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I finally got this all connected yesterday, after many months of work getting everything in the loft prepared. Still got a few meters of ducting to insulate in the loft when I reinstate the floor on the loft legs ive got, but the majority is under 200mm of rockwool. I didn't get any photos of the loft side install yesterday as by the time i'd finished crawling round in the eaves, I was just ready for a shower and a lay down! I've still got the drainage to do for the condensate, at the moment i've just stuck a bucket under the unit with the pipe in, but I've got a through the wall fitting which i'm going to have draining both the condensate of the MVHR and the Boiler (in same cupboard) into an external drain. Sat down this morning and worked out what % i needed to set the unit at, at some point I'll borrow the setup tool from here and do it properly, but no point yet until the extension is built, so just using plain floor area and volume, the trickle is set at 43% for both supply and extract. At some point I need to get a humidstat relay to trigger the boost automatically, which I'll install in the extract pipe almost next to the unit. I'll keep my eye on the smoke events and see how they affect the air, and if needs be will get a carbon filter to clean the incoming air. I can definitely tell that the unit is running, you know the smell you get when you open a window and let fresh air in... but obviously its not dropping the temperature anywhere near as much. Total system price, for the unit off ebay, radial pipe and all fittings from BPC came in at just under £1000. The carbon filter is another £300 if I need it, but time will tell. Pretty pleased with that! Photos to follow...

Sad I know, but really excited for my bargain MVHR unit to turn up today. Given it a quick test, and all is OK, will be a while before I get everything else sorted out, but hoping to have it all installed before the winter comes this year. Don't think it was too bad for £420, and I had £25 in vouchers to use from Nectar points! Its getting installed in a cupboard in the new dining room, and then all the pipe work and manifolds will be in the loft space of the bungalow.

Shut off flow to all which are working and try to purge the lazy one/s through

No two shower mixers are the same, also the old one may have “crud” In it.

Has a 28 day strength of 25N/mm so is identical to C25 concrete at 5mm deep. I think it will take a car no issue as it will bond to the concrete sub base.

if I jump in the shower mine comes on within two minutes, only problem is the ambient RH sometimes confuses it, @Jeremy Harris said he adjusted his winter to summer.

Put in some really powerful UV LEDs, that will kill all the germs. And like all boys in the shower, spending too long in there 'washing', will make you blind.

I have nothing more to add.

Other people thought is was a silly idea, along with the rise and fall shower head. As your mate said "The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do".

Should not be hard to do All the hardware and data is already in place, just need someone to organise it all.

Perhaps something like this (it not a clip on though. You need to cut pipe).. £29 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Flow-Switch-15mm-0-5l-min/dp/B0091GOKZ0 same for £18.. https://cpc.farnell.com/sensor-solutions-te-connectivity/fs-10/flow-switch-15mm-0-5l-min/dp/SN36477

Oh, and the fibre washer had disintegrated on that side hence the leak.

Open fully then close half a turn or so.

I always turn the stopcock all the way, then back a turn.

That sounds fair enough, but I would think a huge polythene sheet would suffice whilst still allowing full access/visibility to what's been uncovered. The cynic in me is thinking they might be 'tarting up' the appearance and perhaps even trying to hide some of the issues you've been observing. Pure speculation on my part though.

Yes my sensor is white ?

I was part of that crowd. But once you factor in servicing, standing charges, and the fact that you can get electric from as little as 5p/kWh on flexible tarifs, ASHP has a lower lifetime cost. But the main thing for me is I'm not directly burning stuff and pumping it in to the air. With SSE airtricity here, 80% of the electric over the course of the year comes from renewables. That, paired with my own PV means my carbon emissions are less than a gas boiler.

There are ultrasonic sensors that are non-invasive for water pipes. https://www.omega.co.uk/prodinfo/ultrasonic-flow-meters.html Look for something cheaper though. You may find that a couple of temperature sensors set up differential may work.

