Exactly what we have. And over 60% of our consumed electricity is self generated. We do have a very well insulated (RT2012) house as well, which helps enormously. For our 100m2 house, we only have an 8Kw output heat pump and that’s plenty. In the UK, in out 80m2 house, our gas boiler was 22Kw output.
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We do the same, but for different reasons. We do it during the day, when we have generated electricity so as to even out the load during the daylight hours and try to avoid taking electricity from the grid. We’re getting better at making the most of our PV electricity all the time and now it’s almost automatic.
We have the Tramontane for that, best tumble drier going. And when it’s not blowing in the summer, we have the sun.
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This year has been exceptional… so hot that the laundry almost dries in the basket as it waits to be hung on the whirlygig thingy… 
They did not sleep IN the bed but on each corner of the duvet hence pinning me down. No way would I have had them in with me, the biggest cat especially loved rolling in anything he could find! No, I kept my pillows up out of reach during the day and the bed sheet covered with a very large duvet which also had a second old one inside as protection.
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Tramontane here too, everything dries literally before even being put outside. Brittany was never like that, everything stayed damp unless there was sun because usually the wind was so strong you couldn’t put small items out without them ending up in the neighbouring gardens.
Hairbear, if your PV is producing excess hot water you can also plumb your dishwasher directly with a hot water feed (check manual first, but a Bosch dishwasher accepts a 65C input). In that way it will not need to draw electricity (ours draws 3kw which is more than our PV panels generate) to heat the water in the wash cycle. You will also have to run the kitchen tap to ensure there is hot water in the pipes as the dishwasher starts. Fortunately our dishwasher is right next to the kitchen basin.
Ours isn’t Bosch, although all our other appliances are. I’ve measured the power draw for all the appliances and the washer takes 2.1Kw max when heating the water so we can’t always guarantee that. We mostly wash at 40C anyway, so that probably wouldn’t work for us as the hot water is set at 60C.
haven’t had a domestic pet for some years but when we had a cat in the UK, it damn well knew that soft furnishings were a definite no-no and out it would go immediately if I caught it in the act…
It was a farm cat which spent the whole night, every night, out of the house and I had seen some evidence/remains of its nocturnal activities 
and no way was he going to be “accommodated” 
I appreciate you never actually “own” a cat and it was certainly a battle of some proportions in maintaining “superiority” 
Hot water bottles in the bottom of the bed. Great for my cold feet!
On our 2nd year at Uni, my flat share friend and I used to sit back to back on top of the paraffin heater to keep warm in our vast high ceilinged barn of a flat. And we had huge duvets on the beds and to wrap around us when it got too cold. The ‘heating’ often caused ice to fall onto us from the roof light. The good old days !
just looked up the ecological impact of dishwasher vs. hand washing
we are also just 2 in our household, dishwasher runs nearly everyday/when full. A++ model, 10 litres of water, UK costs 50 pence for electrics at last years prices.
I rinse some pots before they go into the dishwasher, at the moment that water goes into a basin and gets emptied on my thirsty garden…
Reminds me of one of my BIL who got out inthe night for a pee. (They have two cats all the time who come and go via a flap). Anyway he put his slippers on in the dark and thought my sister had washed them cos one felt soft. Getting back into bed and kicking the slippers off, he put the light on and found he had stood on a dead rat and squashed it onto the bottom of his foot with his weight hence the strange soft slipper.
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Bit like when Victor Meldrew put his foot in a dead hedgehog 
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you’d better believe it
I would go with 4 and 4 in those terms but still cleaner using electricity although the UK does derive around 45% of its electricity from gas a lot of the time. I forget the older heat pumps as they were both noisy and less efficient than modern units.
Fur lined slippers, you were posh
Back to saving electricity. Last evening we had an interesting chat with the electricity people and I was recommended to change my tarif which is for the HC/HP system of using electricity at fixed hours, but because I have a new air heat pump system in this house which he said only works during the daylight anyway as my cheaper hours are the very early hours plus two hours in the afternoon, I am paying a higher charge than if no HC/HP. This is my first winter coming up with such a system so they said if I wanted to return to the previous HP/HC I could but I should consider seeing what difference it makes. The airpump cumulus has a brain which automatically switches to the electricity supply if the outside air is not heating sufficiently to the temperature set so I won’t be without hot water but heating it is the thing I shall watch carefully. I was also advised to up my monthly DD by a little as the current amount is not really sufficient as the costs are going up very fast by the suppliers and I don’t want a nasty catch up surprise at end of the year!
“He” is wrong, heat pumps can and do work at anytime there is sufficient warmth to be harvested.
If you are not using 40% or more of your electricty at night during the discount periods you are losing due to the inflated prices during the other times.
Yes but the main point was that I don’t need the more expensive abonnement for HC/HP as my hours here are only 2 during all those daylight hours and the unit will be charging regardless. Well we shall see what the difference turns out to be and if not happy I can return to previous setup. Just thought I would mention the fact that if others with heat pumps might also benefit or not.