@transparent I do keep a record of everything.

On the several occasions when EPCs have been done on properties I have either sold or bought (or in this case had energy efficiency measures installed) , there has been an inspection - not a questionaire - on all three occasions the EPCs were wrong in certain details, and not because I had been asked any questions, but because the inspector had got it wrong.

Hi I live in Cheshire UK and have the following installed. 

gas central heating and hot water from a combi boiler

UFH heated by the combi boiler

solar panels 4.1Kw aided by a 5Kw battery

the underfloor heating requires a big chunk of our winter heating, we used the lounge last winter withe UFH turned on frost. The difference was the UFH was just as costly as using the gas fire in the lounge.

we don’t heat upstairs or our downstairs bedroom or the lounge normally, only rads used in winter are hall and bathroom.

I keep a log of electric and gas costs every day, we use the conservatory year round as it’s 20’ X 20’ and 12’ wide L shaped.

long term projects:-

the tiles in the conservatory are toast with cracks every wear been down for 6 years, with no cracks at 4 years but the tiles have bad reviews for cracking, So these will be taken up along with the kitchen, screed checked for any damage and new tiles relaid in both rooms.
I would like to see if I can run the UFH from a ASHP leaving the  boiler for the rest of the house, with the possibility to inter grate into house in the future.

additional battery on the solar instal, have a backup link added to the inverter ( it does have a connection to do this ) 

have a electric car point added to charge in daytime ( would only charge at night if I had lower rate ) why go for cheap car running if you still have to pay for electric, I have plenty of spare electric in the day and between us we do 2000 a year.

Posted by: @transparent

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The new set of Building Regulations, Part-L, comes into force on 15th June (next week).

@transparent Is that correct? My understanding is that this is the end of the one year transitionary arrangements for projects that had been registered for Building Control approval prior to the 15th June 2022 (in England), but not yet started construction. I haven’t seen any updates on the Building Regulations website.

We fell foul of this change last year with our refurbishment and extension project, resulting in knock on delays that means we are still struggling to get anything constructed. Although with the eye watering costs and lack of builders we may just give up.

I understand that there is likely to be a new SAP (11?) released around 2025 which will be considerably more stringent.

I need to check those dates for phased introduction of Part-L @rusty

My information was derived from a briefing aimed at small/local building firms. It's possible that the author was over-simplifying the situation for that audience.

Yes a new SAP specification is long overdue.
It's an issue I've been discussing with my LPA because most of the new houses being constructed within their area do not comply with the current SAP-2014 edition, but the earlier SAP-2009.

The larger, national building companies are members of NHBC, who provide their certification for compliance with the Building Act.

But those companies pre-register sites with NHBC, - which effectively stops the clock at that point in time.

This enables them to negotiate an Option to purchase the land, and start applying for planning permission, knowing full well that the houses only have comply with Building Regs and SAP-scores which were prevalent at the time.

LPAs know that this occurs, and have attempted to force major builders to comply with more stringent energy-related conditions which have been voted/adopted by the Council.

However, that strategy has been undermined by the terms of the Deregulation Act 2015, Section 43:-

I am located in Mintlaw in the North East of Scotland

My system is a Daikin Altherma Hybrid system consisting of the following

Outdoor Unit     EVLQ08CAV3

Indoor Unit         EHYHBH08AAV32

Boiler    EHYKOMB33AA2A

We have just had solar panels, inverter, battery an EDDI unit installed as follows

Solar Panels

5.220 kW Total Solar Power

12 x 435 Watt Panels

Inverter

SOLIS - Ningbo Ginlong Technologies

3.600 kW Total Inverter Rating

1 x Hybrid Inverter - RHI-3.6K-48ES (With Battery under 14 Panels) -

Battery

Puredrive Energy

5 kWh Total Battery Storage

Eco-Smart Energy Diverter

3.68 kW, Single Phase Eco-Smart Energy Diverter

My query is how do I run my DHW and CH systems on electric only (at least during the summer).  I have tried setting the gas price to a high level but and setting the DHW tank temperature on the hybrid system to a low figure but the gas still wants to come in and heat the DHW.  I have also tried isolating the gas supply to the boiler but this brings up a fault.  At the moment we are exporting electricity and I would much rather use it for the CH.  If I switch the Daikin system off totally then the eddi panel controls the DHW but there is no heat going to the CH.

Thanks in Anticipation

Tom

What a great forum and thank you for letting me in. Relocated from south of England in Jan 23 to the Coast near Ayr in SW Scotland just 200m from the sea!.In June added 4.9KWp PV's and 3.6kw Sunsynk hybrid inverter along with 3 X 5.12kWh batteries (Sunsynk). 

Planning on replacing gas boiler with ASHP. House well insulated EPC B (91pts) but is very open plan. Had quote for Valiant 12kW arotherm plus , 45 litre buffer tank and a Vaillant 3kw inline booster heater for the coldest weather. Installer plans on keeping existing DHW 300l tank. They also say the existing radiators do not need to be replaced. The house is 300m sq and built in 2011

I do not want a wood stove for back up as no chimney(!)but looking for reassurance that ASHP is the right way to go! 

Hi an welcome to the forum.  I'm assuming you've had full heat loss calcs done and they support the spec of a 12kW ASHP. What's you outside temperature and flow temp will the booster kick in?     

Hi, Welcome to the forum! A few things I would query from the quote-

1) the need for a buffer tank- these can cause a sizeable dent in efficiency. Many good installers now opt for an open system with no zoning and just trv’s on the bedroom rads. This gets enough flow through the system for the ASHP to work and keeps the system lean and efficient. 

2) the need for the inline direct heater- this is completely redundant in a well-designed, appropriately sized system. It doesn’t make the installer sound very confident about their own product’s performance which suggests inexperience/poor training.

3) What flow temp are they planning to use if they say you can keep all the existing rads? It’s worth the cost of upgrading some if it means you can have a 35 C flow

Personally, I would approach some other firms for quotes. 

@dougmlancs I get your point about the buffer tank and the in line heater. Design temp is 50c   I have a full heat loss report and am awaiting another quote   It’s a bit of quirky house as the kitchen to the large hall to the upstairs lounge is effectively one room! EPC heat demand is about 22000 kWh  have been here since beginning of January and gas usage reflects that having used about 11000 kWh  Gas boiler is 32kw system boiler 12 years old  has a bit of life in it but would like to replace soon! 

@kev-m Yes had full heat loss done and awaiting another. We hear would I find the kick in temperature on the heat loss report for the booster?

Posted by: @sheps

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@kev-m Yes had full heat loss done and awaiting another. We hear would I find the kick in temperature on the heat loss report for the booster?

Not sure but somewhere there should be a design ambient temperature/flow temperature for the heat pump - something like 50 deg flow at -4 deg ambient.  If it doesn't say it explicitly a sensible assumption would be any colder and the booster kicks in. I'd expect this to be stated though. I think booster heaters are rare in the UK - I don't have one but then I'm in England. Is it definitely a booster for the heating and not the hot water (nearly all systems will have a backup immersion heater for the HW, mainly for legionella prevention) 

@kev-m From the heat loss report. It seems the booster is just belt and braces?
when external temp is -3.8c , total heat source to heat must provide 11.84kw. Max designed Flow temp 50 c SPF 3.92 and “heat ump can run happily at 55c giving a fair margin of safety on  the output plus the 3kw booster heater on top of this again, “