Recent content by deanwilts

Mid winter the focus would be on the floors and I'd be less concerned about having a charged battery. Long term I'm hopeful that an energy supplier with a night rate tarrif will support 3 phase so I could charge the batteries at cheap rate overnight. I'll have a read through the Solis manuals...

Thanks Binky. So something like this? Do I need to consider/match the 30kW rating of the solar inverter with the battery inverter in any way? I'm struggling to find a 3 phase battery inverter that's more than 10kW. I'm eyeing up a Solis 30kW 3 phase solar inverter at the moment - looks...

Yes - it's right next to it. Yes - this makes perfect sense to me, and I'm a fan of making things simple. If I had that done, is there a recommended inverter or brand of them that I could start looking at? I'd ideally like a battery at some point also, although this would likely be only on one...

That is exactly what I was told by the electrician that did the install. The property was fully refurbished in 2014 and when the underfloor heating was put in SSE said that the supply needed to be upgraded to be able to handle the new load. I'm not sure whether the use of 2 of the 3 phases was...

Actually, I just noticed the L1, L2, L3 horizontal labels - never noticed those before :) So it looks like a 3 phase board maybe, but I was told by the electricians that did the build some years ago that the whole of this consumer unit is just connected to one phase. This is the main household...

Sorry to answer with photos again but I'm not an electrician so I don't know if I'd be answering correctly... Looking at the main breakers at the bottom, I'd say quite possible that I do, although the warning label implies it's just connected to 1 ?

Hi Binky, I believe so yes. These are what the two outside boxes look like. On the meter I see references to L1, L2 and L3 and 3 sets of cables in/out. Yes - two separate consumer units.

Hi all, I'm still in the process of working out the best design for my use case. I have 3 phase power to the house with 2 of those phases in use - 1 is for the electric underfloor heating and the other for the rest of the household. We're all electric (no oil or gas - rural location etc). I've...

Electrical wire has an internal resistance, which means electricity gets lost (as heat) and the longer the wire the greater the loss. So the general rule of thumb will always be keep wires as short as possible to avoid losses/waste. The higher the voltage in use, the lower the relative loss...

Thanks Binky - yep I accept the cabling will need to be double-checked. All I know is there are 2 x 40 amp circuit breakers on the consumer unit they feed into in the house (there's a 2 x satelite consumer units in the outbuildings). I'm assuming for now they're OK. If they're not it'll be an...

Thanks @binky for the insight. Yes, I had assumed I would need something from DNO given the size of installation. I'm not that bothered about selling back to the grid given I'm confident I can consume almost all I make, but I need the hook up so that I can pull from the grid when I'm not...

Hi Binky, Thanks for your advice/thoughts. You're right about the battery - it might be overkill and something I can always add later so may consider not doing it at all to start with. That fits with me not being able to find anything (I just wasn't sure if I was using the right search...

Hi Dave, There are a bunch of reasons why things are as they are and I'm overall happy with the current setup. As you say, the objective is to use the solar PV to offset some of the current grid supplied power for heating/water and also for the general domestic use. Yes, the 2 phase supply...

Hi all. I'm new here and I'm not an electrician - I was hoping to get a little bit of advice on a solar installation that I'm looking into. First off, I won't be doing this installation (I will get an electrician to do it), but I would like to be involved in the design of the system and to at...