Home and heating

If I win the lottery and pay OVO £8700 for a 12 panel PV Solar array on my large 25 degree pitched south facing roof plus a 5.2kWh storage battery in my integral garage plus an estimated £5000 for an 11kWh ASHP (after £7500 govt grant) plus an estimated £5000 for new radiators and hot water cylinder, can I expect to be effectively self sufficient during 9 months of the year? 

Hi, I have a solis 5kw hybrid inverter paired with 16.1k fogstar eco battery, but know the Inverter will not let the charge deplet from the battery. It worked fine until it reached 100 % at which point in just stays at 100%and draws power from the grid. Thanks for any help as this is driving me crazy. 

I have 9 slim so called ‘convection’ style radiators in my house, that appear as perforated panels backed up by a matrix of 15mm copper or steel pipes running vertically from the top to bottom tubes with thermosatatic TRVs fitted by me with a water pump primed, Gas fired C/H boiler in my garage.The gas boiler is no longer servicable and I have voluntarily swithced it off at the gas mains supply but kept my dual fuel tariff because the house has a gas cooker access point, currently capped in our kitchen and gas piping feeding the garage boiler that runs along our lounge wall and could easily be extended through the breeze block dividing wall to run a lovely powerful balanced flue gas fire in our lounge at a future date. My idea is to get an ASHP installed to replace the old gas boiler but wonder about my rads being thermally unsuitable.They are all in good condition and I added corrosion inhibitor several years ago after cleaning the accumulated black magnetite sludge out of each one by

I seem to have to wrestle with OVO every year these days before I get a satisfactory resolution of my rights as a loyal customer. Is now a good time (wrt disruption in global energy, climate change arguments, resale value of my 1983 house etc) to consider ditching my old gas boiler and upgrading to an ASHP with a brand new well insulated hot water cylinder/immersion heater to ‘top up’ bathing and washing up water etc plus maybe even new more suitable radiators? If so which are the best suppliers and installer of ASHPs. Daikin, Vaillant, Worcester - Bosch, Mitsubishi  et alia or even consider the Octopus system solution?

A recent MCS survey on my property - by a reputable installer - came out with the figure of 22kw needed for our heat pump installation. (Our home is a large Edwardian semi-detached and about 350msq.) It’s such a large figure that they have suggested 2 heat pumps of 11kw each working in tandem. I suspect this is excessive and my own data from recorded gas usage would suggest much lower. We use consistently between 31000 and 33000 kWh of gas per year. Using the ‘rule of thumb’ guide and dividing that figure by 2900 would suggest closer to 12kw. I also have data from the coldest day we have had in the house - 15 December 22 when the temperature dropped to -7 all day in a cold snap. On that day we used 375 kWh of gas which divided by 24 hours would still come in under 16kw. We usually keep our house at a comfortable 19C which is fine for us but I know the survey factors in warmer temperatures. Nevertheless the discrepancy seems considerable. Am I missing something? Would welcome comments f

We are in a remote rural Scottish location which surprisingly qualifies for a Warmworks grant to instal solar PV. We have to have what they decide, which is “9 x 450W JA solar PV panels” on a west facing roof plus a “Duracell Bundle” battery and inverter.   I don't have any details of what these are, so can't look up what they do in detail.  We can't chose the installer. The installation will be next week - 15 & 16 September.We are on OVO’s Economy10 tariff with an Aclara SGM1416-B smart meter and storage heaters (no boiler, no gas).  1. The main question is - do we need to inform OVO that we are having panels and a battery?2. We are at home most of most days, so can often use more electricity when the sky is bright. Is that the best strategy for economy?3. I won't know until the system is installed next week whether      •    the panels can return power to the grid if the battery is full     •    the battery can be charged from off-peak electricityAre these features usually expens

Hi all, I’m in the process of researching solar and a couple of installers have suggested fitting Fox ESS batteries. Just wondering if anyone has any experience with them and any feedback, negative or positive, to share? In addition, can anyone explain to me about what I should be looking for in a tariff once we have the solar panels and battery installed? I do have a quote for solar from OVO so would that be a lot better than if I went with, say, Octopus? Thanks in advance,Hollie

