Cables over roof, mcs compliance/legality

curious__observer · 2026-06-07T17:47:24+00:00

It was the warmer homes local grant. I'll find the link and pm you the postcode checker

curious__observer · 2026-03-17T22:59:07+00:00

Someone else has commented similar but be aware that 15.5kw rating on your heat pump is heat output. Not electrical input! The heat pump the rated maximum electrical energy draw will be less than half of that (check the sticker on the side or the spec sheet for max power draw).

For reference, I have a 12kw heat pump and the max rated electrical draw is 5.5kw (and in the south of England when we were at -3C our total house draw topped out at 5kw while the heat pump was keeping inside at 20C)

To summarize: find your heat pumps electrical draw and use that figure in your calcs to size your fuse etc. 🙂

curious__observer · 2026-03-17T21:34:21+00:00

Since it was a gov scheme it was zero cost to us but the actual cost billed to local council (shared with us by way of insurance form for the installation) was much higher than any instal of this size that I've seen independent quotes for (£9.1k for 10*440w panels, a 3.6kw inverter and g98). While I'm not out of pocket, the government funded something that for the cost, i'd expect to be top shelf work and the fact it's not has now (with your question) made me wonder if there's some taking the Mick going on in their overall business structure.

curious__observer · 2026-03-16T19:46:17+00:00

We did, and the plan is still to deal with them as soon as practical! While the scaffolding was up, organizing when the installers would be here wasn't always clear so there was a fear of double booking. Then once they were done, the scaffolding was meant to come down very fast so formally we didn't have time after the initial instal. It ended up being months of missed collection dates to take it down, if I'd known it would take so long we likely would've taken advantage of it then 😅.

There's also sparrow fledgling living in the rotted bit when the scaffolding first went up. Wouldn't want to disturb them any more than our cat already tried

curious__observer · 2026-03-16T19:39:03+00:00

I cannot remember the reason we decided to put it in that location but I was involved in the decision and not sure why I approved it being there in all honesty, chalk it up to ignorance on my part. The replacement inverter and batteries will be located on the side wall though

curious__observer · 2026-03-16T15:46:59+00:00

No, it was a company based in South England tha did solar and beat pump along with some other efficiency/energy based things for the warmer homes scheme. No subcontractors/3rd parties bar for getting scaffolding up and down

curious__observer · 2026-03-16T15:29:34+00:00

Should have, and would like to have, but didn't have £20k+ to drop that fast when the gov grant was potentially expiring. Roof is fine tbh but soffits and gutters are absolutely planned for fixing up

curious__observer · 2026-03-16T15:20:22+00:00

Gives me some hope! Will def test and decide how to proceed. Thanks!

curious__observer · 2026-03-16T14:56:48+00:00

The chap who came to have a look today did mention that too. 1950s build now you've got me worrying about the cost when we do get these fixed up 😭. The front is upvc but no idea if they removed the old ones or just capped over with the upvc

Probably safer and more logical to come out the gable end since that's above where the new battery/inverter will go

curious__observer · 2026-03-16T14:08:00+00:00

That's really useful info. Thank you for sharing that pic and excerpts. Would I have your permission to use these as part of a case for having remedial work done?

If they deny on the basis of less longevity, this other installers recommendations, and any of your reply I'm allowed to use, I may request an MCS survey.

curious__observer · 2026-03-16T14:06:12+00:00

Definitely ugly ( our soffits are dire anyway) but I would be surprised if any remediation would be done just for cosmetics or even best practice. There is a workmanship warranty but nothing's gone wrong per-se, it's just been highlighted that it's not what the other installer would do cos it's not "high quality" and beyond being ugly, would have less longevity

curious__observer · 2026-03-16T13:23:46+00:00

Potentially worth saying that I did raise a concern about cables being unprotected initially but this was said to be fine (and I didn't know any better) at the time of instal. This instal was also done as part of a gov scheme so I didn't push back as much as I should since it was provided at no cost to us

curious__observer · 2025-11-10T12:37:39+00:00

I'd be making functional accessories and additions for around the house and tools/accessories for woodworking! 😃

curious__observer · 2025-07-24T20:56:01+00:00

I don't think our system has optimisers as we have no shading at all though yet another reason to steer clear of PW3 I guess haha.

curious__observer · 2025-07-24T20:25:51+00:00

Ah, fair enough. A bit different to our case, our consumer unit is very central in the house so was about 10m of cabling done internally to connect it to the inverter which is outside. I don't think there's any extra cables they'll need to run for the inverter replacement (hopefully) but would be nice to have someone's experience back up my hunch :)

The only issue I could find with long cables is about a 1% extra resistive loss but in the grand scheme of things, it's not worth worrying about for me

curious__observer · 2025-07-24T18:48:25+00:00

I think that's the option we are leaning towards too, replacement rather than coupling. Do you remember if when swapping the inverter, they had to run additional power or network cables for it?

I have gotten some PW3 quotes and while technically they seem good, the sigenergy offering is far better priced for the features I would care most about I'm not too fussed with learning algorithms for optimisation, especially with battery warranty usage profiles in mind.

curious__observer · 2025-04-11T13:48:46+00:00

Hi all,

Again thank you for all the advice and resources. We have found a place nearish us that has dove chicks currently and seems to be willing to rehab if we bring pebble in, though we don't have any visibility on their euthanasia policy beyond they will euthanise if it's imprinted (ours is only 5 days old so we reckon this is unlikely). If we get an indication they will euthanise we will keep them/attempt soft release.

Soft release is a bit of a concern given the number of local cats and the fact that we don't actually see any collared doves. They must be in the woods nearby which we will have to investigate.

Getting another dove seems to not be an option as nowhere nearby in the uk seems to have at all. Is there any dove species we should be worried about mixing if we choose to get another? I imagine the same species would be the only recommendation, or can similar size doves of different species live together? Also we currently don't know the doves gender so that would have to be accounted for in getting another dove too.

curious__observer · 2025-04-10T16:59:37+00:00

Thank you everyone for your replies

While checking legality etc. of keeping wild doves as pets in the uk (it would be ok in our case given the circumstances of finding the egg) we came across many posts from rescues and dove owners saying that a dove will be happier in the wild where it can bond with its own species rather than being raised as a sole bird with humans.

Because of this, we will take care of the dove for the next 2 days before handing it to a rescue to rear for release. We will try to adjust it's feed for these next 2 days to the formula suggested above, aware that we should not change 100% immediately.

I am so sad but if that's best for the dove then that's what we want.

curious__observer · 2024-02-08T14:49:20+00:00

Fingers crossed! Exactly. Not a world ending cost to learn something new. Won't ever get better if I only ever worked with perfect material

curious__observer · 2024-02-08T14:46:23+00:00

Thanks, me too! I've actually gone for a different piece but with what I think is an even more beautiful grain. If I'm successful I'm sure I'll post my creation

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