Leaderboard

Voltage drop is the problem. You'll probably be alright with trimmers as they don't use too much juice. But a chainsaw takes a bit more, and don't even think about anything with an induction motor (power washer, compressor) as they really dont like the supply being low.

Says paper millionaire ? (2 properties outright + personal pension + state pension) I will gladly correct and apologise if that’s wrong. Sometimes its good for all of us to turn down our inner “woe is me“. Because if that’s the worst choices you could have made, well, talk about the problems of being in the 1%.

Welcome Is this a pipe to his cesspit or a pipe to a leach field or overflow ..? best way would be to replace it properly with a new pipe and encase that in concrete and then build up a new driveway over that with layers of compacted hardcore. I’m assuming he has some sort of easement over the land..?? Does it have anything about him entering to maintain the pipe work ..??

I have started this thread to discuss all aspects of the LG Therma V Air Source Heat Pump that I am just installing and in particular a control strategy for it. I have the 5KW monoblock version of this unit. But first I want to talk about water flow rate requirements. This is an essential subject, but one completely overlooked in the installation manual, and I could not find anything searching on the internet, so feel it is time for some simple clear and concise information. When I first connected my heat pump and tried to run it, it almost immediately tripped on a "CH14" error which is water flow rate. The installation manual does not quote a minimum or a maximum water flow rate which I find an astonishing omission. Before I did anything else, I went and bought a flow meter and installed that so I had a measure of the water flow rate that I was achieving, and that came back with a figure of 14 litres per minute. It then took an email exchange with LG technical to be told the flow switch is "Set to 10 litres per minute plus or minus 3" So I guess my 14 l/m was just failing to trigger the flow switch. In my case I solved this by adding a second circulating pump external to the heat pump, and that boosted my flow rate to 20 litres per minute and the unit then sprang into life. During my email exchange with LG technical, they sent me a copy of the service manual for this unit. I won't post that for download, but if anyone wants a copy I will send it by email if you send me a PM.

I have rainwater reuse in my plans, but the build budget is tight (thanks to current events) so I need to keep things cost effective. I've noticed that there's a lot of expensive kits for using captured rain water and most of them look like I can make something almost identical for considerably less outlay. Let's say the budget is around £750 to £1000. (This is based on rounding up 33% of our expected water bill for 5 years, plus an allowance for things getting expensive) I plan to use the water for toilets, garden, car washing (with a decent filter!) and possibly for clothes washing (again if filtering can be cost effective). ICBs look like a good and cheap option for water storage, but I'm a little concerned about cost and complexity from burying them in clay and expecting them to stay connected, so I am considering an onion type septic tank as a rainwater tank. It seems considerably cheaper than a rainwater tank for the same (4500ish litre) volume and with very little work, e.g. to implement filtering and a calmed inlet, will do the same job. I assume the price difference is due to production volumes, because the calmed inlet and filter are often additions. My plan was to fit a header tank in the attic since this looks to be the simplest arrangement with the lowest running cost. Mains water can be directed into the header tank with a simple float valve maintaining sufficient air gap and I can implement a control system to turn off the mains supply with a motorised valve (probably a ball valve since it doesn't use power when in either state unlike a solenoid valve - and it can be manually moved when there is a power cut) when there is water in the main tank. This leaves the tank water side. A submersible pump, a pressure based controller and a float valve (probably one with a sharp cutoff) is again a simple and relatively inexpensive option. It does everything I need except sensible dry run prevention. (My theory is that dry run protection built in to the pump probably shouldn't be routinely relied upon.) So in addition I'll need to implement a tank level indicator of some kind and controller to switch the pump and the mains valve. (Sounds like another little microcontroller project, or something for a cheap "smart relay" device...) The tank and the pump use up most of the budget but I have a shed full of random spare parts that will more or less do the rest. What am I missing (apart from a lot of implementation detail with many a devil lurking inside)? Any regs preventing me from using a new septic tank for this purpose for instance? Can I do anything cheaper or more simply? I note there are lots of German and Polish parts on ebay that are very well priced compared to UK parts. Are we that far behind the curve when it comes to sensible water usage?

