Sure @matwin  - Mars and I can probably fit in writing a manual on domestic power consumption in our copious amount of spare time. 🤔 

Fortunately we both have understanding wives who go out to work, make loads of money, and cook us lavish meals whilst we play-around at home writing blogs.

More seriously, I do make comments on appliance efficiency throughout the forum as and when I can.
Here's an illustrated description on dedicated LED lighting, for example.

My time is currently divided between:

• renovating a cold NE room to become a home-office
• writing briefings to elected Councillors about future energy strategy, and threats to grid security

It's a very tricky balancing act...

... and becoming the more urgent since the Iberian grid outage of 28th April

@matwin I do enjoy writing, but not sure I could stretch this into a book 🤣 But it could make for a very interesting article. We have wine fridge that's horrifically energy hungry so it's been off for years... would you like to write a piece for the main site @transparent?

@editor maybe we can start a topic for everyone to chip in what they know about wasteful kWh consumption?

@transparent And in addition to all the above @transparent , from the photos you have published, I believe you are busy running a child slavery cartel… 😉

@editor Classification of consumption might be based on watching an old style electricity meter - you know, how fast that disc is revolving. Low consumption devices might come in the category of ‘leisurely’, medium consumption category might be known as ‘breezy’ and those high consumption devices would be categorised as ‘spinning top’. 

My spinning top devices such as the ASHP and DHW system will have to continue as is, the tumble dryer is at least a heat pump equipped device but the oven is rarely used as this role has been taken over by the air fryer! Regards, Toodles the Scrooge!

Posted by: @editor

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not sure I could stretch this into a book

I think my trouble is that I could easily write a whole manual on the efficiency of home appliances.

Yes, I do take great care in selecting which appliances to buy in the first place,
and I also take into account the 'standby-current' for when a TV or a monitor is idle.

But my home now exists in a state of energy abundance, brought about by 56kWh of storage battery.

That changes the mindset more than you might imagine.
It's like living in a Net Zero world which had been achieved through applying sound scientific judgement rather than political policy!

My computers are rarely turned off.
They have integral DC-DC Converters and can operate from a supply anywhere between 20v - 60v DC.
Almost all have AMD or ARM processors because they draw very little power when sleeping.

Turning electronics off-on creates thermal stresses which slightly reduces the equipment lifetime.
I've now reached the point where the long-term reliability is more valuable than the 'free' electricity which gets used.

I build my own LED lighting fixtures, some of which are integrated into the fabric of the building...
Here, for example, I'm placing LED-strip into an aluminium channel which forms the corner-bead of a plastered wall.

Of course, most people could never achieve these outcomes.

But that's how I get the insights as to how things should be done.

Hi. David here , living in Inverness area for last 34 yrs. Mechanical engineer. I've been working in renewables for 20 years, started in wave energy for 10 yrs then switched to heat pumps, field servicing, repairs, advice ,installation. Now working for a charity who, alongside local councils, have been upgrading scotland's housing stock for Net Zero and area based schemes for the last 35 years.

I have had various heat pumps in various property types, currently nibe 1155 gshp rad system with a 400m loop. No solar yet , our useage is pretty low so i'm not in a rush.

Cheers! 🙂

Welcome, @dgt_73. By the sound of it, there's quite a bit going on here that might interest you and certainly you've plenty of experience we'd love you to share.

Are there any pending personal projects you're getting geared up for?

I am a UK based product manager for an energy storage systems company with an interest in traditional PV technology and sustainable clean energy. I will do my best to provide advice and references.

Hi all

I’m Andy, a software project manager/ product owner by trade - originally an electronics engineer.

We’re restoring a stone house in the Eden valley, which includes a Windhager 21kW biomass boiler that we inherited. I upgraded its Honeywell based s-plan system to Evohome, mainly to give us remote control and monitoring, and installed all new radiators upstairs, and also had our hot water upgraded to an unvented cylinder. My plan is to install/ get installed ufh downstairs using the geocell & limecrete system, and to plan ahead for a transition to heat pump as part of this.

Finding competent heating engineers who want to talk about heat loss or system design in our area has been very challenging so I’ve been trying to learn about heat pumps and heating system design in general from Heatgeek, Andrew Millward, Michael de Podesta, Szymon Czaban, Mars’ podcasts, etc. I’m finding it really interesting and would consider a hands-on plumbing, design or education role in future - possible career change.

Thanks in advance to any one on the forum that can help and advise on our journey!

Andy

Posted by: @andycoo

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Thanks in advance to any one on the forum that can help and advise on our journey!

 

Welcome

You have already done the most important thing which is to read up about it and join this forum.  You may be past this point but there is a good beginners guide explaining the basic concepts here

Some comments/questions to think about:

General heating engineers wont always understand house loss, but any ashp installer will (and if they dont, then show them the door).  Alternatively you can do an approximate (or indeed accurate) estimate yourself using the various tools available online, or your own spreadsheet.  It is probably worth doing that sooner rather than later to get a feel for what loss bracket you are actually in.

Given the construction it may well be worth getting a measurement of air change rate.  This is often well overestimated and probably VERY difficult to judge for your property.  Its also monitoring current fuel consumption if thats practical. 

You are likely going to want to lose the ecohome when you go ashp, they are generally best operated without on/off controls, although your property may just be an exception if its in fact very lossy. 

Is the UVC heat pump ready (3 sq m coil?)  If not most installers will want to replace it, but a (cheaper) alternative is to fit a circulator pump and a PHE as an alternative to the inbuilt coil. 

Have the rads been sized for low temperature operation?  If not what flow temperature have they been sized for (or dont you know).  There is relatively little point in dimensioning the UFH to operate at a lower temp than the rads because it means that the heat pump must supply water at the higher of the two flow temperatures with the corresponding efficiency.  I would personally hold off on the UFH until you have a heat loss estimate and have worked out whether the rads are large enough for your intended flow temperature (and if not, what the plan is).

Hope those questions get you thinking, please feel free to keep ,posting as your ideas evolve and information emerges. 

@jamespa thanks for your reply!

I’ve made a heatpunk project so have a first shot at whole house heatloss. Air changes are indeed tricky and we can’t really get a test done as there are still lots of fabric improvements to be made as there renovations are ongoing. I also have a fair idea of maximum total heating season requirements based on four 1 tonne pallets of pellets and one of fuel logs (24000 kWh).

Yes I wasn’t expecting to keep the evohome after moving to ASHP, it’s just very useful at the moment and during the transition.  
I hadn’t thought about the UVC coil actually, good catch thanks. It’s a dual coil (solar) with the coils piped in series at the moment, but they are only 0.77m2 each so we may have to do as you suggested.

Unfortunately I was not really low temp heating aware when we selected the new rads so they may indeed be undersized at the moment, but need to check. We’ll be basing the ufh design on proper heatloss (someone Mars recommended is already working on this). Then I need a good plan for how to set up the biomass temp and any mixing required for ufh and maybe rads in the medium term.

I’ll maybe create a separate post with all the info on our system and what ideas I have 🙂

thanks again

Andy