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I've been very quiet for the last couple of weeks. I've been busy at work, but the thing that has really hit me has been doing the electrical planning. I have spent more time of this than anything else in the house as I have specified sockets, lights etc, marked up drawings for where everything goes and so on. Finally this is pretty much done. I have this week off so was on site discussing progress. We are another 4 weeks behind, but it s looking good. They are working on the electrical first fix and have just started some of the plaster boarding. I am really pleased with how the roof tiles look, not having a ridge added a lot to the cost but it is such a nice finish and the tiles themselves have some nice variation.

I will be the stick in the mud here. I have used the type of mdpe to copper converter that has been recommended. I did not like them and would not want one buried in an inaccessible location. My "issue" is that it's just a rubber bung that gets compressed onto the copper. Even when tightened the copper can still flex / move a bit. Although it never leaked, it did not inspire confidence. I would much prefer the fitting Barney proposed, at least the copper connects with a proper olive in a brass fitting. I would not worry about damaging the plastic thread, you really would have to overdo the amount of ptfe for that. Actually my preferred solution is a brass sropcock that takes 25mm mdpe at the input and 22mm copper at the output. Those are really bomb proof.

The collective makers would no doubt argue the standard is the optimum length. The cynic in me says the standard ones come up short so you have to buy the deep ones!

Yay ?

info on retrofit welcome here too please

We have the pumped outlet Bio Pure. It's more than a tank with a submersible pump in it. There is a separate chamber inside the tank, with a weir that takes the liquid off the top of the main treatment tank, from the outer zone where the effluent has been treated (so clear from the recirculating bubble chamber in the central "tank within a tank"). The submersible pump sits in this clear effluent chamber, with a float switch. When the clear effluent level rises to the point where the pump is triggered, it then empties the clear effluent chamber in around 20 seconds. This clear effluent chamber also has an alarm float sensor, as the pumped system comes with an alarm unit that senses both air pump pressure and the level in the pump chamber. The pump that's in the clear effluent chamber is a fairly standard stainless submersible unit, fitted with a float switch and a rigid pipe connection that connects to the outlet (50mm MDPE) via a two lever bayonet quick release. This rigid connection keeps the pump positioned in the centre of the clear effluent chamber, and the quick release makes removing the pump pretty easy.

Please, though bungy sounds useful option

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I'd echo what Crofter said; you want to run it with a hot fire to minimise pollution. Assuming you don't have howling gales through the room or damp walls you'll probably find that the smallest stove that you can get will be enough. We have 3 wood burners. The first one we installed in our lounge years ago is much too big for the room (22 sq.m.) I don't know what the output is but it's too much. The other 2 we installed are Franco Belge Belforts which were as small as we could find (upto 5.5 kW, and the looks suit our old house). The output is completely adequate for the rooms they are in, one 21 sq.m. and the hall which is 39 sq.m. At one time we were running the hall fire continuously while the main heating system wasn't working and it kept the chill off the house quite satisfactorily, although we were burning coal not wood in it at that time.

If you get significant partial shading over the array (e.g. from your roof or chimney), or if you end up with multiple arrays, you may wish to look at power optimizers like Solaredge or Tigo. These permit each panel to operate at the optimal point. Slight increase in cost but might be worth it. I use Solaredge and also like the internet-enabled access it permits to monitor the array, inverter and each panel.

I wonder if he has evidence that reversing out there is a problem.

That same argument could be applied to most of the drives in the UK, as very few are wide enough to allow two cars to pass side by side in opposite directions. It smacks of grasping at straws to me, as I can't see anything in any planning guidance that suggests that a private access has to be wide enough to let two cars pass side by side. If he continues to object, get it in writing that the reason is that two cars can't pass side by side, then appeal. It will get through at appeal I'm sure, simply because the reason given doesn't seem to be valid.

They did, we had them introduce it about 8 years ago for a project in Glasgow. As to whether they still offer it I don't know. I can give you information on how to retrofit one, if needed.

A week after the call regarding the site datum (see the above post) I received his quote for the insulated foundations and reinforced basement walls, £135,000, in comparison the other quote I have is for £50,500 and I thought that was a lot! I've sent Trish the drawings and she's said they will happily quote for the work, I eargerly await her reply!

Works ok if you don't get 'busy' and splash the water everywhere. ? Pipes out of the wall so mopping is easy.

Same again ?

That one was a 2000mm x 850mm shower area ( mosiac tiled ) and the glass was iirc 1400mm long. Aluminium wall profile can be seen in the second pic, but I always bond the glass straight down to the tiled floor with clear CT1 as bottom channels look rough as toast and harbour water, grot and worse. Point being, you don't need anything complicated, but you do need to do a good job of fitting the screen. Masking tape either side of where the glass will hit the floor / tray, smear a bit of CT1 along the 1000mm long run and rub it in and get some adhesion going, then apply a generous 10-15mm bead of CT1 along the bit you just smeared ready to drop ( lol ) the glass down onto. Two man job tbh, but I have done them on my own when I have had to. Set the glass down gently and let it displace the CT1. Clean off the excess with wet wipes and multisolve spray, the bit you'll love the most More on that when you get to that stage

@Trw144 may be able to help you here with sizing etc. 14sqm is not that big so you may be limited to 4-5kw at best.

