Home and heating

Hi, we recently installed the Solis inverter. However on the app it’s not showing any details other than the energy produced. We have smart meter installed as well. I don’t see the below block at all as in the user manual.   

I have solar panels running under the FITs system. I get an amount for the generated power and a deemed amount at 50% of the generated.If I move to a Smart meter what happens to the FITs payments?Will I end up out of pocket by moving across?

I have 10kw solis inverter with no battery. I would like to use generated energy during the day and export only surplus energy to the grid. In Solis Cloud app Info section I can see setting for Grid Interaction Type which is set to - Maximum Export. App doesn't let to change any settings, so I tried to look into inverter's settings, but couldn't find anything that would let me to change this. Maybe someone knows is it possible to change grid interaction type and export only surplus energy to grid?

I’m trying to work out what capacity batteries I need for an existing  solar PV array….my average consumption in the  5 month October-February period is 12kW per day and for the other seven (summer) months its 7kW/day. generation works out at 2000 kW per year obviously heavily loaded to April-September.so what suggestions for the battery capacity ( assuming a 20% margin )?

As is often the case, some information gets updated and therefore although this guideremains mostly up to date, it is worth mentioning the announcement of an update from Hugo of a Pro version expected to be launched very soon.This uses the same data a currently on offer from the Hugo app but their Pro version is designed for a desktop or tablet and aims to give a more comprehensive data tool for those who want such a choice.Main Hugo Pro dashboardThis offering tries to bring together energy usage from smart meters and support this with more detail on EV charging, Heating systems, Solar PV, Battery Storage and local weather conditions. The dashboard is shown above and is fairly easy to navigate. They use Enode to link additional data and so although some manufacturers are supported, not all are currently. You can see that although I have Solar PV and Battery storage, the system does not recognise my installation (I have made a request to add the products but this isn’t available so far)

I have bben advised that having solar barreries in my loft adjacent to current inverter is not advised and as a result the batteries need installation outside.  This is fine but to maintain best efficency in very hot/very cold weather I am advised that they should be insulated.  As this will be a new installation should I heed this  advice and make room for some sort of insulation in the very cold or very hot weather?

Meter in kitchen cupboard I have had earth reading of 400 the electrician got to 1.2 . The electrician was called because my kettle and air fryer tripped the box on several occasions.  I was asked to speak to the supplier regarding earthing then they will return to upgrade consumer box. The meter is positioned under a cupboard in the kitchen with  consumer boards behind on opposite wall. Would it be ok toleave meter where it is or advised to meter  ( what if I wanted ev later) terrace property also has solar PV 

I had solar panels installed at the end of last year and was able to provide an initial export balance reading to OVO in January. I am, however, now having difficulty obtaining a current reading.I have followed the following recommended sequence:Press and hold the grey middle button until the main menu loads. ‘General’ should appear on-screen – press and hold the middle button again to select this option. ‘Time & Date’ should now be visible – use the bottom button to scroll until TOU Registers appears on screen. Press and hold the middle button again, and you should now see ‘Cum. Exp.’ with a value underneath it. This is your export reading. However, when I reach Stage 4 I can only find an Import Reading and there is no sign of an Export Reading.Can anyone help?David 

I am looking at the solar panel/battery combination, and wondered about using Economy 7 overnight to top up the batteries. What concerns me is that if the battery is filled 100% at night, there will be no space left to store any free power when the sun comes up. What I was hoping was that today’s systems would work out how much spare capacity to leave in the battery overnight to prevent that from happening.  Obviously that calculation would vary by season.Has anyone any information about this please? I have yet to find anything online.

Hi, I’ve got a Daikin 11kw ASHP for my underfloor heating and radiators upstairs, floor area 130ms 6 rads and 4 towel rads upstairs combined kw outage 7.5kw. I’ve got a 20 litre buffer vessel for my unit. My problem is whenever the temperature drops to 4 or below like yesterday my ASHP is constantly on because of the defrost cycle and can cost me upwards of £30 a day for my electricity. I’ve rang Daikin and explained that this surely can’t be right, I’ve insulated between walls, joists there’s 90mm insulation in all my loft areas I’m on the weather dependent curve to be cost efficient but the defrost cycle is killing me! My electricity bill for January was £500! The only thing Daikin have told me to do is to increase the buffer size of the buffer vessel? I’ve looked up and rule of thumb for buffer vessels is 10 litres to every kw of size of unit? So in theory I should need at least 100 litr buffer vessel not the minimum 20 litres that my installer fitted to gain warranty? Will changing

I have solar panels but no battery. I submit regular generation readings for FIT but I have no idea how much of my generated power I actually use.i understand that the smart meter readings on electricity bill are from the actual meter so do not include generated power, but the smart meter shows power actually used.How can I find the figures for actual use (monthly or annual) so I can calculate this? I can only see figures at the instant I’m looking at the meter so it isn’t helpful at present

There is plenty of information regarding heat pump maximum output (and COP) for a variety of ambient and flow temperatures, but where do I find the minimum output?Most state electronic (compressor speed) control, so I assume they can modulate down. But how much?I have downloaded umpteen data sheets for the Vaillant arotherm+ 7kw model , but have been unable to find the information.Anyone know?

I have moved into a flat and removing storage heaters to fit electric radiators. However the circuit is on economy 7 and sockets dont work daytime. I know I can get an electrician to alter the fuseboard but it runs through the economy 7 meter so would need that removed?

