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Hello. My electrician was questioning the regs regarding changeover switches as he has not fitted one to an inverter before. I intend to have two changeover switches, one to connect my grid DB to the load output of the inverter in the case of a long term power cut and one to connect the load DB to the grid in case of an inverter failure. I know others on here have done exactly this so I thought I would ask for recommendations as to what make/model of switch people feel is suitable. My inverter is a 10k single phase and the supply breakers will most likely be rated at 63 amp. The electrician has always fitted large 3 position changeovers for large generator installations. His concern is whether there is a regulation that the changeover switch should have an off position, in other words a 3 position switch. I was considering something that would be along the lines of the image below, din mounted in a neat box. rated at 125a. However this unit is £17 + vat which he thought sounded cheap and nasty. It also seems to be a one or other position, not and on - off -on. Does anybody know if there is any reg or code of practice that prohibits this type of changeover for what I want to do? Any particular units I should be looking at?

Nick, we've abandoned the multi room option, it's just far too difficult to design. Just spoken to our installer and he has said even Panasonic acknowledge that the systems just aren't quote there yet in terms of design and individual room control. All needs more thought by their techs to get a system that people can actually install without loosing their sanity!

Sorry I've confused things! The ducts are in relation to a multi room fcu. Abandoned now....

If it is rubble filled why not claim it is compliant (if asked) and see where you stand. If you top it off with gravel or permeable block paving I can't see questions being raised. I have had a SUDs condition and it was never checked.

There must have been a fair bit of dishonesty going on for it to result in all that! Although it was pretty clear it was going on.

Possibly true, i just need to learn what & how this might be achieved.

We worked hard on that, especially on our Winter Garden (at the back , partly hidden in the photo) I fantasized about variable geometry (incidence?) baffles on the brise soleil. Snapped straight out of that into reality when I realised exactly how much that was going to cost. On a really bright, summer's day for an hour or two, the baffles aren't enough when we sit outside in the Winter garden. Inside the house is fine. It's a small problem - solved by a pair of sun glasses

Alex can add more details later, but we did look at the plot and where we wanted the garden to be, where the main road was going to be. The original orientation of the house according to outline planning was not optimal so we rotated the house's footprint ~20 degrees or so, trying to keep it within the outline application's footprint, making sure the house faces the street and adds passive security to the neighbourhood, etc. Our architect advised against that because of planning difficulties and other equally not strong enough reasons, so we stuck with it. We improved PV efficiency, solar gains optimisation (better solar gains in winter, reduction of overheating in summer). Just to be clear, our house is not full of glazing, we don't particularly like the idea of being on display (went back and forth on this to figure out if we were wrong). For the unavoidable big windows for views that face S-SW we have added brise soleils that help reduce the overheating in summer but do not affect the heat gains in winter. We did all our simulations and kept resizing and moving windows, brise soleis and spaces until we were happy with: 1) the way the different spaces flow. We tried many designs, moved the different rooms to different facades and split/joined living spaces several times until we landed on a design that was right for us. Thought about accessibility, public vs private spaces, avoid sensory overload in any given space (how noise travels through the walls from the different sources) 2) the way light hits all the different spaces at different times of the day through the year (daylight simulations). We made sure daylight reached as far in as possible, providing good daylight autonomy in all the different spaces. 3) the simulated solar gains (winter) and overheating (summer) through the year

Couldn't you do this with the "temporary" supply i.e get it into a kiosk where the meter and isolator would live and then take your own cable in a duct to the CU. The digging would be down to you then. Our supply to the static caravan went into a kiosk with the meter etc then the new build had it's supply taken to it. The kiosk now sits among the raised vegetable beds behind the greenhouse out of sight. Paid UKPN the once (and that was enough).

Ditto. 2016 Welcome! Fast Forward 10 years: 1 disaster, two new hips, endless (expletive deleted)ety(expletive deleted)ety(expletive deleted)Ups later (most detailed here) we have - Passivhaus adjacent plenty of south facing glass (cleverly covered by our intelligent, thoughtful architect) still some solar gain less hair than I started with more entertainment value from BH than I could ever have expected no money Deeply grateful for all the help I've been freely given here

Update. I have found no evidence that a decoupling mat provides benefit on a well constructed concrete or screeded floor. Our screed has one tiny visible crack and of course it will stop moving. That on an area of over 300m2. All rooms were already formed in stud, and had foam perimeters so the screed is not stuck ro walls. Had a tiler in to look. He has agreed to quote without a decoupling mat, and will include a flexible adhesive. He has never seen a case of a cracked tiled floor due to absence of mat. Moral I think is: Decoupling mats are for poor quality newbuilds, or a rushed programme or 'peace of mind'. It makes money for the seller and tiler. Btw the tiler also says the dips and ridges that look rough to me are just normal, and part of his job to lose by double buttering. Ie no latex levelling. A good day so far.... now let's see his quote.

