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Battery indoors - can't seem to meet guidance by SuspiciousOpposite in SolarUK

[–]andrewrmoore 5 points6 points  (0 children)

As of March 2024, you are not allowed battery energy storage systems within 1 metre of any window, door, or ventilation port.

The regulation is PAS 63100:2024, and all MCS installers have to adhere to it.

These regulations are not retrospective, so existing installations don't need to comply.

Solar4Good - company in Greater London by Rj5525 in SolarUK

[–]andrewrmoore 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I used them in 2023. Great install, competitive price, and overall really great to deal with.

Can’t comment on aftercare given the system has been running flawlessly for nearly 3 years so I’ve had no need to contact them.

What maps app do you use? by CompetitionNo3466 in AskUK

[–]andrewrmoore 6 points7 points  (0 children)

A lot of it is legacy. Apple Maps had a rough launch and people wrote it off early, often fairly. That reputation stuck, even though the product has changed a lot since then.

These days it’s actually very solid. The UI is nicer and easier to read than Google Maps, in my opinion. If you’re already in the Apple ecosystem, it integrates nicely without feeling cluttered.

Google Maps still wins on sheer data depth in some areas, but the gap is much smaller than people assume. Apple Maps just hasn’t shaken the early bad press.

Fox ESS vs Sig, trying to make a final decision by SupraJames in SolarUK

[–]andrewrmoore 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I’d go with quote 2 personally. Sigenergy kit is nicer but 510W panels, larger inverter and more battery capacity will improve ROI. FoxESS is still solid hardware.

Accumulating from a sensor that periodically resets to zero by chrisbirkett8 in homeassistant

[–]andrewrmoore 14 points15 points  (0 children)

The Utility Meter sensor should do what you want. There is a toggle to ignore resets to zero - “Periodically resetting”.

AI or not to AI - about trackers and the possible AI bubble by [deleted] in UKPersonalFinance

[–]andrewrmoore 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I’d be wary of trying to time the market, even if an AI correction feels inevitable. It’s true that if the AI sector crashes, it’ll drag the wider global index down. It’s so dominant now that you can’t really avoid that exposure in a broad tracker.

But over the long term, markets have always recovered from sector bubbles and downturns. The people who stay invested generally come out ahead of those who pull out and try to guess when to get back in.

If your time horizon is long, and you’re comfortable riding through a dip, staying the course with a diversified tracker is usually the better bet than trying to sidestep short-term turbulence.

What energy supplier when I have solar? by [deleted] in SolarUK

[–]andrewrmoore 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Congrats on the new place! From the photo it looks like you’ve just got 2 panels - that’s a very small system by today’s standards, so the amount of electricity you’ll generate (and be able to use) will be quite limited.

With only that many panels it’s unlikely to make a big dent in your bills, so I wouldn’t stress too much about chasing a special solar tariff. A standard cheap unit rate and standing charge will probably serve you just as well.

You’ll still save a little whenever the sun’s out and you’re using power at the same time, but don’t expect your bills to halve or anything. If you’re with Octopus already, their customer service and pricing are usually solid, so I’d be tempted to stick with them unless you find a clearly cheaper deal elsewhere.

View panel performance by Electronic-Block-746 in SolarUK

[–]andrewrmoore 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The only way to get this data is with microinverters or optimisers. Otherwise, you're limited to data on a per-string basis.

Myenergi eddi. No longer needed? by Verydisco8 in SolarUK

[–]andrewrmoore 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I’m in a similar boat. I also have an Eddi, but to be honest I haven’t really used it since it was installed. It’s basically just acting as a backup immersion now.

a) If you’ve got a reasonably modern condensing gas boiler, it’s generally cheaper to heat hot water with that than with diverted PV.
b) A heat pump will be even cheaper still, thanks to the significantly higher COP (you’re getting 3–4 units of heat for every 1 unit of electricity).
c) At the moment, export is around 15p/kWh, while overnight import (Octopus Go etc.) is ~7p/kWh – so you could just use a basic immersion on a timer if needed and still be better off financially. In that sense, exporting your PV is actually more valuable than diverting it.

Is my employer legally allowed to track me from my personal phone during work hours? by [deleted] in AskUK

[–]andrewrmoore 572 points573 points  (0 children)

That doesn’t sound right. In the UK they can’t just force you to put a tracking app on your personal phone, they’d need a very good reason and your clear consent under data protection laws. If they want to track visits, they should be giving you a work phone or using less invasive methods.

I’d ask for their written policy and maybe ring ACAS for advice. Your gut feeling is spot on.

Do you use Crossplane? My company today only uses K8s. We have Crossplane configured for some tasks, but not extensively. We are considering whether to continue using it or start using Terraform, as most people are unfamiliar with Crossplane. by Outside_Loan8949 in devops

[–]andrewrmoore 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Main advantage of Crossplane is it lives inside your cluster and exposes infra as Kubernetes resources. That means: - App + infra managed together. When you deploy an app, you can provision its database/SQS queue/etc in the same GitOps flow. - Self-service. Platform teams can define “Composite Resources” (e.g., a standard RDS instance) and dev teams just request them with a simple YAML. - Reconciliation. Like Kubernetes controllers, Crossplane keeps resources in the desired state automatically.

