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  2. Most offer a rudimentary coverage, but all seem to want the path of least resistance. The pitfalls of going for convenience is often accepting unidentified compromises through lack of comprehensive and holistic dialogue; architects for home builders just seem to glaze over and almost entirely discount the families that will inherit these offerings and live with them for the next 5/10/20 years. In the last 10-12 years, I've 'suggested' to 9/10 of my clients that they allow their architects to move on to other projects. One of my current clients put MBC's quote on a shelf, where it was left gathering dust, before engaging my services. Once the hidden value in MBC's offering became identified and realised, it soon became their chosen path. If you don't know, you don't know, simple as. For the many folk reading this, put a price on yours and your families time, as you can't buy this for any amount of money .
  3. I must confess that I thought at first that it might work, if one thinks that a BOE works so well even though one might think that in a pumped system that the hot water might just go straight out the opposite bottom end.
  4. Isn't that a bit like plumbing in a heat exchanger the wrong way round?
  5. Measuring flow/return temps is generally OK also for calculating rad outputs as long as the plumbing is done correctly, I assisted someone with a HIU system who not only was being overcharged by ~ 30% but was also not getting the required rad output, the heating engineer who came to investigate it insisted that the BTOE system was fine and would work just like TBOE and of course he used the flow+return measurements to "prove" it, to disprove it I piped one of my own rads, below, using both methods, they then plumbed up the system correctly.
  6. The problem with using curtailed renewable energy to generate hydrogen (or ammonia) is that the kit is expensive. The capital cost has to be amortised over the small amount of MWh it will produce, so the cost of that electricity will be high. That's especially hard to justify if the generation has been curtailed due to grid capacity, in which case the money would have been better spent debottlenecking the grid to reduce the curtailment. There are those who would say that any plan involving hydrogen as an energy vector is doomed to failure due to poor economics. And this will never be fixed by new or improved technology. It's inherent in the thermodynamics. ... Hope my comment makes sense. I jumped in on this thread and haven't read all 24 pages 😀.
  7. PITRVs are your friend here. I don't know why more people don't use them, but both Screwfix and Toolstation now stock and sell the Danfoss ones - great for gas systems but less so for really low temp heat pump systems with very large radiators . Flow rate is more linked to the difference in temperature between flow and return. As highlighted above, the problem is that many column rads don't have baffles so you get flow straight through the radiator if the valves are both at the bottom of the rad. This then provides a bypass through the system. I still get customers who ignore me when I tell them to make sure they're baffled when they order them. Better then to connect them up top-bottom-opposite-ends, but sometimes not pretty. The thing to do is get some cheap clip on pipe thermostats to measure the actual flow/return temps, but first you could test by shutting down your trvs upstairs to see if the temps of these new rads is better. That'll tell us a bit more.
  8. If you use an architect who isn't familiar with timber frame, is there a risk that they will make mistakes because they won't understand the specific detailing requirements of timber frame? I've seen the Potton Architects Guide, and it comprises 143 drawings. Isn't there is a lot of scope for mistakes by an architect having to read that and understand it? Is this an interface, between the timber frame company and the architect, with scope for errors which is best avoided?
  9. Seen these before. Thought at the time they are the wrong approach plus they add something like £20-30 per panel to the cost which seems high. Other countries mandate their inverters do Arc Fault detection on their inverters. Not sure we have caught up but suspect arc fault detection is availalbe in some inverters at least. If not, you can get (though difficult to find) separate devices that do it. One per string rather than one per connection (though not sure how the costs work out). Arc fault detection not going to be quite as good as the boxes but if it comes with the inverter then it's basically free.
  10. Yup. Most stuff is 1/2", or 3/4" where you just insert a brass 3/4x1/2" bush first. German stuff usually 3/4", like Grohe / Hans Grohe.
  11. Fleming Homes took us through design and building regs, built into their package. They did our ‘as planned’ SAP and will get the ‘as built’ SAP / EPC sorted too.
  12. Kress were in most Black & Decker shops years and years back, and I had a load of their 230v tools. Cheap, great quality, lasted forever, and the best part was a detachable mains cord that plugged into the grip of the tool. If it got damaged I just put the lead from another tool onto the dead one and back in business.
  13. Where can I buy one of these bad boys????????? I haven't baited as I have a dog, plus I don't like the idea of the Kyte's or neighbours cats snacking on poisoned rats.
  14. Because you can't beat a Greggs mate
  15. Our solaredge inverters run way beyond that at default settings:) Grid can be up to 253v so you'd need to legitimately run higher than that to export anything.
  16. You need to make a feeding station - get them nice an comfortable with it - then they make easy targets for an air rifle Oh and you are shooting them because they are eating all your crops
  17. Impressive bit of kit. Wonder if they do one for pigeons. I'm just about far enough inland that the seagulls don't visit too often, but I f*&^%^& hate pigeons. They sit in the tree and C%^P all over everything underneath (which is most of my garden as the tree is v large and the garden isn't really!)
  18. Just a word of warning on the diverters above - if you are running TRV's on the majority of the rads when TRV's shut down it is possible to invert the diverters above - no need to ask me how I know this!!!
  19. I run plywood down in my workshop and doubled up, very strong and remains nice and straight. Certainly not the cheapest method but works well
  20. Not worried about the payback period. And for what I get that’s better than the insulation itself is surface I can tape and seal. You can’t get that with plasterboard dabbed onto thermo blocks.
  21. Not heard of Kress before. They look very good but pricey, though I would much prefer to buy something made in Europe rather than China... for emotional rather than logical reasons. (Edit: though I see they have a factory in China too!)
  22. I don't meet any of the other criteria listed by HMRC for completion. Maybe the habitation letter from building control would be doable but that would require them to come to the house.
  23. No ongoing costs on mine (kress)
  24. Thanks for all the replies so far. Mammotion looks like a lot of kit for the money but the support concerns would put me off. I would like a local dealer I can speak to face to face, so limiting myself to Segway, Stiga or Husqvarna currently. We probably will want a GPS guided system rather than old-style buried wire, although I need to get my head around the whether there is an ongoing cost for Network RTK (Real-Time Kinematic positioning).
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