And now we go again...

themadvix

Just bear in mind that max output from the battery will be half that - 2.5kWish. Mr MV isn’t at home to check but I think that’s because of the battery not the inverter, but the inverter will have a limit too.

I only said about getting as many panels as possible fitted because we’ve got room for another 4 but the install cost (with scaffolding) is prohibitive really. Given we are thinking about ashp and will be getting a full EV soon, we’re regretting it, even though it cost enough as it was! (Eon weren’t without their issues (scaffolders were a nightmare), but did give us three years interest free - might be worth checking?)

ASHP and Carr are reasons we want to increase battery and therefore inverter - to improve utilisation of 9.5p/kWh overnight power.

EssexHebridean

There seems to be little of MSE'ness to shout about here at the moment. Definitely NOT MSE-friendly was the whopping 12kWh of electricity we used yesterday - with at least 4 of those being MrEH's office heating. Still far cheaper than him travelling into the office of course, but still, makes our consumption look a bit dubious! He's still adamant that he wants to try the underfloor heating in there to see how that stacks up in a warmth-v- cost scenario - allowing that it's 2kW rather than the 1kW of the oil filed rad, unless it gets up to temperature a lot faster than our brief trial run of it made it appear that it would, I think it's going to be a fairly costly experiment. Probably still worth doing,  but it might be a one-off. 

MSE Stuff then:
- Banks checked and all good
- A bit of CC money shuffling done this morning while MrEH drove on the commute. I'll let it settle now before working out what the final bit of money I need to transfer relates to.
- The £300 which didn't go to the regular saver has been transferred to the long term savings pot
- indoor drying on the airer still seems to be working pretty well - even for bedding and towels. That's saving dryer costs while outside drying is mostly impractical which is handy. (Although I think our next load of bath towels had best have just a short tumble dry to fluff them up a bit!)
- Found a discrepancy over what the garage are suggesting I need to pay for my car repair - the insurers have only mentioned the excess - the garage are saying I also have to pay up for the VAT element of the repair - I've never encountered this on an insurance repair before - usually the insurance covers the whole bill excess aside in my experience, so I've queried this with the garage, and will query with the insurer if they insist I have to pay it. I very much hope they don't, as it will leave our car account mostly empty at a time when we have one car due tyres and the other due a service and MoT before too long! 
- Ouchy electricity use yesterday BUT MrEH's tube fares would have been somewhere about £8, so we are still in credit on that one. 
- Remembered to pick up my new bag of cereal for work before running out of the old one, thus saving the risk of "just nipping out to get something for breakfast!"
- Remembered to open the bedroom curtains this morning - as sunshine is forecast for much of the day that should warm upstairs nicely! 
- reprogrammed the thermostat last night to change the timings - it's dropping back quite cold during the afternoon at the moment, the heating actually came on before I got home last night as it had gone below 14C, so with luck getting it to kick in a little earlier should have the house warmer by the time we get back to it. 
- Last night's couscous roast veggies didn't go as far as I anticipated so this evenings eggs will be a bacon and cheese omelette and I'll do jacket potatoes with it I think. That then leaves us with a stir fry tomorrow to use the remaining mushrooms - I will shop before cooking on friday so mushroom supplies can be replenished before I make a curry! 
- A proper review of costs instigated on a trip we are planning to catch up with pals in a few weeks. We have decided to add an extra night's hotel stay in order to allow a bit of exploring in an area we wanted to see more of, and MrEH had agreed to bear a little more than a 50% share of the costs as he gets more spending money than I do! I'm pleased that the importance of talking it through thoroughly not just booking it and then wondering where the money was coming from was taken on board - we've been spoiled on our ability to grab odd weekends away over the last few years with no mortgage - but that's not our position anymore, so cloth needs to be cut! 

Staffordia

Thank you for mentioning First D. I suddenly realised that I hadn't moved the £300 from savings ready for the transfer tomorrow. 

themadvix

In my experience, odd weekends away have also gone up a lot in the last year or so - much harder to get a cheap deal on accommodation these days!

joedenise

I agree with you @EssexHebridean that the only costs from the garage should be the excess with the insurance paying everything else.  It's certainly been my experience in the past.

lucielle

Hope the car and garage get sorted easily. 

L

dreaming

I'm very happy with my solar pv, although I don't have battery storage. I had it fitted in 2013, just before redundancy when I took early retirement. I live in a semi-detached bungalow and have panels on both the east and south facing roof pitches and luckily have no shading.  I have had more than my money back in FIT payments (I don't know if that scheme is still going) as well as reducing my electricity consumption - yesterday's was 1.79kw. Even on 6th Jan when I washed bedding on a hot wash, ran the dish-washer and ran the oven for a while it was only 3.07kw for the day. It took a bit of getting used to - "staggering" usage in the day so I was using my own power, but it's second nature now. I wish I could get my gas usage down a bit but since I was ill last year and a bit less mobile I do seem to feel the cold more (although I firmly refuse to admit to ageing ). It's not horrendous though and I still have credit enough to see me through the next couple of months (plus blankets and a cat) so I do boost the heating if I think it's necessary. 

savingholmes

Good luck with your solar array choices EH - all sounds interesting

badmemory

The only time I have heard that about the VAT is when the vehicle is owned by a business not an individual as the business can reclaim it.

girlatplay

It's the compromise, isn't it? You've had some lovely weekends away and now you have a lovely home (not that you didn't before but you know what I mean). You'll soon be celebrating mortgage freedom once again!