Newbee incoming, if I'm in the right bit that is.

Nearing the end of a barn conversion and I have sleepless nights about how I'm going to heat it, bout sums it up really. 

@alan22 welcome to the forums. Please start a new thread where you can tell us specifically about your barn, heat emitters, insulation and what your concerns are. An ASHP will almost certainly get the job done.

Newbie introducing myself. 

I have recently (Oct. 23) installed a 12kWh Samsung ASHP in a 4 bed detached house followed by a solar and battery system in Nov.

Still learning all about the ASHP settings for efficiency and its operation. Here to learn and contribute 

@swanny welcome to the forums. Lots of recent Samsung conversations on the go that you can jump into.

Hi everyone, my wife and I live in a ten year old new build. We are slowly trying to move away from gas and decided to have a solar system and Powerwall installed about 4 years ago. It’s proved a great success and has reduce our electricity bill substantially along will being able to buy electricity overnight at a cheap rate. Recently we installed a second Powerwall in readiness for a heat pump installation, hopefully this year. Colin. 

@wobby1 good luck and welcome to the forums. We look forward to your updates and hearing about your journey.

Posted by: @wobby1

↑

a solar system and Powerwall installed about 4 years ago. It’s proved a great success and has reduce our electricity bill substantially

Excellent. The local storage model is one I'm discussing with National Grid as the best strategy to reach Net Zero.

You may not have all the stats, but which investment do you think is contributing more to your lower bills?

• solar panels with their inverter?
• Powerwall battery storage?

And what proportion of that investment was spent on each of these?

Non-techie answers preferred here... This is the 'Welcome' topic which everyone reads!

@transparent Are you suggesting to National Grid that they should be targeting upgrading their local distribution infrastructure (at the expense of their National infrastructure, presumably).  It is local connections that seem to be the problem both for generators and consumers.

@wobby1 Hello and Welcome Wobby1, some similarities with our own situation except our house is a 1930’s build, we installed 8.1 kWp of PV in 2022 with one Powerwall. Last year we added ASHP and a second Powerwall. Currently on Octopus Cosy and charge the battery twice a day during the lowest rate and this has been getting us through the cold days (just) without having to use the higher rates at all. Regards, Toodles

Posted by: @ianmk13

↑

Are you suggesting to National Grid that they should be targeting upgrading their local distribution infrastructure (at the expense of their National infrastructure, presumably).  It is local connections that seem to be the problem both for generators and consumers.

This depends on where you are in the country.

As we move towards an energy supply system which has thousands of generation sites spread across the regions, I believe that the grid topology should reflect this.

The National Grid Transmission network runs at 400kV (and a few sections at 275kV) but was designed around a few major power plants which existed in the 1930s. It's rather like a tree which picks up nutrients from relatively few main roots (routes!) and transports them to the leaves via a trunk.

Now we have generation from vastly more sites, most of which are not far from the leaves.

The historical approach by National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET) to increase capacity has been to build a thicker trunk.
I contend that strategy is

• too expensive (more than HS2)
• ineffective

If we consider the future grid as an organic structure, then its topology would develop in similar fashion to a biological model.

Generation and Demand sites are interlinked by a number of different pathways.

That organic grid is not only much cheaper, but also far more resilient to failure and malicious attack.

And at this point I'm copying the above into a pre-existing Topic on the National Grid Consultation on Upgrading,
because we're going too deep for this Welcome Topic!

Hello, My Name is Michael i am really glad to have come across this site. I live in the Yorkshire Dales in an old Farmhouse that I have been renovating for the last 10 years ( nearly there ;). I had solar panels installed in 2012 and an ASHP in 2019. Unfortunately, the ASHP has been a living nightmare from installation to the current day (ongoing for over 4 years ). I will post more about that when i find the correct place to post. Hope you are all well

@tworivers welcome to the forums. When you're ready, please start up a new topic dedicated to your heat pump and your issues.