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Mick Wall

@zarch1972.bsky.social
612 followers 30 following 39 posts

Husband, Dad, Wednesdayite, Retro Fan & Geek. Creator of @energystatsuk website. Creator of trustedheatpumpinstallers.co.uk

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Mick Wall @zarch1972.bsky.social · 03/05/2025
Yeah. I wrote an article on the site about water mixing and me having a blending valve on the cylinder. energy-stats.uk/hot-water-cy...
energy-stats.uk
Hot Water Cylinder Sizing and Mixing | Energy Stats UK
What size hot water cylinder should you get with your heat pump? And how mixing can help you get more usable hot water.
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Reposted by Mick Wall
Helen K Jeffrey @imhelenj.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
The story of my #heatpump journey. Big thank you to all the bluesky folk who have helped on the way!
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Mick Wall @zarch1972.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
Immersion element? Legionella cycle? And perhaps the immersion is not being monitored by the electrical meter?
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Chris Baraniuk @chrisbaraniuk.com · 27/02/2025
People of Bluesky!! How do you track your central heating, if you do? Spreadsheet and regular meter readings? Heat meters on your pipes? A smart meter? Anything more unusual? PLEASE TELL ME! Working on a story about this.
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Mick Wall @zarch1972.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
In the main it's a combined figure. But many installs, including mine are now splitting off heating and DHW COP. Open energy Mon provides the hardware to track and record this and now also provides the functionality in the charts and the app.
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Mick Wall @zarch1972.bsky.social · 05/01/2025
It happened, Nathan finally got me on the Beta Talk podcast. “Don’t drink, don’t smoke, what do you do?” betatalk.buzzsprout.com/509671/episo... We spoke for ages about a load of stuff and mentioned a ton of people. @octopus.energy @energystatsuk.bsky.social @openenergymon.bsky.social
betatalk.buzzsprout.com
Expert Heat Pump Customers - Mick Wall Interview - BetaTalk - The Renewable Energy and Low Carbon Heating Podcast
Nathan interviews Mick Wall, a self-proclaimed 'heating nerd,' about his experiences with a heat pump expertly installed by Damon Blackmore, a renowned engineer. Mick's story, like those of Trystan an...
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Energy Stats UK @energystatsuk.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
Greener Nights/Mornings Score by Octopus Energy Aimed to forecast how green the grid will over the coming nights Could you delay your overnight usage until a greener morning? For more information about Greener Days visit: energy-stats.uk/octopus-greener-days
Energy Stats Graph
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Energy Stats UK @energystatsuk.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
National average pricing for Octopus Energy Agile Tariff: Sun 22-12-2024 Min: -1.5p (01:30) Max: 31.4p (17:00) Avg: 7.1p Avg Excl Peak: 4.0p Peak 4pm-7pm: 28.0p Get graphs & pricing for all 14 UK regions at www.energy-stats.uk
Energy Stats Graph
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Energy Stats UK @energystatsuk.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
Yesterday, Wed 18-12-24. Wasted wind cost Britain: £12,614,972 £4,172,190 switching off wind turbines £8,442,781 buying energy elsewhere That's 84,887 MWh of green electrons: enough to power 2 Londons for a day. Powered by: wastedwind.energy
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Energy Stats UK @energystatsuk.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
National average pricing for Octopus Energy Tracker Tariff (SILVER-24-10-01) Recent Pricing Thu 19 Dec, Elec:20.39p, Gas:5.76p Wed 18 Dec, Elec:20.0p, Gas:5.79p Tue 17 Dec, Elec:23.02p, Gas:5.7p Get graphs & pricing for all 14 UK regions at www.energy-stats.uk
Energy Stats Graph
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Energy Stats UK @energystatsuk.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
Yesterday (Tue 17/12/2024). Wasted wind cost Britain: £6,733,406 £1,707,773 switching off wind turbines £5,025,632 buying energy elsewhere That's 45,428 MWh of green electrons: enough to power London for a day. Powered by: wastedwind.energy
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Energy Stats UK @energystatsuk.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
Greener Nights/Mornings Score by Octopus Energy Aimed to forecast how green the grid will over the coming nights Could you delay your overnight usage until a greener morning? For more information about Greener Days visit: energy-stats.uk/octopus-greener-days
Energy Stats Graph
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Christopher Brown @snecklifter.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
Was wondering why my DHW COP was so poor on @openenergymon.bsky.social but thanks to @zarch1972.bsky.social excellent blog - energy-stats.uk/arotherm-plu... - I realised I've been running it on normal as opposed to Eco. Will be interested to see what difference it makes. emoncms.org/app/view?nam...
