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Advice please? (Attached pics) Got unvented hot water cylinder in a flat (1995 build) I just purchased, fully electric flat no gas. The unvented hot water tank has two switches... 1 is off peak supply (through the night it runs only- cheaper prices). Other is 24 hour on demand so heats at any time throughout day (peak times so normal elec rates). But...There's a third switch (in kitchen).... So I plan leaving off peak switch on and others off so that tank heats up during night and is hot enough next day as I know if left 24hr on, the tank would constantly heat up to a required temp via thermostat so using alot of electricity... I was told that if I wanted a bath say, and the hot water wasn't as warm as I'd have liked (Ie last heated in the tank night before)I can switch on the 24hr switch for hit water in demand...which makes sense. My question is, following on from above I was told I'd have to switch the kitchen socket (silver switch) on along with the 24 HR supply switch to achieve the on demand hot water? Does this sound right...or is it possible that the silver switch located in kitchen is for hot water on demand to the kitchen sink? Also told if just showering and no baths just leave the off peak switch on and rest off so uses as little electriciy as possible. Any tips on this would be great before I waste a small fortune. It all makes sense just the third kitchen switch is throwing me off a little like why is it there and not just use the switch marked 24hr next to off peak?? Any help much appreciated.

There are many ways to skin this cat....... You know me..... I'm always expressing an opinion due to my 'lack of varnish'

Arms like a fiddler crab afterwards?

Some things to try just to rule stuff out. Ruling stuff out is a good way of approaching a problem. You have 185m loop. I would disconnect that and first gently connect up an air compressor to the return end. Gently blow the water in the pipe into a bucket, see if you are getting sediment and if so what kind. then blast it. That may be enough to clear any stubborn gunk. At least then you know if the pipe is clear. Then connect mains water to the return and back flow.. DO NOT do this on the flow side as you could make matters worse. Check the mains water inlet pressure and collect the water in a bucket. What is the pipe internal diameter you have? if you know that then you have some data on the loop that is maybe a problem. Now you can back calculate the loop characteristics. You can then reduce the mains water to a lower pressure and see what happens. Once you have handle on that you can then see what you may or may not have to do to the rest of your system. It could be that you long loop is ok, it just needs a good clean out! Remeber that as a long loop the flow at the return end would be diminished so gunk could have accumlated over time. Other question is.. did it work before you got your new boiler? Did it work fine when you first installed the system?

Are there grounds for the OP posting the question: “given the suggestion of SIPs should I trust my architect?” In the appropriate forum. Not that I’m expressing an opinion, mind.

