"Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it."

greenbee

Decorator caught covid at his son's graduation and is feeling rubbish so has sensibly decided not to come. He thinks he can do next week, but I'm happy to fit in with him. 

In the meantime, a day in the garden has it looking much better, I'm making progress with the laundry and ironing (it'll be a lot easier when I have places to put them away), and have arranged to go and see my uncle on Friday as he's downsizing so has furniture to get rid of. 

I realised yesterday that as the solar installation involves putting the battery in the garage, I need to clear enough space for it by Monday... so need to see what I can do to free up the space to rearrange things!

greenbee

Decorator has been again, so although the rooms aren't finished, he's made a lot of progress on the woodwork - and apparently that's the time-consuming bit. I've also talked to him about doing the summerhouse, porch, and garage, which he thinks he can fit in before the end of the summer. He's then booked until Dec/Jan, which gives me a deadline for the rest of bedrooms and bathroom (need to organised plumbers and electricians). 

Scaffolding went up on the garage this morning and the battery and wiring are in. Panels are here, and going on the roof tomorrow. 

Laundry and ironing finally beaten into submission, despite having to wash all the cat bedding and decontaminate the utility room after finding fleas on one cat and the other massacring quite a bit of wildlife in there. At least it was the right weather for it!

Veg plot progress is ongoing - I've started getting the soaker hoses made up and connected so that watering the beds can be done from the tap in hot weather (and water from underneath). 

First shed roof is nearly done, after which we should have guttering and can then attach water butts (I need to source some more). I'll let you all know when the water butts go on - the solar panels going in this week is a guarantee of cloud, but the water butts should mean dry weather

I have a list of furniture from my uncle which I need to review and ask for photos of the things that look like they will fit in the spaces I have. 

badmemory

I hope you don't get as obsessed as me with the solar.  I hover between feeling watching paint dry & like a kid at Xmas.  If only it could be this productive all year round.  I am looking forward to the full, getting paid thing for what I'm exporting.

greenbee

badmemory said:

I hope you don't get as obsessed as me with the solar.  I hover between feeling watching paint dry & like a kid at Xmas.  If only it could be this productive all year round.  I am looking forward to the full, getting paid thing for what I'm exporting.

I probably will be (for a bit!)

It's almost done - they're doing the final bits and pieces including a micro-diverter to the hot water tank (there's no timer on the immersion - this means I shouldn't need to use the boiler in the summer at all, and also mean less oil used in the winter - it's not necessarily cost effective in terms of payback, but is very useful given my tiny oil tank!). So I should be connected today and then it's just getting the paperwork done for the payments. 

As I've been without electricity for quite a bit of the morning, I've been relatively productive elsewhere - two barrows of compost onto the old broad bean bed (which now has soaker hose buried in it), and half a dozen barrows of woodchip onto what will be the paths. Then it got too hot. So I changed the plugs on the table lamps that are going on the 5amp circuit, and went through a list of furniture that my uncle is getting rid of to see what might work so I can ask for photos. 

Hoping they're done soon, as I need to have a shower, sort out lunch and get my office cleared up ready for work!

kazwookie

Blimey greenbee you wear me out just reading that lot.

It took about 3 or 4 weeks for my solar to be all sorted in terms of paperwork etc, I felt is was not a quick process, when this day and age of emails and adding links etc it should have been far quicker.

greenbee

I've got most of the paperwork, and should get the rest from the installer tomorrow. He said it'll take a few days for the final piece to come through, but it shouldn't be too long. 

greenbee

ALL the info is now through, so have just registered for a solar & battery tariff. Although of course, now the panels are up and running there appears to be a lot less sun. I had to stop myself running the DW until the panels were generating properly this morning - and I need to work out how to get the battery to contribute a bit more - I'm not sure why I'm importing electricity when there is still plenty of charge in the battery!

badmemory

I think that is to do with how fast (or not) power can be taken from the battery.  You want to see mine when the power shower is going!

greenbee

I have a feeling that I'm not going to use the full capacity of the battery on a regular basis, so once this new tariff kicks in I may well be better off discharging it to the grid and peak rate and filling it up at cheap rate (as well as putting the WM and DW on then) and maximising my export to the grid. If I can build up plenty of credit during the summer that will all help. And bathroom towel rails etc will be set to take advantage of the cheap rate early morning heat too! There's a lot to learn!

greenbee

It's definitely going to take me time to work out the best way to use the battery. My import tariff has changed, but I'm not yet on the export one (apparently it can take up to 6 weeks)... and as not all the Octopus tariffs are set up in the app, I'll need to work out how to automate the export/import for the battery.

Someone has just offered some IBCs (delivered) on the village FB group, so I've requested them as we've worked out where they can go. We just need the guttering put on the shed and summerhouse!

Better get on and do some cooking while the sun is out!