Hello from AndyT

[AndyT]

Hi everyone,

The names AndyT and I work for Sunamp Ltd. - will not be selling on the forum but if you need information or advice I would be pleased to try and help.

 

I have been in the renewables industry for 10 years - my 4 bed detached home with 4 adults is in W-s-M (hard water area)  is used by Sunamp as a live test house.

 

Robert Llewyllen (Fully Charged) filmed at my home - you can see the episode here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9upXeTMHUqE

 

Economy measures added to this house originally built by Second City are; cavity wall insulation, 300mm of loft insulation, all external doors and windows upgraded, 3.5kWp Solar PV with excess generation diverted into a 5kWh SunampPV heat battery pre-heating hot water into an Intergas ECO RF30 with weather compensation and in-comfort control. My Miele dishwasher is fed with pre-heated water, I have Economy 10 off-peak and have monthly direct debits of £35 for electric and £10 for gas.

 

You can view my dashboard here http://wattson.energyhive.com/dashboard/AndyT lots of interesting data.

 

Also just started testing OpenTRV / Radbots and Loop energy monitoring.

Looking forward to chatting.

Kind regards.

AndyT.

 

 

Edited January 13, 2018 by AndyT
missing hyperlink

[Ferdinand]

Welcome.

 

When we get around to it I would be interested in exploring the relative utility of small and large PV arrays (say 4kWp vs 10 kWp) combined with a device such as a Sunamp.

 

But I am fine to wait on that until someone who needs the answer at that point asks, rather than ask you to respond to my "merely interested" wibblings.

Edited January 12, 2018 by Ferdinand

[SteamyTea]

Welcome

I like charts

[vivienz]

I will be asking plenty of questions in this area soon. I'm planning to gave an MBC build and I'm very keen on using sunamp in the heating/DHW system.

[Guest Alphonsox]

Hi Andy,

 

Welcome to the forum - we fitted a couple of Sunamps a year or so ago and have been very pleased with the operation so far.

Do you have any updates on the lifecycle testing of the PV units - I think they were approaching 10K cycles last time I spoke to someone.

 

Thanks

 

[AndyT]

2 hours ago, Alphonsox said:

Hi Andy,

 

Welcome to the forum - we fitted a couple of Sunamps a year or so ago and have been very pleased with the operation so far.

Do you have any updates on the lifecycle testing of the PV units - I think they were approaching 10K cycles last time I spoke to someone.

 

Thanks

 

1

Life cycle testing now >30,000 with no degradation 

 

[AndyT]

3 hours ago, SteamyTea said:

Welcome

I like charts

 

Thank you

[Guest Alphonsox]

13 minutes ago, AndyT said:

Life cycle testing now >30,000 with no degradation 

 

 

Thanks for the update - That is extremely impressive.

[Nickfromwales]

Thanks for joining . 

[Ferdinand]

This is the video.

 

 

[Ferdinand]

7 hours ago, AndyT said:

Life cycle testing now >30,000 with no degradation 

 

 

That is looking potentially like a lifetime product for the UK 60-80 year house lifetime.

 

What is the predicted durability of the other systems inside the unit, and have long-term lifecycle costs been estimated?

 

Cheers

 

Ferdinand

 

[Onoff]

The mitre on that trunking under the inverter's a bit rough!

 

I wonder how much Sunamp paid Robert?

[Jeremy Harris]

10 hours ago, Ferdinand said:

 

That is looking potentially like a lifetime product for the UK 60-80 year house lifetime.

 

What is the predicted durability of the other systems inside the unit, and have long-term lifecycle costs been estimated?

 

Cheers

 

Ferdinand

 

 

 

Inside the unit, apart from the heat batteries, there are a couple of standard non-return valves, a standard variable speed circulating pump (Grundfos IIRC), a standard looking, off-the-shelf ultrasonic flow sensor, what looks line a standard small diameter immersion heater, a standard resettable over-temperature switch on the heating chamber, a standard off-the-shelf pressure relief valve and a custom control circuit board, that has some standard relays on it.

 

It's hard to estimate lifetimes, but if I was to have a guess, then I'd say the pump is probably good for at least 20 years, based on experience with very similar central heating pumps, probably the same, or longer, for the NRVs and PRV.  The heating element may well have around the same lifetime, but that depends to some extent on the water quality.