Good question as an introduction. And this is even better! @Rick "Gus and I have debated this before. My position is you should design the loops to output the heat you need at very low temps. " "But I wouldn't deliberately add extra loops if it throws off your heat output calcs, etc. " I can see that my approach requires some reasoning in response to the very good points made by many (not just Simon and Rick above in response to my "philistine approach". I'm going to have a go at setting out my stall. I say from time to time that I did my first UFH a long time ago, long before BH and when is was almost for the "whacky inventor in the UK" To start as a bit of background. About 30 years ago I built a house out in the country. There was a guy (Clive) who was building a house about 1/4 of a mile away that had come over from Scandinavia with the UFH idea. At the time it was innovative in the UK. I looked at the complicated controls, could not be sourced in the UK at the time, even the pipe diameter and thought.. I'll simplify it, build my own manifolds out of soldered Yorkshire joints, got some pumps and a blending valve off the shelf and installed all of that into timber suspended floors, ground and first, all coupled up to an oil fired boiler.. basically a big blow torch in a twin walled steel box that had water in it. I could not afford "high end" but knew and believed in the principle of UFH. Now it worked ok but when it got really cold, which was quite often -5 deg over a week, often dropping to minus 15 deg overnight, I ended up having to crank the flow temperature though the UFH pipes up to 60 C. The carpets did not self destruct and the tiled floors hung in there! I learnt that floor finishes if slowly conditioned and installed properly are often more forgiving than you think. Incedentally my pal (Clive) down the road died and it was only about 5 years back that I stopped look after his widows system (500 m square house). It has twin LPG boilers, a low loss header and so on. Once I moved into my own self build.. could walk about with my socks off I became absolutely hooked on UFH. Make no mistake I love it and am a big fan. I'm not such a big fan of some of the stuff on BH.. it's too complicated! Since then (Clive) I've been involved in UFH, done some for myself and for Clients. The technology has improved a lot, especially boiler innovation, controls weather compensation and so on.. I've experimented on my own house.. tested ideas on my own houses, made mistakes. I've also learnt a lot about FE analysis, the maths behind it and it's limitations... and know it's to be taken as a modelling tool... although the folk that have a financial interest in selling say UFH .. it's designed by FE so must be right! That is bollocks.. it's a tool, a good one at times, but it must be sense checked. In my day job now I'm an SE and designer, still learning every day! Much of my work is domestic. I'm exposed to how domestic Clients work with builders. In this context take the money and Client / Builder expectation. These differer. Expectation of quality control on site differs, drawing and contract interpretation. On BH there are good comments about, testing, site supervision..and if you do this then you can have a leaner UFH design. But the reality is, from having done this for a long time, it is that what you think you are going to get as a self builder often does not get realised on site. The self builder is 95% often not to blame.. the industry probably is. 1/ My general approach: To digest this I'm going to split the UFH into two different elements and generalize a bit for sake of arguement / presentation. 1/ What is in say a screed / concrete slab or timber floor. If something goes wrong with that then the cost of access and repair is high and disruptive to finishes not least. As a correlation. Say I have my SE hat on, I design a timber frame and the windows have timber lintels on cripple studs. But the detailing at the cill causes hidden water to leak back into the kit, rots it and things start to move. That is often going to cost a lot to fix. If you then think.. well it's fair to ask the UFH pipes to perform for the same length of time as the structure.. 50 -60 years. To add more weight to this. What about your drain pipes in the house.. is it not fair to ask that they will also hang in there for 50 years? Or do you want your UFH pipe to last for say a guarentee period of 7 -10 years like double glazing units.. what about young kids that may later buy your house, is that for them to sort out, or inherit? Now know that in my first house.. 30 years ago the UFH pipes are still fine, not breaking down, getting brittle.. and that is with 30 year old pipe technology! Point.. is UFH like double glazing or an important "built in" part of the structure? Boilers, pumps etc above the floor can be easily changed. We may want to change them as more efficeint and simpler controls come on the market? 2/ What happens on site: I can see on BH that some are saying.. if you control the works, supervise, test, make sure you are draconian with the folk installing the UFH pipes, checking all their bend radius ( see UFH pipe datail), you have a fighting chance. Some on BH are asking about running UFH pipes over concrete slab movement / sawn joints, some say the UFH pipes can stretch a bit. I can tell you as someone who designs this slab / screed stuff that this is false prophecy as you are eroding the factor of "safety" and each time you do that you risk UFH failure. Your UFH pipes are not designed to be "stretched by concrete / screed movement or over bent! But the reality is for most self builders is that you are going to have to trust the folk on site.. and accept that some pipes may be bent a bit tight, stood on, overlapped and get crushed at the over lap. When laying screed or concrete the pipes should be under air pressure, say 6.0 bar, not just to make sure someone does not make a hole in them but also they expand by microns and this give them a bit of play at the return bends, prevents further stretching as a pipe is already