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Time to invest in some RE? Where to start?

  • 10-05-2020 8:24pm
    #1
    54and56
    Registered Users Posts: 7,641 ✭✭✭


    One of the Covid lockdown benefits is extra time to get round to some of the items that never seem to get tackled on the to-do list.

    One such task for me is figuring out whether it would be worthwhile financially to install solar panels or any other form of renewable energy sources.

    My situation:-

    - 2,000 sq ft 4 bed dormer bungalow.
    - House faces east so the roof elevations face North and South.
    - 2 adults + 2 teenagers living in the house.
    - Annual Gas consumption averages 25,000 Kwh Units.
    - Annual Electricity consumption averages 11,000 Kwh Units.

    I use a Tado smart thermostat to control the gas fired heating and hot water so the house isn't heated when people aren't home etc but that's about the extent of the energy saving activity other than constantly reminding everyone to turn off lights and appliances etc

    Would solar panels make much a dent in my energy bills and is it generally best to hire a turnkey RE specialist to specify and install or is it best to do some homework/learning curve myself, decide what I want and then get an electrician to install?

    I'm good at tech but fairly crap at DIY so I won't be doing any of the installation myself that's for sure!!

    Would love to get some tips and suggestions from those who have been down this road as I'd like to get it right first time so to speak.


Comments

  • #2
    unkel
    Registered Users Posts: 64,702 ✭✭✭✭unkel


    For ballpark €6k after the subsidies, you can have a substantial 4kwp (about 13 panels) PV system with a battery fully installed and signed off by an SEAI approved installer. Pay back period realistically about 15 years, but your electricity use is over 3 times the national average, so it would pay back a good bit quicker I would say.

    How come your electricity use is so high though? Presuming you don't have an EV and you have stated your heating home and water with gas. Electric shower(s) by any chance? If so, get rid of them and get pumped showers.


  • #3
    54and56
    Registered Users Posts: 7,641 ✭✭✭54and56


    Thanks for the info Unkel,
    unkel wrote: »
    For ballpark €6k after the subsidies, you can have a substantial 4kwp (about 13 panels) PV system with a battery fully installed and signed off by an SEAI approved installer. Pay back period realistically about 15 years

    That payback period, which I assume excludes the time value of money, is not very attractive.
    unkel wrote: »
    your electricity use is over 3 times the national average
    unkel wrote: »
    How come your electricity use is so high though? Presuming you don't have an EV and you have stated your heating home and water with gas. Electric shower(s) by any chance? If so, get rid of them and get pumped showers.

    This bugs me also. I know we probably heat the house too much Vs wearing more clothes. The only other things I can think of which are out of the ordinary are:-

    1. I have an aquarium hobby which means I'm keeping 600L of water at a constant 28c, running two filters both of which displace 1,400 litres of water per hour plus a wavemaker with a 6,500 litre per hour flow rate.

    2. I run a couple of Plex servers 24/7 which server family and friends video content I've collected.

    3. We have a home office which has 3 laptops, 3 screens and a printer etc plugged in and either running or on standby 24/7.

    We could definitely reduce our consumption. I need to identify ways to to do that.


  • #4
    54and56
    Registered Users Posts: 7,641 ✭✭✭54and56


    Thanks for the info Unkel,
    unkel wrote: »
    For ballpark €6k after the subsidies, you can have a substantial 4kwp (about 13 panels) PV system with a battery fully installed and signed off by an SEAI approved installer. Pay back period realistically about 15 years

    That payback period, which I assume excludes the time value of money, is not very attractive.
    unkel wrote: »
    your electricity use is over 3 times the national average
    unkel wrote: »
    How come your electricity use is so high though? Presuming you don't have an EV and you have stated your heating home and water with gas. Electric shower(s) by any chance? If so, get rid of them and get pumped showers.

    This bugs me also. I know we probably heat the house too much Vs wearing more clothes. The only other things I can think of which are out of the ordinary are:-

    1. I have an aquarium hobby which means I'm keeping 600L of water at a constant 28c, running two filters both of which displace 1,400 litres of water per hour plus a wavemaker with a 6,500 litre per hour flow rate.

