Home and heating

Discussions around the latest home tech: solar, smart heat, battery storage and more

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Power your heat pump for less with Heat Pump Plus + Vaillant

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Get your heat pump installed through OVO with Heat Geek!

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269 Topic threads

Emmanuelle_OVO
Community Manager
Emmanuelle_OVOCommunity Manager
Posted in Home and heating

Solar installed by OVO? We’d love to hear from youBlog

 Solar power is a great way to generate your own renewable energy, and gain energy independence. We’re proud that we’re now offering solar, even if you’re not an OVO customer. If you’ve recently begun your solar journey and had your panels installed by OVO we’d love to hear more about your experience.  Not yet had solar installed but thinking about it? See our solar product page.  Whether you’ve already got solar panels, are interested in getting them installed, or are simply a green tech enthusiast here to find out more – we’ve got a number of topics here on the Forum which may interest you. Find out more about OVO’s solar offering:   Check out this collaborative user guide to all things solar:   Here’s a community members guide to help if you’re planning a DIY-approach to installing solar panels:  Your advice and feedback might help other community members start their solar journey! 🙂 🌞 

452
ChristopherS_OVO
Community Moderator
1 day ago
BPLightlog
Plan Zero Hero
BPLightlogPlan Zero Hero
posted in Home and heating

Battery Options

There are often questions from those looking to install solar PV on their home regarding whether batteries are worthwhile. I've often commented how important batteries are to get the best from any generation system but perhaps today I can show why. It has been a reasonable day for solar generation and the batteries have taken excess power which would otherwise be ‘lost’ to the grid. The image above shows how solar has mostly powered our usage and added around 50% charge to our battery storage (consisting of a bank with 14.4kw storage capacity).At present, it is slightly overcast but there is still 725w being generated which covers the house requirements and continues to add to the battery storage. If I wanted to boil a kettle at this point, the home requirements would jump to just under 3kW and so the solar PV would not be sufficient to cope. However as there is abundant power in the battery storage and the system can deliver around 3.6kw, we would not draw from the grid whereas withou

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Firedog
Plan Zero Hero
1 hour ago
S
Carbon Cutter****
serennuCarbon Cutter****
Posted in Home and heating

Electricity bills have tripled

Help, we have had air source heat pump fitted with solar panels and back up battery. This is our first winter with this new system and our electricity bills have tripled, we are afraid to turn the heating on. Our bill for the last 3 months is £1150 when it hasn’t been exceptionally cold. How can this be?

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nealmurphy
Carbon Catcher***
1 day ago
H
New Member*
HNaviNew Member*
Posted in Home and heating

Solis Inverter 1P5K-4G, solis cloud only showing production of the inverter and solar

Problem: No other information such as Load Consumption and Grid Import/Export. I read various manual and yet cannot apply all of them because there are not found in the settings of the inverter (more details below). Question:Is the firmware of the inverter causing the problem? If it is the firmware, how can I be able to update the firmware? If not the firmware, are there other solution without buying external smart energy monitoring devices?  Known settings and parameters:Inverter: Solis 1P5K-4G, Obtained around the year 2019, around June to October. Inverter was used with Limiter (LimByEPM) then now we have Net Metering installed (Generating). The CT is still plugged from the inverter and placed on the live wire before the main large breaker pointing towards the said breaker.Inverter Version: AC(Model: AC) as stated in the advance settings of the inverterOn the Advance Settings: There is no 24H SwitchOn the Export Power Set: There is no Consumption Monitor in the options. Only Meter o

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BPLightlog
Plan Zero Hero
2 days ago
H
Carbon Cutter*
Hels24Carbon Cutter*
Posted in Home and heating

Solar panels and Total Heat Total Control (THTC)- How do they work together?

How do solar panels work with the two meters that I have which are called total heat total control? Can anyone explain how it works and how they fit it to the meters?  

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T
Carbon Cutter**
2 days ago
Tim_OVO
Community Manager
Tim_OVOCommunity Manager
Posted in Home and heating

Power your heat pump for less with Heat Pump Plus + VaillantNews

Heat Pump Plus add on now available for Vaillant heat pump owners Our Heat Pump Plus add on is now available for customers with a Vaillant heat pump. It can save you up to £495* a year on your heating bill. What is Heat Pump Plus? It’s our heat pump add-on that lets you power your heat pump for less, at 15p per kWh. You’ll pay one rate for the electricity your home uses and a lower rate for the electricity the heat pump uses – saving up to £495 a year on your heating bills. See more information on our Heat Pump Plus page here. What about the partnership with Vaillant? Heat Pump Plus will now be available for customers with a connected Vaillant aroTHERM heat pump. To be eligible you must be an OVO customer with a working electricity smart meter and a myVAILLANT connect internet gateway. Full eligibility criteria listed here. What happens if I don’t have MyVAILLANT connect? Customers with a Vaillant heat pump will need to make sure it’s connected with myVAILLANT connect to access the add

