tmechanical and electrical

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	The overall mechanical and electrical design and installation was co-ordinatedby Chris Smith of CES Eco Designs, a Camber-based electrical engineer. Chris worked on the design of the electrical system, with Helen's son Tom Silverlock, who has made a recent major career change to retrain as an electrician and plumber. Tom has now joined EDF to train as an electrical engineer working on power networks - we hope that working on our project helped Tom get through a very rigorous selection process to get this job, but maybe it just convinced him that he didn't want to do domestic wiring installations, even eco ones! The electrical system has been installed using screened Firetuf cable which although more expensive than regular electrical cable blocks emission of radio frequency waves from the extensive cabling runs in the house. The solar PV system has been designed initially to benefit from the feed-in tariff but will have the capability to charge a battery bank to allow off-grid operation of lighting and essential heating controls. We originally planned for a central control system which would allow remote internet access to check on the status of the heating and hot water system and alter settings. We saw this as a key aspect in managing the thermal store as the system will rely primarily on solar heating backed up by the log burner. We have had problems with procurement of this system which led to a rethink, so have postponed the decision on this until we understand more about how the heating will operate in prolonged cold weather. The thermal store provides hot water for space heating through underfloor heating and towel rail radiators in the bath/shower rooms. Integration and plumbing of the heating system - the thermal store, the log burner, the underfloor manifolds and the domestic hot water supplies - was done by Mick Rennells of CMS Plumbing in Canterbury. In view of the heat loss problems we have experienced with the thermal store - see the Solar Thermal Progress Update page - we have looked closely at ways of improving insulation - we have insulated all hot water pipe runs with Armacell 13mm or 19mm wall insulation, as well as building a highly insulated enclosed room in the loft for the thermal store.