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After various delays, the time has come to get some heat into the house, and as there have been a few on BH that have gone down the route of Willis, thought I would give it a go as well. Hopefully others will find the blog entry also. Background: Renovated (3G passiv-rated windows, 120mm EPS EWI, 400mm loft insul, MVHR - not tested air leakiness yet) / extended (175mm SIPs) south facing detached house, East Kent 156sqm of wet UFH in 100mm concrete (with circa 300-375mm EPS insulation) 130L in UFH Wunda 12 port manifold (The heating valve on the manifold operates in the range of 30-70oC) Wunda wired room thermostats for each room (but probably won't use for this temporary setup now) 12Kw eDual for DHW (not to be included as part of Willis setup) 12Kw Sunamp for DHW/UFH (not to be included as part of Willis setup) 3.8Kw PV (potentially have further DIY grid implemented later on) Not looking to cater for worst case low temps as at these times will just plug in some extra heaters: I originally ordered 2x 12Kw heat batteries for DHW and UFH. Total reliance on the PV in summer and then off-peak grid in the winter. An all electric approach initially without ASHP. Not keen to spend £8-10k on an MCS installed heat pump to get back an estimated / possible £8-10k. Installers seem very vague on the RHI returns and if I have read correctly, I will have to be metered in order to qualify in any case (as have not lived in the property previously). Since the house will be far above buildreg stds (but below PH level), I simply won't be using the amount of expected input that the installers calculate - hence I won't be getting back the cost of the ASHP supply and fit install. So most likely won't go down the MCS route, and if I were to install an ASHP, it would be a cheapy from fleabay. Having excluded using an ASHP, I learnt that Sunamp were testing various units late 2019. But typically with Sunamp, after continued confusion on their part as to what ASHPs they may have tested/not tested/will be testing soon, I've made the decision that I can't want any longer on their input. So for now I will leave the ASHP option until later on and perhaps consider a propane unit (e.g. Vaillant ) when they come online on a non-RHI basis if I can get a decent install cost. Willis Heater approach So therefore looking to heat the UFH with 2x 3Kw willis heaters in order to progress with the internal house work. Thought I'd add some info on here as a lot of people like myself aren't familiar what they are. They originated out of Ireland and still much in use over there. They're essentially external immersion coils and instead of sitting inside a tank are simple external electric units - AKA "Willis jacket", "standard sleeved immersion heater"," inline electric heater". Googling should get you something like this: Item Weight 1.15 Kg Product Dimensions 30 x 9 x 9 cm I have tried to get plumbers interested in rigging this up, but they're either not interested or have told me it's not possible/don;t know what a willis heater is. I've managed to plumb in all the Hep2o in the house, so hopefully this won't be too much of a bodge. @TerryE has kindly discussed his set up which is pretty impressive with his DS18B20s set into the walls etc. I'm no programmer and my javscript is mainly simple web stuff and wanting to get heat into the place ASAP, I just want a KISS approach for now. Perhaps later I will think about having some of it programmed using Terry's Node Red option which makes for interesting possibilities. Get a feel for Terry's approach here: But as I've said, I'm after a bog standard dummies approach to this - seriously KISS: So rather than wiring up room thermostats to the wiring centre, I will for now simply use the Willis inbuilt thermostat and set that to gradual increasing temps from 10oC up to a max of 25oC. A gradual heat increase seems safer in my mind. My only concern is if the Willis thermostat fails and carries on beyond 25oC - up to max temp. Obviously I will have the manifold mixing/blending valve that should restrict temp flow into the UFH also, but is there a further failsafe to consider? Dummies layout. Eventual Sunamp units (for DHW) will be located on left of manifold so having to locate Willis heaters to right and expansion vessel top right: FYI: The immersions need to be turned the other way (so colder water enters the side) Parts list: 15mm copper pipe. The Willis heaters are 15mm so I presume plumbing them into the manifold with 15mm would be okay? 15mm plastic pipe for cold return should suffice I presume? Bottle vents - automatically release any trapped air (like this one). Do I need any and if so where do I place them? Willis heater (ebay has the cheapest) Expansion vessel - 8litres sufficient for total UFH volume of 130L? (like this one) 20A DP switch outlet (for each willis) from a 16A MCB (like this one) . Probably one for each willis Immersion timer (like this one) to be added possibly when I change over to E7 low tarriff rates Will get an electrician to wire it all in for me! Be grateful for comments, suggestions and any answers to above questions! FYI: I'm no way the first person to install a Willis, so here's a list of other users on BH that have gone the Willis way and will know more than I do: @dpmiller: photo / details here @TerryE @vivienz @CC45 @chrisb here @Gav_P - here (Any pics?) Willis instructions: schematic

Hello all, just introducing myself. I'm in the process of undertaking a barn conversion in rural Wales. Adding a small end extension to the barn part and the other end as a garage. One of the remaining walls is collapsing, so will be renewing that and replacing current tin roof with reclaimed slate. Desire is to make this place highly insulated and as enviro friendly as poss (GSHP/solar etc). I'll be trying to do most everything bar brickwork or at least giving it my best effort as budget is minimal. If nothing else I will make a great labourer/slave/biatch Already finding value in this forum as I didn't knowI could reclaim VAT

James Hardie. Sooooo much cheaper than Cedral, and comes with a 10 year paint G/tee unlike Cedral.

