Home and heating

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

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271 Topic threads

K
Carbon Cutter*
kjustinCarbon Cutter*
Posted in Home and heating

Solis app and household appliances?

Hi, I was looking for repair parts for my Solis coffee machine and came across the following discussion: https://forum.ovoenergy.com/topic/show?tid=14671&fid=138So, if I understood correctly, I can link my Solis appliances to a specific app? Or is the Solis app mentioned in the discussion something different? I’m quite new to the smart home topic and would love to learn more about it. My question may not be relevant to this forum, but I’m running out of options and would like to inquire about where to find repair parts for my machine (with shipment to the Netherlands). I was able to find the heating element on FixPart, but the brewing unit is currently out of stock. Would someone be able to help me with these questions?  

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K
Carbon Cutter*
1 month ago
D
New Member*
davekerrisonNew Member*
Posted in Home and heating

Unable to get export reading from Elster AS300P

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 

2
D
New Member*
2 months ago
M
New Member**
Merlin12New Member**
Posted in Home and heating

Solar Panel Installation and FIT set up

Today I have reached a milestone, my 20th phone call, covering 9 hours, 18 minutes and 10 seconds, in trying to finalise my FIT account.  I have had excuses of:We can not open the format of the documents you sent. We dont have the documents you sent. Some of the information is not in the right format. Here is your SEG application case number ( but not finalised at OVO’s end). Here is your complaint number, you wil be contacted within 48 hours.  ( the complaint was not actioned/finalised) You need to send a photo of the your meter ( it was a brand new system strting at “000000” back in november) as a staring point for any back dated payments.This is complete chaos, as a cusomte of OVO from 2015, I have never been treated this way.  This has been ongoing since my Solar panel installation in October 2022.Any ideas please?

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A
New Member*
2 months ago
E
Carbon Cutter****
EcodanwarriorCarbon Cutter****
Posted in Home and heating

Have I setup my Ecodan Correctly?

I have done some reading on here and followed advice from other posters but I wanted to check to see if I have things setup right. Goals Be economical, not wasteful Keep temperature in the house at 22-23 degrees C Have hot water in the morning for showers and in the evening for bath for children Heating Setup I have it set to Compensation Curve, at 14 degrees external or below the temp is at 46 degrees for the rads (at least that’s how I understand it works) Thermostats are Heatmister Slimline, they are set at 23 degrees to knock off the rads if it gets too warm This setting is 24/7, I read that its better to keep the house at the same temp all the time. Plus we work from home all the time so don’t want it cooling during the day. Hot Water Setup I had it to warm the 200L tank up to 50 degrees between 2am and 4am, and to come on once the temp dropped 10 degrees but only during this time. I noticed that this was perfect for morning showers - temp had dropped to 47 degrees by 8am w

29
R
Carbon Cutter****
2 months ago
Bev
Carbon Cutter*****
BevCarbon Cutter*****
posted in Home and heating

Is a Home storage battery our 'missing link' (and do specialist advisors exist for this stuff?)

HelloWe’ve had a 3.7kw solar pv set up on our roof for 8 years, we’re in East Sussex. We were lucky enough to come in on the tail end of the feed-in tariff, so it has almost paid for itself. We don’t have a Smart Meter so our export is assumed to be 50% for the tariff, we know we don’t export that much as we also run our business from this building so we’re always here. We’ve had a 100% Electric car for 4 years (Leaf), and this summer we had a Heat Pump installed as part of the OVO trial. We don’t yet know how our bills will look this winter without gas, we have a multi fuel burner as back-up. We didn’t have a water tank with our gas boiler so didn’t have an iBoost-type gizmo fitted, which means our excess solar does not currently heat our water. So…  battery storage. Our mission for this house is to future proof it so far as possible, and get the running costs down as low as we can.  Our local installers have had issues trying to get Tesla batteries, there seems to be a waiting list.

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S
Carbon Cutter**
2 months ago
T
Carbon Cutter*
TommyfrCarbon Cutter*
posted in Home and heating

Let's talk about Buffer vessels for ASHP

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

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H
Carbon Catcher*
2 months ago
R
Carbon Cutter*****
Rick HCarbon Cutter*****
Posted in Home and heating

Finding the best export tariff to support my solar panels and reduce energy costs?