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D
Carbon Cutter**
3 days ago
B
New Member**
BryanBNew Member**
Posted in Home and heating

Mitsubishi Ecodan DIP switch settings for 2 Zone system

My Mitsubishi ASHP was installed last year, to run the existing radiator CH system.  An extension with UFH was about to be built and the installers left me with a separate pumped connection for the UFH.  That has duly been completed and connected and been running by connecting the UFH pump in parallel with the existing CH pump - ie I have one zone.I now want to separate the CH and UFH into separate zones.  I have the contacts from the UFH wiring centre connected to IN6 (Room Thermostat 2 input) and the UFH Pump to OUT3 (Zone 2 space heating).I have turned on DIP switches SW2-6 and SW2-7 but keep getting an L5 error (Indoor FTC temperature thermistor reading incorrect value, thermistor disconnected or wired into the wrong connection on the board, incorrect dip switch setting on the FTC board).  The manual tells me I don’t need an indoor thermistor if I’m using the remote wireless controller.  I have also tried changing SW3-1 and SW4-1 but still get an error code.With SW2-6 and SW2-7 on,

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Emmanuelle_OVO
Community Manager
4 days ago
B
Plan Zero Hero
BeePeePlan Zero Hero
posted in Home and heating

Comparison of heating sizing methods (simple to complex)

Many thanks for the suggestions for alternative ways of estimating heating demand and hence heat pump size. I have tried a few and the results are in!Our Bryant’s Maldren house has a floor area of around 122 m2 and last year our gas usage (water plus heating) was around 9600 kWh.In all of these methods the “Heat Transfer Coefficient” or HTC is the fundamental value that is calculated, basically how much power is needed to raise the temperature of the house by 1 °C.Rule of thumb methodsThe Michael de Podesta’s video provides an excellent introduction not only to his rule of thumb method but also heat loss calculations in general. It’s well worth watching. Thanks to @BPLightlog for his recommendation.Michael de Podesta Rule of thumbThis is one of the easiest methodsHeat Transfer Coefficient = Annual Usage / 57.3 (For the North West) 9600 / 57.3 = 168 W/K This is actually calculated using:Annual Usage / Degree Days * 1000 / 24Using average degree day from 1976 to 1995 may not be represent

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C
New Member*
12 days ago
C
New Member*
callingsimonNew Member*
Posted in Home and heating

Trying to connect Home Assistant to Ovo API

I understand that the Ovo API is not intended for non-Ovo use, and any use is not supported by Ovo.  However, the Home Assistant Ovo integration looks useful, so I thought I’d try it.The integration has loaded in HA, but fails to initialize, claiming an issue with the JSON returned by the API.  I suspect that I’m hitting a security lockout that HA is trying to treat as JSON and therefore not understanding.Does anyone know if the HA integration does still work? Is there anything I need to configure to get it to initialise?Thanks!

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C
New Member*
8 days ago
B
Plan Zero Hero
BeePeePlan Zero Hero
posted in Home and heating

Optimise your hot water set-up

 It seems quite straight forward doesn’t it? You stick a thermostat on the tank. If the water is cold you turn on the boiler/heat pump and heat it back up again. What’s the problem?Well if you know where heat is going and where it is being lost you make changes to reduce your losses.So I have an old (ancient?) 160l copper cylinder with around 1” of crumbly foam insulation. It has an additional insulating jacket and recently I have added further insulation (10cm thick Diall insulation roll – the stuff made from recycled plastic bottles).In June I added four temperature sensors at approximately 1/8, 3/8, 5/8 and 7/8 down from the top (this equates to around 20l, 60l, 100l and 140l of hot water above each sensor). I can also measure the indirect coil flow temperatures in and out, and the temperature of the cold water entering the tank.The first thing to note is that water is actually quite a poor conductor of heat. You need strong convection currents or stirring/mixing to get a volume of

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B
Plan Zero Hero
11 days ago
Buzby
Carbon Cutter*****
BuzbyCarbon Cutter*****
posted in Home and heating

How to measure real home energy rating ? i.e Not EPC guesswork

How can I measure home efficiency ?. ( I know I have, and can get another, EPC rating, but I’ve not got much trust in them. )However, I have got thermometer gadgets around the house. These record every 5 minutes to a database somewhere. I can then view graphs going back upto a year.Using these I can see how, say, the livingroom temperature drops when the CH turns off, or rises as the sun shines in. I am sure that the rate of change could be useful, somehow.I’m sure I’ve got enough data to actually calculate something useful, but I haven’t got a clue how to do it.Probably it needs room volumes, wall and windows areas, etc., as well as the records of temperatures.Does anyone know of a website or app that can take all this info and generate something useful ?Or, failing that, point me to the required calculations so I can program an Excel thingy myself ?Cheers,Buzby

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Buzby
Carbon Cutter*****
14 days ago
J
Carbon Cutter*
Juice911Carbon Cutter*
posted in Home and heating

We've got a new battery and solar panel, any tips?