energy-stats.uk
Arotherm Plus Hot Water Modes | Energy Stats UK
This article explains the 3 DHW (direct hot water) modes on the Arotherm Plus heat pump; Eco, Balance and Normal. And why you'd choose one over the other.
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Energy Stats UK @energystatsuk.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
National average pricing for Octopus Energy Agile Tariff: Mon 16-12-2024 Min: -0.6p (05:00) Max: 38.1p (16:30) Avg: 16.5p Avg Excl Peak: 13.5p Peak 4pm-7pm: 36.0p Get graphs & pricing for all 14 UK regions at www.energy-stats.uk
Energy Stats Graph
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Energy Stats UK @energystatsuk.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
Greener Nights/Mornings Score by Octopus Energy Aimed to forecast how green the grid will over the coming nights Could you delay your overnight usage until a greener morning? For more information about Greener Days visit: energy-stats.uk/octopus-greener-days
Energy Stats Graph
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Mick Wall @zarch1972.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
I have been thinking of an "Arotherm Basics" blog article. Will add it to the to-do list. But really the installer should know everything I've passed on. But didn't? 🤷🏼‍♂️ Does the homeowner need to know every technical detail like this if installer did their job and handover?
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Mick Wall @zarch1972.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
You need to leave the system as open as possible. The more water in the system, the better the heat pump will run. I went through this in my first winter and second winter. I wrote about automated TRV in this article. energy-stats.uk/second-winte... I have since ditched TRV entirely.
energy-stats.uk
Second Winter With Our Vaillant ASHP | Energy Stats UK
More lessons learnt from the second winter with our 5kW Vaillant Arotherm heat pump and Mixergy water cylinder.
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Mick Wall @zarch1972.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
Head over to heatpumpmonitor.org?period=last3... Loads of Vaillants being monitored over there. Most getting COP 4 to 5+ in the past 30 days. So i'd say 2 to 2.5 is very poor!!
heatpumpmonitor.org
HeatpumpMonitor.org
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Mick Wall @zarch1972.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
Yes, it's a bit of a dark art. Although weirdly, if you have the eBus controller, you can poke half settings into the WC setting. Like 0.475 It does this because it can fall on half settings as part of auto adaptive WC setting.
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Mick Wall @zarch1972.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
Heat loss calcs in the main are oversized. So whilst curve 1.0 in the book would be about right for 19.5C indoors (50C at -3), i'd start lower. It's the old Heat Geek trick. Keep dropping the curve until you get cold. Then knock it back up one.
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Mick Wall @zarch1972.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
Inactive is purely weather comp Active is WC with some room influence (I use this, i find it best) Expanded works like Active but then also turns the heat pump on and off. I don't like this. More like a boiler control.
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Mick Wall @zarch1972.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
Final few questions for now. What was the calculated heat loss of the house? What did they say the design temperature was? ie 45C at -3C or similar? Is the system 'open loop' (good) or do you have zones that switch on and off (bad, especially with third party stats/controls)
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Mick Wall @zarch1972.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
You can also find the COP from the heat pump controller, it's called Working Figure on there. You can get separate readings for heating and DHW. energy-stats.uk/how-to-measu...
energy-stats.uk
How to Measure Vaillant Arotherm COP
How to measure the COP on a Vaillant Arotherm Plus Heat Pump. Detailed instructions to see how well your Arotherm heat pump is working.
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Mick Wall @zarch1972.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
That chart is from this article about Weather Comp Curves. energy-stats.uk/vaillant-aro...
energy-stats.uk
Vaillant Arotherm Weather Curve Information | Energy Stats UK
Vaillant Arotherm Weather Curve Information. How to read the graphs and how set your heat pump up correctly. With tables and charts.