That looks very like a DHT11 sensors, they are dreadful. You may find the white ones, the DHT22 are much more reliable and accurate. They have a larger temperature range, DHT11 is 0°C to 50°C, DHT22 is -40°C to 80°C. RH range is better as well, 0% to 100%, rather than the not so useful 20% to 90%. This may seem a bit of an irrelevant difference, but I have found that the the DHT11 (blue) ones hit 100% relative humidity, they don't like reading properly afterwards.

as this is a Tesla/Apple-love-in thread, this arrived a short while ago.

Pumping to a height of 200m would be a bit costly. And, as the Cornish Sea Salt company found out, you need permission from the EA to change the salinity of our coastal waters. But no permission needed to put dog shit in it. What is needed, and would be useful, is a monitoring system that sensed irradiation and wind velocity. That could predict when the sun may come out. No need for a weather service then, people in the UK only know, or care, about two types of weather, sunny or rain.

With all that water there you should build yourself a desalination plant... save yourself a few quid on those water bills. ?

Great down here

I can see no reason not to, and some people do have genuine concerns about the noise for neighbours. It will mean a slightly higher fan speed, so as long as your chosen MHRV unit has sufficient headroom, it would be fine I reckon.

Buy yourself a Stanley adjustable roof square and the Carpenters Ready Reckoner Carpenter's Metric Roofing Ready Reckoner https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0854420045/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_0IQKFb5SFDT1Q If you are framing a roof out for jack rafters it will be the only two things you need. Unless you get a framing nailer that can fire twist nails then you will be quicker with a hammer and nails. Buy a Kunys leather pouch and a decent 16oz hammer, get some scrap bits of wood and you’ll soon be putting nails in like a pro. Toolstation ring shank galvanised nails are very good quality and not expensive either.

Yes that’s a potential benefit too. Quarry dust is most likely a regional thing, prices for aggregates delivered seem to vary hugely due to this. Anglian Water specify sand blinding if not ducted - they might not mind in the event, but I wouldn’t want to get to inspection and find that they won’t pass it... Going by the price of 63mm blue ducting, I can get 2 x 50 metres delivered for about £100 - it just seems more sensible than getting a specific delivery of aggregate that I then have to move on site and shovel in?

Double edged sword, as most rubber seals need the friction to stop the washer from slipping, rolling up, and falling into the centre bore of the fitting. I never put anything on a rubber seal ?

Ok, so we can rule out issues with the heat / circulation then? This sounds like the noise is coming from expansion where heat is entering the slab and the pipes are warming up a cold / cool screed. First for me. Do you notice the flow gauges jumping when these noises are occurring?

Here's an excel version. It is now called "surface plot". I was thinking about an older version of excel.

1) Probably, but not for the whole house as we'll never be able to afford one. However in the hindsight, probably we could if we ditched our PM early enough... :)) 2) For a consistent / nicely flowing look of the interior, making professional suggestions in some areas which we won't otherwise pay attention to, for integrating various elements consistently, for bringing in cutting-edge thinking as we don't really follow the trend too intently. 3) I would imagine, listens to the clients and helps materialise their vision adjusted by professional opinion and within a certain budget, to make best use of the client's limited funds. 4) no idea, but a good one I would imagine expensive? £10k+?? 5) If I had absolutely no idea what to do with a blank canvass / no vision for my own needs and preferences. 6) Houzz, word of mouth 7) No project is too small, but it all depends on my budget. Some people may hire one to design a cat's nook... ? (a) as above (b) £250?? In our case, we went with very simple clean choices for the majority of areas, focusing on some outstanding key features. I wanted my library and hallway done in Robert Adam-esque style so I went for dusty pastels, swag&drops and crystal lights, bedrooms are simple and clean on walls with key accents on sumptuous textiles and carpets, and bathrooms are themed (a Roman-style for my ensuite with warm travertine and mosaics, a cool icy one for HWMBO with white lappato marble and agate feature wall, and a simple marble with mosaics for guest shower. Downstairs WC which the cat uses is a bit psychodelic with royal blue upper walls, white gloss metro tiles and 3D floors :))). But we've travelled alot and some of interior designs were brought in from the places we stayed in. A professional designer would probably have done a much more consistent and sleek job, but we are naturally eclectic so suits us. Soft touches are still to be added as I have tons of stuff to hang on walls!