It’s not soda crystals, it’s bicarbonate of soda ..!! Soda crystals will cause you some serious issues if you get them on wet skin or eyes .!!

I was thinking 1000–1500 based on what I paid for my last big one. May be worth asking if him taking the wood will make a difference .. he may or may not change his price as he will also be selling firewood. F

I would pick your system first

Econekt are based in Clydebank and in my dealings with them (didn't go with them) they seemed knowledgeable and professional. Towards the higher end cost wise though, from memory.

what i would do is go to a electrical wholesaler and purchase a roll of 2.5mm flex and a wireable RCD plug and extension socket, this way you can make it as long as you want

If you go the cable route which is the simplest and most useful. Either use a single cable or join what you have with ip68 connectors rather than just plugging one extension into another. Generators are a real pain for you and anyone in ear shot. We used a power lead from a neighbour during the early stages of our build and it was a real god sent.

This PDF describes what you need to include in the letter to council on page 3. Hope it goes well!

A floor plan with a North point and some dimensions would be helpful. Also target budget. The big slope up to the rear garden is a pain if you want to increase floor space in the main house. If you do not have plans and cannot do them yourself, get an architectural technician to draw some. Shop around, it should not cost much.

So no real prospect of dropping them so that’s a climbing and roping job - depends on location but £12-1500 as it is probably 2 days work if they have to avoid the rest.

1800 ish each maybe

At least you have the space to do that, unlike the neighbours. But it seems a shame to have to have to do all that if there is a perfectly good shared drain pipe to "somehwere" It has got to be worth talking to BC about it?

You can't pick it worse than me. Sold first house in 1989 a couple of years after the crash. First attempt it sat on the market for a year with no interest. Tried again a year later and it sold in a slow market, eventually. Sold second house in 2003. Put the house on the market. 2 weeks later the gulf war started and the housing market stopped. That took nearly a year to sell. and the first buyer withdrew a week before exchange. Sold buy to let flat in 2013, the market was virtually dead still from the 2008 crash. it took 3 years to sell that. If it had gone on the markey in 2007 people would have been falling over themselves to buy iy and it would have gone to a closing date. Tried to sell old house in 2014 to find the market still dead, Unsold after 3 years we let it to a tenant who still say they want to buy it, but CV19 has buggered that for the time being, Oh how I would love to put a house on the market in a boom time and have people queuing to view it and out bidding each other. when our old house is eventually sold, I never ever ever want to be in the position of owning anything other than the house I live in. There is too much stress and uncertainty.

I’ve just ordered a straight simple 2850mm staircase (13 treads - 219.3mm rise) from stairbox to serve as our temporary staircase. £235 ex vat delivered. Once it arrives should take about 5 mins to put in place and fix temporarily. I’ll ask the chippies to put some temp handrails on. Only downsides are it’s taking just over 2 weeks to come and it may put me on a sticky wicket with the VAT reclaim as I’ll try including both the temporary staircase and the real one in the claim to see if they notice ?.

I just searched "staircase" on Gumtree putting in "Lincolnshire" as the area. Came up with things like this: Loft ladder for £40 in Huntington: https://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/pine-stairs-loft-ladder-staircase-used/1373504498? & Free metal staircase: https://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/fire-escape-staircase/1373281482? Htf Worcester is Lincolnshire, but if you have transport and a couple of mates freebies like this can be great. I find with Gumtree that "stair case" and "staircase" brings up different results. Always worth a look though.

Sadly for us, just before the virus arrived, the property market in Scotland was starting to boom. with a return of properties going to a closing date, something that has hardly happened at all since 2008. I do hope that pent up demand is still there after this is all over. It took 12 or more years for the property market to get over the last recession, I really can't wait that long if the property market crashes here again.

In my previous Victorian farmworkers cottage we had the original rainwater harvesting system which the early occupants used as their water supply. There a bit more about it in an earlier thread.

