Home and heating

 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

i’m old, stupid & clumsy - knocked the remote control box on the floor. box on wall lost communication with it. RC box display is blank, so power is lost. Need to get inside to fix broken wire. How?

I’m looking for recommendations for a Gas Safe engineer in the Nottingham area who specialises in commercial installations.We currently have a domestic G4 gas connection (max ~65kW), but we need to upgrade to a U16 meter to support a 112kW load. We are finding the process with Cadent quite slow and are looking for a regulated professional who can: Advise on/handle the pipeline upgrade for commercial use. Ensure everything is fully compliant for future supplier inspections. If you’ve had work like this done recently or are an engineer who can help, please drop a comment or DM me with your details/company name.

Hello I have just moved into a one bedroom property (one open plan living area/kitchen downstairs) and one loft space bedroom upstairs. I am electricity only and am racking up useage of £90 a month. I am not using my heating (it's 9° inside!) I'm not using my washing machine or electric shower I can't understand how I'm using so much electricity.  I have been away for work from Monday to Wednesday evening this week and used 29kwh. Is this normal usage for just a fridge, a router and 2 smoke alarms? I'm too scared to put my heating on. I have not lived in an electric only property before so don't really know what is normal monthly expenditure for a one bedroom property? Any help would be appreciated.

my Mitsubishi Ecodan Remote Control box went blank after I knocked it on the floor (yes, I’m old, stupid, and clumsy). I DO NOT LIKE the Ecodan User Interface so tried to get alternative - was told it could not be done, so ended up with quote for £675+vat for the sale & commissioning of a new Mitsubishi Ecodan Remote Control box. strikes me as a bit high. Comments?

My old RTS Meter (for off peak heating only) was switched off years ago - anybody in the same boat and waiting for a replacement?

Hi Everyone,I just need some advice, our oil boiler was causing problems earlier on this year and has since been condemned. The council seem to want to fit us with an Air Source Heat Pump rather than an oil boiler....which I know the reasons for, but I am  not entirely sure whether this is going to be appropriate for the property where we live or for the fact  that my wife has disabilities and respiratory  problems. Our windows are draughty and we have had damp issues in the past. It is a very small bungalow admittedly, but will it be efficient enough in the winter months?  Can anyone advise me please? Many Thanks.

Just to introduce myself.I am a retired electrical and aeromodelling engineer, my wife and I live in west Wales as from 1987, I have worked for most of that time as a self employed electrical engineer working in a variety of industrial settings in a very rural area.I have been encouraged by others in this forum to share my ideas and findings so that others with cranky thoughts and ideas might benefit, also that I might gain a nugget or two of useful know how.Back in 2000, I wound down my electrical engineering due to the enormity of red tape that went with it. My wife and I then deviated into model aircraft kit manufacturing, that had the blessing of no red tape which is rare these days. Anyhow, we did model air trade shows which meant being out in an open field for a good few days totally off grid. This is where I began to use the knowledge gained over the years to facilitate this. I decided to install wet NiCad cells in the caravan rather than use lead a

I had a replacement solar panel generation meter fitted on 5th November. I gather this needs to be registered by OVO before I give the next reading whiich I should do before 31st Deecember. How to I go about this please? Peter

Hi,I have recently had a Vaillant aroTherm Plus heat pump installed, which is eligible for the Heat Pump Plus add on.I have entered all details in the eligibility checker and got a message back saying that OVO will get in touch in the next 5-7 days. It has been more than 3 weeks and I haven't got any correspondence with OVO.I have sent an email to OVO, and also I have been redirected to Heat Pump department but the line just drops after a while.I have exhausted all communication channels to get to some one to no avail.Any recommendations as what to do now? Basically their tariff is the main reason I signed up with OVO but I cannot do a simple thing of adding their tariff.

We've had updated Dimplex storage heaters (Quantum QM100RF etc)  for 2 months now, and there’s one thing that isn't good. The kitchen has a patio door. In fine weather the sun comes through it in the afternoon and heats up the room a lot for an hour or more. We are on Economy 10, with its afternoon charging time coinciding with the most heat from the sun  to this room. The heater’s smartness seems to decide to stop charging it up with heat for later. I suppose it “thinks” that it's warm weather outside so it won't need to output much heat later.  That’s been OK until recently, when on some days it’s been sunny but very cold outside (freezing yesterday). The result is that the Quantum heater runs out of heat early in the evening.  The other rooms are shaded from the sun, and their heaters’ output fully all evening. Is there any way in which I can influence it to input energy more during this afternoon off-

 Boiler new Aug 2022. Ideal Logic+ Combi CThermostat / programmer fitted May 2023. Ideal Halo RF, not wifi connected.August 2025 weather compensation fitted. Ideal OS2. Straight forward to install the sensor and two core cable connected and run into the house for connection to the boiler. Cable run approximately 5m. Terminal on the sensor are not marked and the boiler weather compensation terminals likewise not marked. All connections made as per the Ideal instructions sheet.Boiler switched on and nothing untoward. The instructions state that the house temperature is now controlled using the boiler flow temperature dial. Turn it clockwise to raise the house temp and anticlockwise to lower the house temp. The screen should indicate a range of 5℃ minimum and 30℃ maximum.When I move the dial it performs as it always did and shows a temperature of the water  flow. Minimum 30℃ and maximum set by myself of 64℃. Previously the minimum flow t

Hi Had to change to smart meter due to telesignal switch off. Used to have total heating total control. Economy 7 doesnt heat my storage heaters enough. Requested change to single rate and ecaul sent to energised port 5 all the time. Ovo have refused this to send ecaul after changing to single rate. Its cold and don't know what to do next any help would be really appreciated at this time. 