Hi Harman. So our new build is going to be ready next month and will largely be furnished from scratch as we’re binning most our old furniture which was long overdue. So for our interior decor & furniture we’ve basically been looking at Pinterest for design inspiration, but I do think we have a good eye for interior design. Having seen show homes I’ve no doubt an interior designer could do a far better job than we could but what gives me concern about using one is this. (never used one before). What would happen if the designer came up with designs that we didn’t like or couldn’t afford. How would that work. What would an interior designer offer in terms of ideas that we could just get from Pinterest. Personally I would probably consider paying a few hundred pounds for someone to come up with a few designs for all the rooms, anything more than that I personally couldn’t justify/afford. With a view to then me sourcing the products. I imagine that an interior designers costs are mainly time, so would expect to pay a fair hourly rate for maybes a few days work. That’s why I’m thinking a few hundred quid unless you’re Kelly Hoppen or whoever. As a comparison I’m going to be using a highly recommended garden designer, at the lower end of her fees scale (£250). That’s to do a walk around, give advice on plant types for my site which has landscaping challenges, listing suitable plant types etc in terms of soil conditions, shade etc etc all things I know nothing about, and some design ideas. At £250 I figured I’ll save money rather than planting certain plants that simply wouldn’t survive at my site. She charges up to £thousands if you want her to do 3d rendering,, project manage etc etc. Some can afford that, I can’t.

I won't say I only paid £4K for a 2000 year static 5 years ago. Oops I just did.

No need to duct. Use 100-200mm of quarry dust around the pipes if stony ground. If the ground is stone free, no need for dust either. Quick calculation suggest you'll only need 8tonnes of dust. I recently got 13t delivered for £120.

Overall it went swimmingly well, couple of minor issues but soon resolved and need to return to sort out a handle issue but John Knight Glass were, IMO really great and for final sign off we wait for contact over next couple weeks when someone else comes to site to check everything with us so enough time to raise any snagging issues hopefully. Despite some panic on the canal bridge when the trailer was about 8 inches off the floor, everyone held their breath when the glass got over successfully. The other option being discussed was asking CRT who were dredging at the time to transport them to us. Although that didn't happen, I'd of been quite pleased to see that ? The windows we picked were the aluclad UPVV studio KF320 windows and KS430 sliding door and we are more than happy with them. A couple from work in progress. It was nice as the sun was setting getting some pictures of the house today, finally with the windows.

or fit 2 layers now ?-- underneath one will not get any UV or wind just leave top one on and roof it? and yes tape your seams to be sure

MVHRs sole job is to maintain air quality, whilst recovering some heat from the exhaust air. There's no need to have MVHR and heating "talk" to each other. Yes, there are some MVHRs out there that have integrated heat pumps and can heat domestic hot water and heat/cool incoming air. But as others have said, unless you are building a passive House with minimal heat load, these will struggle to distribute heat. I think the max realistic heat you can distribute through air is about 2kw. The peak heat load for my house is 2.5kw, so I can't reliable heat my house this way. Plus, you have to have higher air flow rates which often equals more noise. And when I did the sums, the likes of the Nilan compact P with ASHP was coming out nearly double the cost of a separate ASHP and MVHR. If you go for a standard MVHR like a vent axia sentinal or a Zehnder Q series, and a separate monoblock ASHP, you should be able to do 90% of the install of both systems yourself. This is what I'm doing in my ICF passive House. My current estimate is about £12k for self install of both systems including DHW tank, ufh, but excluding commissioning. Ashps can get hot water tonl 50c + ... Tho most here seem happy with 45c. Be aware there are lots of companies and people jumping on the MVHR bandwagon with limited expertise and will say anything to make a sale. It's like the double glazing boom of the 90s. What ever way you go, your number one priority should be maximising insulation and air tightness. You can then spend a lot less on heating. I recommend you look up the passive House standards of you want a very low energy home.