    IMG201903092153551589150265.jpg

    2. I run a couple of Plex servers 24/7 which serv family and friends video content I've collected.

    3. We have a home office which has 3 laptops/PC's, 3 screens and a printer etc plugged in and either running or on standby 24/7.

    We could definitely reduce our consumption. I need to identify ways to to do that.


  • #5
    ednwireland
    Registered Users Posts: 14,276 ✭✭✭✭ednwireland


    have you insulated the f**k out of the house first ?

    My weather

    https://www.ecowitt.net/home/share?authorize=96CT1F



  • #6
    54and56
    Registered Users Posts: 7,641 ✭✭✭54and56


    ednwireland wrote: »
    have you insulated the f**k out of the house first ?

    Attic is insulated as are the walls which were done in 2009. Haven't done the external insulation / cladding.


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  • #7
    Black_Knight
    Moderators Posts: 12,363 ✭✭✭✭Black_Knight


    Could get an energy monitor on the plugs for the tank, would give you an idea what its costing to run.

    What PSU is in the servers? Plex wouldn't need much unless you've several streaming at once. A couple of hundred watt to power the server would add up to a couple of thousand kW per year.

    Do you have power showers?

    Your gas usage seems crazy high. I'm in a (when purchased) ber F house. 3 bed semi, but the attached house was vacant for most of last year. We've put in a composite door, and I've insulated the attic. Fireplace has been replaced with a stove. Last year we used 11000kWh on gas.


  • #8
    CIARAN_BOYLE
    Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 14,599 Mod ✭✭✭✭CIARAN_BOYLE


    Installation costs for solar dont scale directly scale 1:1.

    If 17 panels cost 6k 34 panels wont cost 12k. Given your high electricity use I'd reckon you would be a better candidate for a larger installation than normal.

    Also the normal 7 year payback estimate is of a normal split between heating hot water and electricity usage. You might get a 5 year pay back if it's all electricity.

    Make sure to look into that as an option.

    I'd say that aquarium just eats the electricity. 2.5k kWh a year at a ballpark.


  • #9
    Black_Knight
    Moderators Posts: 12,363 ✭✭✭✭Black_Knight


    CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »
    Installation costs for solar dont scale directly scale 1:1.

    If 17 panels cost 6k 34 panels wont cost 12k. Given your high electricity use I'd reckon you would be a better candidate for a larger installation than normal.

    Also the normal 7 year payback estimate is of a normal split between heating hot water and electricity usage. You might get a 5 year pay back if it's all electricity.

    Make sure to look into that as an option.

    I'd say that aquarium just eats the electricity. 2.5k kWh a year at a ballpark.

    Rough maths based on this.

    600L of water at 28C = 2200kWh to heat (30gallon @28c = 440kWh. 600l is about 5X30gallon)
    Water pump @ 2X1400l per hour = 35Wper hour per pump = 600kWh
    Wave maker im assuming is going to have a decent consumption too.
    No idea what lights are there, but it'll add a few quid, as I assume they're on all the time? :confused:

    So easily 3000kWh+ on the aquarium. 7-8k kWh excluding the aquarium is still rather high. If the plex server is really a server rack, then sure, that'll account for some of the consumption too.

    OP, have you checked your night vs day usaged? You could likely have quite a high night time load, so 1) a night rate meter might save on the bills, 2) batteries would be needed if you want to cover night time load, 3) given your consumption you might not generated enough to ever store anything in a battery.


  • #10
    54and56
    Registered Users Posts: 7,641 ✭✭✭54and56


    Black_Knight wrote: »
    Could get an energy monitor on the plugs for the tank, would give you an idea what its costing to run.

