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Choice of intelligent switches ?
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jeepjunkie wrote: »Immersun install tomorrow :j
Getting very excited
Just to set your level of expectation, the ImmerSUN doesn't get to divert much electricity at this time of year. For us in Sept (10days) it diverted 38kWh, Oct 97kWh and so far in November 20kWh (7 days). The week before last generation was so bad that the ImmerSUN was 'Waiting...' for 5 days solid. It certainly won't replace your water heating source at this time of year, but it should reduce your bills to some extent. That being said I would still recommend it, but like the PV the winter performance can be a little underwhelming.Cider Country Solar PV generator: 3.7kWp Enfinity system on unshaded SE (-36deg azimuth) & 45deg roof0 -
sly_dog_jonah wrote: »Just to set your level of expectation, the ImmerSUN doesn't get to divert much electricity at this time of year. For us in Sept (10days) it diverted 38kWh, Oct 97kWh and so far in November 20kWh (7 days). The week before last generation was so bad that the ImmerSUN was 'Waiting...' for 5 days solid. It certainly won't replace your water heating source at this time of year, but it should reduce your bills to some extent. That being said I would still recommend it, but like the PV the winter performance can be a little underwhelming.
Thanks for your advice, much appreciated. Yup its that time of year when generation tails off so won't see good results until spring. At least I'll have reached my goal of trying to use most of my generation so I'll have to look into old fashioned ways of saving more electricity.
If I had the cash I'd like to put another 4kWp pv system on the other side of the roof but there is also the possibility of generating from our river... But that has so many hoops to jump through0 -
John_Pierpoint wrote: »Can you ask your installers for their experience (if any) of wiring up TWO destinations for the surplus generation?
I have personally turned off all but a 2kW (approx) night storage heater and then changed the time clock to dump excess power into said night storage heater in the hall.
BUT presumably the switching has to be idiot proof to avoid damage/cut-out at the Immersun ?
Next Summer get it wrong and come home from a weekend away to piping hot water and a hall full of cracked antiques and wilted house plants:o
Reminds me of the time I flew off on a short break and came home to water running down the drive from that "last minute" watering of the greenhouse.
No probs, will do0 -
jeepjunkie wrote: »... but there is also the possibility of generating from our river... But that has so many hoops to jump through
If we had direct access to a brook or river which wasn't too far from the house I'd be looking at a GSHP with the ground loop in the running water .... :cool:
We looked at an old millhouse about 20 years ago (complete with pond etc) but decided not to buy because of 'right of way' and possible flooding issues, but it would have been capable of providing all of the energy which would be needed to run all of the household appliances and a WSHP taking heat from the millpond ...
HTH
Z"We are what we repeatedly do, excellence then is not an act, but a habit. " ...... Aristotle0 -
I know of a group looking at an old mill (disused and converted to 4 houses) powered by a chalk spring/stream - they think it would yield 15 kW. ?!0
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Hi
If we had direct access to a brook or river which wasn't too far from the house I'd be looking at a GSHP with the ground loop in the running water .... :cool:
We looked at an old millhouse about 20 years ago (complete with pond etc) but decided not to buy because of 'right of way' and possible flooding issues, but it would have been capable of providing all of the energy which would be needed to run all of the household appliances and a WSHP taking heat from the millpond ...
HTH
Z
Yeah we looked into GSHP but in the window of time for renovation we had for the house is was a non starter as getting people just to quote is a challenge in itself... Besides the ASHP we ended up with is fantastic.
The river itself does not have much of a head but can go from a gentle stream to river rapids you wouldn't cross if your life depended on it hence the river bed is subject to movement/erosion which would makes generation/GSHP challenging.
Luckily it is downhill from the house and is partly lined with gambions
Immersun install did not go ahead as the installers could not guatantee a seemless install with the Ecodan. Perhaps once some brave person has accomplished an install without upsetting the Ecodan I'll look into it againAll credit to the installers as they did do a lot of research and a site visit.
