Home and heating

Bear in mind I’m not solar savvy...I had solar panels installed in July last year and everything worked fine ...using the Fox cloud app etc .I updated the app and now it appears that my battery is not charging and my daily production is showing the same every day ? How do I set up my battery again to use the charge during the night? All the apps shows is my grid importing and the energy being used in y home ? I find the whole thing bloody confusing as, as the weather has improved eg generating more solar my daily bill is lower but nothing being shown on the app ? Is there a different app I could use or do I need to get the installers back ? Cheers in advance Andy  

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 comment

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 charg

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

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. 

 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. 

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 in

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 h

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

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