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Thanks. It took awhile to choose the tiles as we wanted Grey in an R11 slip rating and for UFH. It’s the same tiles on the walls and floor but the Velux makes them appear slightly different. We got quite a few small samples posted to us then less than two months later the tile we chose which also had an accent tile to match they stopped making the accent tile. Luckily we hadn’t ordered so just went with the plain tile for walls and floor in a size I could pick up and it worked. I will probably choose R11 again as they do feel good underfoot.

I sympathise with your experience and await my results with some trepidation. But on the specific example of the local business who fitted your flooring, the rules are pretty clear: supply and fit must be zero rated; supply only - you have to pay VAT and claim it back. Rejecting £10k of a £15k claim seems odd though. What reasons did they give for rejecting?

Well done. Amazing work. That wet room is fantastic! I have one yet to do on the ground floor, and have drawn inspo from your beautiful tiling

Global mean temperatures are currently higher than normal/expected, but some places will be colder than expected, and others hotter. Those variances will drive local weather.

Use clear CT1 not fix the sink onto the quartz, not silicone. Silicone is crap. There are two jobs that need doing here, possibly, 1) to bond the sink 2) to cosmetically seal the finished article, after the installation of the sink and quartz is complete and the CT1 cured. Clean excess CT1 off with baby wet wipes, lots of them, and you’ll never know it’s been on there. If this is suffice, do nothing more. If there is a valley that needs filling afterwards, then use silicone but expect to redo it every few years as it won’t stand up to the amount of wiping etc that it will experience. My 2 cents is to do the CT1 and wipe it back, and then leave it at that. You can clean any valley / small gap with a cloth and rinse back to new each time. I have said they should be grinding tabs into the quartz to be able to install stainless steel tabs into 2-part epoxy resin, to do the mechanical holding ling term. Is this not being done, or have you just not asked?

Screws need to be a lesser tensile iirc.

🤐🤣

Some decent rain will swell my swedes.

Living in Malaysia and Singapore at at the time.

That's super toasty but yes you do get used to it. Why was it so hot, i was of the impression you resided somewhere in the far North. Surely evening and night time temps were more tepid than that?

You've lost me.....

Yes - drafty things unless you buy well and pay plenty for good units. We ended up switching ours off in the bedrooms and opened the windows and got used to 34 degs every night.

Good passive design should be always considered. Houses are woefully under engineered given the masses of human knowledge we have accumulated. Omitting active climate control at either end of the scale however will result in uncomfortable temperatures. Coupled with other heat limiting measures like shading, appropriate glazing, decrement delay, cross ventilation, stack cooling, and insulation I think A/C is still an acceptable compromise in NW European climates.

pun intended? !!!

The masking tape sounds sensible. Run round the join with a fugi to remove any excess, then remove tape before it cures.

...which is why I've been on the back of our builder to get the roof on. But, here we are, two months later, with no roof...🤬🤬🤬

Should add in geospatial to that. What we do know is that global temperatures are higher than the long term average, so more energy in the system. We also know that global absolute humidity is higher than long term averages, so more water available. We also know that the key parts of the Pacific are higher than long term averages, so a larger unbalanced heat source. We also know that Arctic Polar Ice is lower than normal, so a smaller heat sink.

Not sure about that, some people or a lot of people see Aircon and see £££ bills. Having lived with almost mandatory Aircon (hot country) for a few years, I am not a fan of it.

Titon HRV10 Q Plus, £250 delivered Titon HRV1.75 Q plus, £320. Retail was is about £1300 for the smaller one and £1500 for the large one.

I think people would be worried about the unfamiliarity of it because we're all somewhat cavemanish when it comes to our houses. Mind you a few weeks of no sleep in 30deg bedrooms in conventionally heated houses this year might broaden people's imaginations.

After feeding the AI a little and trying to decipher the nonsense I've concluded that the risk presented by rain, wind and cold are lightly to be about 6% worse than normal. Something like 1997/98 for where i live. Making long range weather forecasts from climate changes is like predicting the exact path of the ball for 90mins from just studying the team sheets before kickoff. Most lightly a waste of time.

I dont think anyone looking at a house in future would be put off with a2a. So should suit op?

It must be volume production economics. I remember people saying how simple mvhr units are inside.

Back to OP's original q. We didn't install any heating but relied on a plug in radiator for a couple of years until the electricity price rocketed, enter stage left the Daikin FTXM25R. A2A is a wondrous thing, cheap to install, cheap to run and simple to use. Heating and cooling and it cannot leak as there's no water. We have one in the downstairs hallway, nothing else, give it long enough to run and it'll keep the house ( passive class) appropriately toasty. (Bathrooms need a small boost with a fan heater for comfort. One worry I'd have is that it wouldn't cool the upstairs as much as cool air tends to sink and warm air rises but I've never had cause to try. Sensibly sized bedroom windows, all rooms with cross ventilation and the south of Ireland doesn't suffer England type nighttime temps. In your situation and wanting to allay fears of future saleability I'd do UFH with cooling throughout as mentioned earlier. If it were me I'd do a 70mm duct and a fused spur in a hallway upstairs and downstairs and move in and install A2A as an when you felt it necessary and spend the saved cash on the fabric of the building.

The Zehnder Q450 from HSL was £2651 and the Brink Flair 600 from CVC was £2510. Design required flow for my house is 320 m3/h but CVC say they nevertheless recommend a 600 m3/h unit, which they say gives less noise, greater efficiency and longer fan life. I bought a Worcester Greenstar 4000 25 kW combi boiler in 2022 which cost me £666, but that was with a trade discount. Current online price is about £1500. So I tend to agree, these MVHRs look expensive. Prices from people like CVC and HSL are without a trade discount.