Leaderboard

You have a PM

Does depend what you mean by an immersion. Assuming that you mean a traditional hot water cylinder, then you can think of it as just a large kettle. You put cold water in, heat it up with a 3 kW element at the bottom (or midpoint/top depending on design), once the water is hot enough, you use it. Then it gets refilled with cold water (does this without you knowing as it is just replacing the hot water that you need) and either automatically turns the heating element on, or waits until the timer says it is time to switch on and heats the water if it needs it (think Economy 7 after midnight). There are generally two ways to 'manage' domestic hot water (DHW) in a cylinder. One it to use the water that is actually in the cylinder, the other is to have a heat exchanger that separates the cold mains water that you want to heat up from a volume of static stored water in the cylinder. The heat exchanger does not have to be very fancy, often just a coil of pipe within the cylinder. The Sunamp is basically a box of 'heat' that cold water is passed though to get warmed up via a heat exchanger. The difference between a normal cylinder is that the substance holding the heat (heat is the old word for energy) is not water but a phase change material (PCM). PCMs are sometimes a little hard to understand, but the easy one is water changing from solid ice to liquid water at 0°C. So imaging that you have some ice at exactly 0°C, as it changes into liquid water, the temperature stays at exactly 0°C. As it changes state (called phase in grown up science) it releases energy. We call this melting (or latent heat of fusion for lab coat wearing grown ups). The energy released can be transferred, via a heat exchanger, to 'something else', usually the air around the ice. The really odd thing is that a disproportionate amount of energy is released as materials change state. So imaging that solid ice can store 2.1 kJ/kg.K (J, joule, is the unit of energy) and liquid water can store 4.2 kJ/kg.K of energy you may think that as it fuses it would be somewhere between the 2, well it isn't. It is 334 kJ/kg, or about 100 times the difference (note that there is no K (kelvin) as the temperature stays the same at 0) The Sunamp does a similar trick but at a higher temperature, about the temperature you want your hot water at (that was lucky or it would be useless). So, when you want some hot water, though some sciency magic and trickery, the material in the Sunamp changes state and releases energy though the heat exchanger, warming up the water. If you want to know exact details, ask Sunamp or a Physicist, or at a push a Chemist (not Boots or Lloyds). This allows the Sunamp to store a relatively high amount of energy is a small box. There are some other odd things that happen with PCMs, one is the ability to store a lot of energy at a low temperature i.e. room temperature, but still release the energy at a higher temperature when needed. This reduces the need to have lots of insulation around the store. To give you an idea of how high thermal losses can be with a traditional hot water cylinder, I was loosing more energy from mine than I actually needed to bathe every day (reduced it with extra insulation, so not insurmountable). Some things just need lots of insulation, a DHW cylinder is one of them. A Sunamp is not much good in an airing cupboard as it looses little thermal energy to the air around it. So pros and cons. A normal water cylinder is well understood by most people, is simple (if electrically heated) and relatively cheap to install. The downside is that they are large, can be noisy (if you have a bad installation), heavy when full of water and can have very high thermal losses. A Sunamp is much smaller and lighter and has much lower losses. It is more complicated as there is a pump and control systems, and can seem, in isolation, more expensive, but that is down to installation and location to a certain extent. I do not have any connection with Sunamp, but have seen @JSHarris installation and was quite impressed with the unit (apart from the old bleed valve position which I think is now improved). There is probably a lot more to discus about the two different technologies, and I may not have got everything correct, or may have got muddles. But basically they are both ways to make cold water into hot water, which is very basic technology and engineering, so don't fret too much when comparing systems/installations.

It is kWp really

@readiescards we are looking to install Evolution flush system windows. Prefer the look of the flush system over their Storm range. Have to say also, we did look at R9 and it was only at the last hour that we discovered Evolution. For us the price difference was about £100 but we have gone with Evolution because we felt the appearance of the frame was better and they offer a much wider range of colours. Not quite reached to stage of having them delivered though - still a few months to go before we get to that stage. PW

@readiescards, you're not thinking 24V DC for a system with solar charged batteries are you?

You really don't want to be running 24V that length. If you do it's no use applying the voltage drop calculations for 240V. A 10V drop may be allowable for 240V but would be catastrophic for a 24V system, so you would end up with a monster sized cable. Stick to 240V and put the control box close to the gates.

This I think is the opener manual: idv0532a01en.pdf Says on page 3 of the above that the MC824H control panel is compatible with the 36W LFAB4024 and the XLFAB5024 50W. And here's the manual for that: D00011568.pdf The control panel still needs 230V AC to it even though the motors are 24V DC I think you'll find. All the cable sizes / run lengths are in the manual on page 2 of the second manual.