    Not sure I want to know what the tank costs to run per annum TBH :o There's 2 X filters running 24/7, a wavemaker which runs 12 hours a day, an inline heater which comes on and off as the water temperature drops below or exceeds 28c and two strips of LED lighting which are on +/- 10 hours a day.
    Black_Knight wrote: »
    What PSU is in the servers? Plex wouldn't need much unless you've several streaming at once. A couple of hundred watt to power the server would add up to a couple of thousand kW per year.

    The main Plex server has a Thermaltake Berlin 630W PSU and the backup server is just an old Lenovo X1 i7 Laptop.
    Black_Knight wrote: »
    Do you have power showers?

    We don't have on-demand hot water showers if that's what you mean. Our hot water is heated by a Vokera MYNUTE HE gas boiler controlled via a Tado smart thermostat. Due to poor water pressure we had to have a negative head pump installed which serves all showers/sinks with hot water.
    Black_Knight wrote: »
    Your gas usage seems crazy high. I'm in a (when purchased) ber F house. 3 bed semi, but the attached house was vacant for most of last year. We've put in a composite door, and I've insulated the attic. Fireplace has been replaced with a stove. Last year we used 11000kWh on gas.

    I agree. Although most of the above (fishtank, Plex servers, hot water pump) are potential sources of excess electricity usage it's the amount of gas consumed which concerns me the most. We only use gas for heating (water and radiators), cooking on a gas hob and we have an inset gas fire which gets moderate use during the winter e.g. a couple of hours a time at weekends.

    I'm thinking cooking and the gas fire aren't the problem, the problem must be that we're heating too much but at the moment the heating schedule is set to be on for one hour early morning to heat water for showers and one hour early evening to warm the house and provide water for showers. Is two hours a day way higher than average?


  • #11
    Black_Knight
    Moderators Posts: 12,363 ✭✭✭✭Black_Knight


    54and56 wrote: »
    I agree. Although most of the above (fishtank, Plex servers, hot water pump) are potential sources of excess electricity usage it's the amount of gas consumed which concerns me the most. We only use gas for heating (water and radiators), cooking on a gas hob and we have an inset gas fire which gets moderate use during the winter e.g. a couple of hours a time at weekends.

    I'm thinking cooking and the gas fire aren't the problem, the problem must be that we're heating too much but at the moment the heating schedule is set to be on for one hour early morning to heat water for showers and one hour early evening to warm the house and provide water for showers. Is two hours a day way higher than average?

    Nope, well, depending on the time of year really. I've a combi boiler, so my water is heated as it's used, but my heating these days is only on maybe half an hour in the mornings (we're up early 6-7am). Over winter our heating was on somewhere between 2 and 4 hours a day (on and off, i've a smart heating system too).

    Here's my heating usage in hours per day over the last year (heat only, water isn't monitored)
    512540.png

    From what i've heard, gas fires are great at burning gas. Quick google, an hour of a gas fire (on full) would be about 5kWh of gas. It can add up. Your gas usage in the height of summer (or even these days now) should just be for cooking and heating water. That might help point you towards where the usage is.


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  • #12
    54and56
    Registered Users Posts: 7,641 ✭✭✭54and56


    Black_Knight wrote: »
    Nope, well, depending on the time of year really. I've a combi boiler, so my water is heated as it's used, but my heating these days is only on maybe half an hour in the mornings

    That's really useful info BK, thanks.

    I've never been that comfortable with our set up where the gas boiler has to pre-heat a tank of water whether we use it or not. I'm thinking the most effective thing I could do might be to replace my gas boiler with a combi so heating water and heating radiators are separated. I can't help feeling we use a lot of gas to heat water which is not used/required a lot of the time.


  • #13
    n97 mini
    Registered Users Posts: 8,295 ✭✭✭n97 mini


    Get one (or more) of these and stick it on your tanks and Plex server etc. It'll quickly give you a good idea of what's what.

    220px-Plug-in_Power_%26_Energy_Monitor_in_UK_Domestic_Mains_Socket.jpeg

    You'll pick up one on Amazon etc for less than 20 quid.

