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My feeling here would be to run the incoming to where the EV charger/solar is and then run ducting from there into the house with one mains cable for the whole house (would need additional ducting for comms). Looks like you could run almost the whole route outside the footprint of the house to allow easy access later. But there might be an electrical/building control reason why you shouldn't do that?

Main supplies are coming into the utility/plant room and most of the equipment needing the supplies externally are the other side of the bedroom/en-suite between the plant room and the equipment. So, to my mind, it makes sense to put under rather than through the ICF wall. The only solar panels will be above the carport area, hence the inverter etc also being in the car port area - and I don't want batteries within the house. EV charger, driveway and external lights also in the same area. With the ASHP mounted behind the car port we will be putting the inlet/outlet pipework up and over the doorway you can see that gives access to the rear of the house from the car port (top of drawing is rear of house). The house is single storey so these will enter the house into the loft space above the bedroom. Yes, we could take all the other cables across there too but I think that would end up looking like a snake's wedding of pipes and cables if we're not careful. It does give us a joker card, though, if we do forget something fundamental (and important enough to want to drill through the ICF) at a later date. My thoughts are to run one large electrical cable through a duct to a suitably placed/waterproof panel in the car port area where different supplies can then be branched off - rather than lots of smaller cables. The house will have three-phase so done correctly there shouldn't be any issues regarding supply suitability. Another conduit for data and potential water and we can keep conduits to a minimum. Useful to know how you've done it - thanks. One question though - you have different conduits for data in and data out. - is one of those the fibre supply and the other is everything else or have you split things out some other way?

1st half of the pipe length is in 22mm before going down to 15 mm.

@FarmerN sorry - what do you mean by ‘half run’?

We never bothered with a bracket. Ours lives on the deck of our boat with a bit of string tied to it in case it decides to jump overboard. We've covered about two thousand miles of the Atlantic like this, including thunderstorms in the gulf stream. Precise alignment really doesn't matter very much!

So the quote is £13,700 before the BUS Grant Contribution and for that they are going to Install an ASHP and link into existing pipework commision and set up There is no Rad or HW Tank upgrade or UFH involved? I think I'd be getting several other quotes or considering replacing the gas/oil boiler for another!!!

You get a (expletive deleted)ing photo for that !

No, it doesn't. All it presents are long term disadvantages and dissatisfaction for you. Even with the immersion you appear to need to compromise, and even then, if you're reheating during the day, you've got a long reheat time at just 3kW, or you're having to deal with control between heat pump to a certain temp, and apply immersion over, but then you're better off just using the heatpump to max output. There are plenty of slimline cylinders to choose from and sometimes twin slimline cylinders can be made to work. Presuming that this is as little work as required, then this hardly sounds like zero disrupt prices with zero upgrades. What have they actually detailed in the quote? As a gas install comparison, the 6.2k you're talking about is probably enough to cover a boiler and cylinder installation, depending on where you live. Sounds to me that you have too many questions about their proposal, you need to speak to others to get comparative prices. If your job is this straightforward as you say, then the other big players plus an independent are worth speaking to.

Why would you bother with the grant? Just paid £2100 including vat for a heat pump, you just need some isolation valves, anti freeze valves and some piping. Do an easy install, leave DHW as it is heated via immersion, and let heat pump doing heating. I have a Haier heat pump, no issues.

OK, thanks craig. Looks like it is going ahead today anyway with just taping the membranes up against the windows, then cut off to levelled floor after. I might stick some CT1 or something along the edge afterwards.

I was wondering what had happened to all the water from @Pocster's leak - filling the swimming pools of the world

Space is fine, existing cylinder is properly supported with a steel, but was installed during an extension and the loft hatch is too small for a 600 diameter cylinder to pass. I never understand how the quotes are so much - this one is 6200 after the 7.5k has been taken off for basically install unit on side of house, run about 3m of pipe and tee into existing heating/hot water circuit with a diverter valve needed.