Ther are some calculators available online that give a rough estimate of required stove size, but they have to make assumptions about how well insulated your house is so are very rough guesses, really. Stoves work best when they are running near flat out, so you want to size it for the expected heating requirement and not go for something too large. I've installed three different woodburners and none has been more than 5kw output; all have done a fantastic job of heating the rooms they were in. I installed a 5kw stove in a 18m2 living room and usually kept the double doors open to the equally large kitchen, as the heat was plenty for both rooms. This was in a house with pretty minimal insulation. In terms of make/model, there is a surprisingly large range of variation. Key thing is the efficiency. Each stove I have installed has been of a higher efficiency, and you can tell from the design that more thought has been put into it. So my first one was from Aarow, and was pretty basic: sliding air controls, airwash taken from the front. Next was a Charnwood, which uses rotary air control which gives a far better seal, and which draws airwash air from the back of the stove, heating it in two tubes hidden within the stove. The result is preheated air blasting down the glass and keeping it spotless. Newest one is anothe step up again, a Burley which at 89% claims to be the most efficient available. Double glazed window, fully lined/insulated firebox, all air fed from an external source via preheating chambers within the stove. And it works- I have never had a stove that burns so hot, keeps so clean, and leaves so little ash. In fact I have yet to take any ash of out it at all. The only downside of a high efficiency stove is that, because all of the heat is directed into the room, there isn't very much left to waste up the chimney. If your chimney struggles to draw, this can cause a problem.

thanks for all the comments I did a bit of searching and good ol you tube comes to the rescue again.

It's now best practice to install a trace wire alongside a plastic pipe. The wire can be connected to a signal generator and use to create a field that a CAT can detect. If laying a new long length of underground pipe it makes sense to add a trace wire, just to ease the hassle of anyone trying to find it later.

This is a good point. WHY do so many commute so far for work? Something the likes of HS2 will only increase. What is driving people to live so far from work? Commuting has never done it for me (an hour each way on the works bus during my aprenticeship put me off that for life) I have always wanted to live somewhere close to my work, and more importantly, somewhere with not traffic jams en-route. It we tackled the commuting issue, that would go a long way to solving the vehicle emissions problem.

Yes, yes and yes. For all but the wealthiest and car-obsessed, this is how it will work.

Of course the cynic will say this is just a sticking plaster ignoring the "real" issues. The thrust of this is to solve the air polution issues in city centre streets. The real issues are why the hell do so many people want to cram themselves in close proximity to so many others? Country living in villages is so much better? And the real issue is there are simply too many people, but that's the taboo issue nobody will even mention let alone debate. So we "solve" this by everyone converting to en EV. Where do you think the electricity to charge them all will come from? The FIT scheme is effectively dead so I can't see a massive growth in personal solar PV. Besides most will want to charge them at home in the evening and there's no sun even if you have PV. Charging your car from self generated solar PV is a luxury for the retired. And with all this extra demand for electricity, what's that going to do for overall polution OUTSIDE the cities? and which way do you think electricity prices will go with all this extra demand? That's not just EV charging electricity, but your domestic electricity as well. Someone needs to "invent" red electricity (the equivalent of red diesel) so the tax bandwagon can tax vehicle charging like it presently taxes road fuel. We are being sold the myth that EV's are "green" which can only be true if the power to charge them is not from fossil fuels. THAT is one hell of a big challenge. We can't even generate enough of the present electricity usage by green means, yet we have put in motion a plan to massively increase electricity demand. (off to get my tin hat)

Look at the government track record on stuff like this. We had the Code for Sustainable Homes - scrapped We had the Zero Carbon Homes target - scrapped We has big VED incentives for low emissions vehicles, with zero rates for a lot of very low emissions vehicles - scrapped and replaced by a far less incentivising scheme We were supposed to have fuel duty escalation, to increase the price of fule year on year to above the rate of inflation, to reduce emissions - effectively scrapped as it keeps being reset to zero every budget. We had the Green Deal, supposedly to incentivise the fitting of more efficient heating systems etc - Unworkable because it was far too costly and complex. We have seen how daft the RHI and MCS schemes are - neither incentivise reducing energy use, they just add cost to the consumer. I've probably missed a few out, but frankly there are so many dire government intitatives related to reducing emissions that I can't believe this one will be any different. Industry and the market have driven change, not government. Companies like Toyota, with their disruptive technology, in the form of the first very successful hybrid cars, have had a far greater impact than our government.