Not raining, so a bit more cladding done. Pleased with the contrast between the cladding and the doors and windows.

Don’t feel that rich

If you feel rich many glass shops will make one for you using low iron glass to reduce the green tint on the edges.

I do know someone who fitted a 'domestic' rotary unit (not sure of make). They really struggled to see anything above 60% efficiency, and no end of tinkering with control settings helped. They had been steered down that route on the basis of the larger air handling capacity of the rotary unit compared to a fixed HE core.

I use access panels on-site sometimes as mad a a dozen on one ceiling So they have to be pretty airtight They are also one hour fire rated (metal) Massive array of sizes I would use one of these and buy a cheap lift ladder separate

A separate aluminium ladder, plus DIY hatch. See my post in this thread: You need to choose a ladder that doesn't oversail the hatch when retracted, so it doesn't foul the hatch - or mount it higher than the loft floor level to provide clearance, or choose one normally intended for a hatch on a vertical wall, which will fold entirely out of the way.

I went for a wall drain partly to keep the drain away from my UFH pipes. I was going to have a floor drain in the very corner but worried the trap could dry out due to heat from the slab. What clinched the wall drain was SWMBO wanting the corner mitred which effectively kicked the floor drain into touch. In an ideal world I'd have had the wall drain at the bottom of the mitred section (but wall drain is wider than the chosen tiles). Tbh I don't think the trap drying out will be an issue considering the time one child spends in the shower. More worried about how often I'll be taking the wall drain cover off to clean hair out of the trap!

You could always cast your own to falls and fit a nice wall drain... Just hope it works! Still might need a screen (s)!

FWIW I went through this decision-making process for our shower room. We (she) wanted a big shower area, and having made a few scale models (complete with 1:50 scale model lady in a bikini in the shower - I kid you not) we (she) settled on a minimum acceptable shower area of 2000mm x 900mm. I made the shower room 2010mm wide, and then had a long, hard think about how to construct the shower area. In the end I chickened out of fitting a wet room former, as I know my tiling is crap, and unlikely to improve (I hate tiling with a passion). I found a local supplier offering a 2000mm x 900mm low profile shower tray (not cheap...) and opted to fit that. I set the tray on a flexible tile adhesive bed (it was one of the very heavy ones, ~70kg) and then fitted 9mm marine ply to the rest of the shower room floor (glued and screwed to death) and had 12mm travertine laid over that. We're very happy with the result. The tray only projects up about 20mm above the travertine and so there is no feeling of stepping up into the shower. I did have to fit the 50mm drain under the floor though, but as this was on the first floor it was reasonably easy. The Gods were with me, too, as the openings in the Posijoists allowed a straight run to the soil pipe stack. Probably of more relevance to your case is the shower bath I fitted at our old house. That had a larger, lower, shower area, and the floor beneath was concrete. I didn't find it too much work to Kango a channel across the floor for the waste pipe, and make a hole under the bath trap. After fitting the waste pipe and testing it, I just fitted floor tiles over the top of the channel. That lasted a bit over 10 years with no sign of any problem. Finally, because I hate tiling, I used AB Building Products Multipanel, both in the bathroom of our old house and in the bathroom and shower room of our new house. I'm dead impressed with this stuff. Far quicker and easier to fit than tiles and no nasty grout to try and keep clean. The only snag with it is that the standard bottom edge seal is complete and utter crap, and should have been binned as an idea years ago. Easy to get around though, just space the lower edge of the panels up by around 4 or 5 mm with tile spacers, then just run sealant into the gap. Let that cure and either run a finishing bead of sealant, or, as I did (I hate cleaning grotty sealant too) fit a PVC trim bedded on clear sealant.

Yes pretty bad here also We had lunch in Sootys and thought we where going to loose the roof

Most expensive trade? Kitchen fitter. He snapped a 3m length of worktop, holed a water pipe, damaged a cupboard door and an island end panel, and cut into the control panel of a brand new Bosch dishwasher with a multi-tool. Thankfully, it was expensive for him not me!?