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Mick Wall @zarch1972.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
Do you have an outside temperature sensor? Where is your internal sensocomfort located? What Room Temp Mod setting are you on? (Inactive, active or enhanced?) 1.2 is pretty high. 0.7 seems better. The Max setting is only a limiter. The weather curve will choose flow temp based on outside temp.
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Mick Wall @zarch1972.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
The Tracker tariff rollercoaster. 🎢
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Mick Wall @zarch1972.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
Swings and roundabouts. All the real gains come from the cold bits at the starts. It tapers off as you get at the hot end. I probably need to do a @openenergymon.bsky.social deep dive to higher temps. 🤣
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Mick Wall @zarch1972.bsky.social · 14/12/2024
what make and model is it? Are you running it on weather compensation? If Vaillant what curve setting? Where are you getting the COP from? Is the 2.2 heating, DHW or combined?
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Mick Wall @zarch1972.bsky.social · 14/12/2024
I spy with my little eye 22:30. 👀 Looks like it might be worth hanging off a day with any big charging? 🚗
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Mick Wall @zarch1972.bsky.social · 14/12/2024
Yeah. I was expecting more of a difference. Perhaps I need to do a year long deep dive into the data. 🤣 On these figures it's a no brainer to choose price over COP if you're after the cheapest regime. Those chasing #topofthescops stick to afternoons. 😉
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Mick Wall @zarch1972.bsky.social · 14/12/2024
I'm not advocating shorter runs. My runs are always pretty long as we have high water demand. I'm comparing the COP between the AM & PM runs. I've covered DHW tips in many articles. Yes, starting from as cold as possible is one of them. energy-stats.uk/smaller-heat...
energy-stats.uk
Smaller Heat Pumps will never reach Top of the SCOPS | Energy Stats UK
Why do smaller heat pumps not perform as well as bigger ones? We have a deep dive and hope to explain why this happens.
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Tomas McGuinness @tomasmcguinness.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
My latest video is up. In this one, I look at how my low flow temperature actually uses *less gas* than the traditional 70° flow temperature that I'm told is better! youtu.be/lig23gactEo
youtu.be
Does low temperature heating actually use more gas or is that a myth?
YouTube video by Tomas McGuinness
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Mick Wall @zarch1972.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
ALL THE DATA!! Plus, for at least three-quarters of the year, the afternoon runs are driven mainly by the solar. 😍
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Mick Wall @zarch1972.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
Interesting local observation. Thanks. The data at my house suggests there's only an average 1.6C difference between 1am and 1pm across the 6 weeks so far. Wonder if internal solar gain comes into play?
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Mick Wall @zarch1972.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
If i get time i might go back through the whole of the summer and compare runs. It's a bit painstaking though. Manual copy and paste into Excel!! 😜
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Mick Wall @zarch1972.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
Yeah, it can be quite an undertaking to turn your gas setup to a low temperature setup. But the frustrating thing for all of us, is that they should have been like this for the past few decades. It's like we are having to put right a load of wrongs before we can even think heat pump.
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Mick Wall @zarch1972.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
1am & 1pm runs up to 12th Dec 1am: Avg Temp 6C, Avg COP 3.56 1pm: Avg Temp 7.6C, Avg COP 3.92 Full analysis through the whole winter to come ready for my "third winter with ASHP" @energystatsuk.bsky.social blog post after end of April. 🤣 Monitoring by @openenergymon.bsky.social
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Mick Wall @zarch1972.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
Do you hot water runs in the afternoon for best COP they say!! Well, not much in it during the winter so far. Especially if you do the hot water runs on cheaper rates. Just keep them overnight? Interesting numbers from my Mixergy and 5kW Arotherm in Eco mode (to 45C target) since 1st November.