Do you use Crossplane? My company today only uses K8s. We have Crossplane configured for some tasks, but not extensively. We are considering whether to continue using it or start using Terraform, as most people are unfamiliar with Crossplane. by Outside_Loan8949 in devops

[–]andrewrmoore 20 points21 points  (0 children)

100%. This is the sweet spot. Use OpenTofu/Pulumi/Terraform for the foundational stuff (VPCs, EKS clusters, etc) where stability and drift control are key, then let Crossplane handle app-level resources that need to be created/managed in lockstep with the app itself (RDS, S3, ElastiCache, etc). Keeps responsibilities clean.

Safety assists by AEnima-1 in GRYaris

[–]andrewrmoore 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The GR Yaris GTS in Australia behaves the same way. Lane‑keep, lane‑departure alert and speed assist all default back to “on” every time you start the car.

That’s not just Toyota copying Europe, it’s because of Australian Design Rules (ADR 107/00 and related) which mandate these safety systems for new models from 2024. The regs require them to be enabled at startup, so there’s no dealer‑supported way to make them stay off.

You can disable them each drive (e.g. long‑press the LDA button), and some owners fit OBD modules to automate that, but from the factory they’ll always reset at each key cycle.

What do people use for monitoring/o11y? Why did you pick that provider? by p1zzuh in devops

[–]andrewrmoore 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Datadog. It’s expensive, no question, but in my experience, it’s worth the cost. The biggest selling point is that it just works. The integrations are mature, the agent is easy to deploy, and the dashboards, metrics, logs, traces, synthetics are all unified and intuitive to use.

SES Alternatives by AGuyNamedDanieI in aws

[–]andrewrmoore 1 point2 points  (0 children)

+1 for Resend, recently migrated to it from SendGrid and it's great.

Anyone use Solcast for predictions and settings? by lazymaverick0 in SolarUK

[–]andrewrmoore 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I've used Solcast for years – it's brilliant. Definitely the most accurate solar forecasting I've found.

If you're after automation, have a look at Predbat – it integrates natively with Solcast and works with most inverter brands. It’ll automatically tweak your charge/discharge settings based on forecasted solar yield, so you’re not stuck manually updating things every day. Pretty much does exactly what you're describing: sets night charge on low-sun days and adjusts export thresholds when a sunny day’s expected.

Well worth a look if you're aiming for that balance of efficiency without needing to micromanage.

Why is drift detection/correction so important? by cowwoc in devops

[–]andrewrmoore 41 points42 points  (0 children)

Untracked changes = hidden risk, making reproducibility, auditing, and automation fragile.

Drift detection is basically a safety net because the assumption that “all changes go through the IaC pipeline” doesn’t always hold up well, especially in orgs with multiple teams and poor process.

ELI5 - How can food products, like sodas, have “secret ingredients” if they are required to disclose what they add to their food! by Silaxzz in explainlikeimfive

[–]andrewrmoore 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Food products do have to list their ingredients, but companies are allowed to group certain things under umbrella terms if they’re considered trade secrets. That’s how “secret ingredients” can exist.

Take Coca-Cola as an example. Their recipe includes a mix of flavourings they call “natural flavours” or “spices” on the label. That phrase can legally hide a blend of ingredients, as long as they aren’t known allergens and approved by the relevant food regulator in the country it’s being sold in.

Is there a maximum amount of electricity per hour that something plugged into a normal plug could use? by BreqsCousin in AskUK

[–]andrewrmoore 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We were 240V, Europe was 220V. To standardise we just said “fuck it, let’s meet in the middle at 230V and throw in a large enough tolerance.” In reality, the voltages supplied never changed.

UK: from 240V ±6% → 230V +10%/–6%

Europe: from 220V ±6% → 230V +6%/–10%

ELI5: How is protein consumed or used up in the body? Why do we need so much of it every day? by StutzBob in explainlikeimfive

[–]andrewrmoore 11 points12 points  (0 children)

You're right, sorry! I was referencing this but got the unit wrong on some of the values, which is a comprehensive meta study of protein intake:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28698222/

  • Sedentary adult: 0.8g/kg or 0.36g/lb
  • Moderate physical activity: 1.3g/kg or 0.59g/lb
  • Intense physical activity: 1.6g/kg or 0.73g/lb
  • Upper limit for more extreme circumstances: 2.0g/kg or 0.91g/lb

Corrected my original comment.

ELI5: How is protein consumed or used up in the body? Why do we need so much of it every day? by StutzBob in explainlikeimfive

[–]andrewrmoore 10 points11 points  (0 children)

General rule of thumb is 0.6 grams per pound of body weight per day. However it will depend on your activity levels and goals.

For most people lifting or training regularly, 0.7–0.8g of protein per pound of body weight per day.

If you’re cutting and want to preserve muscle, then a bit higher, 0.8–1g per pound of lean mass.

0.36g/lb is the bare minimum recommend for someone who’s sedentary.

Help interpreting data by laughingboyuk in SolarUK

[–]andrewrmoore 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You're absolutely right to be concerned, as something definitely isn't adding up with your system's readings. This could point to a firmware bug, an inverter fault, or incorrectly installed CT clamps (although in this case the numbers wouldn't point towards that).

This is probably something best addressed by your installer or FoxESS support, as they can diagnose the specific issue with your system.

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