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And we're done. I was waiting on the grey inlet filter and fitting from Germany - the combined fitting with the vertical terminal was too tall for me so I went for the inline (with sock inside) and the adjustable height inlet. Frank at fn-technik.de was super helpful, highly recommend his fittings. Only took a day of messing about to do all the fittings - seeing how watertight it is now. Just need some rain.... although the first pic shows how much I can collect during a good downpour - won't take long to fill them! Next job is the waterproof socket for the pump and the pump itself. Will extract from the tank with the red top. One last challenge is getting the extract hose out of the concrete box - may just have a wall mounted tap on the inside. Then I can get the deck built on top. Many thanks to @PeterW for all the advice and links!

I recently came across a Facebook article on kitchen design tends for 2018...well according to the article, there doesn't seem to be any new ideas. A larger sink was mooted, but the one illustrated was long but single...what? Surely that's pretty old thinking (You have a sink full of washing up and somebody waltzes into the kitchen with half full teacups, and err! I'm not a fan of dishwashers, especially for small loads...that's not my point: double sinks minimum please. I suppose there must be a good mark-up on kitchen fit-outs given the number of dedicated magazines, leaflets and dedicated shops (we have one in this tiny Yorkshire village). Generally they all seem to offer the same stuff, perhaps with different doors and handles. However, I'm not about to stun you with a "but have you thought of this?" type of article. But have you thought of this? Why do we have so many have wall cupboards and ghastly cooker extracts? Wall cupboards always make a room appear smaller and create a cascade effect. Picture any of the 'sexy' glossy images of a kitchen with two glasses of wine and a few carrots on a chopping board and imagine the space without wall cupboards...calm? So where do you handily store everything? In a dedicated stack or run of of full height cupboards, only 250-300mm deep along one wall...OK along with an inset 'coffee station'! (I think a coffee station was a potential ground breaking trend for 2018). That way you can lose everything and know where it is. If you (or SWMBO) insists on 'Away' then the doors can be opaque, or any combination of openness and opacity. Remember herbs and spices rather lose their flavour if exposed to light and heat, so they must be away, or in a larder. I'm a fan of larders, fitted with slate or granite shelving and good ventilation for storage of jams, pickles, vegetables, fruit, beer wine, cheese, eggs etc...many foods don't sit very well in a fridge, losing their flavour and absorbing the wrong flavours from other foods. Ideally a larder should be on a North East corner, vented high and low, and with a sealed door to warmer parts of the house. Is that potentially a 2018 trend...watch this space.

If anyone interested I have a 15% off code for airtightness tapes with Passive house systems. The code is 15%aocx, not sure how long this code lasts but I have only just ordered and it worked for me. I have the rep's contact details so if it does not work let me know and I will contact him.

Hi we need some urgent advice about heating our MBC new build house. Basically we are having the slab done at the beginning of Nov and we are getting conflicting advice as to whether we need heating upstairs. We are building a modest 180 sqm three bed house, triple glazed windows, air source heat pump, underfloor heating and a MVHR with solar pv's on the roof. We have been advised my MBC we won't require heating upstairs only electric heated towel rails but Earth Save Products have emailed saying the following. Any advice would be welcome. Will you be having any heating on the 1st floor? (e.g. Radiators). My reason for asking is that it will impact your RHI payments (reduce them). If nothing is going on the 1st floor, do you want the ASHP sized to cater for the heat loss from the Ground Floor only? If not, and you are relying upon heat migration to provide for the 1st floor, you will need to put all of the heating for the whole house in via the ground floor. This may make the Ground Floor too warm or the 1st floor may not get adequate heat migration to heat it. As you are also having an MVHR system, when it is cold outside, the incoming air will be lower temperature than the air leaving the house. This will cause a noticeable cooling of the 1st floor non-wet rooms and you may need supplementary heating.

Power consumption will depend not just on the base unit but also on the number and tours of device you connect. Alarms have battery backups in case of power failure so I imagine power consumption is low.

