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Would this be a good point to trot out this perennially relevant cartoon?

Gravity system with a heat only boiler? I'm less of a fan of Grundfos these days, and am steering towards Wilo more often. The 5 means 5m head, so most off the shelf standard circulators will do the job. This one may suit your needs and should be available locally LINK Hopefully the pump valves will hold well enough for a deft switch over, but expect them to not close fully.

Can anyone recommend a suitable pump replacement for this one? well, I’m assuming it’s the pump as the boiler is working but the heat never gets far from the boiler at all and the pump is making non standard noises!

It’ll be far more sympathetic, add value, and serve the intended purpose properly. Let us know if you put planning in and are successful, and we’ll talk you through the next steps

A light sand / media blast would bring that back to life

Thankyou, I tried to speak with the local fire officer via the FRS HQ, a lady came back to me after a week or so to tell me to contact my local authority! Looking at the lay of the land - access could be made over neighbours properties via alternative roads. One potential option could be the unmade road is 'L' shaped with a 90 degree bend after 38m, with the plot being a further 57m to the boundary of the plot (63m ish to the centre of the plot), perhaps the appliance could pull forward from the main road into the unmade road the 38m or so and stay there and run the hoses the remaining distance? Perhaps we will know what the council think when we get the consultation results back in a few more weeks time, or at least we hope so!

We used to call it cosy wrap. https://www.bes.co.uk/flat-pipe-wrap-12658/

I mean, yes.... 😁 I'm not saying that climate change isn't a good reason to: - improve insulation - electrifying heating and transport - increace renewable generation etc Just that it isn't the only reason. If climate change didn't exist (as some people argue) then it would still be sensible to do the above purely from the perspective of reducing the vulnerability of our economy to external shocks. And I agree that we have sleepwalked into this situation. We should have been taking action earlier and we should be doing more now. But there are multiple groups (ironically both fossil fuel and some misguided and overzelous "greens") who are dragging us back. This thread is an attempt to answer the "Net zero is threatening our energy security - we must drill more for energy independence!" lobby by pointing out that is a fantasy and the only beneficiaries of slowong net zero are the fossil fuel companies and foreign powers who would like to see the UK even more exposed to outside shocks.

I have been out of that industry a few years now, but last i knew, it was an epoxy or polymer, not concrete. So it's a paint really, in any colour, but not at all interesting. If you want your house to look like a garage....

And instead of being up front and saying that, we are going down the renewables route only under the guise of "net zero" We have been sleepwalking into this situation without a plan for what to do when our own oil and gas runs out and no preparation for that event.

This is exactly the point of my orginal post. We do not have "... mountains of gas we have in the North Sea and under our feet in shale formations..." For shale, our geology is different from thr US (who do have quite a bit) and the gas has already leaked out millions of years ago. For the north Sea - it is tapped out. I did a quick calculation and if we were to magically snap our fingers and be able to extract all the gas the most optimistic oil industry projection estimate is availible extract at a rate that satisfied our current rate for another 15 years. But that rate is only 50% of our current demand. If we extracted (again magically) at a rate that made us self sufficient for gas, we could do that until around 2033 and then be totally out. This is the core of my argument, any gas plant generating today (and I do think we shoukd squeeze as much use out of already paid for assets as we can) and any you build will be almost wholly dependent on imported gas within the decade. If a significant portion of put generation relies on this imported gas we are extremely vulnerable to supply shocks beyond our control. On the other hand of we get more of our energy for heating, transport and elecreicty from renewables *which are.cost competitive with well utilised CCGT* then we are less vulnerable to these shocks.

Absolutely, for projects commissioning in 2030 the price per. Mwh for solar and onshore wind is basically £60, offshore is about £100 Gas is at best (93% utilisation) a match for offshore wind. If the utilisation falls it gets more expensive (I guess because of amortisation of the same construction cost over fewer mwh) One thing to note is that in this report the carbon price looks pretty hefty (pale blue bar) somewhere around £30, visually a little bit (say 80%) of the gas price* If you remove that then well utilised gas is a match for solar and onshore wind. *I'm not sure how that chimes with figures I saw that had carbon price of around 30% of the gas price, so I have used the most favourable to gas assumption. And the sensitivity of gas to price rises. This shows the response to higher and lower gas prices - note including the carbon price discussed above. It loos like a +/- of about £25 of on the overall cost, which if we put back into our eaelier graphs means ccgt might be cheaper than solar/wind *if* gas prices were to end up being lower than expected *and* we removed carbon costs.

Or running system at a long steady temp (lower), so the pipes expand and contract less often

You can get a self leveling compound designed for forklift traffic in warehouses I don’t know what it looks like, probably grey and boring looking if that what you are looking for. you could do one room with expansion gap at a door way as a tester.

Exactly that, you answered your own question.

So every time the heating comes on we get pipes creaking under the landing and bathroom. Doubtless this is the copper pipes used in this part of the house expanding as the hot water heats them up. So what is the best fix for this ? I think maybe there is some kind of plumbers felt which can be slid under the pipes where they contact the joists to take away the friction ?

The cables will probably come out into the back of a rotary isolator, so you won’t see those as there’s a big box over the cable holes. the pipes will have pipe insulation over them so again the hole in the timber will have a substantial lump of insulation covering it. flow and return pipe individually communication cables on their own supply gables one hole per supply to each isolater the holes for the pipes should be about 75mm so the insulation goes all the way through the wall, don’t but it up to the wall or you will be heating the core of the wall up.

The bit in the middle, which needs to stop any vibrations from the pipework could be made with flexible foam. The k-value of that would be similar to normal insulation. You can get fire resistant, closed cell foams, they are usually used for furniture cushions. As for inside and outside air and water resistance, can you fabricate some covers out of plywood. Cut any holes 10mm bigger than the diameter and make your own 'seals' up with high modulus silicone. You can buy silicone sheet in different thicknesses and it can be 'glued' with normal silicone sealant.

Are you going to get the original building cleaned up a bit.

I need to have a couple of penetrations in my timber cladding to allow ASHP pipe and electric connections. Any suggestions for a tidy way to finish these? For the MVHR it's been easy as the ducts terminate with a flanged louvre grille, covering the rough cut and allowing a good squidge of sealant. How to achieve a tidy finish around pipes and cables and seal the edges of the hole? Better to put a single large duct in and put all the pipes and wires through this but then how to make airtight inside and water & bug proof outside? Better to do each individually?

That’s a piss-you-off!! CT1 will get that watertight temporary, if you need to keep using it. Just need to dry it out with a hairdryer and clean it before applying.

Yes sorry name mix up. To much happening in my world. After 20 years of trouble free service a cistern in one of our bathrooms just cracked without provocation, not been used since Christmas, drowned the router in the stairwell below, left us with no Internet and water everywhere. Sadly its a Fired Earth unit so no guarantee possible- still as I say it has done 20 years.

You’re driving me to drink Mike….

I’m so happy with they way it turned out. absolutey worth the small extra cost. you can see the below ground in OPC instead of white cement and the difference the white mortar makes

It is, at least that's what I asked for, it doesn't have a fuse anyway.