    Plex only really ups the watts when it's transcoding. Something I hate about it is you can't control when it transcodes. I don't want it to ever transcode as all the files I have are easily playable over 4G as they are. Plex has a Media Optimizer which can transcode files once and store them for later use so that they're not transcoded every time someone views them. That will potentially save a lot of watts.

    I eventually went with Jellyfin after dicking around with Plex and Emby. It's not as polished, but it's good enough, and most importantly totally free. It always offers the client the choice as to what bitrate to view, so it'll never transcode by default. As I never transcode it runs perfectly on a Pi 3B+ which I leave plugged in 24/7.


  • #14
    Black_Knight
    Moderators Posts: 12,363 ✭✭✭✭Black_Knight


    54and56 wrote: »
    That's really useful info BK, thanks.

    I've never been that comfortable with our set up where the gas boiler has to pre-heat a tank of water whether we use it or not. I'm thinking the most effective thing I could do might be to replace my gas boiler with a combi so heating water and heating radiators are separated. I can't help feeling we use a lot of gas to heat water which is not used/required a lot of the time.

    combi + negative head pump = no go AFAIK.

    Just start taking measurements. Take them every morning for a week. It'll give you some idea where your gas is going.
    Could take readings before the water is heated and after too, that'll give you more fine grained data around what heating water is consuming.
    Total - water heating usage = cooking gas usage.


  • #15
    54and56
    Registered Users Posts: 7,641 ✭✭✭54and56


    n97 mini wrote: »
    Get one (or more) of these and stick it on your tanks and Plex server etc. It'll quickly give you a good idea of what's what.

    Super idea, I'll order a couple of them and take some measurements.

    I also use Kasa smart plugs some of which track usage so I can tell for example that the LED lights on the tank have used a total of 50kWh in the last 30 days.

    We also have an electric airer for drying clothes which I figured would be better than using the tumble dryer and way better than heating the whole house with gas so some clothes can be dried on radiators. It is used almost daily (except when the weather is good enough to dry outside) and has consumed 163kWh in the last 30 days.


  • #16
    Black_Knight
    Moderators Posts: 12,363 ✭✭✭✭Black_Knight


    54and56 wrote: »
    Super idea, I'll order a couple of them and take some measurements.

    I also use Kasa smart plugs some of which track usage so I can tell for example that the LED lights on the tank have used a total of 50kWh in the last 30 days.

    We also have an electric airer for drying clothes which I figured would be better than using the tumble dryer and way better than heating the whole house with gas so some clothes can be dried on radiators. It is used almost daily (except when the weather is good enough to dry outside) and has consumed 163kWh in the last 30 days.

    That's over 5kWh a day! That electric dryer is costing you over 2000 kWh (~€350) a year based on your last 30 days, which is likely lighter usage than normal given the better weather of late.
    My dryer (heat pump dryer) on a cycle uses about 2kWh for a full load. Standard dryer would use up to 2kWh in an hour - I measured my MILs dryer for her when she was terrified it was costing a fortune, but in an hour it used 1.5kWh I think.

    My washing machine and dryer have used 32kWh in the last 30 days. Dryer hasn't been on much with the good weather, but you'd have similar weather.


  • #17
    n97 mini
    Registered Users Posts: 8,295 ✭✭✭n97 mini


    54and56 wrote: »
    Super idea, I'll order a couple of them and take some measurements.

    I have one of those Kasa plugs too. It'll do the job. The nice thing about the kill-a-watt type thing tho is it's instant


  • #18
    n97 mini
    Registered Users Posts: 8,295 ✭✭✭n97 mini


    54and56 wrote: »
    the LED lights on the tank have used a total of 50kWh in the last 30 days.

    You should probably look at what those figures translate to in costs. Assuming 16c per kw/h those lights are costing €8 a month to run.
    54and56 wrote: »
    163kWh in the last 30 days
    €26 per month. One of these costs less :)


  • #19
    54and56
    Registered Users Posts: 7,641 ✭✭✭54and56


    Black_Knight wrote: »
    combi + negative head pump = no go AFAIK.