I'm planning a row water system as well. But, as you say, commercial systems seem to be around £3k. Not justifiable at that price. I assume you have a water main supply? Could consider what I'm doing. I'm I stalling a seperate pipe network for the toilets etc. Initially, I'll just have this connected to the main cold water manifold. But it will allow me to disconnect and hook up to a different supply in the future. That would likely be a rainwater tank with pressure controlled sump pump.

It’s funny really Myself and my wife where discussing this last night while we had no planning requirement to water harvest we wish we had and will on our next build Your plan seems a sensible and cost effective approach Ill watch this thread with interest

@Andrew @JulianB Some additional reading for you both in respect of ASHP feeding UFH, and a 300 litre UVC using a preplumbed Mitsubishi Ecodan:

It would be best to leave til after August to save destroying nesting birds.

So I got conclusive word back from local help to buy office yesterday. They do NOT cover self-build. At all.

Roll a length of dpc out You can either get drill and plug your sol plate or shoe cute Mf framing to the slab I normally cut some 15 mil rips of ply for around the edge of the studs 25 mil more than the depth of your insulation x screed

In Part 22, I detailed my decision making process in relation to my choice of a pre-plumb Mitsubishi Ecodan 8.5kW ASHP based DHW and heating system. I now have a full set of data covering 12 months so can provide figures in respect of how the system, and our house has performed. My baseline requirement was to maintain 21.5C in the house 24/7 throughout the heating season (October to April), and a supply of DHW water that would allow multiple showers to be drawn off without a drop in the temperature of water delivered at the tap. The Mitsubishi FTC5 master controller / thermostat is set to 21C, and is located in the hall next to the vestibule. DHW is set to and stored at 50C. Over the 12 months March 2017 – March 2018, heating COP ranged between a February low of 3.3 to an October high of 4.6 over the course of the heating season, with an overall SPF of 3.7 DHW COP ranged between a February low of 2 to a summer high of 2.5, with an overall SPF of 2.3 Based on a kWh electricity unit price (inc standing charge) of 12.3p, I paid 3.32p per kWh of delivered heat, and 5.34p per kWh of DHW (inc losses). It should be noted that DHW cylinder losses do slightly reduce my heating demand, albeit at a higher cost than if delivered via UFH. For a reminder of our layout: In winter, with a set temperature of 21C, the house sits at a comfortable even temperature, the main living section of the house tends to sit at 21.5C, the 2nd and 3rd bedrooms at 21C and the master bedroom at 20.5C. I suspect that the slightly lower temperature in our bedroom is due to the fact I set the MVHR vent at a higher supply rate than the other bedrooms. This would tally with my experience of doing the same in our last house. The two biggest factors that impact on our heating demand are wind speed and solar gain. In modelling our heating requirement, I took both into account, along with incidental and household gains. The weather data set was based on a combination of met office and local home weather station information. Our average wind speeds are significantly higher than elsewhere in the country, and combined with the effect of storm force wind speeds (which we get a fair bit of) we do have a higher heat demand when compared to the same house being located in a sheltered inland area. The impact of wind speed, and the differential in pressure it causes is illustrated here: http://www.wanz.co.nz/ConversionChart A doubling of wind speed sees the pressure increase by a factor of four. Average winter wind speeds of 15-20mph (which equates to the standard air pressure test) are common if not the norm here. Average storm wind speeds of 40-50mph gusting to 70-80mph are also common. The impact of the pressure differential that such wind speeds cause was illustrated to me during the build whilst I was decorating. Having masked off the windows with polythene it was noticeable that when wind speed exceeded 40mph, the polythene would inflate on the windward side of the house, and be sucked onto the glass on the leeward side. Whilst we’re not aware of any drafts and the house isn’t any way uncomfortable, looking at the daily heating requirement when wind speeds are high, you can see an increase in the amount of energy used. Part of that will be air leakage (as evidenced by the effect of pressure differential on the