Hi,Below a copy of my recent email to OVO, Octopus and Tesla UK.Email Subject Header: Will I just be whistling in the wind, whilst drowning and/or being electrocuted trying to plug my extension lead into an offshore turbine? Well, let's find out... Re: Octopus, OVO and Tesla UK domestic energy and including UK domestic SEG export and fixed price duel fuel import. I'm currently on a UK fixed domestic duel fuel contract with OVO until October 2022 but because of the likelihood of another crippling rise in grid supply energy costs I'm looking ahead. This not just for the best UK fixed grid duel fuel import cost but also the best UK SEG export tariff. I am currently under no export contract with my existing supplier OVO, or anyone else.  I meet all UK SEG export requirements with a domestic total solar installed capacity of 2.64 kW.  I'm disabled, 65 years old, effectively medically retired and subsist on a fixed income. Therefore, unfortunately I'm unable to afford battery storage for eff

7
Blastoise186
Plan Zero Hero
2 months ago
Abby_OVO
Community Manager
Abby_OVOCommunity Manager
Posted in Home and heating

Introducing our Home Recover serviceNews

Free boiler, plumbing, heating or electric repairs for OVO customers² when you take out our Complete plan afterwards – only with Home Recover. Introducing Home Recover: get a free boiler repair when you take out our Complete plan¹ afterwards. At OVO, we want to be there for you in an emergency –  whether you’ve got cover or not. If something goes wrong with your boiler, plumbing or electrics, we’ve got you covered. With Home Recover, we’ll fix it for free if you’re an existing OVO customer or £79 for non-OVO customers, when you take out our Complete cover plan¹ afterwards. So you’ll not only get the repair², you’ll also have the safety net of cover if anything were to happen again.¹  Our experienced, independent network of engineers is already trusted by over 200,000 UK homes. And with our 24/7 emergency helpline, we’ll help to get you up and running again as soon as possible.  Check out the dedicated home page here.   The ‘Complete’ plan We’ve detailed below what’s included in the ‘Co

6103
Y
Carbon Cutter*
2 months ago
BPLightlog
Plan Zero Hero
BPLightlogPlan Zero Hero
posted in Home and heating

Should the aim be to reach net zero, sub net zero or zero carbon emissions?

There are various discussions about reducing carbon emissions and many ( or most?) refer to net zero .. but .. it that the best target? We already see the effect of global warming on climate and depending on your situation, that can already have an effect on life. More often than not, most refer to a Net Zero target which in effect ‘levels’ the rise but does little to reduce warming. This then moves to ‘Sub Net Zero’ so that some reduction is expected but probably not for quite a number of years. And finally, Zero emissions meaning that nature can really begin to work its magic and repair the planet.  

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waltyboy
Plan Zero Hero
2 months ago
B
Plan Zero Hero
BeePeePlan Zero Hero
Posted in Home and heating

What modulation range do heat pumps have?

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?

8
juliamc
Carbon Catcher***
2 months ago
J
Carbon Cutter*****
James_NCarbon Cutter*****
Posted in Home and heating

Hot water and heating control with my Mitsubishi Ecodan Air-Source Heat Pump (ASHP)?

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) 

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A
Carbon Cutter**
2 months ago
B
Plan Zero Hero
BeePeePlan Zero Hero
Posted in Home and heating

Heating your home - (Correct) Size is importantBlog

BackgroundSince 2000 I have religiously recorded our energy usage every week. I also have an external temperature sensor so I can monitor the weather. In 2008 we replaced an old (22kW) cast iron boiler with a Viessmann 18kW condensing heat only boiler. We had a smart meter installed in 2020 making the collection of energy usage data easier and with much better time resolution, and in September last year I attached temperature sensors and data logging to our hot water tank and boiler flow.For the last three years I have been operating our boiler at a flow temperature of just 50°C to see how well our house would cope with a heat pump (or smaller gas boiler).The following are my thoughts based on an examination of this data.Firstly remember that a wet central heating system is in fact four interlinked control systems.The boiler (or heat pump) provides energy to the circulating water. The circulating water is controlled by balancing valves, zone valves and thermostatic valves to the radiat

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B
Plan Zero Hero
2 months ago
Y
Carbon Cutter****
YinmeoutCarbon Cutter****
Posted in Home and heating

Graphing your energy usage in excel charts or similar by converting usage data into a CSV formatBlog

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

22112
Y
Carbon Cutter****
3 months ago
A
Carbon Cutter****
amanda1Carbon Cutter****
Posted in Home and heating

Flow Temperature settings of my Mitsubishi Ecodan heat pump set correctly?