As @Barney12 says that’s the gate box spec. We have these - the grey box is the control box. Everything from it is in 20mm flexi conduit. http://www.gatemotors.co.uk/page-166-49-13

I might be wrong but that looks like the spec for the gate motors not the control panel psu. As Peter has said the control panel would normally be located close to the gates to allow the various sensor circuits, gate motors and indicators to be connected to the panel. The control panels I researched were all 240v with a transformer to step the motor voltages down to 24v. Remember to add add provision for communication from the house to the gate. I.e. voice and/or video access. Normally CAT5/6 is sufficient.

So there will be a wire per gate as they are normally separate plus at least a wire to a beam sensor, and depending on the unit there may also be a flashing light to show it’s opening or closing. This is all normally in an IP65 box at the gate with just a single power wire. There may then just be a single control wire to an intercom

Obviously can't zoom in but it looks like the trimmer, which takes the ends of two whole joists, could literally be supported buy only a couple of nails. Again, can't see properly but the tops of the joists may not be flush with the rest at that point. I might be getting a bit hypothetical but that 'problem' could have been sorted by using the floor screwing to help bring the joists up a few mm which would be the source of the extreme bounce. The bounce being the floor boards flexing, not the joists (the two potentially offering little support at that end). As an experiment, could you try propping under the chimney area directly below? And seeing if that localised support solves the problem before taking anything out? Some 4x2, osb on the plasterboard to spread weight and some packers to tighten it in? If locals liked propping sorts it, you will have confidence before anyone takes up any flooring.

With no live load (just dead load) mine at 4.8 metres are dead flat as far as I can tell. I don't know if they were pre cambered or not. I have to say, yours look very thin. Mine are 100mm wide each, probably more like the two either side of your fireplace that are presumably thicker to take the extra weight of the pair in front of the fireplace.

The hangers that hold the trimmer have very few fixings in them due to where they are placed. Only a few on top and maybe on the bottom of the clip if has been bent up as it's not showing on the bottom of the next joist. Could it be just the actual hangers are flexing instead of the joists. I think your going to have to lift the floor and figure out is the joists flexing, the trimmer piece or the hangers. Once you know this then it should be easier fixed.

@readiescards, the only thing i can see is that the trimmer is not as deep as the joists and is thinner in section. i don't have much experience with posi joists, but do know that joists shoudn't sag! timber joists should be fitted with a camber (if it has one) uppermost so that loading will level it. i would have had a couple of rows of strutting in 4.5m i presume that's what the strongback is for

This helpful?

As I said a couple of posts ago, I thought I'd put video updates on to save time. This one is without much detail, just a quick update on where the build is and a whirlwind tour of the house on a snowy Northumberland day.

All I would say is remember this is TV. It doesn't reflect real life in the way you or I experience it. Probably still doesn't have BC approval or the stairs were ripped out before it did or there is an ugly handrail bolted in place. The programme is there to satisfy the masses and GD is just a glorified soap preying on people's misery and money and efforts. I've only watched a few episodes and it's pure dross. Doesn't help a self builder like me in the slightest. It's a glorified design show. Not a house build show. Ooft, got that off my chest!

I haven't watched this one yet (don't watch commercial tv live) But just last week on George Clarke's "ugly house" they created a first floor balcony that only had posts and a top rail, not even sheets of glass to fill in the gaps. I wish they would concentrate more on the technicalities like heating system, insulation levels, ventilation system and as build SAP value, but I guess that would be too boring? Running out of money, nowhere to live and (a recurring theme) new baby on the way are much better entertainment value.

I thought it was just me. I've stopped commenting because Debbie rolled her eyes once too often. "Stop shouting at the telly dear, they can't hear you"

Actually, I'd say they were bloody lethal. You could fall a full two stories with ease and straight onto a metal steel angle! Death would be HIGHLY probable if you hit your head. How the feck can that have been achieved? Perhaps the reality is that they don't even have sign off from building control? It really naff's me off, the rest us spend our life jumping through god knows how many hoops to keep the right side of the BCO and then the likes of Grand Designs just produces a load of tabloid tat. Rant over

This is the best 'zoom-able' pic I can find. The rails are supported by the pipe work which is held in place with brass Munson rings. Copper to irons on each end, and as a belt n braces job I created a ring so the manifolds got fed from both ends. I did that as the cold manifold was very long and could have suffered loss of flow and I just then carried that across to the hot manifold to as it was easy enough to do. The remit on that job was to be able to use all the showers at the same time and still have some useable flow / pressure elsewhere so went to town on this one. If you zoom in you'll see opaque / white plastic spacers in between the manifolds ( 3 to the long run ). These iirc were 28mm Talon pipe clips which held the rails with near spot on results. Another way to do this, if only feeding from just one end, would be a clip on the input pipe work and then a stub of pipe made off and cap ended ( or a DOC ) the other side, with enough pipe to get a second clip on.