Array: 6.8 kW, 16 x 430W panels.Battery: 5.12 kWhInverter: 6 kWHello,I am having my setup completed today for a new-built house. I asked the electrician if I double the battery, and he's saying the battery may charge itself with the grid, so it's best to monitor the usage.We use the dryer and washing machine a lot in the house, and we have just installed underfloor electric heating. We also have a big server drawing a lot of power, which we had to power down for a year due to electricity costs.As the battery is modular, we are thinking of doubling up, but it does not make sense to charge the battery from the grid.Any tips and opinions would be much appreciated.

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Shads_OVO
Community Moderator
16 days ago
L
Carbon Cutter****
LadyroseCarbon Cutter****
Posted in Home and heating

Scam email from SEG team at OVO?

HiI received an email this afternoon supposedly from the SEG dept at OVO. It addressed me as “Dear Valued Customer” rather than by name. It asked me to resubmit documents. This is many months since my original submission. My IMac refused to upload. I am thinking it is not genuine.Thoughts?     

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L
Carbon Cutter****
16 days ago
B
New Member***
BillMNew Member***
Posted in Home and heating

How can I contact the OVO Feed-in tariff (FIT) team?

I have an outstanding problem concerning FIT payments for several periods whilst my smart meter was faulty and subsequently replaced. Despite sending numerous emails and trying to make contact by phone, I am getting no answers or response. Is there a problem at OVO

103
S
Carbon Cutter****
17 days ago
S
Carbon Cutter*
Simon1953Carbon Cutter*
Posted in Home and heating

Battery registration with central fit register (CFR)

Back in December 23 I discovered that my FIT account with SSE had been transferred to OVO.  In subsequent correspondence relating to outstaning FIT payments due to me from SSE, I mentioned that I had had a battery installed here last Spring.  I was told that OVO would need to register it on the Central FIT Register and was asked for documentation to allow OVO to do this.I was subsequently received a message on 4 January from OVO stating…"Thank you for your email and submission of your battery schematic."We have reviewed your schematic and have determined that the installation of the battery should not affect your tariff. The battery does not charge directly from the grid and therefore you will remain eligible for metered generation and deemed export payments."I can confirm that the account has been updated and we have also updated the Central FiT Register (CFR) with Ofgem with this information."However, Octopus, to whom I’m now in the process of transferring my FIT account to, say that

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S
Carbon Cutter*
17 days ago
S
Carbon Cutter*
Simon BeareCarbon Cutter*
Posted in Home and heating

Transfer of ownership rights and generated funds from solar panels following house purchase.

Hello. How long does it take to receive change of ownership notification and more importantly given the current financial situation when will I receive the monies generated by the solar panels feed in tariff. I purchased my home on the 28th of February 2023 the lady I purchased from was an ovo customer and had her FIT set up.The estate agent is now asking me on behalf of the seller when she is going to be released from ovo control. Thank you. 

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M
New Member**
20 days ago
R
Carbon Cutter***
RayboyCarbon Cutter***
Posted in Home and heating

Can I replace a storage heater without economy 7?

Just joined this Forum. I have THTC running storage heaters, one of which is now beyond repair so need to replace it with something. I am told by OVO there is no current (sorry for the pun) solution. Is it not possible for new, modern heaters to work with THTC? I am relieved to find from this Forum that I am not the only one with this problem.

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R
Carbon Cutter***
20 days ago
F
Carbon Cutter*
FawkonCarbon Cutter*
Posted in Home and heating

Ecodan - Sharp Hot Water Temp Drop After Showering

Hi all, I wanted to query if this is normal behaviour. My Ecodan Hot Water is set up to to heat to 50c kicking back in only after a 10c drop. I am looking to try and see if I can get the most out of my cheap EV charging rate (2-5am) and heat the water for the day using this timeframe. One thing that that I have noticed however is that even after a short 5-7 minute shower I see huge temperature drops from the tank (45c to 20c). There are only 2 occupants in the home and we average 2 showers in total daily as well as running dishwasher and washing machine every 2 days. A.)Is it reasonable to think I can heat the tank once a day in the early morning and have sufficient hot water for the day?B.) Is it normal to see such large temperature drops in the tank when hot water is in use for short periods? (Or is this just due to the cold water being drawn in to backfill any used water and therefore a poor indicator of true temp levels?) Thanks for any and all input or thought.   

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F
Carbon Cutter*
21 days ago
M
Carbon Cutter****
mshealeyCarbon Cutter****
Posted in Home and heating

OVO have lost my FIT account!?

