So if network costs have gone up 39%, why have standing charges gone up almost 100%?
An excellent question for your MP me-thinks!
Ofgem's online explanations haven't addressed the standing charge issue. In fact I can't even find on their website the data which the BBC published as a chart last week. Thank goodness for the quality of their journalism!
So if network costs have gone up 39%, why have standing charges gone up almost 100%?
An excellent question for your MP me-thinks!
Ofgem's online explanations haven't addressed the standing charge issue. In fact I can't even find on their website the data which the BBC published as a chart last week. Thank goodness for the quality of their journalism!
I will ask the question if I can get him to reply. At the moment he seems to be doing his best to lose my vote.
I will ask the question if I can get him to reply. At the moment he seems to be doing his best to lose my vote.
As the wider community takes action to reduce our carbon footprint and reduce energy costs, it's becoming increasingly important that we maintain good communication with elected representatives. They are very often willing, but lack the technical insights to properly inform their policy decisions.
I cultivate long-term relationships with all levels of government and often get requests to help clarify points... such as a statement on a Planning Application about energy.
The one fact they all know about me is that I'm a genuine floating voter.
I don't know to what extent that keeps the dialogue open, but I suspect conversations would be a lot shorter around election times if they knew I sided with a particular political flavour.
If you are going to write (again) to your MP, starting the email with "Although I'm a floating voter, you will undoubtedly share my concerns regarding Climate Change and energy matters...." is quite likely to gain their attention 🙂
I make a point of including at least one positive solution to any 'complaint', and I also use a style which makes it easy for them to forward my missive to the relevant official and demand an answer.
It's vital that we make government aware of renewable energy matters, which includes informing BEIS, Ofgem and Dept for Housing and Communities, especially when they are not in the middle of a public consultation. But our only route to those top-level arms of government is through our MPs.
If you're about to embark on a self-build off-grid storage supply for your heat-pump, you might be pleasantly surprised how many local Councillors would like to come and see what you're doing. One of my area Councillors has brought 'guests' to see my prototype test-rigs three times in the past 3 weeks!
Not all elected representatives are elected equal.
The problem, which I chose to make my problem, which is nonetheless a very common problem: how to make an ASHP work in an old leaky building with not many options in the way of improving insulation. I forget what the proportion of UK housing stock that fits this description is, but it is very high. I encountered a number of problems, none trivial: nonsensical planning and listed building consent requirements, 'preferred' (by the granting bodies) installers who turned out to be incompetent, quotations from MCS accredited installers that made no sense. On a number of occasions, I came within a whisker of giving up, and reverting to oil (we are off the gas grid). You might imagine my MP (guaranteed Tory majority) and local councillor (Lib Dem, does a lot of hand-wringing but not much else) might be interested in my progress (and at times lack of it), given their publicly stated commitments to green energy. Not a bit of it. No assistance, no followup, I don't think either even knows the outcome. They have their own agenda, and have no interest in learning from the real world experiences of real people trying to put real systems into real homes.
'Interesting' reading: oral evidence to the Environmental Audit Committee in Nov 2020. April 2022: RHI ends, green home grants cut. As the saying goes, you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. There aren't that many monkeys in the UK right now...
I have replaced all the 18 year old Drayton RTS 1 UFH controllers for Neostat V2 units. They not only look smarter, but are also more accurate.
I have connected the pump demand from our UFH controller to the Valliant VR71 to allow it to directly control the heat pump. This in connection with the Neostat V2s should hopefully make the system more efficient.
I do however, have a question for those in the know.
With thin the settings on the Senso comfort unit, in the Basic system Diagram config menu, it is set as 10. Looking through the different system config drawings that Valliant provide, looking at the system we have, I believe it should be set as an 8. We do not have any hex modules or hydraulic stations.
Does anyone have any experience of what this may be to the operation of the system? I believe Valliant have done this to make the systems as efficient and easy as possible from the get go. Will changing this make a measurable different in performance?
@drew-pa Looking at the schematics it seems you may be right about it being 8 and not 10. If you give the Vaillant Renewables Team a ring tomorrow they'll definitely be able to advise if someone on here can't. I'd be interested to know if this does affect performance in any way.
@saz Ill give them a bell and see what they say. In the mean time it has been changed, lets see what happens. On another forum it was mentioned that its changes where the temperature is read. Im not expecting major changes, lets see.
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