Posted by: @editor

@batalto, we changed our distribution pump and it made a world of difference. And you’re right, radiator balancing is extremely important.

@editor

I will probably need to research how to do the juggling act that is called radiator balancing.

So, after several days I am there. All of the rads are lovely and warm - ALL of them. So I've taken this moment to lower the weather compensation by 5°. We'll see how that goes over the next couple of days and then lower it again.

For background it's now 32° @ 16° ambient and 55° @ -2° ambient. 

These figures are now subject to change until I get the system dialled in. But I can tell you, before ALL else balance your damn radiators. What a difference. Trial and error are 100% your friend. In fact I've still got one rad which I would consider too warm so I might dial it back some more to push more water where I need it.

@editor today's haul of filter crap. Considerably less than yesterday's

@batalto, much better. In a few days' time you'll have no more rubbish in your filter. Where is your filter located? 

@editor it's right next to everything else in the "plant cupboard". It's where the old gas boiler still resides with the solar batteries, inverter, consumer units, ASHP control, some coats and my son's collection of scooters. Being in the house and a 5 second walk from the sink makes checking it a 1 minute job.

@batalto Shame on you Batalto, your radiators should not be lovely and warm, they should be lovely and cold!!!!!!

Joking apart, it may take some time to get there, but it will be worth it in the end.

@derek-m using the MSmart APP I found I can see my power use and heat delivered! Its not perfect as it just gives you a number for the day, not hour by hour, however its a start.

Today so far we used 23kw for heating and 8kw for hot water. It delivered 68kw for heating and 13kw for hot water. With average hot water at 55 degrees and average heating at 41 degrees

Heating: 68/23 = 2.95 COP

Hot water: 23/8 = 2.87 COP

Given the hot water was this morning when it was warmer, that accounts for the higher COP. Last night we got down to 2 degrees, so I am fairly pleased with that COP. Also we use a lot of heating overnight due to the 5p tariff, so this is very deliberate. I run the system to get heat into the house. I might play with lowering this, as I am not sure I am seeing much benefit.

Yesterday as a whole

heating: 111 kw / 37 kw = 3 COP

hot water: 23kw / 11kw = 2 COP

Heating water setting average 44 degrees

@batalto,

do you need your HW at 55? Unless you're having a lot of baths, you could maybe get away with less.  Ours is 50 and even that's too hot for a shower or handwashing on its own so I might dial it down a little.  It might not save many ££ but every little helps.

@kev-m we found at 50 we started to lose the heat after morning showers. 55 seems to be the sweet spot

We've set out hot water to 44C - ideal for us, but it will vary on peoples' preference. Always interesting to see.

@editor I think for us it's a function of having a very high flow rate rain shower. All that extra cold water into the tank cools it fairly rapidly. Maybe we should be less decedent and get a normal shower... But I suppose there is a line between living and surviving

This evening's update. Cleaned out the filter again, more crap in there. Hopefully I won't need to do this many more days now. Amazing how much rubbish was floating around in the central heating before the gauze was installed. I've also adjusted the heating schedule to remove the 00.30-04.30 heating push I've been doing for the last few weeks. I don't think it's making any difference in the scheme of things, so I've axed it. I imagine it'll cut power use, but at 5p over that time it'll make limited difference in the grand scheme.

I've adjusted my weather compensation down again. Now at 50° @ -2° and 30° @ 15°

The rads were all nice and warm today and that was 55 and 33. So let's see what impact this will have. I cannot stress enough how important balancing the radiators has been to this whole thing.

Finally I'm now extracting COP data from the app that can access my HP. No idea how accurate it is, but it's a start!