Hi there, I’ve been looking at some of the data coming from my EcoDan system. Something you can see here just looking at the tank temp maroon line at the top (chart is last 24 hours of time). At around midnight the HW temp falls to about 40 degrees which triggers the pump to bring it back up to 50. The temp then falls back across late night / early morning. Given I know no one is going to use the HW until 7am, is heating up at midnight a waste? It seems like that intially, but then you have to factor in that the tank temp would still fall further if not reheated at midnight.  Wondering if I could / should stop the HW heating up at midnight? (Of course if I had a nighttime elec tariff this could be a better strategy) 

I was interested to understand how our energy usage fluctuates related to temperature to enable greater accuracy of cost prediction. Houses are just leaky heat boxes when all said and done.So use data in excel requires importing it as a comma delimited file or CSV. To obtain the RAW data in the first place this thread explains what do to get it.Once you have the data, it will come in the format of a series of meter readings on a given day. Really though, the data wants to be in a format where you can see how many kilowatts were consumed on a given day.For electricity this pretty straight forward, since that is measured in KW anyway. You just need to subtract yesterdays reading from todays reading and the remainder is what you used. For gas though we need to convert m³ into KW for which there is a conversion factor which includes a correction. The correction varies each day depending on the potency of the gas you are being supplied. Also my meter sometimes skips reporting and then I get

Like others who have the capability, I’ve been running my heating with weather compensation enabled - it’s one of the recommendations often listed for energy saving. More recently (the last few days) I’ve switched that off and got some surprising results. I’m using less fuel and the house ‘feels’ more comfortable. Obviously with these sort of tests, if you change more than one thing at once you’re not sure which parameter has had an effect. Luckily, my heating system also tracks outside temperature and so although I can’t adjust it, I can also monitor it. Energy use by day and outside temperature. There is an element of possible solar gain in play but again, I can take my solar PV stats to look at an approximation of that. Daily solar generation. A few days probably isn’t enough to make a final judgement but at present I can see less energy use on a day when temperatures declined and the general comfort level was better. A little surprising given how we are led to believe that having w

So after using weather compensation for the past month or so my flow temp is not achieving the target flow temp on my weather compensation curve. We have had below 0 outside on many occasions this week. 

I have a Vaillant ecoTEC Plus 630 boiler paired with a megaflo eco systemfit unvented cylinder.  My gas usage is nearly 3 times my colleagues who has a combi boiler (they have a much larger house, more occupants and has a gas hob and oven). My gas usage is solely for hot water/heating.  My system is managed through the nest app and my water is heating for a total of 4.5 hours a day (I don’t have hot water whenever I want). I went on holiday for a week, turned my system off and it still charged me for all but 2 days of the 7 I was away.  We’ve had no heating on and only the hot water scheduled for the times mentioned above. My usage is around 800-850kWh per month.  I live with my boyfriend and two year old.  I’ve spoken to so many people who can’t find the issue - can anyone help?! Picture of my usage for the week I was away.

Why does the Medium Energy slots change before I can use the?  I have had three days using everything at High Energy, and my electricity usage has been over £3 for each of those days - the highest since I joined OVO December 2022.I’m already sitting in candlelight, three jumpers quilt and blankets for 3 hours each weekday for Power Move. I have been able to charge iPad & phone during Green/Medium periods to use ‘off grid’ between 4pm and 7pm each weekday and seen the rewards in 2 bills BUT for the those 3 days last week this was impossible. After 7pm High until 11pm but after 10pm it was high until 3am so I set alarm & woke up at 2.45am to be ready to plug in iPhone & iPad. Then this morning, Saturday 13 January 2024, it was High from 7am so I had to get breakfast and shower at the highest usage rate. Is this fair?

Hi Everyone,Apologies in advance if this has been asked before, I’ve been looking through google and this forum seems to be very helpful.I’m running a Ecodan heat pump with underfloor heating only ( no radiators)but I’m finding there is no information online on how to run the system properly and most efficiently, it’s rather frustrating.There is a lot talk about cop figures ?  I have no idea how I obtain these figures from my controller or Mel cloud appI have 4 thermostats and use a Heatmiser app for a timer ( 4am - 10pm and then a 2 degree drop off from 10pm) .Two rooms  achieve solar gain and are hotter than the other two rooms. I don’t use the other rooms often so I have the thermostats low in those rooms so they never call for heat.There’s a lot of talk about running the system low and slow 24/7 .The only way to run 24/7  is to run the thermostats in the rooms  higher than my desired temperature so the pump is always on?Won’t this uses more KW? If one thermostat is calling for heat

Good Day, I have noticed in the past few days, when it has been extremely cold that my Solax Battery isn't force charging as much power from the grid as last week when the night time temp was warmer. I used to get 2.4kwh an hour and when its cold only 1kwh max…..Has anyone else experienced this.  Thanks again Jonathan

Hi all,I’ve just bought a new build with a Ecodan FTC. I have had a nightmare trying to balance the house temps. Too cold. Now too hot. I tried the weather comp but my numbers were way out. Downstairs was ok but upstairs was far too cold. Yesterday I changed to auto temp which wacked the flow rate up to 45 and in turn got the upstairs to temp (although downstairs is now tropical!)My understanding is that the auto temp on the Ecodan uses the room temp to make flow adjustments. My issue is that the room temp on the Ecodan is reading like 8 degrees. I imagine this is why it was just flat out all day long.I see you can change the sensor to be either the FTC which it is set at and no doubt where the temp of 8 is being read from, or the TH1 to use a wireless controller.This is where I need help. There is a wireless unit attached but I am not sure if this is the correct thing. Used to connect the app.How can I get the actual house temp to the Ecodan FTC to take advantage of the auto temp feat