Posted by: @vsmith1

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Had a EVSE installed, once the DNO had done their work - my luck that we were "daisy-chained" to next door. So a direct connection to the mains and 100A connection.

Hi @vsmith1 and welcome here.

For the benefit of others who later come across your introductory post, please allow me to elaborate on your "daisy chained" explanation.

When a house first applies to their DNO for installation of Low Carbon Technology (heat-pump or EV charger), the cable map is checked to see if there is a looped or shared electricity supply.
Looped supplies are more commonly found in rows of terraced houses, whilst shared supplies are likely to be in buildings that have been divided into flats.

It's unlikely that the demand from both premises can be accommodated by the supply cable if a heat-pump or EV charger were to be added.

So the DNO runs a fresh cable from the 3-phase Feed, which is usually just outside the boundary.

Here's what this looks like on a DNO's mapping system.
Houses 1 & 2 now have their own separate cable from the 3-phase Feed on the left,
whilst houses 3 and 4 remain with a looped supply for the moment.

You're also fortunate to be given a 100A Service Fuse.

In other regions of the UK, any work undertaken by a DNO at a domestic property will result in the Service Fuse being downgraded to 80A.
That will still carry 90A+ for an hour before blowing, so it's not as drastic as it sounds.

The de-rating of the fuse is an attempt to reduce the current which can flow through the Neutral in the 3-phase Feed from the local substation.

A great many underground Feeds are exhibiting thermal stress due to phase imbalance.
Since almost all of our houses are supplied with single-phase electricity, the Neutral has to carry the current from that imbalance back to the substation transformer.

Many cables have Neutral wires which are smaller than the conductors which carry the three phases.
If the demand on those three phases is similar, then the Neutral would carry only a small current.

But a high-demand appliance in one house (or two houses on the same phase) requires high currents to flow in the Neutral.
It gets very hot, resulting in a breakdown of the insulation, and in some cases, a power outage.

Here's what this looks like in graph form when one house on phase-L2 uses an EV charger on Octopus Go tariff between 00:30 - 04:30

The grey line is the current in the Neutral, which should be running along the bottom axis.

To look after your electricity Feed Cable, it's better to spread the charging-demand over as long a time as possible.

New to the forum but have followed it for a number of years with great interest.

My background is that I live in a 1850's 4 bed house in Lancashire and have done so for 25 years, remote and so no mains gas, heating when I moved in was a very old, efficient but expensive oil fired boiler. Back in 2010 the boiler caught fire and rather than replace the whole system, which would have required a new oil tank as well, I bit the bullet and went 'green' ....but I wanted to do it cheaply. I looked in to wood pellet boilers, electric radiators but settled for ASHP. I had just had a big kitchen extension and had a lot of building work done so the thought of digging everything up to do GSHP wasn't an option. Throughout all of this I have an understanding wife who, when it has got cold puts another jumper on, she is from Lancashire. 

So 4 bed - 3 reception room house, 1850's build, solid walls, 14 rads in all the rooms, 300mm loft insulation put in when I moved in, big kitchen diner extension in 2010 built to current building regs of the time with UFH. That was the scenario that I ventured in to the ASHP journey back then. I plan to tell you of my experiences since then and where I am now...but that is for another day. 

@polar-bear welcome to the forums. When you're ready, please start a new thread dedicated to your journey.

Hi, I've been lurking for a few months and really value the experience and insight on the forum, so thanks. 

I've been running a NIBE 12kW ASHP with two Solar Water heating panels for a couple of years. Having just set up a 'low and slow' operation on the ASHP and seen a 20% reduction in running costs (and a 20% increase in Ofgem grant repayments as a result), so many thanks.

I'm a mostly retired electronics engineer, living in the South. I'm fairly involved (part-time now) in innovation projects for substation monitoring and cable pre-fault detection, and am happy to contribute where I can. 

