John, very interesting and a somewhat busy year! A brilliant image in the opening sequence of that red/yellow sky. I also noticed one of your images on the wall is one which I have! (The horizontal one.) Best wishes to you and Jill for the New Year.
Good to see you back on YT and very helpful stats for the year. We are looking to add a Heat Pump and in your video you mentioned about re-balancing the radiators due to not enough heat downstairs. I wondered have you been happy with the HP and does it give you enough heat? Is there anything you would have done differently? I did see you interview with your installer so I guess you are happy but it's the small.memtion of getting it hotter downstairs that got me thinking. Great to see you back
Thanks for the welcome back James. The heat pump has been great there's nothing I would have change having lived with it across 18 months. Balancing the rads should happen on any radiator based system, gas or heat pump driven. Most often the upstairs rads run too hot. Closing the lock shields, rather than stopping down the rad thermostat reduces the flow through them allowing the warmer water to circulate to the lower downstairs radiators rather than cooling down as it enters then leaves the upstairs rads. Balancing is probably more important with an ASHP as the flow temp are lower and therefore more noticeable in a room where there is more heat loss. I was not too clear in the video, our worst performing room is the dinning room has the biggest heat loss. The rest of the downstairs rooms are fine, we have a temp sensor in every room in the house. The dinning room needed more heat and it'd rads are at the end of the pipe run which makes it even more important to balance the system.
@@johntisburythank you, useful to know. We are on the cusp of ordering but there's been a couple of negative comments from people my wife knows one of whom has a HP and regrets but it sounds like there's haven't been set up properly.
@jamesmcfeely9150 good system design and installation is everything with a heat pump. It all starts with the heat loss survey. Get a good engineer, someone like a heat geek and you will be fine.
@@johntisbury agreed. the order is about to be submitted with Heat Geek due to the guarantee they offer. Look forward to seeing the videos in 2025. All the best, James
Hello John, good to see all the developments at your property. Not many high cost grid units taken so two Powerwalls looks like the right number for you at the moment. Our garage looks a lot like yours did and I've wondered about removing the central pillar ... but having just replaced the two doors it would be madness (anticipating wife's reaction) to change! Here's hoping for a better 2025. Nic
Thanks Nic. The central pillar was always a pain, been like that since we moved in when the house was new in 2001 so eventually got round to sorting it. I sold the old doors on eBay and got £300 for them, so you could take that tack too. Yes let's hope for more sun in 2025!
It's been one of the few early adopter decisions that has paid off! Mind you back in 2011 our solar installation cost £15K which would buy you a street's worth of solar now. 😀
Thanks for watching. Averages can be a bit deceiving as they blend the outliers. Like you, this Jan 2025 just our ASHP has been daily pulling 30 - 50kWh in the really cold snap. Total houses has been 70 - 80kWh which includes car charging to be fair.
Good afternoon John, one more quick query. What do you use to monitor your temperatures and humidity levels? I have some Zigbee devices but have mainly use Hue (as they work). Be useful to know which devices you use if you have a moment.
I use zigged devices too, the Sonoff SNBZ-02 model. Battery life is excellent way over 12months and connectivity is good. I get your point about zigged though as I have smart plugs on zigbee with are very erratic in their connection stability. Hue is great, expensive but it does work and is reliable.
Hi Kevin, thanks for watching. No I don't run a legionella cycle. TBF it is rarely needed if you empty the hot water tank on a regular basis there's no risk of bacteria building up. I've given you a link to a Heat Geek video on the subject which is well worth a watch. ruclips.net/video/oJeyc_cGIMU/видео.htmlsi=CP8v4oZNDL5PzWpm
Not often quotes of this nature have a breakdown of labour and parts, typically it's a total cost. Not thought about it until you asked the question as to why. For example automotive repairs and servicing does provide a parts and labour breakdown. They can do this because they have standard job times for various tasks which they quote against. based on their hourly rate. With heating installations working labour time is harder to do as they don't know what they will find until they start, so most often they work it out based on a day rate. Either way you don't tend to get a breakdown. I'm planning to do an in-depth video on the install, costs, usage and performance so will cover that then if that's okay.
Question on the powerwall 2, if the grid power goes off, does yours take over immedietly or do you have a few seconds loss of power? Mine goes off for 3 seconds, which i was told is normal in the UK. Iv had to buy a few ups's for my computer equipment to stay on and still having to reset the oven and microwave clock 😭
Good question Shaun. Not all outages are the same in terms of how the power goes down. Instant ones are not normally detected by the Powerwall until after a few seconds like you have experienced. The Powerwall is not a UPS so it won't automatically cut in unless there's a slow drop in voltage before a power cut.
Hi. We have PW2s as well and when grid goes out we lose electric for about one second. Like you in thinking of adding in a UPS so our internet stays on (I work from home) as well as the essential IT equipment/backup storage. I never quite understand why it does go off as when it does we are already running off the battery. Shame it's not quite as seamless as I assumed.
It is great to see you back, John. I have certainly missed your videos.
Thank you Nigel, good of you to say so.
Thank you for sharing. That FiT payment really is the hero of the day!
Thanks for watching. Yes the FiT is helping tremendously with our renewables journey.
Brilliant to see a vlog out John. Excited to watch tomorrow.
I hope you find it useful. Appreciate the welcoming back too.
Good to see you back John 😁
Thank you 🙏
WOW John ,welcome back you have been busy.
Thanks Andrew, yes time does seem to get away with you!
