Then I decided to use the MyEnergi eddi device to control the hot water tank.

PV feeding an immersion made financial sense when exports were "deemed" (e.g. 50% of generated under the old FIT arrangement), but now I think many people are on an smart export guarantee tariff, so every unit not exported means a reduction in income - it effect it costs about 15p/kWh to heat water that way (compared with maybe 6p ish to do it by gas (depending on boiler efficiency etc)). Environmentally it's swings and roundabouts of course, but quite likely your kWh might be better spend displacing a kWh of gas fired electricity generation (at perhaps 60% efficiency)  than gas fired local hot water generation (at perhaps 90% efficiency). Depends on your gas boiler of course - if yours still has a pilot light, I guess it's not in the efficient condensing category...

Another approach (which I've got) - is to have solar thermal panels in tandem with PVs (if you've got the roof space of course) - simple thermal panels get many more kW out of a sq m of roof than PVs, even if it's only "low grade" energy as warm water, it's perfectly useful for heating (even pre-heating) a stored hot water system. In my case it feeds a thermal store that provides space heating as well as domestic hot water - so the thermal panels make a contribution to the underfloor heating in winter too.

   - Andy.

More pilot light is used during the summer when gas usage is lower. The average usage per day for our Potterton boiler is 3.6kWh which costs about £7.50 per month. So last year I discussed with our maintainer on how to turn if off and we did that this year.

Our boiler uses gravity feed to send hot water to the water tank, which is not very efficient.

Hello Chris:

Where do you get your water from?  For example a deep well or a water supplier that does NOT add (for example) chlorine when necessary to reduce  the bacteria count .

Does your water have fluoride added to protect your teeth?

Peter Brooks

Palm Bay 

PeterRT said:

My daughter's, in London, lasts about 7 years. I was quoting what technicians told me who are involved in replacing dead condensing boilers

Why would you scrap a boiler after 7 years if the manufacturer can supply spares for at least 10 years?  Makes no sense to me.  Unless, of course, if you can make more profit by selling someone a new boiler, rather than repairing the old one.

yes I put ours in in 2006 or so, and its still going strong apart from needing a new set of ignition electrodes in 2019. It is condensing, but not a combi though, so the pump, 3 way valve, cylinder  header tank etc are traditional so most of the bits likely to need repairs are on the outside and the boiler itself is a lot less full.

So far its not showing any signs of doing anything beyond economic repair.

It is running with more than usual strength of corrosion inhibitor and is a bit oversized, so it loafs along rather than revving hard. It may well outlive the economic supply of natural gas

Mike.

Hello Chris:

When we have a water main break we are advised by the water supplier to boil (100 C at sea level) any water drawn from the tap for drinking purposes, for at least 1 -2 minutes, to kill any bacteria and continue to do so until an "all clear" is issued. 

Peter Brooks

Palm Bay  

PeterRT said:

More pilot light is used during the summer when gas usage is lower.

Eh? The pilot light is on 24/7. It does not extinguish when the main burners ignite.

Afraid that I do not know. It probably has both halides. It is hard as nails!

from https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/622ee4518fa8f56c1d3113dd/water-fluoridation-health-monitoring-report-2022.pdf

And for chlorine or Chloramine from  https://thewaterprofessor.com/blogs/articles/chlorine-in-tap-water

It surprised me - I expected more fluoridation but the report shows that relative wealth has more to do with good teeth than water supplier

Mike

PS edited

For those wondering about IMD this " classifies these areas into five quintiles based on relative disadvantage, with quintile 1 being the most deprived and quintile 5 being the least deprived."

for those interested...

https://opendatacommunities.org/data/societal-wellbeing/imd/indices

https://www.bath.ac.uk/publications/undergraduate-bursary-and-scholarship-terms-and-conditions-2023-24/attachments/indices-of-multiple-deprivation-postcode-lookup-guide.pdf

Hello Chris:

There is an old joke in the Orlando theme parks that you can always identify a Brit by their white legs and bad teeth!

Peter Brooks

Palm Bay 

mapj1 said:

It surprised me - I expected more fluoridation but the report shows that relative wealth has more to do with good teeth than water supplier

So would I. I see that none is added to my supply.

Toothpaste is full of fluoride, but I suppose that does not help if you cannot be bothered.

The other great threat to teeth is (cigarette) smoking. Vaping does not help either. Nicotine reduces blood flow in the gums.

Any road, my teeth are sound and my legs are lightly tanned - at least between my socks and the hem of my shorts.

mapj1 said:

It surprised me - I expected more fluoridation but the report shows that relative wealth has more to do with good teeth than water supplier

So would I. I see that none is added to my supply.

Toothpaste is full of fluoride, but I suppose that does not help if you cannot be bothered.

The other great threat to teeth is (cigarette) smoking. Vaping does not help either. Nicotine reduces blood flow in the gums.

Any road, my teeth are sound and my legs are lightly tanned - at least between my socks and the hem of my shorts.