stretched on the outside of the bend when it gets bent. The pipe manufacturer's declare their product performance.. but do not include your concrete / screed.. why should they.. it's your job to do this not theirs.. they need to sell pipe and fittings and are not liable for you concrete / screed design. Point.. your ordinary self builder needs to design something that can be drawn so the folk on site can understand what they have to do. Areas that are important need to be highlighted on the drawings. Pipe centres need to be the same. If the UFH drawings are presented in this way then Contractors will say.. that looks easy.. keps the cost down. You the Client will be able to identify any anomolies. Thus by all means use loop cad.. but think about buildability, the harder it is the more you will pay and maybe not get get what you think you are paying for. Now as an SE / UFH philistine and just having done stuff like this for a while. If you put in extra loops it covers you in part.. for shit that happens or a bit of dodgy pipe. If you look at the extra cost of using smaller loops its not that much. Say 15- 20% on the pipe install tops, clipping them and the extra length getting back to the manifold. It also means you don't have loops crossing concrete joints and so on. 3/ What happens when the UFH pipes come above floor level into the plant room: (a) More loops means a larger manifold, that is one of the down sides to my appraoch. Or you can say.. if in one room if the loops are roughly the same length connect them all together before the manifold as the flows will be roughly the same. You don't have to use the redundancy you have built in, it's just there if you need it. (b) Now since I started 30 years a go I can see massive innovation in control technology.. but it's very complex. But the big eplephant is the room is ongoing replacement part technology and now often the software that you need to support this. This can come at a scary cost as replacement part costs escalate.. it's the law of supply and demand. I have a Client that has bought a house recently that is filled with a fortunes worth of home automation.. he is ripping it all out as there is no manual on how to work it and the software is not updatable. I need to digress and reference @JohnMo John is an exponent of the open system that is compatible with modern systems.. This is incredibly elegant, clever, few parts needed other than an intelligent boiler. I almost think John has come full circle and back to how I started.. but in a more informed, evidenced based way and even more cost effective! (c) If we design at the moment on the least loops (using the least pipe and sod all other considerations) basis that are built into the structure then we are closing off our options for the decades ahead. Yes we will still have them but @SimonD that is partly what I mean by redundancy. The UFH design needs to be homogenous. @SimonD" I'm from the school of calculating heat load requirements in the room and designing emitters to satisfy this at a low temperature as possible and avoiding external controls as much as possible although I recognise and use room influence where needed. This approach does use the method of designing both radiators and ufh to the demand of each space." Simon.. that is OK. I can do that also.. but there is much more to the equation and that is why I'm trying to encourage folk to look at the whole life cycle. @-rick- I think and agree with you but you are only half way there in terms of what you do on a self build and how you can realistically control what happens on site. For all.. I've seen some commercial sites with UFH.. millions spent.. and they work even less better than many self builds! 4/ Use of software: Now I know that many on BH rely on software.. but there is nothing like getting a bit of basic knowledge to enable you to do a sense check. I'll maybe write another time about how you do that. As an SE I do some fag packet sums.. but before that I just look at the drawings.. you do the same with UFH.. look where the big areas of glazing are, volumes and where the building is more or less insulated. 5/ What are you setting out to achieve: Well you can be the theorist, look to save every penny on the gas / electric bill and treat it as a hobby. That's ok by me. But my experience is that that hobby will start to cost you more and more as parts become worn or software is redundant. My personal view is that UFH is still something that yes needs to function to heat the house.. but it's also a luxery. Once you have it you realise that the furniture is always warm.. if you have a leather sofa it's not cold, house plants thrive, the air currents in the house are less noticeable, your linen in the drawer is dry.. but not too dry, I could go on. But if you have a family member that is feeling unwell or you just want to have a hot zone then more loops make sense. You may change say in 20 years time the wal layout.. you want to make that easy. This is redundancy. You may be a doggy person.. always leave a cold spot! DSome folk want a traditional panty.. leave the heating out in there. You may want to sell the house in the future and the valuer turns up and says.. does you heating actually comply with the regs? You may just be wanting a UFH that works ok for you now.. look fancy and don't really care about any future owner? 6/ To conclude: I'm fully supportive of UFH. I'm not so supportive of folk that "design by calculation" alone. I can produce calculations that may show an element is ok, safe.. but that is not best design. Best design is about marrying elements into the rest of the design.. called holistic design. Here good holistic design is about getting the best you can out of the money you have. Self building is just that.. we get to have something you can't buy off the shelf. Some on BH are driven by calculation, trying to get a home that is most energy efficient on paper..the day after completion. I push back at this and say.. in real life say ten years down the road it is unlikely to work out the way you think at the moment.

