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We just used bulk bags, which all the excess concrete and washout went into. Excess water drained out of the bottom.

You are a manager. You had space too?

In terms of other services / ducting coming in, is it best for these to come through the slab in the same area of the room and distribute from there? Are they in one single opening in the slab or kept separate?

There's a report on BBC website today saying ASA are aware of many such adverts. A fan and some cardboard fins in one case (and NASA mentioned). They can't fine or control online stuff. the nature of some of the businesses behind these ads means enforcement alone isn't enough to stop the problem," said the ASA. Another story is about travel adapters. Amazon, alibaba etc say they "take safety very seriously." But clearly they don't.

Will double check cylinder size, many thanks for that. I missed the cable duct for car charger from the sketch.. that should have been on there as was spec'd by electrician. Good spot. The outbuilding is simple brick building (1900 ish) – but we insulated the floor with limecrete (https://mikewye.co.uk/product-category/limecrete-floor-systems/) and fitted UFH pipework in advance of house build, at the time thinking that would be our best option.

I’d go for a minimum of 250L for the UVC, possibly even 300L, so you can heat it far cooler (50-55°), so theres less latent losses snd more volume to store off peak energy or diverted PV etc. 200L is very small for an ASHP even if it’s just “the two of you”. You’ll need a second, smaller duct for the car charger for data / comms and to bring the CT clamps to the meter; if the meter is at the boundary then you need to work out where the CT clamps need to go and duct accordingly. Rigid BT56 duct is the only duct your’e allowed to use for telecom, which they usually supply you for free. Assuming the exported heating is for keeping you warm in the outbuilding, consider a large fan coil out there so it’ll cool and heat (remember that it’ll need a condensate drain); note: fan heaters give almost instant heat (and cool) vs a radiator.

@zzPaulzz I meant for a professional blow job. Payne Insulation?

It's sad, but I do see it as a tax on stupid people. Better they learn their lessons on a £xx posh fan, and feel cheated, mugged off & embarrassed then when they fall for a dodgy email and take a £xx,xxx hit which the bank then refunds - at the rest of our expense.

Buffer was in architects' floor plan, heating engineer did also spec one but I will double check whether this is needed. The ASHP was on the other side of external wall on the original plan, but the path there is only 1.5m wide between house and retaining wall, so there isn't room unfortunately.

Why do you need a buffer in the plant room or at all? Have you considered bend radius to get the 32mm duo piping into the plant room? I would get the UFH manifold and cylinder next to each other and make the plumbing super simple. As said dump the buffer. Why not have the ASHP the other side of the external wall and take everything through the wall?

Washout is useful. Now, 5 years later, I find myself wishing we had more. We built a 10 by 8 , and 6 inch deep lined pit. The resulting washout area became a useful base for all sorts of things during the build after concreting. And then, when broken up it was piled up out of the way. We found a use for very last bit of it.

We are just going over plant room layout as trenches are being starting to be dug for services. Architects gave us initial layout for plant room which is in the centre of the house (2 bed bungalow, with small brick outbuilding which will be used for workspace). Simplified sketch is below with kit sizes to scale. Red arrows show ins and outs. Unsure how realistic this looks! Obviously keen to get it right before pipework is laid and any concrete poured. As ever any comments more than welcome. – We are building to passive principles so assuming all these should be coming up through the slab? – Should everything come in using ducts? (other than the 125mm pre-insulated pipe?) – Should these ducts be sealed / grommeted / something else? – How best to choose position of incoming / outgoing ducts? All new to us.. architects gave a general idea but not much else. Groundworks team are great but not experienced with passive side of things. Many thanks in advance 🙂

Instead of Uncle Nick..........methinks "Number 2" sounds good. And not the 'taking a shit' one btw.

Does that convert you from cone to flat-faced?

10% gpu; yep!. 25% if you get the worst possible grazing angle over water. Added upscale (for some minor quality loss) even on the water grazing angle if I drop to 70% gpu at 13%, drop to 50%, gpu 10% Plenty of engine for more fun!

Hit 50% gpu with procedural background planets/nebula/stars. So optimise , optimise, optimise. Took a while now back at around 30% gpu. Proper (frustrating) exposure aswell. So when you look at something really bright you are blinded for a bit and colour 'seaps' back in. Trying to function like an eye rather than a camera (so binned lens flare). Going for clouds again (3rd attempt) - tricky one but got a 25 page spec for it. Then more fun... always bugged me with a height map that of course you cant have arches/overhangs/caves but have another spec for a hybrid system that allows such things. Another sped up thing was that the baking was taking upto 4 seconds (which bugs me) ; down to 1 second now. So startup is far quicker.

As I (G) am wrinkly I’ve not a clue what a company like that actually does, in my world lighting meant BHS. What do they provide exactly?

Can't we not put rare earth magnets on a fan blades? It works to soften water, improve fuel consumption, cure headaches and rheumatism, it just has to cool air.

I guess you mean Norwich Architectural Lighting? We did.

Sure and I'd guess even most DIYers aren't going to be capable of doing anything other than the most basic system, unlike that proposed. A middle ground is the umbrella scheme, where the scheme provider does the design work and you take care of the install with the provider coming in to do commissioning and sign off. Likely costs are possibly cheaper than pure DIY as you do get access to the grant, though it will take more time and co-ordination and options are limited. For a complex install as we are discussing it'll be extremely difficult to find a viable scheme.

@zzPaulzz - did you use the Norwich guy?

Straight away, so likely my fault, or has been pointed out the wrong washer used!

Maybe, but a good MCS installer isn't just an installer, they're a system designer too. Good design takes both time and experience, especially since the OP has already mentioned hydraulic separation. That's entering a mine field. If you find a good one, that will pay dividends down the line.

Based on reading peoples experiences on here if you are a competent DIYer and you can get easy/low cost access to an electrician and plumber to do the regulated bits then you can self install for a similar price than you will end up paying an MCS installer. (The MCS installer will take the grant and charge you much more on top partly to cover MCS, etc, overheads but also to make a tidy profit). Having said that if you are not confident in your ability to do this stuff then getting an installer in is really the way to go. The effort should be spent on finding a good one.

How have you determined that you actually need hydraulic separation and additional pump? This is really not always needed and I'd recommend you calculate the pressure losses fully before specifying this in a design. Even if you used CCTs, you're going to suffer from distortion on the secondary circuit, even if it is variable speed pumped. E.g. right now I'm completing an installation for a customer that has a mixture of 8mm, 10mm copper and 10mm plastic throughout. Pressure loss is no problem.