External brick, 150mm cavity, medium density block and blown graphite beads. Then line with 25mm PIR between battens and aluminium tape all joints before boarding with standard plasterboard and skim. This gets you decent thermal performance plus the PIR and batten increases this plus provides an air tightness layer that most builders can understand without the use of special membranes. Brand on PIR is irrelevant - buy what is cheapest locally. Blown beads aren’t a DIY install so just find someone with a decent spec - we specify Instabead Diamond which is about the best you can get.

Seems to be a well-intentioned development with a few not-too-sensible Green dogmas attached (the lead councillor is Green Party). The banishing of cars from near houses mean that people will have to eg unload shopping then make a separate journey to park the car. Not good - never mind the impact on frail and disabled. The anti car stuff being locked in for the lifetime of the estate is peculiar at a time when Zero Emission cars are just beginning to boom. They will end up with cars in front of houses in 15 years time by not thinking carefully now. Don't understand the stuff about "e-bike charging points" - is that not just a normal socket? And some very funny politics. 'Slide back to business as usual under the current govt', when in reality we are in the the middle of the first sustained period of emissions reduction ever - notwithstanding that the Green Deal was a further complicated cockup after the previous Code for Sustainable Homes giimmick-ridden cockup. Does anyone have an idea what it will cost to do PassivHaus Certification for 600 houses on 8 separate estates, with several types of house on each estate? If it is just 5 types, I make that something like enough spent on certificates to pay for a house or two. Nowt so queer as folk. F

Quicker hot water tap My wife thought I was being extravagant spending a £1000 on a tap while I’m happy that we purchased Grohe and Gebrits for the bathrooms The free standing extremely heavy tub looks amazing But we’ve never used it Same with two of the showers While we have UFH my wife insisted on a wood burner 3k well spent One big spend was importing 175 m2 of Italian Porcelain slats Pretty happy with those and great to lay My wife’s indulgence was a German kitchen with quarts surfaces While I saved quite a bit fitting it myself I’m not convinced that they are worth all the extra cost and 7k on appliances was more than I would have spent We could have got below 800m2

I would fit much larger for the caravan. Mine is wired with 6mm. 13A is not enough what if you want to plug an electric heater in? Unless it has central heating you WILL.

Almost all supplies to new properties now are PME, Protective Multiple Earthing, a variation on TNC-S The "earth" comes in combined with the neutral usually on a concentric cable. A know (and not that uncommon) failure is the combined Neutral and Earth (CNE) conductor breaks or corrodes. In this situation the "earth" in the property can rise well above local earth potential. For this reason, wiring regs prohibit a caravan being connected to a PME earth. On the other hand the SWA must be earthed at source. So in this case you do not connect the SWA at the caravan end and you do not connect in any way to the PME earth. So no need for 3 core SWA. Instead you provide a local TT earth with an earth rod.

I think you should have the posts CNC Lathe turned from composite, and then have 3D metal deposition brackets made whilst setting it onto a series of hand welded double helical piles ... The roof should be cedar shingles - they take about 15 years to grow, so if you sow them this autumn you should be able to harvest by the time you’re ready to get the roof on ....

Here's the spreadsheet version of the VAT form (which is acceptable to HMRC): VAT Claim Form 431 - Blank - extra sheets added.xls

Wot he said.

God I doubt it! I’m bloody hopeless at anything practical. I’ll stick to reading VAT tribunal reports and the like lol.

Good god NO just fill it back in and get on to the next job.

Got it, very clear. Re the 3 pin, you are absolutely right, in our previous renovation I wasted far too much time (ergo stress) on the "what ifs" and future proofing etc that you need to pinch yourself and remember that extreme scenarios by their very nature don't happen very often and a cheap but effective solution is the winner. Re wood burner, if you can't build your own house with a pinch of extravagance then why bother although my wife has put her foot down on the fireman's pole from the master bedroom to the kitchen

You had the flattest site in the whole of the West Country. The curvature of the Earth is almost greater.

yesterday I decided to save the money I don't have by digging the 20M soil trench myself, shallow at start dropping to 2.5M at end Yesterday I then decided to sell a kidney and get a digger in