My FIT (Feed in Tariff) account was with SSE. I tried to submit my FIT readings in September 2023 but was told my account had been transferred to OVO.  I tried to submit my readings to OVO but they said they have no record of my account.They gave me an email to send my numbers  to fits-read@ovoenergy.com. I sent my numbers and got no reply. I rang OVO again. They said they had no record of my email submission and someone would be in touch with me. No-ones been in touch with me. My energy account isn’t with OVO so I can’t log into their website.I need my FIT payment to. balance my budget Help please. If you have successfully contacted OVO with a similar problem tell me what you did. Or OVO if you’re reading this let me know what to do 

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M
Carbon Cutter**
23 days ago
J
Carbon Cutter*****
jaybellCarbon Cutter*****
Posted in Home and heating

DNO and G99 delays- I want a 5KW battery

Hello.  I want to install a 5KW battery and have contracted with supplier. Iam now tokld ther is an up to 3 month delay in the approval of G99  applications even for fast track and approved systems.comments please!

2
ChristopherS_OVO
Community Moderator
23 days ago
Jess_OVO
Retired Moderator
Jess_OVORetired Moderator
Posted in Home and heating

Heat pumps - What’s your experience of the benefits and downsides to an ASHP?SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCE

Updated on 12/12/23 by Abby_OVO  Advantages and Disadvantages of Air-Source Heat Pumps (ASHPs) - Share your experience As one of the leading options in our journey to decarbonising the way we heat our homes, Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHPs) are really heating up (pun intended) and generating much discussion, both amongst the AHSP trialists here on the OVO community and in this recent article written by our content team covering both the advantages and disadvantages of this low carbon heating set-up. We know a lot of you here have gained first-hand experience of life with an ASHP in 2021 and we want to give you another chance to share your stories and help others considering an ASHP installation in 2022 and beyond!  As the article outlines one of the main benefits of opting for this heating system over alternatives will be it’s green credentials: “They don’t give off any nasty carbon emissions” How important was this as a factor in making you decide on an Air-Source Heat Pump and how do yo

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ChristopherS_OVO
Community Moderator
23 days ago
SianiAnni
Carbon Cutter*****
SianiAnniCarbon Cutter*****
Posted in Home and heating

Ovo integration for Home Assistant - Unofficial API

I’ve recently started using Home Assistant to monitor my home. I’ve got 5 Aqara temperature and humidity sensors feeding in data via a ConBee II usb device, I’ve got a Hive integration, and I’ve got an Ovo integration. But I don’t understand what the Ovo integration is showing me. The documentation saysSensorsThis integration provides a few sensors for OVO Energy:Last Electricity Reading - Last meter reading consumption in kWh. Last Gas Reading - Last meter reading consumption in kWh. Last Electricity Cost - Last meter reading electricity cost. Last Gas Cost - Last meter reading gas cost.But it doesn’t explain whether these are half hourly readings, or daily or something else. I’m also very suspicious of an electricity reading that’s decreased over the last 48 hours.Has anyone on here used this Home Assistant integration, and if so what do they make of it?     

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Tim_OVO
Community Manager
24 days ago
N
Carbon Cutter****
najmsaqibCarbon Cutter****
Posted in Home and heating

Why solis cloud not showing power flow on website and app as well?

 

19
BPLightlog
Plan Zero Hero
24 days ago
M
New Member***
MBeakyNew Member***
Posted in Home and heating

Applied for OVO's smart export guarantee (SEG) - how long till it's set up?

Having installed our solar panels, we applied to receive the OVO Smart energy guarantee payments and sent the requested initial export meter reading on the 12th July, which will be seven weeks ago tomorrow. We were told that we would receive the welcome email within four weeks from receiving this initial meter reading.Is it normal to have to wait this long? I cannot speak to the SEG team by phone and any email sent just gets a standard reply that a response will be within 15 days.Getting frustrated now Malcolm

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L
Carbon Cutter****
24 days ago
BPLightlog
Plan Zero Hero
BPLightlogPlan Zero Hero
posted in Home and heating

Home Battery update

I’ve had solar panels for some time and added batteries more recently - which I’ve now added extra capacity to also.  Over the last few weeks, I noticed a few changes to my inverter control options, the latest of which offered a ‘Battery Conditioning’ set up. Not knowing what this did exactly, I asked my installer but they were non the wiser, so I contacted the inverter manufacturer and got a mini manual update with a suggestion that this could help to extend battery life. Now having used it successfully, I thought it might be useful to pass on the information. There are different battery chemistries so you need to check your own set up but mine (and many others these days) use a Li-FePo4 (lithium iron phosphate) construction. With these batteries, especially when using multiple cells, it is important to keep battery voltages at the same level. The technique for calibration then works by charging the batteries to full (usually 100%) and then holding the charge at that level for a furth

3
BPLightlog
Plan Zero Hero
24 days ago

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