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

32
juliamc
Carbon Catcher***
3 months ago
BPLightlog
Plan Zero Hero
BPLightlogPlan Zero Hero
posted in Home and heating

Weather Conpensation - heating settings

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

29
Tim_OVO
Community Manager
3 months ago
B
Plan Zero Hero
BeePeePlan Zero Hero
Posted in Home and heating

Estimating Heat Pump or Boiler size using usage data and temperatureBlog

HiI know many on this forum enjoy crunching numbers.I have several years worth of gas usage data and weather data from a thermometer in our garden so I decided to correlate one against the other using Excel (for entertainment really - yes really!).The result? An indication of our house's energy requirement.If you want to give it a go with your data (again for entertainment!) I have made it available at Heating estimate using nearby degree day data.xlxsOne observation is the large scatter on the data.We do get a lot of thermal gain on sunny days. Our heating thermostat, in the hall, on a north facing outside wall is not far from an air-brick and the house does feels warmer on days when there is a brisk Northerly wind! It is also apparent that we use more hot water in the winter (colder incoming supply, showers in the summer, baths in the winter). Also cooking lunches tends to leak heat into hall often resulting in a "cool" period for an hour or so after lunch.I was impressed by hydrosam

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Tim_OVO
Community Manager
3 months ago
S
New Member**
solar mikeNew Member**
Posted in Home and heating

Does OVO have a solar battery friendly tariff?

I have solar panels and a battery, and a smart meter. I don’t have an EV. I’m on a simpler energy tariff with OVO which costs 25.86p a kwh. I’ve seen tariffs elsewhere which offer a cheaper rate to allow me to recharge my battery for a few hours a night; and thereby maximise use of my battery, and increase my savings. Does OVO provide such a tariff? If not, then why not? Especially since they appear to offer such a tariff for ev owners. I’d rather stay with OVO but if there is a better deal elsewhere, then I’ll jump! 

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J
Carbon Cutter*****
3 months ago
M
New Member**
MrUnsureNew Member**
Posted in Home and heating

Plenty of land but small property - could a ground source heat pump work?

I have plenty of land but an old small property. Can a ground source heat pump system have all the controls, etc outside with just the supply and return pipes going into the property?

2
M
New Member**
3 months ago
R
Carbon Cutter****
razorCarbon Cutter****
Posted in Home and heating

Ecodan FTC- Had a nightmare trying to balance the house temperature?

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

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C
Carbon Cutter****
3 months ago
C
Carbon Cutter****
ColdCarbon Cutter****
Posted in Home and heating

Not acheving flow temp ecodan

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. 

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Emmanuelle_OVO
Community Manager
3 months ago
G
Carbon Cutter*
Gala6ovoplusCarbon Cutter*
Posted in Home and heating

Not sure about what the Red Green and Orange on my IHD means?

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?

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Nukecad
Plan Zero Hero
3 months ago
M
Carbon Cutter****
MonkswoodCarbon Cutter****
Posted in Home and heating

Ecodan Heat Pump temperature help - should the pump always be on?

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

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Emmanuelle_OVO
Community Manager
3 months ago
J
Carbon Cutter*****
JonathanprenticeCarbon Cutter*****
Posted in Home and heating

Batteries charging less in cold temperatures (Solar Power)

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

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J
Carbon Cutter*****
3 months ago
R
Carbon Cutter*
Ricky MillersCarbon Cutter*
Posted in Home and heating

IHD still showing the energy plan I used to be on, not my new one

i changed my simpler energy plan on 28th December from Economy 7 to a single variable  rate which was acknowledged and implemented. I have now noticed today (4/1/2024) that the readings on my smart meter and IHD have reverted back to Economy 7 dual rates which I definitely do not want. How can I have this resolved?

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R
Carbon Cutter*
3 months ago
W
Carbon Cutter***
WAC768Carbon Cutter***
posted in Home and heating

ESS Battery drawing more power than demand

Hi, I recently installed a Livoltek ESS and I can constantly see the draw from the battery is nearly always double (low loads) to that of the demand (Home) is this normal or am I missing something obvious. 

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BPLightlog
Plan Zero Hero
3 months ago

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