windows) part is the unbalancing of the MVHR (gusting wind from a particular direction can cause the fans to struggle), and part is the lack of solar gain on such stormy days. In terms of solar gain, the vast majority of any gain manifests in the public areas. In winter this provides a useful uplift in internal temperatures. Depending on how clear it is, and how long the sun is out, the uplift sometimes compares to having a WBS stove on and really is quite pleasant. More generally, with mixed winter weather, the gain is less noticeable in terms of a temperature spike, but does have the benefit of reducing our heating energy use. In summer, the gain can be significant and does require a cooling strategy. Without any active cooling, the house has at times risen to 25C in the public areas and 24C in the bedrooms. Alongside the MVHR summer bypass (set to activate when extract air is 22C or more) we cool the house down to a more comfortable 22C using cross ventilation, opening windows / taking account of the prevailing breeze. We also have a velux window upstairs, which when opened in combination with a downstairs window, creates a chimney effect that is very effective in exhausting hot air. The biggest downside in using cross ventilation is that it doesn’t work when the ambient temperature is high (not a very common), nor when there isn’t a breeze (again, not very common). You also have to factor in the unexpected as we had to recently as our neighbour undertook ground works, which created vast clouds of dust in the dry weather. Opening windows simply wasn’t possible on those days. Overall the predicted impact of solar gain is as I modelled it using data from the following two sites: https://www.susdesign.com/ http://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvgis/apps4/pvest.php PVGIS provided daily average data, and from susdesign I was able to work out a peak solar gain multiplier to determine what the maximum likely amount of solar gain would be on a clear, cloudless day. Modelling solar gain for both heating and cooling requirement was a very worthwhile exercise as I was able to determine what our worst case requirements were for both, and what strategies would work. I’m fortunate in that the prevailing weather conditions here mean cross ventilation is a viable and workable strategy to deal with overheating. I am however in no doubt that had we built our house in a sheltered location in a warmer part of the country, that we would have a very real overheating problem and would have to use a very different strategy, most likely combining solar films on windows and active cooling. I do have the option of actively cooling my house using our ASHP, via the UFH and if I wanted by retrofitting a duct cooler into the MVHR system, although haven’t felt the need to do so yet. One plus point of the Mitsubishi Ecodan ASHP is that activating cooling is simple (changing a dip switch setting to enable the master controller). All in all, I’m very happy with the way the house is performing in terms of retaining heat and providing a comfortable environment in both winter and summer. The performance and running costs to date are certainly more than satisfactory. Of particular value to us is having sufficient heating capacity to deal with spikes in heating demand (resulting from especially stormy weather) as and when needed, without having to resort to auxiliary heaters or peak rate top up, and the simplicity of use of the master control system. Whilst I could if I so wished set flow temperatures and heating curves, the onboard auto / adaptive program requires one user input – internal set temperature, and the controller works out the lowest temperature way of delivering it. Whilst I had a very good idea of what our heating curve should look like, using the auto / adaptive mode saved a lot of trial and error, and having monitored flow temperatures, have not seen them exceed 32C. For those not comfortable with developing their own programming or control systems, this is a very big plus. Having looked at a variety of options, I concluded that an ASHP would be the most cost effective solution (even after taking into account the cost of replacing the outdoor unit after 10 years) to meeting our requirements, and 12 months on, I have absolutely no doubt that I selected the right system for our requirements. Whilst I have no hesitation in recommending the ASHP system I have, it is important to recognise that low energy or passive type builds really do need to be modelled and individual requirements identified to determine what type of heating, cooling and DHW provision is required.

