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“Or, on a more serious note, @Jequinlan - does your software knowledge provide a useful skill-set which would help in analysing how effective are these Home-heat and Battery-storage trials?” - Sadly not @Transparent . If I can get the data my data analysis skills can lean to finding useful insights but getting the data isn’t something my software engineering skills are.

Folks - back to the forum after a gap due to work commitments and hope to stay connected more regularly now. Some exciting developments since the last time I was here. Lots of chatter to pick up :)

I await delivery of 64kWH Nissan EV in March so keen to understand how the V2G trial will pan out going forward.

@Tim_OVO - I completely missed the battery trial. Is it still open to express interest? Ready to join the private forum you’ve mentioned in a few chat discussion.

Let’s hope that 2021 is better than 2020 …..

Welcome back @sylm_2000 ! Good to hear! I too am drowning in work, but am always here to be tagged! (Still awaiting v2g replacement) …

Ah… I’d wondered who’d been doing all the work during this lockdown. It’s @sylm_2000 and @Jequinlan.  HMRC will be glad of your contributions

@Jequinlan - have you yet devised a way to get either of your EV’s charged? It’s not like you live in a town where you could just walk to the nearest shop.

@Transparent you’re right, just submitted my tax returns to HMRC over the weekend Your articles are always very insightful and fun to read, so much to catch-up!

Been having (hardware) trouble with the V2G charger which is being looked at but otherwise, I am looking forward to the new leaf in March and potential decision on heating trial (which has been rather “interesting”). 

Sadly @Transparent  I haven’t, It is sitting there, virtually dead. There is a charger in the village car park but is sadly broken 90% of the time. I think it relies on mobile signal, something villages don’t have!

I think we need to tag Dawn French. This story has the all the elements required to compose an excellent script for The Vicar of Dibley.

Why has Quinlan Parish Council allowed a company to place a charger in a village car park where there isn’t enough GSM signal for it to operate?!

Didn’t they have to provide the results of a Technical Feasibility Study to the Local Planning Authority when they submitted the Application?

Wasn’t this included in the statutory “request for comments” sent to the Parish Council ?

I don’t suppose the village has retained a community-owned horse, has it?

Erm... @Transparent the community has 2 horses on call as needed. They water flowers etc on streets, attend village parades...

Two horses!

Eeek, there’s real affluence in the South East, isn’t there?!

So couldn’t [color=#409040]OVO[/color] supply you with a matching buggy until they can replace the charger?

Just so you know, I’m enrolled on the Storage Battery Trial.

The PowerVault-3 is here and connected to rooftop solar panels. However, there’s still another meter to be fitted and some commissioning work before it can be handed across to OVO and controlled by the Flex Platform.

The Storage Battery Trial is to last 2 years, but will not operate during the 6-months of summer due to the way in which grid-demand is being assessed. So I’m unsure yet if my site will actually provide any data for this first winter.

Top-left of the photo is the connection box containing safety-trips and lightning suppression. This one is slightly more complex than most because I have the ability to switch one or more of the rooftop PV arrays to off-grid use if I want.

Today I’ve been adding electronics into this enclosure to power the digital meters and the anti-surge monitoring whilst the panels are not connected to the PowerVault battery (including at night). I need to be able to view the panel-voltages before throwing the trip to make a connection to the PowerVault unit in order to ensure it’s safe to do so.

You’ll see that I’ve also added a dedicated display showing the PowerVault Portal. This provides live readings of what is being imported from the PV Solar Panels and Distribution Grid. Actually it’s not quite “live”. There seems to be a variable lag of a minute or three before the display catches up with what I can see on my own metering.

This is just a brief overview to show you all what’s happening. The detail of the Trial is being kept for discussion in the