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sly_dog_jonah wrote: »Just to set your level of expectation, the ImmerSUN doesn't get to divert much electricity at this time of year. For us in Sept (10days) it diverted 38kWh, Oct 97kWh and so far in November 20kWh (7 days). The week before last generation was so bad that the ImmerSUN was 'Waiting...' for 5 days solid. It certainly won't replace your water heating source at this time of year, but it should reduce your bills to some extent. That being said I would still recommend it, but like the PV the winter performance can be a little underwhelming.
This is where a realistic appraisal of benefit v cost is needed if you have gas CH.
Your savings equate to around £6 to £7(depending on boiler efficiency) in 7 weeks.
Doubtless many days in summer you will have masses of surplus electricity, but a water tank has a finite capacity.
When smart metering arrives, presumably you will need to deduct the lost income from the exported kWh from savings?
Food for thought?0 -
This is where a realistic appraisal of benefit v cost is needed if you have gas CH.
Your savings equate to around £6 to £7(depending on boiler efficiency) in 7 weeks.
Doubtless many days in summer you will have masses of surplus electricity, but a water tank has a finite capacity.
When smart metering arrives, presumably you will need to deduct the lost income from the exported kWh from savings?
Food for thought?
I had already factored in all of the points you raised in my analysis prior to purchase. I've estimated the gas savings to be in excess of £10 as there are inefficiencies in both the boiler and the indirect heating mechanism in an unvented system such as ours.
The first generation of Smart Meters will not support microgeneration (because they can't measure export) and the standards for the 2nd generation have yet to be agreed. I doubt therefore that we will personally have a Smart Meter installed prior to the estimated break-even point. Additionally our electricity meter is under 2 years old and the gas meter 1 month old so won't be due for replacement any time soon. The gas meter is also the responsibility of an IGT, which will also no doubt add to delays rolling out Smart Meters. Even if we do get one prior to then the cost difference between gas and the exported electricity will still make the ImmerSUN worthwhile and likely extend the life of our boiler.Cider Country Solar PV generator: 3.7kWp Enfinity system on unshaded SE (-36deg azimuth) & 45deg roof0 -
I got Philip Long from Sunny Futures Ltd to install ours. £420 including VAT, although I did arrange for 2 installs in the same street to get that price. I think his usual price is £450.
Performance has been as expected, although yesterday was a write off. Currently averaging around 3.6kWh's per day so far. I'd made my decision based on 1095kWh's per year at 12.5p each, as we only use electricity for hot water. obviously most of the saving will come in the summer so waiting with interest to see what happens during winter time.
I did find one drawback which is that the Immersun changes the waveform of the electricity which means that our existing energy monitor, a wattson solar plus, doesn't record the readings correctly. It still show the usage tracking the generation but seems to count the Immersun usage twice, meaning that it read more import than the meters show. I've contacted both Immersun and DIY Kyoto about this so hopefully they can rectify this.
Another slight issue is when to use the timed boost, in case the water doesn't reach full temp with the Immersun alone. The end of the solar day coincides with the use of the oven and the boost needs to cater for good and bad weather alike. I think that the timed boost would need to be changed 2/4 times a year to operate most efficiently.
All in all very happy so far. My neighbour gets a better yield from his immersun due to his panel orientation but as he uses gas to heat his hot water he can't claim the same payback period as ours. He's said he's very impressed by it though so there's two happy customers at least!
Why not come back and post an update when you've got some data from yours?
PS - We had an Immersion timer in place that wasn't needed when the Immersun was installed so that went on Ebay and sold for £19.50.... so I could include that in the figures!0 -
Hello did you ever get any satisfactory outcome to the wattson/immersun problem.
Sorry, frist time on the forum in a while.
I didn't get a satisfactory outcome I'm afraid. To be honest I haven't really chased up the makers of the wattson. They were looking at the data for me but i haven't supplied them with recent data as the Immersun seems to be hibernating for the winter!
We had chalked up 101kWh's on the Immersun from 13/09/12 to 31/10/12 but only 19kWh's since. With the generation figures very low at this time of year and having a young family at home most of the time I would think we're using almost 100% of generated electricity, rather than it going into the hot water tank.4kW PV System installed 21/2/12: Aurora Power One 3.6 Inverter
11x 250w panels West; 5x 250 panels East.
On course for 19.8% ROI in Year 1.
Immersun installed 13/9/120
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