In this entry I'm going to discuss in more detail how I came to choose our heating and hot water system, and how it has performed to date. As other forum members have found, deciding which fuel source and type of technology to use in a low energy house, is a challenge given the different requirements each of us has. We had three stipulations – low running costs, hot water available on tap 24/7 and maintenance of the whole house at an even and constant temperature 24/7. Having calculated our heating demand, taking the impact of solar gain, incidental household gain, human occupancy and wind speed into account, I was confident that I had a good indication of the amount of heating I would need. I was also confident, based on historical use, of the amount of hot water we as a family use. Living in an area without mains gas, my options were somewhat limited to using either oil or electricity as my fuel source. LPG was initially considered but discounted due to the lack of availability in my location. As part of the decision making process, I spent a fair amount of time carrying out a cost comparison of both oil and electricity based heating and hot water systems, using 500kWh increments from 2500kWh to 5000kWh. I considered direct electric of various type, oil and air source heat pumps, both air to water and air to air. Solar PV was also considered and costed in terms of each method of heat and hot water delivery. In line with previous cost comparisons that I had carried out, I found direct electric to be the most cost effective in terms of capital outlay and running costs when both heating and hot water demand were less than 2500 kilowatt hours each year. As heating requirement and hot water requirement increases so the balance began to tip in favour of other technologies. Oil was quickly dropped from the list as it became apparent that any rise in fuel prices over then then low point, would significantly increase running costs. Having conducted significant investigation in respect of the viability of Sunamp units, although attractive in many ways, I found that the capital outlay and running cost was simply too high to be able to justify, given that the main benefit (low heat losses) were not as critical for me as they have been for others. Part of that decision was also driven by the cost of fitting Solar PV, which in our remote location was extortionate. I looked into a non MCS DIY install, but couldn’t make the figures stack up, the break-even point being around 17 years. Much as I wanted to install PV, it didn't make any sense financially. In time, I hope to revisit PV, if and when battery storage reduces the break-even point to a more realistic timescale. A wind turbine, given our location and the virtually constant presence of wind, would have been an ideal energy source and paired with Sunamp technology, probably unbeatable. The proximity of nearby houses ruled out that option in terms of planning permission. Air to Air heat pumps were ruled out based on my own experience of them and a road test at a friends house. Neither myself or my good lady found them particularly pleasant as a heat source. Having gone through the list of options, an air to water air source heat pump, paired with a large UVC and UFH for the distribution of heat, represented the best balance in terms of capital outlay, running costs and crucially, comfort and convenience. We opted for a package from Mitsubishi Ecodan, an 8.5kW heat pump and 300 litre pre-plumbed cylinder fitted with the Mitsubishi FTC5 control panel. Given our location, we opted for the coastal model, which is treated with acrylic resin for enhanced corrosion resistance. Whilst a pre-plumbed cylinder is more expensive than a bare cylinder and associated parts, after taking labour (plumber and electrician) into account, I found there was very little difference in cost. I sourced the package from a trade supplier, Secon Solar. I found their price list while searching online and having phoned the company, and perhaps fortuitously speaking to the managing director of the firm, found they were quite happy to sell me package at trade / installer price, the bonus being that delivery to my location was free. The package is configured for the UK market, the only difference to the system as sold in the rest of Europe (AFAIK) being that the cooling function of the heat pump is disabled so that the product complies with MCS approval for claiming RHI. It is however a simple task to activate the cooling function, by flipping a dip switch in the control module on the cylinder. Cooling can then be controlled from the master controller. As stated in an earlier blog entry, the heat pump and cylinder were fitted very quickly with simple connections on the plumbing side – flow and return from the ASHP, cold water, hot water and flow and return to the underfloor heating manifold. Electrical connections consisted of power to the ASHP, a cable from the ASHP to the control module and a plug-in controller. I had initially planned to have the cylinder in the utility room close to the ASHP Monobloc, but changed the location to a service cupboard in the middle of the house, to reduce internal DHW pipe runs. This does mean a 15 metre pipe run for flow and return to the ASHP, but as virtually all is within the insulated envelope, it doesn’t represent much of an issue, and does not appear to be having an adverse effect on performance. The ASHP Monobloc itself is located beside our back door, open to the elements. It seems happy enough where it is, despite the wind that traverses the space between house and garage walls. Locating the