Solar Skye

 Monitoring. I already use Home Assistant in our current home and a lot of what I do with it is energy monitoring. I do have some automations for the porch light when a door opens and smart light switches so we can turn off all the lights after we've got into bed. Being able to turn the bedroom light on to 5% when we first wake up is nice too. My biggest use case is electricity monitoring which I've done with a mix of Tapo smart plugs/power strips and a few Shelly devices. With the new house I'll have a number of things I want to monitor: total electricity consumption - probably with a Glow IHD linked to Home Assistant Tesla PowerWall 3 activity - with a link to Home Assistant Mitsubishi Ecodan ASHP - with a link to Home Assistant Heatmiser room temperatures and valve status - need to look into the Home Assistant options for this Standalone room thermostats - easy to integrate with Home Assistant

 Heat loss is simply the rate at which a house loses heat to the outside. The main factors affecting the heat loss are: the house's level of insulation - more is better the house's level of air tightness - more is better but damp and compensation need to be managed the desired internal temperature the outside temperature and once the house is built (air tight with heat recovery ventilation and lots of  insulation) it's only the last two factors that can change. A fundamental rule of heat is that the bigger the temperature difference between two places, the faster energy will move from a warm place to a cold place. This means that when it is colder outside then the house's heat loss will be greater. Most (all?) ASHPs and can be configured with an external temperature sensor and use weather compensation. By configuring a weather compensation "curve" the ASHP can automatically vary its heat output depending on the outside temperature, outputting more heat when co...

We will be using a Mitsubishi room thermostat in the main living area to control our air source heat pump. Traditional gas boilers typically have only one level of heat output - they are either on at full power or off and a thermostat is used to control the boiler. As the boiler can only be full on or off, traditional thermostats are also simple on/off devices. They signal for heat when the room temperature is below the desired level and stop signalling when the room is above the desired level. Since the boiler can't be on and off when the room is at the desired temperature they have some hysteresis built into them. This means that for any given temperature setting, the actual off temperature is slightly higher and the on temperature slightly lower than the temperature setting. Just how much depends on the make and model of thermostat. This configuration results in the boiler cycling between two states. When the room temperature drops below the on temperature the thermostat turns t...

We are getting a Mitsubishi Ecodan Air Source Heat Pump (ASHP) and monoblock integrated tank. For heating, there will be an underfloor heating system over the entire floor. The manifold will have a loop for each of the eight heating zones. A set of Heatmiser flow control valves and room thermostats will be installed, one per loop. The room thermostats will initially be set slightly warmer than we want each area to be. This is because we will use them to prevent overheating but not control the ASHP. We will control the ASHP with a Mitsubishi room thermostat in the main living area. We will set a weather compensation curve on the ASHP and this may need some tuning. Then the ASHP will be  configured to run in Mitsubishi's "Auto Adaption" mode. The expectation is that this will keep the main living area at our ideal temperature and there rest of the house will follow. The basic considerations to running an ASHP cost effectively are: minimise the house's heat loss lots of ...

 We're building a bungalow on the Isle of Skye and it's going to have lots of insulation mechanical heat recovery ventilation system 30 solar panels facing almost due south a Tesla Powerwall 3 battery system an air source heat pump underfloor heating across the entire ground floor and we're expecting, over a calendar year to have a zero electricity bill. I'll be blogging my thoughts and experiences here and seeing if my expectations are met.