It's out of date as building inspectors have to be registered and it's an offence to call yourself one and not be registered. Given the potential for criminal action being taken against inspector as per: Criminal offences Criminal offences include: giving advice or acting outside the scope of your registration deliberately doing anything that implies work is within scope of your registration, when it is not acting as or implying that you are an RBI, without being registered obstructing, deceiving or impersonating an authorised BSR officer giving false or misleading information to BSR failing to provide information as requested by an authorised BSR officer If your registration is suspended it is a criminal offence to: carry out restricted activities give advice relating to restricted activities deliberately do anything to imply your registration is not suspended If there is evidence you have committed a criminal offence, you may be prosecuted. I'd say the chances of getting lots of advice from a BI are getting slimmer. Not sure many other construction professionals are under such constraints.

Could you explain please, or perhaps its your circumstances? I'm no expert in PH, but surely a big window facing south is going to blow the principles re solar gain?

Agreed, this is a melting pot….. Plumbing in a whole of house FCU install currently, and Daikin are bloody hard work to get info out of…. Going for an inline duct heater / cooler for MVHR + FCU’s over 3 stories + GF UFH (heat and dew point controlled cooling). Just finding out what cables to run is a circus, being transferred from one dead end to another, then on to a non-responsive approved installer. Like pulling teeth. All want to just fit AC, but I need a hydronic system for UFH and air handling vs adding another outdoor unit, more trenching and ducting etc. Mention room by room temp control, and the stare becomes even blanker….. The lads at Panasonic were infinitely better to deal with, vs Daikin.

100mm Cheap slots, 1pm (cheap plus solar likely) and between 4am and 7am only. Heat to approx 50 degs. Have around 9kW in different directions can produce around 6.5kW at lunch time. But export is gagged at 3.6kW. Use battery to make best use of solar so as little clipping happens as possible. Did some back to back testing, and found there was very little in it, in real life. Found heat pump start doing DHW heating earlier than really needed, so you end up heat the pipe runs to cylinder the cylinder gets steered up the thermal currents etc. immersion just dies what it needs too. I would go 5kW inverter, we have 6kW and zero issue really taking in expensive tariff The spreadsheet from Jeremy Harris, on here is pretty good easy to input.

If the runoff can be managed on-site naturally, then the surface does not have to be permeable to be SUDS compliant. There should be lots of options that don't require you to rip it up.

By coincidence I came across this too, and then found this useful (clear) YouTube channel which explained how the 2.5mm ring came about from a post-war think tank assessment of how large scale housing could be done whilst limiting the amount of copper needed (well I found it interesting…). This video explained the ring vs radial importance:

I suppose this very useful piece of 'theoretical' advice depends entirely on whether it is my choice where the test is filmed. no idea what kind of evidence is expected. But thank you.

Must be SUD's compliant. Otherwise i would not give this a moments thought. This is not my area, i have no idea. The frontage of the property is 18 metres wide, most of which was covered with the previously mentioned rubble. I did wonder whether channels could be cut across it to bury french drains and take the water to the side where there is soil. Otherwise i am back to ' i have no idea'.

I have seen the permeability test “sorted” after a site used type 1. Contractor drilled holes and filled with clean graded stone/pebbles. … and no, it wasn’t me!

Of course there will be a lack of design experience as the ducting design is an HVAC solution, piped fan coils to each room are not. And of course, this then needs to be integrated with any MVHR system to provide sufficient cooling and heating flow rates which ventilation alone will probably not. The problem is one for ventilation designers, not just an ASHP installer. So here we've got the crossover in relevant trades.

It was mentioned at the start of the thread that they might be looking at multi-room fan coils. I presume the ducting runs were discussed in relation to that device. The conversation then seemed to move on to single-room devices due to the potential complexity and lack of design experience.

Absolutely possible. You can pressure test individual loops, or you can connect all the loops to each other and just run one pressure test. The manifold does not need to be in place to test the pipework.

Ducting runs? What kind of fan coils? Should be water connections and a condensate drain.

No, it does not sound correct. New drives in front gardens over 5m2 need to be permeable or discharge to a permeable area, but that is only to avoid the need for planning permission. So, two questions. What did your planning approval say about the drive surface (if anything), and does the surface water from it discharge to a permeable area, or can it be made to? It's all about flooding and reducing pressure on public drains, so if that is not applicable, it's unlikely you'll need to change anything.