The two Honeywell night storage heaters in our attic room are not heating unless I use the boost key on the SMETS meter or the shortcut on the PIPIT IHD remote meter. I think this must be because the separate circuit has not been programmed on the meters, but I don’s know how to do this. Can anyone point me to an online guide to programming the separate circuit (I keep wanting to call it ‘Economy 7’ but I don’t think that is what it is called any more)? Or is there an app for it?  Thank you for your attention to this matter!

Hello,Is it possible to control the timing of DHW, not by controller timer option but by dry contact?Does it have to do anything with 131 mode in function setting?Is there a full list of the function settings menu? Thank you very much!Ronen

 Hello, I have a DAIKIN ERSQ 011AAV1  16KW. I have a BRC21A52 controller and there is a code in the service manual 9-02 that is indicated as Thermo on/off admission with a range -5  till +5. Does anyone what exactly does it do? For example what's the difference between setting it at +5 and -5? There is also another code 9-03 that the step is every 0.2 and it can be set either until +5 or -5 but there isn't any explanation in the manual what is this code about. Any help would be nice. Thank you in advance.

Here for help again. Last year we had Solar, battery, ASHP, and a smart meter put in. OVO only did the smart meter. They also gave us the Chameleon IHD 3. It was working fine and we found it really useful. Moved to Octopus Sept 2025 because SEG payment was better. On Feb 24th this year our Outgoing octopus was up and running. I can see our bills and usage is all as expected but since the 24th Feb the IHD has been showing CORRECT kWh use but WRONG cost. It’s nowhere near what it should be. For instance this morning at 8am it said we had spent 22pence! Not even the standing charge of 44 p. I know SEG payments can’t be dropping the price that much infact they shouldn’t be showing on an IHD should they ?Ive tried hard reset but still saying the same. Any ideas?

I’m writing this on behalf of my 85+ year old mother. Apologies for the long post but it does explain pretty much perfectly the issue.  Shes with OVO and has been for many years, this year her very old manual thermostat started playing up and heating was coming on in the middle of summer and was a nightmare.  I saw the Tado V3+ (Wireless Thermostat, Internet bridge and wireless receiver) deal OVO were offering earlier in the year and she bought it.   Eventually an electrician installed this around June, it's been working perfectly since then with her Baxi EcoBlue boiler. As she is on approaching 90 and is quite frail, shes like to have the heat on so its been working from around October/November time, she likes it at an indicated 23degs. I dont think it is quite that high but feels better than the 14degs  on her old thermostat!!  We have a schedule setup so from 10pm-7am daily she has it set at 14 degs C, 7am-10pm 23degsC. Her bungalow has exceptional insulation and over night, even wh

Can anyone tell me what these particular settings mean please see photo 1 of FTC6 controller (I am still on the ASHP learning curve) - I am trying to grapple with whether the Flow Temperature settings are too high/too low/just right. At the moment the outside temperature during the day has been about 18 degrees, at night we have been having near freezing temperatures. See photo 2 from Melcloud. My system is set to run 24/7 which I believe is the most economical way - low and slow. I have been having the room control set to 17 in the day and I have put it up to 18 in the evening during my off peak hours. if I move it up or down it’s only by half a degree.  My problem is that I previously had old storage heaters and this thing is using a fraction of the electricity that they were using, so all the angst about 2.5kwh usage on this forum seems irrelevant to my situation. With my storage heaters I was using 40kwh a day on May 1st, if which 7kwh was all the other stuff including oven. The Ec

