Ronski's Solar & battery DIY build with whole house backup

[Ron-ski]

There was a ladder there, but I removed it as it was in the way coming in and out the house, and I only need access when working up there.

Got the third cable run in, and all three terminated in the garage, that's the cabling done.

 

[Ron-ski]

Forgot to add these this morning.

Cables coming out the garage.

Cables under decking

 

[Ron-ski]

My Smart Solar 150/45 arrived this morning, cost £165, bought from BMS Technologies.

Just waiting on the three wall panels, which are on there way to me now from the supplier.

 

[Ron-ski]

The three panels have arrived as well

I'll likely take them home after the weekend.

I should have everything now, just need to get them all fitted.


PS. Very surprised to see them delivered with a Tesla towing a trailer, at least they were delivered with care.

 

[Ron-ski]

Some piccies.

 

[Ron-ski]

I was absolutely knackered last night, after spending the day installing a couple of roof rails, its certainly very sunny up there, as I got quite a bit of sunburn, will need plenty sun cream today, as its going to be even sunnier.

First row of hooks in.

The hooks have to spaced out so the hook doesn't rest on the tile below, so I've used some 5mm aluminium between the hook and rafter, there was also a hole in the felt, so I patched it in.

Likewise the back of the tiles have to be notched out, so that also clears the roof hook.

I got two rails installed yesterday, this picture and the next were taken at 18:36.

This picture shows the shading caused by the chimney, and next doors roof. There will be four panels in that area, in landscape, so the shading will only affect them later in the day, and they are on their own string in parallel with the other two strings, so won't affect them.

I wasn't impressed with the rail joiner, so used that and made up my own much more substantial joiner, using 5mm aluminium and some left over rail clamps from the garage build, which fitted perfectly.

Well, its 10am, so best I go and get some more work done.

 

[Ron-ski]

Got the third rail up, and also the cable entry done.

There's probably not many installers that do this correctly.

Another thing I forget to mention yesterday, is when installing the roof hooks, its very important to drill pilot holes, failing to do that could mean split roof rafters.

Not as much progress as yesterday, but I need to allow a full day for the top rail, in case I need to take the ridge tiles off.

 

[Ron-ski]

Looking very professional. Its a pity those roof hooks have the rafter plates in that orientation, vertical would have suited a lot better and less risk of weakening the rafter as the fixings could have been spaced well apart.
So when is the chimney and unused TV aerial coming down Ron

They are done like that so the hook can be offset from the rafter to match curved tiles, which would increase the twisting motion of the bracket relative to the rafter, should probably have extra wood screwed to the rafter, but that probably doesn't happen often.

We still use the TV aerial, have a log burner as well, not that we use it.

Good work, I imagine it reminds you that crawling around on roofs is a young persons game!

Thanks, certainly is a young person's game, or at least someone who's a lot fitter than me, and with better knees - I'm mid fifties, with bad knees.

 

[Ron-ski]

And then there was 15 panels.

 

[Ron-ski]

Got a new entry on the VRM tonight.

Although obviously there's no panels on the roof yet.

 

[Ron-ski]

And then there were four.

Just need to get some panels connected up, and of course modify my Node Red code to take into account the new solar charge controllers.

 

[Ron-ski]

This weekends progress.

Got the top rail installed for the 8 panel array, which meant removing some ridge tile - if I didn't the roof hooks would be 300mm lower down and the panel overhang would be too much - how many solar installers remove ridge tiles????

All four rails in place, although I need to square them and level them.

Made a start on the roof hooks for the 4 panel array, got the cable entry install, and 5 hooks in.

I'll be glad when this bit is finished.

 

[Ron-ski]

Get some Wet and Forget on the roof before you put the panels up, it will bring it up nice and take off all the moss and liken

I presume you've used it and its good stuff? I've never heard of it before.

 

[Ron-ski]

Here's a picture of the power wall all cabled up.

