2025
January
It was a very damp, gloomy and rather depressing January in terms of weather. We had guests over the New Year but after that it has been an empty house. We keep the heating on but not the hotter.
The new Ember programmer has proved its worth as I can adjust hot water, towel rails and pumped hot water timings via the app. I've been experimenting with putting the underfloor heating on 17 degrees and using the heated towel rails each morning and evening to keep the house around 20 degrees. As the MVHR extracts warm air from the bathrooms and then uses that to rewarm the incoming air, I thought it would work reasonably well which it did.
The basic numbers were as follows: For electricity, generation 332 kWh, of which 281 kWh were exported. We pulled in 101 kWh from the grid, used 9 kWh for car charging and for gas we imported 396 kWh. That gives us a negative balance of 207 kWh. Making the point for ASHP, if we had one installed we would be just positive.
February
February was a month with both dire cloudy and wonderfully sunny weather. It started off with a fairly mixed week and then two weeks of overcast weather. Some days barely registered any generation. Then in the last week we had glorious sunshine and 50% of the month's generation.
We had a couple of bookings in the month so the usual spike in hot water usage. The Ember smart programmer worked well as I was able to boost heating and turn hot water on the day before and turn things off after departure.
The overall numbers are possibly subject to late Octopus gas data. The gas smart meter is pretty useless in sending data. It is outside with a clear view of the sky and the electricity meter is in the house. Yet the gas meter constantly misses data and the electricity one works flawlessly. Both the same make so explain that one. Octopus can't.
Generation was 430 kWh of which 369 kWh were exported. We pulled in another 108 kWh of grid electricity and used 304 kWh of gas. So a negative balance of 43 kWh. Continuing the gas/ASHP debate, the year to date balance on gas (as we are) is minus 250 kWh, whereas if we had the ASHP we would be positive 170 kWh.
March
What an absolutely gloriously sunny month. Apparently it was the sunniest March since records began just before the First World War. We generated more than 25% more power this March than last with some days nudging 60kWh - in March for heaven's sake. The graph shows the extent by which March this year exceeded last year. April is looking good so far (as of 13th April). July 2024 total affected by technical issues - not the usual British summer weather :-)
Anyway, the numbers as usual. We generated 1060 kWh. and exported 950kWh of that. We imported a mere 77kWh with no car charging. Gas usage was 388kWh and there was one week of guests staying. We still keep the house at normal temperatures even when its empty.
That gives us a positive lance of 485kWh for the month and it means we have a positive balance for the first quarter of 235kWh which is staggering. If we were on the heat pump, it would probably be nearer a thousand kWh positive balance for the quarter.. Numbers shown on table in Summary of Performance page.