The Hep2O installation manual explicitly states that you can use copper compression fittings on Hep2O pipe but that the inserts are essential. I haven't got any now Hep2O into copper compression now, but I used a few after we put in the manifolds including during the 7 bar pressure test and didn't have any issues. You can also put 15mm copper pipe into Hep2O fittings and that's how we did our tails using Hep2O elbows to do the change from Hep2O to copper. "Feel the rumble" twists are essential even if you don't feel the rumble -- said the actress to the bishop -- to cut the lock ring into the pipe.

I am installing myself. I will post pictures when I do it.

Yes 1 1/2 or double bowl sink every time. We are currently slumming it with a single bowl sink in the staitc caravan and when you find something you forgot to rinse, then the only place is the bathroom basin. Also we are not having wall cupboards. Mainly because where the kitchen will go are two large windows to get the best view. We will also be having a pantry off the kitchen for food storage. Dishwashers are fine, ours probably gets used every other day, but they do NOT eliminate washing up. Plenty of stuff that can't go in them, e,g aluminium coffee pot, wooden chopping boards etc, so still a need for hand washing in the sink. On the subject of "hub of the house" our new house will have the kitchen as part of the "familly room" combining a kitchen, somewhere to eat and somewhere to watch tv etc. I remain to be convinces by this model of modern living. I really don't think I want to sit down of an evening in a room with the fridge, and worse, the dishwasher humming away. I expect I will mostly be using the separate proper living room for that.

Put the pipe cutter on and grip the front of the pipe with pliers or side cutters For any remaining exposed copper use this and just cut it to size. ? Edit to add : can we have a pic when done please ? ?

You can always order two or three types online to see what it's like before you go buying 30-40 more. If you can't return the ones you don't like you can end up using it in the shed, plant room, attic or behind a fridge, etc.

My guess is that you have one opportunity for a frank and free-ranging discussion with this guy. He knows exactly what he's done (just like he knew exactly what he was doing when he lied to you about building a single bungalow when you bought from him). It's touch and go just how much of a spanner will be thrown into the works if you go all out on a formal objection - potentially everything could come crashing down, or the council may think it's too hard to think of these applications en masse and will simply treat each on its face value ignoring the impact each has on the other. I'm not sure exactly what's been built or just has planning at the moment, but overall, do you see a way that he could legitimately develop the entire site while providing the requisite amenity space for all proposed buildings? If not, then he may be VERY upset at you throwing a spanner in his works. If you choose not to speak directly with him, one possibility would be to get someone else - a tame planning consultant perhaps? - to submit an objection without naming you. Whatever you do, I'd suggest that you may want to ask us to hide this thread in the near future!

We also have a Miele. They're fairly compact and pretty indestructible and maintain good suction even when the bag is almost full. Treated ourselves to a new one when we moved in but the old one (must be pushing 18 years old) is still going strong and is now the basement / building vacuum. However, I couldn't resist posting this... http://newsthump.com/2017/03/29/dyson-begins-work-on-new-10000-watt-vacuum-cleaner-for-proud-brexiters/

"Nexus" stuff I think you'll find is made by BG, "British General". Completely separate company to Hager. Hager is French and really good gear. I've always liked French control gear tbh and grew up on Telemecanique...who are also French...now part of Schneider...who also do domestic switches and sockets under the GET name. BG...very popular at the sheds and Screwfix offering consumer units and USB enabled sockets in 2 for 1 deals at silly prices. Owned by Luceco plc with a lot of the stuff made in China. I've honestly only ever used I think one BG IP65 enclosure and I seem to recall something odd about that...

Is it me or is that wording slightly strange? It doesn't explicitly remove PDR. For example to meet the condition do you need planning permission or just written permission to do work under PDR? This link points out that the condition must be justified in writing on the approval.. http://planninglawblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/can-conditions-preclude-permitted.html

Just in case anyone else comes across this, IMO the separate plates have the advantage that they are mounted on the tile surface and hidden by a cover. If you still haven't got enough exposed thread then an alternative to start trimming covers is to put a 5mm patching piece (that is cut to less than the internal diameter of the cover) behind the brass plates and use longer screws. This lifts the exposed ¾" BSP out correspondingly increasing the exposed thread.

Yes, it is virtually a 2 car garage but I wanted to have the sevices, MVHR etc in their as well.

Im working on a site that has been using them for seven years The earliest ones look as good as the latest Really easy to fix lugs on the side for spacing