Cut through my leg and you’ll find it’s turquoise in there with the word Makita written like in a stick of rock. I've got loads of it. Oddly, my latest blue purchase was Amazon. My multi tool died again, I’ve fixed it a good few times already and it’s needed right now, and Amazon was equal cheapest and reliably next day. (Lever tool change is brill, it turns out.) The problem is, once a battery investment is made you are committed, and whilst I’ve not studied the question rigorously, I do think Makita have a fabulous range of 18V stuff.

You want one with diamond discs. That looks like one with the "scabbling blocks". Useless for what you need. The ones with diamond discs seem rather hard to hire. How big an area. I did a double garage sized area of very rough tamped concrete with a Hilti hand held one. Bloody hard work mind!

We are using Panasonic aquarea with the air smart fan coil units. Not installing myself. I did a rough design myself and Panasonic then did a full design.

Mat the force be with you, as grinding concrete with that wonderful looking machine, is a bastard of a job. Check how many 'teeth' you'll go through before taking the leap.

Oh I do not disagree, it’s a ****ing eyesore.

Agree in principle, but the widow fitter should have managed expectations here, before money changed hands, and told the OP that it would be a distinct possibility that the gap under the new window could, POSSIBLY, be used as an emergency runway for Heathrow.

Hi folks I have a concrete floor for a garage that was poured late last year, it unfortunately had some rain on it before it was set so the top surface is not great. Probably be quite dusty when I finally get a roof over it and it eventually gets a chance to dry out. I'm wondering if it's worth trying to grind back, my local hire place has this sort of machine: Is this the right approach to improving it? Or something else? Or maybe I'm over thinking it for a garage and should just live with it. Thanks

I'm on the Milwaukee platform but Powertoolmate always best for price. If you don't pay for next day can take a couple of days to arrive. Good stock, frequent offers.

I’m of two opinions. 1: not much wrong here tbh, it is how uPVC windows are installed as standard these day but @Nickfromwales solution is a good one. 2: Stone cills exist for a reason, they have a job to do and windows don’t always need stub cills.

I have no intention of relying on anything, certainly not export. I can easily "self consume" anything i generate. But only with batteries. I really didnt want all that complication, or, bluntly, the upfront expense. But it might have to be. Will worry about that after i install the PV in spring. Theres no EV to charge, nor is their likely to be any time soon.

But this one was quite interesting.

Obviously all those EVs parked up in our sublet yard at work are not there. Silly me, must be a mirage.

For my sins, I'm a vet Did some reading on that last night and I see some of the issues. Clays at Skipton seem one of the better companies, I hope. Believe their own team assembles. I have machinery on site, other than a crane. Need to find out if my self erected Quicksage scaffold is sufficient or not.

Oh how I miss these storage devices in every town.

Seal any air paths too with acoustic caulk.

Ah! .. as they say "recollections may vary" . Your enquiry is perfectly justified, evidenced based.. on their figures. It's a mixed bag. It's a fascinating / frustrating subject. Why can't they just give me a straight answer? I was in the past involved in bringing to the market cold formed steel portal frames. Testing and so on. Getting accreditation costs a fortune. A product supplier often has to balance the extent of testing vs how much of the product they are going to sell, the volumes, profit margin and so on. Once you can see under the bonnet ("unter der Motorhaube"?) then I think that UK suppliers are no worse / better than our European counterparts. I'm actually involved with a European supplier at the moment and they are exhibiting the same behavoir. At the end of the day if in doubt over size your radaitors. The radiator itself will cost more but the pipe work should be roughly the same size and the labour cost to install a slightly larger radiator should be the same or nearby. All the best.. but at the end of the day they have to look good, when you sit with your feet up and enjoying the fruits of your hard work.

If you have never played about with this kind of stuff before it is complicated. The main thing is to get a grasp of the basic thoery. The read round about, manufacture's data, BH posts. Sometimes you may think that it is even more confusing. But then go back to the beginning again and you'll find that things start to fall into place. You may have to itterate more than once. The read around concept is very helpfull as you discover other information that you can use on other aspects of the build, even if not applicable for the element you are considering. Keep talking to your builder and designer! Remember that they too may not have done something like this before. You will get there!.. and once you do and get something buildable you'll look back and often say.. well that was easy after all but it was a hard job to get to "easy". Also, you'll know once the job is finished that you ended up with a good solution.. quite satisfaction.

PUR, PIR & polystyrene have no acoustic properties. Mineral wool should help here but if this is a beam supporting a wall above and bearing on another wall below flanking transmission may be in issue.

Your point is noted Nick. We did have an amicable solution, it was me doubting the agreed solution that has prompted my post here looking for advice, and I'm glad I did. Thanks to you I can go back to the installer and advise that I have had a change of opinion and would like to suggest the uPVC dummy cill in lieu of the cement option. The installer was unable to proceed with the cement option because he was rained off and that's what gave me time to give careful consideration to what I had previously agreed to. This "thinking on your feet" business can disadvantage the customer (me) into agreeing to a solution in the absence of any independent technical advice. Thanks again Nick for your input.