John, very interesting and a somewhat busy year! A brilliant image in the opening sequence of that red/yellow sky. I also noticed one of your images on the wall is one which I have! (The horizontal one.) Best wishes to you and Jill for the New Year.
Thanks Barry, happy New Year to you too. Ah yes so you do have that image. We do well for sunsets here, not so much for sunrises.
Good to see you back on YT and very helpful stats for the year. We are looking to add a Heat Pump and in your video you mentioned about re-balancing the radiators due to not enough heat downstairs. I wondered have you been happy with the HP and does it give you enough heat? Is there anything you would have done differently? I did see you interview with your installer so I guess you are happy but it's the small.memtion of getting it hotter downstairs that got me thinking. Great to see you back
Thanks for the welcome back James.
The heat pump has been great there's nothing I would have change having lived with it across 18 months.
Balancing the rads should happen on any radiator based system, gas or heat pump driven. Most often the upstairs rads run too hot. Closing the lock shields, rather than stopping down the rad thermostat reduces the flow through them allowing the warmer water to circulate to the lower downstairs radiators rather than cooling down as it enters then leaves the upstairs rads. Balancing is probably more important with an ASHP as the flow temp are lower and therefore more noticeable in a room where there is more heat loss. I was not too clear in the video, our worst performing room is the dinning room has the biggest heat loss. The rest of the downstairs rooms are fine, we have a temp sensor in every room in the house. The dinning room needed more heat and it'd rads are at the end of the pipe run which makes it even more important to balance the system.
@@johntisburythank you, useful to know. We are on the cusp of ordering but there's been a couple of negative comments from people my wife knows one of whom has a HP and regrets but it sounds like there's haven't been set up properly.
@jamesmcfeely9150 good system design and installation is everything with a heat pump. It all starts with the heat loss survey. Get a good engineer, someone like a heat geek and you will be fine.
@@johntisbury agreed. the order is about to be submitted with Heat Geek due to the guarantee they offer. Look forward to seeing the videos in 2025. All the best, James
Hello John, good to see all the developments at your property. Not many high cost grid units taken so two Powerwalls looks like the right number for you at the moment. Our garage looks a lot like yours did and I've wondered about removing the central pillar ... but having just replaced the two doors it would be madness (anticipating wife's reaction) to change! Here's hoping for a better 2025. Nic
Thanks Nic. The central pillar was always a pain, been like that since we moved in when the house was new in 2001 so eventually got round to sorting it. I sold the old doors on eBay and got £300 for them, so you could take that tack too.
Yes let's hope for more sun in 2025!
your right about your golden FITs, mine went on in 2013 so not as lucky as you John :)
It's been one of the few early adopter decisions that has paid off! Mind you back in 2011 our solar installation cost £15K which would buy you a street's worth of solar now. 😀
Interesting. And impressively low daily kwh for the house.. ive been tipping toward 40 or 50kwh in this jan 2025 cold spell..
Thanks for watching. Averages can be a bit deceiving as they blend the outliers. Like you, this Jan 2025 just our ASHP has been daily pulling 30 - 50kWh in the really cold snap. Total houses has been 70 - 80kWh which includes car charging to be fair.
Good afternoon John, one more quick query. What do you use to monitor your temperatures and humidity levels? I have some Zigbee devices but have mainly use Hue (as they work). Be useful to know which devices you use if you have a moment.
I use zigged devices too, the Sonoff SNBZ-02 model. Battery life is excellent way over 12months and connectivity is good. I get your point about zigged though as I have smart plugs on zigbee with are very erratic in their connection stability. Hue is great, expensive but it does work and is reliable.
Hello. Will be getting a heat pump in near future. Do you run a legionnela cycle and if so how often? Thanks.
Hi Kevin, thanks for watching.
No I don't run a legionella cycle. TBF it is rarely needed if you empty the hot water tank on a regular basis there's no risk of bacteria building up. I've given you a link to a Heat Geek video on the subject which is well worth a watch. ruclips.net/video/oJeyc_cGIMU/видео.htmlsi=CP8v4oZNDL5PzWpm
Do you mind indicating the cost for the supply and separately the installation of the Air to air units
Not often quotes of this nature have a breakdown of labour and parts, typically it's a total cost. Not thought about it until you asked the question as to why. For example automotive repairs and servicing does provide a parts and labour breakdown. They can do this because they have standard job times for various tasks which they quote against. based on their hourly rate. With heating installations working labour time is harder to do as they don't know what they will find until they start, so most often they work it out based on a day rate. Either way you don't tend to get a breakdown.
I'm planning to do an in-depth video on the install, costs, usage and performance so will cover that then if that's okay.
Question on the powerwall 2, if the grid power goes off, does yours take over immedietly or do you have a few seconds loss of power? Mine goes off for 3 seconds, which i was told is normal in the UK. Iv had to buy a few ups's for my computer equipment to stay on and still having to reset the oven and microwave clock 😭
Good question Shaun. Not all outages are the same in terms of how the power goes down. Instant ones are not normally detected by the Powerwall until after a few seconds like you have experienced. The Powerwall is not a UPS so it won't automatically cut in unless there's a slow drop in voltage before a power cut.
Hi. We have PW2s as well and when grid goes out we lose electric for about one second. Like you in thinking of adding in a UPS so our internet stays on (I work from home) as well as the essential IT equipment/backup storage. I never quite understand why it does go off as when it does we are already running off the battery. Shame it's not quite as seamless as I assumed.
3 seconds is a lot, but just the half to one second that we have is too long for the computers and clocks, etc, which get upset like yours.