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As with MCS certification, the idea is that the installations are monitored by a governing body and the installers would have to rectify or lose their 'licence' to self certify - in practice this never happens. The governing body just protects itself and it's members, inspections are few, and rectifications are rarely enforced. Mostly it is about hushing things up. MCS is a perfect example, as is the NHBC. I started installing solar before MCS set itself up as the governing body - no consulation with the (3) existing installation companies, it just plugged itself into the PV goldrush when the Feed-in-tarrif was introduced and started making life difficult (and expensive) for us, and easier for the cowboys to get started. There were very few of the cowboys who ever faced any consequences for their appalling installations; luckily for us in the end, as fixing all the gash installs kept us going when the FiT ran out and all of the goldrush companies went bust... I can give you a perfect example of how such a certification body works: We installed solar panels on a newly finished house local to me. I had already suggested to the homeowner that he should have a proper building insection whilst the scaffold was up as I put it 'without scaring you I've seen a few things that concerned me' ! This of course was duley ignored until his roof started leaking - as we were the last ones up there we got the blame. Our company offered to pay for the scaffold (3 floors and 6m wide it wasn't cheap) but only if he got the buildg company to come out and inspect with us at the same time. The builder refused, and the NHBC (eventually) got involved. To cut a long story short, on the scaffold on the day of inspection was me, the homeowner, the builder rep, and the NHBC. Both the NHBC and the Builder were increadibly rude and ordered me to remove the panels for inspection. I counted to ten a lot that day! I replied that I was happy to comply, but first could we look at the issues with the roof itself - at which point the homeowner chipped in and asked me to explain. I walked up the roof and lifted the 'chimney' (fake grp) off without effort. I then walked the length of the ridge and randomly picked ridge tiles up - this was easy, since none of them were fixed. I repeated the same excercise with the lead flashings and pointed to all the gaps were the water was getting in. At which point the builder - who was red in the face by this point - begrudgingly said they would 'get the roofer out'. 'OK' I said, 'but before you do that, can I show you something else?' I then lifted the first row of tiles and felt and showed them the missing cavity closer. I pulled out the strip of insulation plugging the top of the cavity and shown a light down to the bottom of the wall. 'Do you think the house would perform better if the cavity was filled? Also, Mr NHBC, could you tell me how many cavity ties are required for this type of construction?' So the house was demolished and rebuilt and the building company were forced to pay for temporary accomodation for 7 months. The snagging list after the rebuild delayed them from moving back in for a further 3 months! I fully expected the NHBC at that point to tell the builder to inspect every other house on the estate. It would be amazing if the others were not also built to the same 'quality'. Of course this never happened! I meet the homeowner regularly as his son attends Cubs with my own. He is mystified why all of his neighbours were not concerned when they saw his house pulled down and rebuilt. Of the ones he spoken to, none of them have been contacted by the NHBC or the building company. They are all left in blissful ignorance. This will be the situation with PAS too.

Coming back to this one now. Have cleared out some hard core to show the drain pipes that are there - looks like two 45 degree bends connected together. What pieces can I use to move this drain about 6 inches to the left ? (without moving the wavin chamber) (PS might there be any way to connect a small shallow drain/waste pipe into this gully to carry discharge from a water softener inside an adjacent wall about 1m away ? For example by attaching a 40mm pipe into the side bush somehow ?)

Thenk you, gives me some ideas! Also been using AI to give me some inspiration but some of the results have been a bit weird with what it has done with the canal (floating pontoon) 🤣 but it's also given us some ideas of creating more borders and interest. We just have a large grassed space in one area in particular and we don't know what to do with it. We have had two herons that are now frequently visiting and sit in our garden so fish is a definite no...

Reply to my own post... work in progress. Creosoted most of it before installing but couldn't do it all because each piece was numbered and didn't want to paint over number risking us not being able to locate the right bit! Installation has been a bit of a bu**er at times between the two of us but we are getting there slowly. Its cedar and quality is good, just instructions a bit confusing. It had a fan and digital thermostat but we don't have electricity at that end of the garden but we are going to buy a portable power station (Ecoflow do some good ones like the River 2 pro 768Wh capacity which would be more than enough and serves as a backup for us when we have power cuts). Will be putting gravel in front of it and growing some David Austin Roses onto the pergola.

Hi just wondering if anyone has used this system? Thanks carl

Agree, 92mm duct is best. Is the Brink cheaper though? I'm not finding much difference online (in fact the Brink seems more money) any links you could share for that Nick?

The pipes are the original ones that come with the cisterns. They are Porcelanosa/Noken. No specification for the pipes is given even when you buy them separately. It is very rare that anyone gives a spec for these pipes and I am sure they are made down to a price.

OK thanks for comments. The supply pipework is 32mm MDPE mains in, connected into 22mm copper (16mm MLCP tee to kitchen, 15mm copper tee to outside tap) through water softener (currently on bypass), then approx 5m of 25mm MLCP pipe to the cylinder location, final 1m in 22mm copper to the reducing combination valve. I was getting 37 l/m from the outside tap, so I know the mains supply is capable of providing a continuous 37l/m through 15mm copper. So the main supply through the 22mm copper and 25mm MLCP should be providing at least that and one would think 40l/m + into the combination valve. Mains pressure 3.5 bar. Unfortunately I can't change the 5m of 25mm MLCP with its press fit connector at each end, because it runs under the suspended floor which now has underfloor heating installed. Had I seen the MLCP connector bore reduction at the time I would have insisted the plumber put in 32mm MLCP. But that is the big unspeakable secret with MLCP and press fittings. I have seen some Wavin Tigris M5 / K5 press fit MLCP connectors which claim ''The new Wavin Tigris K5/M5 with Opti Flow reduces the pressure loss in the installation due to the up to 50% larger orifice..''. Mentioned them to my plumber who promptly claimed they would make no difference, and proceeded to fit cheaper ones he uses. A lot of trade are not interested in using anything except what is available off the shelf at their chosen merchant. System performance for the customer doesn't come into it - in fact I have never seen a plumber measure a flow rate.

https://www.proair.ie/products/proair-pa600li-2/ That's the one. I just took it apart and cleaned it and pulled out the fans and found some you tube vids to take them apart. The bearings are a common item. No rocket science. Ebmpapst make most of the fan units so something like this will show you.