You just need a good plumber who sees things holistically. My jobs are all planned in advance of the construction phase, with a line out done comprehensively; line outs are used for identifying all trades requirements, for pipe and cable pathways / service risers etc, so as to delete any downstream conflicts or ‘feck ups’. A good trade will support you here, but all too many of them expect to have this handed to them on a plate so they can just paint by numbers. Time and money goes down the tubes PDQ when your double handling or moving sideways (or backwards) plus trying to find trades whilst the plates are all spinning is time consuming and stressful, hence I always say to sort this in advance. Designs are wonderful if they’re done by the person responsible for bringing them to life, otherwise they’re largely ignored, or aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. In over 30 years of doing this I’ve never produced a single design as it’s a waste of time and money. I did this plant room out of my brain space, from scratch. Just sat there for 4 hours in silence planning it out, then told my electrician and where his cable trays needed to be so I could plumb around them, so he could get started on 1st fix before my kit even arrived. The plans I was given from the supposed M&E designer went straight into the bin, utter garbage, which happens 99% of the time in the domestic sector. Commercial designs are always spot on, but the cost for that kind of setup rubs into 5 figures. Architects never detail this, most don’t give a plant space bigger than a phone box, and desktop designs rarely layer the accumulative multiples of disciplines, so choke points and interference are often unidentified until they’re staring you in the face and ‘the ship has sailed’. Just get a good (better) plumber, someone used to working more comprehensively, and ask them to help you plan this is my 2 cents.

I should just add, that the bracket we purchased - details above somewhere - is certainly fit for purpose. During Storm Dave, we were well and truly battered but the "dish" remained aligned perfectly - didn't move one bit.

If you don't mind sacrificing your fish, an area of floating plants or rushes will allow small fish to stay out of harm from large predators. They will still meet newts and dragonfly larvae. A pair of fish will make hundreds of fry among the roots, and then some may get by. Chances of getting a male and female goldfish? .No idea. If they weren't gold it round help but you wouldn't see them either.

This mirrors our experience and it has been a "game changer" for us.

Buy you a drink if you pop over ! Of course if you stopped (expletive deleted)ing about and finish your build …

Clearly you don’t appreciate the spender of an iced latte !

CT1.

This is from just now. I can forgive the infrequent couple of seconds buffering we get in the evenings sometimes. Fair trade off as far as i am concerned.

This is ours.. Bought fish, two times now. Just Goldfish, the second batch got about 200mm long last year , then one day the otter cam and that was that. We have had ducklings the last few years raised here. Pretty much there's always a Heron comes by, ducks usually there had geese. My son loves it in the summer, wife goes dipping in the winter ( we all done it Xmas day had to break the ice) . It's just a hole dug with diggers inflow from run off and outflow to the burn. The Clay keeps the level from not changing. It's great.

Yes I would also say be careful with plumbing design. Our architect written SoW actually said a plumbing design should be provided by the plumber and then bought off. What actually happened is the builder brought his plumber in, and then he just started work (about 7 months late) and put in what he had chosen to do, with no prior design defined or reviewed. Definitely not a good way of doing it. Examples: Plumber chose press fit MLC pipe, but this has constrictions at every press fit join where say 16mm MLC (which is actually slightly smaller than 15mm copper ID) gets reduced down to about a 6mm bore at every connection. Plumber chose 25mm MLC to run from mains to the cylinder, but I would have chosen a size larger to maximise flow. Plumber told me no need to upgrade the old lead pipe. Turned out to be horseshit and I had to spend money and disruption having a new 32mm MDPE mains pipe put in later. This stuff causes huge problems and delays. IMO it is better to over specify everything than be left with months or years of problems because a plumber is trying to cut costs and moximise his profit with no care for the possible effects.

You get that drink from the kiddie's milk bar.

Our kitchen sink is far corner of house to DHW cylinder, half run in 22mm pipe, can nearly fill a washing up bowl before hot arrives. Manifold system sounds good to me.

Oh dear, bought some stickslike***t. It seems like when it comes to DPC membrane and radon membrane and powder coated aluminium that stickslike***t doesn't actually stick like ***t, it sticks like ***t. I did a test run and when sticking these materials it just pulls/peels apart again. Now I think the levelling today will have to be put off. Not sure what to try now ? Back to double sided butyl tape ? I'd have thought this was a common issue/question for anyone with alu bifolds/cills etc ? @Nickfromwales or anyone ?