    That would be a bit of a bummer as the more I think about it the more I'm convinced it's pre-heating water (and having to heat the radiators at the same time) which is the most inefficient use of gas. Heating hot water on demand would be a much better solution or perhaps removing scheduled heating of water by the gas boiler could be replaced by solar panels doing that job with the gas boiler relegated to being used primarily for heating radiators and cooking.
    Black_Knight wrote: »
    Just start taking measurements. Take them every morning for a week. It'll give you some idea where your gas is going.
    Could take readings before the water is heated and after too, that'll give you more fine grained data around what heating water is consuming.
    Total - water heating usage = cooking gas usage.

    Very good idea. I'll set some alarms to do exactly that so I know how much an hours worth of gas boiler on consumes.


  • #20
    54and56
    Registered Users Posts: 7,641 ✭✭✭54and56


    n97 mini wrote: »
    €26 per month. One of these costs less :)

    Had one of those, it ended up costing a lot more than the electric on as it was parked beside a radiator and the whole bloody house heated up just to dry the clothes that were on it. :o

    The electric airer is on almost 24/7 and is constantly covered in clothes being dried (lot's of sports/gym/cycling gear etc) so I'm not too surprised by that. The clothes line does get a good bit of use also no where near as frequently as the electric airer.


  • #21
    garo
    Registered Users Posts: 1,874 ✭✭✭garo


    54and56 wrote: »
    That would be a bit of a bummer as the more I think about it the more I'm convinced it's pre-heating water (and having to heat the radiators at the same time) which is the most inefficient use of gas. Heating hot water on demand would be a much better solution or perhaps removing scheduled heating of water by the gas boiler could be replaced by solar panels doing that job with the gas boiler relegated to being used primarily for heating radiators and cooking.

    Doesn't the tado give you separate control for hot water (HW) and central heating (CH)? Great thread over at IoT https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin//showthread.php?t=2057758281 where you can post for help.
    I would say that to reduce gas consumption you need to 1) separate CH and HW so you can have one on and not the other. Possibly also get zoned heating at the same time so you can heat areas or rooms separately. I assume you have a factory pre-insulated HW cylinder and not a lagged copper? If the latter, go ahead and change over to a proper pre-insulated cylinder. Then you won't have to worry about heating hot water and leaving it as the newer cylinders really don't lose that much heat.

    Regarding your PV install, I think Unkel is being rather conservative with your payback time. Given your high consumption you could probably get your money back in 10-12 years with time value of money accounted for (it's pretty low at the moment and likely to remain so for the foreseeable future so I would't worry too much unless you have high interest debts or mortgage you could rather be paying off) Was your house built before 2011? If you can get a grant, you could have a 6kW system with 5kW battery for ~8k after grant and it would cut your electricity bills by 7-800 a year.
    Finally, if you don't have a day/night meter, get one now!


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  • #22
    unkel
    Registered Users Posts: 64,702 ✭✭✭✭unkel


    garo wrote: »
    Regarding your PV install, I think Unkel is being rather conservative with your payback time. Given your high consumption you could probably get your money back in 10-12 years with time value of money accounted for

    I don't disagree with that, but for many people the "time value of money" - in the profession this is called the opportunity costs - is near zero.


  • #23
    garo
    Registered Users Posts: 1,874 ✭✭✭garo


    unkel wrote: »
    I don't disagree with that, but for many people the "time value of money" - in the profession this is called the opportunity costs - is near zero.

    Absolutely! See my next line in the post.
    garo wrote:
    (it's pretty low at the moment and likely to remain so for the foreseeable future so I would't worry too much unless you have high interest debts or mortgage you would rather be paying off)


  • #24
    n97 mini
    Registered Users Posts: 8,295 ✭✭✭n97 mini


    garo wrote: »
    Doesn't the tado give you separate control for hot water (HW) and central heating (CH)? Great thread over at IoT https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin//showthread.php?t=2057758281 where you can post for help.
    I would say that to reduce gas consumption you need to 1) separate CH and HW so you can have one on and not the other. Possibly also get zoned heating at the same time so you can heat areas or rooms separately. I assume you have a factory pre-insulated HW cylinder and not a lagged copper? If the latter, go ahead and change over to a proper pre-insulated cylinder. Then you won't have to worry about heating hot water and leaving it as the newer cylinders really don't lose that much heat.