That could work alright, could i then fix cement board to the compfoam in order to fill the gap on the exterior? Ive never used compfoam so its hard to visulise what i can and cant do in terms of fixing etc. Thanks for your help. Carl

Inverters have overvoltage protections built in. They shut down when the voltage gets too high and there are at least some saying that the limits imposed on inverters are too strict so they are likely to turn off too early. Doesn't mean there might not be problems with significantly excess provision on a local network but the protections for safety are already there. The inverter size limits are I think it's a way to prevent existing installs having to shutdown due to new installs. Given the benefit of solar outside of peak production I feel if these are the reasons they should be reassessed. It's feasible for a standard to be made so that inverters scale back their output gracefully rather than trip off. If that could be done then I'd guess the whole approval process could be significantly simplified (and people would be more likely to install bigger systems that might be limited in peak but net produce a lot more outside the peak).

Exactly. It's very basic school level physics

isn't the export limit more about overvoltage in the local grid, in which case it could be a near-instantaneous issue...

It isn't a combi, it effectively has a thermal store or UVC, within the enclosure with a heat pump.

You are correct but if you read the post carefully you'll see I said half hour block (the standard time slice for the grid). If your export limit is 3.6kwh and you export any more than 1.8kwh (eg 2.5kwh) in a half hour block you have breached your export limit. The half hour time slice means it is much harder to hide any over export with any inevitable lower export periods eg clouds going over sun for 10 minutes and the system is already working at that resolution. If you do this for every half hour slice you can discourage over exporting because there will be no financial benefit and you might get a visit from the DNO.

Have a look at Requirement G3 - they've even got you needing to provide hot water despite always washing in cold! G3. (1) There must be a suitable installation for the provision of heated wholesome water or heated softened wholesome water to: (a) any washbasin or bidet provided in or adjacent to a room containing a sanitary convenience; (b) any washbasin, bidet, fixed bath and shower in a bathroom; and (c) any sink provided in any area where food is prepared. Whatever next!

Isn't the key problem for any "combi" heat pump going to be defrost and oversizing? For a combi type water flow you need 25kw or so output. With a gas boiler, that's trivial and can be modulated down to 3 or 4kw for heating. Getting a continuous 25kw from a HP means you need more than 25kw to allow for defrost. Such a HP would be large, expensive and struggle to modulated down. Anyrhing else is just a variant of a thermal store or unvented cylinder.

Adding a cold mains accumulator will make a huge difference, for stabilising what you have. Or…. …this. Having small bore pipework between the stopcock and the UVC control group is very impactful on performance, but so many plumbers ignore this; probably some just don't realise it is of such importance. Adding an accumulator can be quick and simple, if you have space for one, and guarantees results. I’ve fitted loads over the last 20+ years and always had great results. Beefing up the control group from 22 - 28mm won’t do much tbh, and I've had lots of UVC’s on 22mm that will do 2 showers simultaneously, where the property has a very good incoming cold mains, so I also doubt that is worth the investment. As always these things are hard to comment on without being able to see the system and survey it properly.

Midsummer, the PV people, have put £250k into the company. I worked for a small wind turbine manufacturer a long time ago. Part of the investor conditions was that they had a patent on their design. Gave the investor something to sell when it all folded, which it did.

... thanks, this matches the builders preference to spray then touch up. 👍

Yes, but the combination needs to be inventive. Adding, say, a lock to an enclosure isn't ever likely to be inventive given how ubiquitous the principle is.

Yep, spot on. Thanks for the link. I completed an installation last Autumn where the old house had 600mm walls completely uninsulated but had been extended with some new walls insulated. This property is heated absolutely fine and the owner says they've never been as warm and comfortable in the house. There's has a 9kW heat pump with calculated heat loss of 6.9kW and I took out a 32kW combi. Interestingly it did take 2.5months for the fabric to warm up - the weather comp curve was a bit all over the place and then suddenly it just settled down to run smoothly. I have used heat loss data derived from studies by some different organisations like Society for the Protection of Ancient Building etc. and recently BRE published updated tables for the calculation of stone walls etc. which bring down the u-values quite significantly. At the end of the day it is simply about the balance between heat in - heat out and the correct means of distributing it around the building, and if you get that right any old building can have a heat pump and benefit from it.

I thought that the idea of any patent followed the basic creative principle that novelty flows from the particular combination of non novel (existing) ideas. It's the way human creativity works - by combining things we already know in novel ways. All patents are just novel combinations of old ideas.

Once its mist coated it will show the imperfections and cracks easier. I'd do all the filling or caulking after that. I wouldn't be dremelling any cracks to make wider. A wet easi fill mix is pretty fine seems to get in cracks ok.

We were told by a neighbour with some glee during our house-warming party (previous house) that the occupant had died in the main bedroom. Luckily there was no smell by the time we moved in!