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Energy Stats UK @energystatsuk.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
National average pricing for Octopus Energy Tracker Tariff (SILVER-24-10-01) Recent Pricing Tue 10 Dec, Elec:26.95p, Gas:6.22p Mon 09 Dec, Elec:24.34p, Gas:6.34p Sun 08 Dec, Elec:21.2p, Gas:6.33p Get graphs & pricing for all 14 UK regions at www.energy-stats.uk
Energy Stats Graph
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Mick Wall @zarch1972.bsky.social · 08/12/2024
Yep. I got rid of all the fancy tado smart trv and went through fully open radiators. But I did keep the thermostats in the rooms though. They are okay. Albeit expensive as they now don't do any controlling or anything. Just report the temperature.
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Mick Wall @zarch1972.bsky.social · 07/12/2024
I've only just added the emonTH. But the other 3 have been pretty close. Suppose it depends how you want to log the data or whether you want it to make an action? Whether the thermostat has the capability on both fronts for the rest of your setup.
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Mick Wall @zarch1972.bsky.social · 07/12/2024
At what point can you have one thermostat too many @tomasmcguinness.bsky.social ? Searching for the source of truth!! 😆 Got a Xiaomi, @openenergymon.bsky.social emonTH, Tado and the Vaillant Sensocomfort all logging into Home Assistant All there or thereabouts. @energystatsuk.bsky.social
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Mick Wall @zarch1972.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Great day at the Mercury Consortium announcement at Kraken in Manchester with @octopus.energy Great to meet @garydoessolar.bsky.social @raimonick.bsky.social @sarahgogreen.com @energystatsuk.bsky.social on Tour!! 🤣
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Energy Stats UK @energystatsuk.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
Solar PV & Electric Stats for November 2024 Generated: 121 kWh Consumed: 921 kWh Imported: 810 kWh Exported: 10 kWh ASHP: 343 kWh EV: 110 kWh Induction Cooker: 29 kWh Dishwasher: 20 kWh Tumble Dryer : 18 kWh Washing Machine: 25 kWh To Batteries: 470 kWh *thread*
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Energy Stats UK @energystatsuk.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
ASHP Usage/Performance November 2024 (Real world 1930s 3 bed semi detached house) Electric In: 343 kWh Heat Output: 1434 kWh Overall Monthly COP 4.18 Heating COP 4.34 (74% of usage) Hot Water COP: 3.82 (26% of usage) 250L @MixergyLtd cylinder to 45C, 2 runs a day (1am and 1pm) ** thread**
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Energy Stats UK @energystatsuk.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
National average pricing for Octopus Energy Tracker Tariff (SILVER-24-10-01) Recent Pricing Fri 29 Nov, Elec:25.23p, Gas:6.38p Thu 28 Nov, Elec:26.0p, Gas:6.42p Wed 27 Nov, Elec:26.33p, Gas:6.46p Get graphs & pricing for all 14 UK regions at www.energy-stats.uk
Energy Stats Graph
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Mick Wall @zarch1972.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
I don't use the Vaillant hysterisis settings as I use a Mixergy cylinder. Their app and controls override the Vaillant controls.
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Mick Wall @zarch1972.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
Hi Helen. I'm currently on curve setting 0.45 on the Vaillant for 20C indoors. Which is 36.5C at -3C. I did have to bump to 0.5 (38 at -3) last week. Always playing a bit. I wrote more Vaillant curve info here. energy-stats.uk/vaillant-aro...
energy-stats.uk
Vaillant Arotherm Weather Curve Information | Energy Stats UK
Vaillant Arotherm Weather Curve Information. How to read the graphs and how set your heat pump up correctly. With tables and charts.
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Energy Stats UK @energystatsuk.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
National average pricing for Octopus Energy Agile Tariff: Tue 26-11-2024 Min: 14.0p (01:30) Max: 54.8p (16:30) Avg: 26.2p Avg Excl Peak: 22.8p Peak 4pm-7pm: 48.7p Get graphs & pricing for all 14 UK regions at www.energy-stats.uk
Energy Stats Graph
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Robin Hawkes @robhawkes.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
Sad to see a brand new 1.1GW wind farm being switched off most of this very windy weekend when it should be generating at near full capacity. Explore 👉 renewables-map.robinhawkes.com
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