    Regarding your PV install, I think Unkel is being rather conservative with your payback time. Given your high consumption you could probably get your money back in 10-12 years with time value of money accounted for (it's pretty low at the moment and likely to remain so for the foreseeable future so I would't worry too much unless you have high interest debts or mortgage you could rather be paying off) Was your house built before 2011? If you can get a grant, you could have a 6kW system with 5kW battery for ~8k after grant and it would cut your electricity bills by 7-800 a year.
    Finally, if you don't have a day/night meter, get one now!

    Great advice in this post. Got my house zoned (also gas) about 10 years ago. We have an electric car so nightsaver electricity is a must. We had nightsaver before, before the EV, and it was hard enough to make it work. As you're running a lot of heating devices off electric (in our house if it makes heat, it's gas powered (except the kettle)) you could probably make it work. Especially if you put the likes of your clothes airer on a timer.


  • #25
    54and56
    Registered Users Posts: 7,641 ✭✭✭54and56


    garo wrote: »
    Doesn't the tado give you separate control for hot water (HW) and central heating (CH)? Great thread over at IoT https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin//showthread.php?t=2057758281 where you can post for help.
    I would say that to reduce gas consumption you need to 1) separate CH and HW so you can have one on and not the other. Possibly also get zoned heating at the same time so you can heat areas or rooms separately. I assume you have a factory pre-insulated HW cylinder and not a lagged copper? If the latter, go ahead and change over to a proper pre-insulated cylinder. Then you won't have to worry about heating hot water and leaving it as the newer cylinders really don't lose that much heat.

    Regarding your PV install, I think Unkel is being rather conservative with your payback time. Given your high consumption you could probably get your money back in 10-12 years with time value of money accounted for (it's pretty low at the moment and likely to remain so for the foreseeable future so I would't worry too much unless you have high interest debts or mortgage you could rather be paying off) Was your house built before 2011? If you can get a grant, you could have a 6kW system with 5kW battery for ~8k after grant and it would cut your electricity bills by 7-800 a year.
    Finally, if you don't have a day/night meter, get one now!

    No, mine can't as it is constrained by the type of gas boiler set up I have which is basically water and radiators on or water and radiators off. Tado allows me to quickly and easily set schedules and the "clever" piece as it relates to my setup is geofencing whereby if e.g. in winter if I set a schedule for the house to be 21c from 18:00 to 21:30, it won't turn on and heat the house if none of the phones with the Tado app on them (basically all family members) are home so it won't waste energy/money heating the house if there's no one home.

    The main frustration/constraint I have is an inability to separately heat water from radiators. There is an electric switch beside my gas boiler which is an on/off for the radiators so in summer I can have them permanently turned on or off but that only works for a few months and even in summer it has it's downsides as bathroom radiators are turned off which prevents towels from drying in between showers etc.

    I'd be prepared to invest in a better (Combi) type gas boiler and possibly heating zones so I could have much more granular control over the heating of water and radiators and match them more closely to whats actually needed than a fixed schedule which sometimes wastes energy as the hot water/heating isn't needed and sometimes is less than what's needed if e.g. there's a high demand for showers at the same time.

    The problem with upgrading is that we run a negative head pump to serve hot water to showers and taps as our water pressure is very low and it looks like you can't run shower pumps in conjunction with combi boilers which is very frustrating.