I though I'd better introduce myself as I've just posted a response on a battery storage thread. I'm partway into starting a battery storage installation (G99 all approved for zero export, thanks for all your postings @transparent )

Posted by: @s_gatorator

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I'm a mostly retired electronics engineer, living in the South.

Is that 'south' in terms of:

• the Southern Territory in which the Smart Meter network is supplied by Telefonica?
• the southern DNO region, operated by SSE?
• the south of England in geographical terms (south of the M4)?

Posted by: @s_gatorator

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I'm fairly involved [...] in innovation projects for substation monitoring

Then we come from the same background. 😀 

My introduction to the UK energy supply system was through the OpenLV monitoring project, funded by Ofgem in 2018.

That's why I occasionally post timeline graphs showing aberations from sub-station transformers.

Hi @Transparent  - it's Southern UK, so the SSE DNO region 🙂 .

Posted by: @transparent

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My introduction to the UK energy supply system was through the OpenLV monitoring project, funded by Ofgem in 2018.

Similarly, mine was WPD's Celsius Project in 2014, then UKPN's Active Response in 2018 (both as a technical manager), and now a little involved in NGED's HV Pinpoint (more hands-on). My background is in wireless systems. 

I had an interesting day testing in December next to Deeside power station, with their HV substation crackling and fizzing crazily due salting from the storm a few days earlier.

Since your work with WPD and UKPN was salaried, are you in a position to release any of the data from those grid monitoring projects?

The advantage of OpenLV was that it included seven community groups, working within the 84 monitored substations.
When the Ofgem funded project was completed, WPD ditched the monitoring used by the participants from academia and those with commercial interests,
but re-equipped the local substations with 2nd-generation monitoring kit, specifically for use of the volunteer sector. 😀 

WPD, and now NGED, continued to receive feedback from some us.
In return I've been granted access to three of their in-house data-sets, including the EMU mapping tool.

Graphics like this provide important insights to members here on the forum as to why our domestic energy strategies must be 'grid friendly'.

NGED have given me limited rights to reproduce their data, providing it

• is for public education and better use of grid resources
• doesn't infringe privacy rules, such as showing details of individual properties

and I've self-imposed a restriction that I don't publish data which would undermine security of our energy supplies.

This Forum would welcome such insights into the grid which you may be able to provide.

This really: I've had a question awaiting moderation for coming up to 20 hours or so.  I'm assuming it's because I'm a new member/first post so fair enough and ironically, I'm going to guess that this post has an "awaiting moderation" status as well.  But maybe it might jump out at the moderator!! 😀 

Posted by: @transparent

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Since your work with WPD and UKPN was salaried, are you in a position to release any of the data from those grid monitoring projects?

Hi @transparent,

Unfortunately I don't even have any data to release. We were involved in designing and producing the substation monitoring equipment (V, I and lots of temperature sensors) for 520 substations in the WPD area. The data (30 minute averages) was collected by the prime contractor and it's no longer available. 

With the current project I assist on there are interesting national-scale effects to see, such as frequency disturbances due to a main generating station or an interconnector going off line, but not particularly relevant to the local grid issues we're discussing on this forum. 

The access you have as a volunteer for the WDP data is really interesting though.

Posted by: @andrewj

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This really: I've had a question awaiting moderation for coming up to 20 hours or so.  I'm assuming it's because I'm a new member/first post so fair enough and ironically, I'm going to guess that this post has an "awaiting moderation" status as well.  But maybe it might jump out at the moderator!! 😀 

Welcome to the forums. Topics/replies are moderated when there's a moderator online and typically takes a few minutes to a few hours depending on who's around. This one snuck through the net though... sorry about that. All approved and live now.

Hello, new member here.

I'm about to start my ASHP journey by using one to heat my garage/workshop space, I thought this might be a good place to start.

Regards

Bob

@bobtskutter welcome to the forums. Will you be going air-to-air? Feel free to start a new thread dedicated to your journey.