Hi guys,First timer here so thank you for letting me join.I have a condensate boiler with an outside pipe for the waste water. For the last two winters either my outside pipe or the condensate trap under the boiler has frozen. I have double lagged the outside pipe and I have lagged the trap as well. I am still worried that if we get a weeks worth of really cold weather ( like the last two winters ) something will freeze and the heating wont work.We are away from home for 3 weeks in January ( if I was home I wouldn’t be so worried ) and want to know if I could do the following in the basement. There are air bricks and small holes around the room.Could I get a small heater and use it with a thermostat plug so that if the temp drops below 3c or 4c the heater would kick in ?? If this is an idea then what size heater would I need. The room is about 10’ x 8’ and about 7’ high. The heater could sit close to the condensate trap and direct any heat onto it.

Hello,  looking for some advice - done a fair bit of research/reading but still a bit confused by a few things;we moved into a property in April that has a daikin heat pump (fitted in 2018). Obviously efficiency only really become an issue in last few weeks since heating required. Realise it’s a bit of a journey at the beginning to work out what you need from it.  We have 2 zones, UFH in main part of house (1 thermostat) and another thermostat for rads. we have set the thermostats to 18 in day (we don’t love a hot house) and 17 overnight. there seems to be conflicting advice as to whether you should set room thermostats or have it on constantly and just dictate room temp by trial and error with flow temp or am I missing something?Also everyone says you shouldn’t turn it on and off but when the fan is not running does that mean it is off as surely it has to cycle and the fan will stop when it gets the room to temp a

I recently had a GivEnergy 9.5 battery installed to work with my solar panels. I am having difficulty getting the battery to charge manually via the app or online. I contacted GivEnergy and have been advised that there is an API ? in place with OVO and this may be stopping me setting a charge time to make use of my off peak periods (economy 10 with smart meter) I set it to charge manually for eg. 1 hour and it stops charging after about 10 mins 🤷‍♂️ Can anyone offer any advice please ?I should add that OVO are not charging my battery at any time and I’ve had it now for two months. The only time it charges is when the sun shines ! which in the Highlands isn’t often at this time of year !

Here goes I have a single tariff smart meter . I need take out my coal central heating due to health reason.I need a meter that can accommodate economy 7 or similar (2 rates) as I couldn't afford to run on a single tarrif And ideas would be helpful thanks 

 Two engineers have visited my house so far to fit a smart gas meter but they dont have the correct  fitting, nor an adaptor, to connect to the gas tap. It doesnt seem there is anything we can do about it!The size of the short copper pipe coming out of the flange and going into the lead pipe is 0.795 inch / 20mm outside diameter. The house is 1962 but the gas meter is 1994. I’m suprised that it is so unusal. Anyone know about gas pipe sizes?Incoming gas pipe

This may be a bit off topic for this thread, but researching alternative low rate tariffs, if found my self thinking that it might (should?) be possible to replace traditional brick-filled storage heaters with batteries. After all if it works for cars and trains, why not houses?

Hi, I recently moved in this flat. It comes with 2 storage heater which are made by creda. My electricity supplier is OVO and my plan is economy 7 and also have a smart meter. The problem is storage heater come on from 1 pm to 4:30 pm and also at midnight. But my off peak our is midnight to 7 am.There are no thermostat or time switch for the storage heater. Can you guide me with it? 

HelloThis seems obviously wrong but how do I solve it?It’s a Mitsubishi Ecodan system. The heating seems to be driven by the thermostat fixed on the side of the HWC, and not the roving thermostat.Fixed stat reports 19.5 actual / 18 requiredRoving reports 16.5 / 18How do I get it to use the roving thermometer?(yes, one solution is set the stat to 21 or something but that is not very helpful, thanks)The Melcloud app reflects the fixed readings.Thanks for any helpmelcloudfixedroving

I’m hoping somebody can help me as I feel like I’ve tried everything! I recently moved into a house with a Mitsubishi Ecodan Heatpump and heatmiser neostat thermostats. Downstairs there is underfloor heating which is working perfectly with the thermostats. However, there are radiators upstairs which are also supposed to be controlled by a single neostat, but this seems to have lost connection to the Ecodan. Does anybody know how I go about re-pairing the neostat to the ecodan so that it can control the radiators? It looks like there is 2 zones on the ecodan system - one for upstairs and one for downstairs. Any help would be very much appreciated!

I recently switched to a cheaper nighttime tariff and want to set my hot water to come on mainly during the night, with a short boost in the early evening. I've set the DHW schedule for the right times but for some reason it still comes on outside of the schedule before the maximum temp drop should kick in. The tank temp is set to 50° with a reheat drop of 15° and this morning is was heating when the tank temp was at 44°. It also wasn't anything to do with the legionaries setting as this had only been run a few days ago.I have the MELCloud app setup with a schedule for the heating and have tried switching this off to only rely on the control unit schedule and this doesn't seem to help either.I've attached a screen shot of my last 24hrs temp history which shows yesterday evenings temp boost and since then it hasn't dropped below the 35° that should start the reheat cycle, so as far as I can tell it shouldn't have been coming on this morning.Does anyone know why t

hi, I’m on the FiT scheme for around 12-15 years and having new panels (like for like) fitted and 2 batteries, - no smart meter-  do I need to contact OVO, and if so, who?