 

The lifetime of the electronics is hard to judge.  I have a plug in digital time switch that is now getting on for 25 years old and has been in daily use all that time.  It did have a capacitor fail a few years ago, but that was a ten minute job to replace and it now works fine again.  My guess is that the ultrasonic flow sensor will have a long life, as it's essentially an industrial product, and looking at it it's probably an easy replacement if it were to fail.  My guess is that the most likely components to fail might be relays (after probably a decade or two) and maybe some electrolytic capacitors.  I can't see it being a major job to fix anything in there, really.  I've already had to replace the resettable over-temperature switch on mine, as early units (and mine was one of the first batch) were fitted with thermal switches that could have dodgy riveted connections, so self-heated and cut out, but that's been fixed by a component change.

 

Overall I'd say the unit almost certainly has a significantly higher reliability and life to something like a boiler, perhaps around 1.5 to 2 times the life at a guess, maybe longer.

 

PS:  I should add that my stripping and replacing a part on my Sunamp PV was sanctioned by Sunamp !  I was an early guinea pig and so one or two minor niggles were to be expected, and Sunamp were quite content to talk me through diagnostic and repair procedures and let me get on with it.  Like most modern products, there is a degree of built in fault detection and component sub-assembly level diagnostics built-in, making fault finding pretty easy.

Edited January 13, 2018 by JSHarris

[AndyT]

12 hours ago, Onoff said:

The mitre on that trunking under the inverter's a bit rough!

 

I wonder how much Sunamp paid Robert?

 

Robert asked to visit from an interest perspective.  -  With the exception of tea and biscuits, no gratuity was given.

[AndyT]

I just had my EPC updated this morning the house got a B (86)

House was built in 1985

[Ferdinand]

 

56 minutes ago, AndyT said:

 

Robert asked to visit from an interest perspective.  -  With the exception of tea and biscuits, no gratuity was given.

 

Don't worry ... he is just heckling.

 

I think 

 

The rest of us will join in in a bit .

Edited January 13, 2018 by Ferdinand

[Onoff]

1 hour ago, Ferdinand said:

 

 

Don't worry ... he is just heckling.

 

I think 

 

The rest of us will join in in a bit .

 

Indeed. Lisa Rogers is welcome to inspect my plumbing any time... 

[Jeremy Harris]

You mean this Lisa Rogers, chatting to us just before I drive the boat in the race - ('tis me with the grey beard, lifejacket and helmet....):

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 13, 2018 by JSHarris

[Ferdinand]

If only that was on video somewhere .... :-)

[Onoff]

5 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

If only that was on video somewhere .... :-)

 

 

[Jeremy Harris]

So it's now up on YouTube. Great.  My other half will be SO impressed (not)...................

 

Every time it was shown as a repeat on C4 she would cringe, knowing full well that some of her mates at work would have seen it, and whenever I've done anything on TV she just thinks I'm a walking embarrassment.  The whole topic of talking about doing another TV show has been forbidden in this household for years now......................

[Onoff]

44 minutes ago, JSHarris said:

So it's now up on YouTube. Great.  My other half will be SO impressed (not)...................

 

Every time it was shown as a repeat on C4 she would cringe, knowing full well that some of her mates at work would have seen it, and whenever I've done anything on TV she just thinks I'm a walking embarrassment.  The whole topic of talking about doing another TV show has been forbidden in this household for years now......................

 

Are you going to save it off YouTube? (I can if need be).

 

Good quality I thought.

Edited January 13, 2018 by Onoff

[Jeremy Harris]

34 minutes ago, Onoff said:

 

Are you going to save it off YouTube? (I can if need be).

 

Good quality I thought.

 

 

Thanks, but no need to, as I have it on DVD as an original production copy, along with a load of "behind the scenes" photos, like this cheeky one:

 

[AndyT]

2 hours ago, Onoff said:

 

 

 

Great to see this episode - one I missed, great fun..

[Dudda]

Welcome Andy. I made contact with you a few months back during detailed design on a house I'm designing. All going to plan I should have my first of many Sunamps in about 3-4 months.

The building regulations here in Ireland require you to have renewable energy with most opting for PV. Ireland doesn't have any FIT so a lot of generated energy is wasted from the owners perspective during the day. Sunamp is a simple way to utilise more generated energy and I think the market here is therefore very large but nobody has heard of Sunamp.