set period of time, thus making it cheaper to use power at other times, the amount used will become less than usually used. We need a test for this??? One could hypothesise from this that less expensive power would be used during a 24 hour period if such a system was introduced (and maybe the facilities producing power would not need to be able to produce such a high level of power to supply the peak), however if this is about money, as the price is dictated by a free market, surely the suppliers will just try to raise the price of power either side of the test period when people would be using more, thus cancelling the "saving effect". Or have I missed something?

Hi @tommyt11 Often have had to buy a regular one and insulate it! Or on the last 2, build my own, and insulate them, and air tightness by compressing a gasket on the door stop and fixing shut by a latch or two.... Good luck M

Hi @Andrea C Not sure what you mean by PV switch but anyway. Our Solic box is connected along the cable supplying power to the immersion. The CT clamp that is used to monitor the PV supply is clamped to the positive cable going from the main meter to our our consumer unit. No cable is required to connect to any of the PV system. When installed in this way, as soon as excess power is produced, rather than delivering it to the main grid (if the hot water requires heating) the Solic will divert, whatever amount it is, to the immersion. We use a similar system to charge the EV (Electric Vehicle). The main difference being that the EV charger requires an inductive load and must have the full wattage to operate. This means we have set up a CT relay on the PV positive cable which only switches when a certain power level is reached; from 2kW during winter to 3kW in the summer. Whereas the immersion heater uses a resistive load and the diverter will divert only excess power be it 3000 watts or 20 watts, but only excess unless you over-ride it. Our car charging system supplies about 80-90% power from the PV unless overridden. The immersion diverter supplies 100% PV excess power to the immersion unless overridden. Today was quite bright and our hot water tank reads 72.5C all from PV. We have only heated the hot water tank using mains power once since about June. I assume other diverter makes work the same way as the Solic. Good luck Marvin.

Hi @Kustom @Iceverge is spot on with the assumptions on what saves most in the long run. Also - and often overlooked is that the Airtightness and Insulation should require no maintenance over many years and use no energy, and our MVHR running all year for 100m2 floor area home consumes about 260kWh a year. M

Hi @Garald I assume you have insulation in the floor..... In our kitchens over the years we have had all sorts. We found that tiles were unforgiving if you drop anything on them and can chip (probably the less resistant ones). A tough Vinyl with commercial durability works well if no joins and laminate flooring / natural wood is ok unless there is a leak! Carpet or carpet tiles we have never tried! The terracotta tiles you show are a softer product and I think will chip. I understand that granite, ceramic and porcelain are the toughest tiles. If tiling I would definitely use a very dark grout and spray the set grout with a stain blocker to resist oil/grease stains.

Do you have abuffer tank? Is the esbe valve system set to prioritise the hot watertank?

Yes our diverter to the immersion is still heating our hot water tank. There are several systems out there which you can buy, we use a Solic 200.

Hmm.. We have AIM and APE. (Airtight, Insulation and Mvhr. ASHP, PV and EV.) I think if I did it again I would pay more attention to the Solar gain and make the systems able to alter the east and the west facing rooms inputs independently. I found, last winter, keeping the ASHP output temperature as low as possible but still keeping the desired temperature in the home, using the 'adjusted to suit our home' weather compensation alternative the most economical. Remember, the less the difference between the outside temperature and the ASHP output temperature the more efficient the ASHP runs. (But beware of short cycling) Good luck. M

The bottom line is that a building can be designed to acheive a good level of air-tightness, however building to that standard is the tricky one. As has been said there are better types of construction material that lend themselves to air-tightness, and so yes you can design to a predicted level of air-tightness, however, once the building is though of as airtight it must be tested proving in my mind that nobody takes for granted that the designed air-tightness is automatically acheived. This leads to the cost comments above. As my brother says, it's not if it can be done, but how much it will cost. Good Luck M

Then we need to spend money on energy storage facilities to support the Green energy supplied. over 24 hr period and longer.

More like saying I spent £4000 on fuel for my car but didn't say how many miles I did.

The adverts never said WHO would be saving money. Time will tell on that one.

What's wrong with having dinner at 2am?

Money comes from us. Yet again the most reliable source of renewable energy is tidal. We're an island with strong tidal currents and territorial waters over 275,000 square Kilometres. Surely we can find somewhere to do this. Or is it a problem with political will? Or its it that people would rather have more environmentally unfriendly alternatives, or in the middle, go cold in the winter. When in between a rock and a hard place there are tough decisions to be made. The government refers to cost whilst promoting costly renewables. Ha Ha.

😂😂😂🙄

Silicone?

Yes. It's a technical term of old.

Good in the winter but not so controllable in the summer.

True However, imho, it's part of the "getting used to variable rate priced electricity" scheme and the "lost leader" pricing tactics.

It's a lot of water. I would also reduce tank heat loss by encasing in insulation (protecting electrical parts) in at least 200mm fluffy or equivalent.

Sorry @SteamyTea I TOTALLY disagree.😂😂😂 First, a smart meter helps the power suppliers reduce their business risk by thinking of ways to make their problems your problems. We will eventually shoulder the up and down price of energy more relative to the market price. AND finally these companies have shareholders!😳