  • #26
    garo
    Registered Users Posts: 1,874 ✭✭✭garo


    Zoning has nothing to do with type of gas boiler. It has to do with manifolds - and it seems you have something there as an "electric switch" can turn off the radiators. You don't need to go for a combi boiler. You could stick with the current boiler and just get zoning. I did. There is an SEAI grant for this as well. Basically you need a valve that can control flow to CH or HW or both. You have some type of valve already as that electric switch is operating it. What you need is a way to call the boiler to fire when it needs either HW or CH and for you to be able to "schedule" that electric switch to close off the radiators. How do you get hot water in the summer when the tado thermostat doesn't call for heat? Post in the CH/HW thread as you will get much better expertise there.

    I really don't think your answer lies in a combi boiler. So don't worry about the fact that you cannot get one. Insulated cylinder, zoning and then think about PV.


  • #27
    54and56
    Registered Users Posts: 7,641 ✭✭✭54and56


    garo wrote: »
    Zoning has nothing to do with type of gas boiler. It has to do with manifolds - and it seems you have something there as an "electric switch" can turn off the radiators. You don't need to go for a combi boiler. You could stick with the current boiler and just get zoning. I did. There is an SEAI grant for this as well. Basically you need a valve that can control flow to CH or HW or both. You have some type of valve already as that electric switch is operating it. What you need is a way to call the boiler to fire when it needs either HW or CH and for you to be able to "schedule" that electric switch to close off the radiators. How do you get hot water in the summer when the tado thermostat doesn't call for heat? Post in the CH/HW thread as you will get much better expertise there.

    I really don't think your answer lies in a combi boiler. So don't worry about the fact that you cannot get one. Insulated cylinder, zoning and then think about PV.

    In summer I turn off the radiators all together (Mid May to early Sept usually) and in order to Tado to heat the HW I have to "trick" it into thinking the temp of the house is actually lower than it is. As we rarely get temps (especially early morning or early evening) which exceed 25c I manually adjust the Tado Temp setting in Mid May by -5c in and adjust the temp I want the house heated to by +5c. This 10c swing means an actual temp of 25c reads as 20c on the Tado thermostat which combined with a target "heating" setting of 25c on the timer (which is the max) means the boiler will come on as scheduled for HW whilst it providing the actual temp is less than 30c. Obviously with our climate this workaround does the job 99% of the time and even when it doesn't who wants warm showers when the temp is 30c???

    I'll pop over to the other forum and see if I can suss out how I can best use my current setup to create zones and separately control HW and CH.

    Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it.


  • #28
    n97 mini
    Registered Users Posts: 8,295 ✭✭✭n97 mini


    If you don't have zone valves in your system you can't create zones. We have three in the hotpress, where the system splits. They look something like this

    zone-valves.jpg


  • #29
    garo
    Registered Users Posts: 1,874 ✭✭✭garo


    My first port of call then would be to get a better system going. I used to have a non-zoned system and went turning off rads every May. But it could get annoying if the SO started feeling chilly in June I'd have to turn the rads back on and off by hand. People on the other thread have managed to get tado working with multi-zoned systems. Tado v3 has a subscription app but on that thread people will be able to give you much better advice.

    @n97: Correct about the valves. I have a feeling though that OP has something already installed given that they can turn off all the rads with an electric switch. Only way to do that is to have an electrically controlled valve afaik.


  • #30
    MicktheMan
    Registered Users Posts: 2,823 ✭✭✭MicktheMan


    54and56 wrote: »
    One of the Covid lockdown benefits is extra time to get round to some of the items that never seem to get tackled on the to-do list.

    One such task for me is figuring out whether it would be worthwhile financially to install solar panels or any other form of renewable energy sources.

    My situation:-

    - 2,000 sq ft 4 bed dormer bungalow..........
    .
    .
    .
    .

    Would love to get some tips and suggestions from those who have been down this road as I'd like to get it right first time so to speak.

    So you want to get it right first time:)

    Simples:

    Forget RE eco-bling and concentrate first on the basics;

    You've a dormer, so an air tightness test / heat loss survey is a must.

    Allow the survey results to inform the next steps.

    Top tip: remember the greenest kWhr is the one you don't use;)


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