I still need to sort the wiring for the battery heaters (the messy wiring bottom right), and mount the 48v/12v convertor, but that can wait for now.

 

[Ron-ski]

Its raining once again, so I thought I'd update the thread.

Yesterdays weather was horrendous, so it was time for some work inside the house, one of the reasons I.m fitting more solar is that we want to move away from gas, first thing to go is the gas hob with an induction hob being fitted.

The cable for the hob was run in last year when the garage work electrics was done.

The hole for the hob was a little too small, and needed to be enlarged, only problem, the worktops are 30mm thick granite, but I don't let that worry me!

Although I've marked the front for cutting, it was decided that would leave a gap at the back of the hob, which would be difficult to clean, and as I could cut the back, that was what we did.

So it was just the back and the two sides which needed cutting, which was a very messy job! Luckily I have a saw for cutting, it uses a 115mm diamond blade.

Hole cut to size, and an extra air vent cut in the rear of the cabinet.

Squaring out the corners was quite tricky, but managed to remove sufficient for the hob to fit.

Luckily my bargain induction hob fits - it was ex-display and I got it for less than half price.

As for today, I got three more roof hooks installed this morning. By lunch time it was getting quite windy, and some clouds were rolling in.

The top row requires some ridge tiles removing, so I'm going to allow a full day for that, weathers not looking good tomorrow, chance of rain and 17 mph winds, so may leave that for next weekend - I'll see what the weathers like tomorrow.

PS. Wife said she's taking her mum out for lunch, and I can't miss out on that, especially on a bank holiday.

 

[Ron-ski]

We did the kitchen in 2005, and I made the decision to fit a gas hob, my brother shortly after did their kitchen and went for an induction hob, and I realised I should have as well, so its been a long time coming.

Ever since we removed the gas hob a month ago now, we've been using a portable double induction hob, and its been very good.

 

[Ron-ski]

So how long until you pull the trigger on a heat pump? That £7500 grants got to be burning a hole in your pocket!

Once I've got the the solar sorted I'll then look into the heat pump a bit more. We've got two local Heat Geek installers, so I'll see what they come up with and if their willing to work with me, prior to looking elsewhere.

I've already got some SWA run from the garage to the most likely place for the heat pump, it was an off cut, so seemed sensible to throw it in the ground ready for a heat pump.

When I re-plumbed the house back in 2005 I set every room up as a zone, so each radiator has its own feed and return to two central points with zone valves (its easy to remove the zone valves), although a lot of this is in 15mm plastic, but I'm hoping that will be OK. Our boiler will be 20 years old next year, so it would be prudent to take advantage of the grant and get it replaced with a heat pump.

 

[Ron-ski]

I've not tried lowering the CH flow temp, so I've no idea on that score. 22mm plastic feeding the upstairs zone valve manifold, and 22mm copper to the down stairs manifold.

Pretty much all of the radiators are over sized for the rooms, and 450 high, so worse case I could fit taller radiators, but also hoping they are sufficient.

Our gas bill last year was £780, which for a detached 5 bed house I think is pretty low. So ROI for a heatpump is unlikely for a long time unless I can really get the costs down.

 

[Ron-ski]

My current boiler is a floor standing Worcester Bosch combination boiler (it was the biggest I could find back then), I'm hoping the tank will fit in the floor space that occupies, plumbing to the ASHP would be pretty straightforward once I've temporarily removed some kitchen cabinets, also the current heating plumbing goes off in two different direction from here. It's also central to all places hot water is required.

 

[Ron-ski]

The weathers forecast for 20 to 24 mph winds tomorrow, so I took today off work, and cracked on with the last four roof brackets, it got a bit windy late afternoon and I was knackered, so I'll finish fitting the roof rails on Sunday.

Had to take off three ridge tiles in the middle, then I could slide the tiles either way to fit the each end hook.

PS. I've got some Wet & Forget to spray the roof with, will likely do that Sunday as well.