ASHP within the garage itself was an option but one I decided against simply on the grounds that I didn’t want to give up floor space within the garage. A timber housing for the ASHP is something we may look at in the future. We opted to fit individual room thermostats to all 3 bedrooms, to give us the option of being able to reduce the bedroom temperatures if we so wished. We have not used these and keep the whole house at one temperature 24/7, treating the underfloor heating as a single zone. At present I only have limited data as to how the heat pump has performed since moving in. On board energy metering (energy consumed and energy produced) shows the CoP for heating has ranged between 3.5 and 4. DHW is maintained at 47C-50C in the cylinder, boosted every fortnight to 60 degrees by the immersion on an anti-legionella cycle. To date the CoP for DHW is 2.4 As members know, heat pumps are best suited to the production of low temperature heat as opposed to the higher temperatures required for domestic hot water. Whilst the CoP for DHW is lower than that for heating, the cost per kWh of our DHW, based on a CoP of 2.4, is 5p, which is significantly better than an E7 electricity tariff. We may be taking a hit on efficiency, but in reality all of the other options would have cost us more. The 300 litre capacity of the cylinder means that we have plenty of hot water on tap and can comfortably run a full bath and still have sufficient left over for another person to shower. The ASHP is currently operating on a 24/7 basis, providing heat input to the UFH and topping off the DHW as and when it determines it needs to, at whatever flow temperature it determines. Whilst that does sound like a recipe for high bills and high flow temperatures, in practice, the heat pump delivers the lowest flow temp it can get away with to maintain our set temperature. If I so choose, the controller lets me set various parameters such as heating curves or set flow temperatures, or indeed a timed schedule for heating and DHW. However,as the system is operating efficiently on its auto setting, and providing the level of comfort we want, I see very little reason to mess around and create my own settings. If say electricity tariffs were to change from a single tariff to a dynamic tariff, then I would have the option of timing the heat pump operation to coincide with lower rate tariffs. After much thought, and indeed discussion on this forum, I opted for an 8.5 kWh ASHP over a 5 kWh ASHP, as I felt happier running a larger unit more gently than pushing a smaller capacity unit harder. A 5 kWh unit would probably have sufficed, and in time, may be what the current unit is replaced with when it reaches the end of its life. We haven’t yet had to activate the cooling function as any overheating (defined as internal temperatures over 23C) caused by solar gain, can, as modeled, be managed by natural cross ventilation. Neither have we found it necessary to constantly circulate the UFH to even out the house temperature / redistribute solar gain from one part of the house to the other. In the heating season, we found that there was sufficient circulation of the UFH during the heating cycle to maintain the house at an even temperature. Outwith the heating season, when solar gain is at its peak, the house zones itself, the bedroom section remaining slightly cooler than the public areas, very useful on a warm summers day. Overall I’m very happy and impressed with our system. It has, so far, delivered everything we have asked of it in terms of comfort and convenience, and the running costs are low. I have the capability to cool the house (via slab cooling) if I so wish, and the option to bolt on a second zone pack onto the pre-plumb cylinder if I ever found it necessary to install a second heating / cooling function – i.e. fan coil or duct heater / cooler. The one criticism that I have is about the controller thermostat function and its hysteresis - 1C increments only. A finer degree of control would have been preferable. Our installation was recently inspected by an MCS accreditor (our plumber is going through the accreditation process). In due course that will give us the option to apply for RHI, although that will be very much dependant on whether the figures stack up.

So for better or worse i've ended up with a scenario where my ufh pipe must zip tie to the top mat of a393 mesh but then have a142 mesh as anti-crack sit directly on top of the pipe. My concern is that during the concrete pour a workmans welly on the a142 (6mm) mesh becomes somewhat more of a point load on the pipe.....certainly on a test piece not under any water pressure it leaves a dimple depression. One supplier isn't concerned for the robustness of their pert-al-pert pipe during the pour and its inevitable foot traffic (but is concerned about expansion/contraction having a wearing effect on pipe against mesh over time....i've seen enough counter-argument to that to not be concerned). Nuheat feel a pipe without the metal content such as PE-Xc would suffer less 'dimples'. Wunda feel their hdpe-al-pex would be a better solution than their standard pert-al-pert pipe but aren't saying with certainly that its adequate. Does anyone have any real-life experience of this mesh-pipe-mesh sandwich situation? Many thanks

I've no idea if this is a real issue but some 12 years ago one or two UFH suppliers also told us there was a potential issue when cable tying pipe to the mesh. They were concerned about the cut ends of the rods that make up the mesh so perhaps it would be better to run the pipe as per the green rather than the red ?