Updated on 06/03/25 by Ben_OVOThe Dimplex operating manual can be found here.I have asked before on this forum and still not had an answer. I have Dimplex Quantum storage heaters which were installed by my local authority after they ripped out gas central heating. Quantum meant to be economical and environmentally beneficial. However, to run just one of them is £25 per week I have 4 in total, but only run one of them. I am over £200 per month. I have two electric panel heaters which are more controllable and cheaper to run. But still over £200 per month for all my electric. I’m on economy 10 which I was told they should run on, but there’s hardly any providers can give this. I’m with OVO, formerly SSE. My next door neighbour still has gas central heating, is on a pre paid meter and is £125 per month for that and electricity. Same size house as mine. She runs her tumble drier umpteen times each week too.We’ve also got some great Forum topics which you might find useful 👇  

I’ve recently bought a house which has solar panels already installed (no battery storage) along with the FiT Scheme. I have transferred ownership and I just have a few general/basic questions regarding the solar panels/FiT scheme. I’m only querying this as my neighbour in the same size house/same number of occupants (2 adults) is roughly £40 a month cheaper than us in energy bills without solar panels.I have just submitted my first generation reading to OVO and will receive my first payment in December. OVO have said that I am paid for any excess energy that I generate. Are the solar panels directly powering some appliances in my house and if so why don’t I see the benefits on my energy bill?  On average we use roughly 380kW per month and have a smart meter just for our electricity. Apologies for the basic questions, I just want to make sure I understand it all before selecting our new tariff. Thanks

I'd like to install a 22v EV charger and a kiln at home so it’s probably time for 3-phase electrics - but I have solar panels (inherited rental arrangement) - what are the knock on effects of going 3-phase?Here’s my initial thoughts for things to investigate.  What am I missing and what do I need to consider/ask - and who do I need to involve? I’d really appreciate advice so I can go into this with my eyes open.replace current consumer unit replace current smart meter (fairly old) - OVO says they don’t have any 3 phase meters - should I accept this or try to find someone who can do this? replace solar inverter? anything else ref solar panels connections? any rewiring needed in general? - is that likely? install of EV charger install of battery (one day! - not permitted under solar rental agreement) install of kilnanything else?​@Transparent if you’re still active in the forum, I read your (historical) discussion with MarkC about his phase 3 install etc and was mightily impressed with y

What is the best make of PV panels for the UK?

I submitted my last FIT reading on 17th June & have since received my statement but have no payment. It is now more than the 8 weeks so I’m wondering if I need to contact someone.

Hi all,Just moved into new rented accommodation with electric heating and water with a combi boiler which seems to be showing about £2.70-£3 an hour estimated cost on the smart meter when heating is on. When boiler is on and ticking over is even showing about £2.30 an hour even when heating is off.  Is anyone else on a similar system and know if this is normal as it seems a lot? Sorry have come from being on oil so not used to this type of heating.CheersChris

So recently decided to use Ovo boiler service, instead of my regular person. They sent someone on 27th Sept who said the boiler was in PERFECT CONDITION! A week later, boiler is showing signs of pressure loss, and unable to fill back up. When I called them I am told I do not have service cover & they can’t do anything. The boiler has been working fine ALL YEAR, till they showed up. Now I have to write to complaints and it will take 14 days to respond. This is just the worst result from using a so called reputable company. 

I am hoping someone can enlighten me as I am struggling to understand.   We have growatt solar panels and battery.  For an example - on 13.2.26Our Load Consumption - 17.90Solar Panels - 7.40Export to Grid - 0.20From Battery 2.20on that day OVO usage for the day was 17,49kwh Is this correct?

When taking out a new tariff with boiler cover is there an age limit for the boiler?

Can anyone help me with my boiler settings for my air source heat pump as the electricity bills are very high and I need to turn them down. 

HelloLast week, my overnight water stopped heating up. Overnight general heating is fine but water just stopped suddenly. 2 electricians have looked at the issue and said it’s a smart meter issue.  ive spoken to OVO to resolve but they are making me wait for over a week to fix. I’ve got no hot water and a vulnerable customer (they know this).has anyone else had this before ? I had a similar issue when my smart meter was installed well over a year ago although both my heating and water heating went off. Tbilisi was resolved but this time it’s just my hot water.Any help would be wonderful. Really struggling here.  thank you