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You basically have a traditional, shitty old big house with FA insulation, holes galore, leaky as a colander with multiple heat loss paths. JUST LIKE ME! You either knock down and rebuild or try and bring the insulation spec up. You can't do either without ? None of the above will deter installers selling you a pup. The government handing the grants out don't give a sh!t as they've ticked a box that your house has been "improved", "made green" and is helping save the planet. I would never have an ASAP as my building fabric just isn't right for it. If I was well insulated etc I would.

The BG stuff from SF is probably as good as any other ordinary brand. The one I avoid at all costs is MK, and they are on my blacklist because they have history of changing the exact sizing of their mcb's so a current MK mcb will be a very poor fit in an old MK board. My favourite and what I have in my house is Hager, because it does not matter how new or how old your Hager board is, the mcbs are exactly the same size and a perfect fit. but you won't get Hager from screweys.

Not so, I believe ASHP's are a good choice for well insulated low energy houses and particularly when used with UFH. But I think they can be a very bad choice for an old leaky draughty house with a high heat requirement and even more so when you try and deliver the heat through radiators and run them at a higher temperature than the heat pump can properly deliver. With the proposed banning of fossil fuel boilers we are going to see a LOT of very poorly performing ASHP's installed as "boiler replacements" and they are going to get a very bad press. That is not the fault of an ASHP but rather whoever "designed" and installed such bad installations.

Last weeks one was just an example of the ludicrous planning system we have. A valley in Cumbria with the ruins of some old mill. They got PP to conserve and add a building to it, but then the building was declared beyond hope by the heritage guy, so they knocked it all down, built the new building and then rebuild something a bit similar to the derelect stone work around it to look as though they had kept the old ruins. Am I the only one that thinks it would have been better just to build a completely new building and face it in the old stone, once it was apparent the old building was completely beyond saving?

It's one thing that annoys me to a level I cant even put into words. Fiddly God damn touch controls on hobs. May be visibly unattractive, but give me simple turn controls any day

The gap left at the bottom is for droppings of motar. It's a standard detail. When you say your going to have to cut the PIR insulation what do you mean?? Are you buying 8*4 sheets and cutting these up as that will be disastrous. If you intend to use PIR insulation in a cavity then you buy the cavity boards. They are 450mm high so suit wall tie spacing. Plus they are tongue and groove. Your never going to be able to cut sheets up and somehow tape the joins up with the outside skin already built. If the brickie doesn't push any motar out when bedding the wall or setting down the block then the cavity boards will be tight but being realistic not every board will be. For this build your best bet would be getting beads blown in.

I just realised how many hours of my life have been wasted screwing all those bolts into each car wheel. In future I am adopting marine engineering standards on the basis that when the single wheel bolt falls out of a wheel I will be alerted.

How about some reassuringly expensive Aerotight nuts,?

The Salus Auto actuators are very good, do all the balancing for you.

I'd probably stick the actuators on, unless you're enjoying the sauna experience As a rule of thumb, when I was doing mine, I got the delta-T on each loop to ~ 7 degrees by adjusting the flow rate and then slowly increased the flow temp until each room was comfortably reaching the thermostat temp, any hotter and you risk your room temps overshooting. I used the heat loss calcs to guide me in the right direction, but my setup's currently running a flow temp 10 degrees cooler than the calcs suggested I would need... Good luck!

There are places where you would really really really rather the bolt stayed in thanks to gravity and at least the 2 parts were still held together in some form.

Chicken wire with small holes and foam

Best get the grinder ready if you're fitting lots of M16 A2 stainless.

Yep, if nothing else, it helps dry the screed out. Once up to temp, make sure to also turn it off gradually too (normally by 10 degrees a day) Flow temp should be house specific - floor/wall insulation, window sizes, final floor finish etc. - did the company you bought the UFH kit from provide any heat loss calcs? Based on each room's heat loss, you can work out the required W/m2 and go from there. Here's a rough guide I used for mine (150mm pipe centres); Return temps generally depend on your flow temp. If the flow is less than 30 degrees, go for a return temp ~ 4 degrees lower. If it's more than 30 degrees, go for ~ 7 degrees lower. The delta-T can be managed by adjusting the flow rate on each loop until each one is something like.

Normally you use wall "ties ties" of which there are many types. Some look like a bow tie made of wire. The kinks or twists in the middle forms a drip bead to stop any water tracking across the tie. There are noise reducing wall ties but I've no idea how effective they are at reducing noise transmission. They also look expensive.. https://www.ancon.co.uk/products/wall-ties-restraint-fixings/acoustic-wall-ties

Every day's a school day, and I sense a gap in my education.... why lube something that you want to stay done up tight?

I used Kronospan Fastclean deck with the joints taped - they guarantee up to 42 days (I recall) exposed. This went on in late Feb. Haven't had any issues. Wouldn't worry about it.

Yes, would be best to insulate it with thick walled pipe lagging to avoid getting caught out by the water company and fix or duct it so it can’t move.

In my book the washer goes under whichever one you intend to turn with the spanner to tighten it. Or whichever side has an oversized hole that the bolt or nut might pull through without.

Glad to hear it. Passivhaus + renewables is the finishing line for construction. Build out of materials that were once plants and you've decarbonised an entire industry. Green building store are an excellent source of knowledge. I based many of the details of our house on Denby Dale. However remember it's a holistic concept. Taking one corner of your house to PH levels and leaving the other corner uninsulated isn't a recipie for success. If you have the time and interest get a copy of PHPP. It is a great costing tool if noting else as you can quicker see what difference extra insulation makes. Don't write off your old house. GBS did a retrofit in the Pennines. Well worth a read. https://passivehouseplus.ie/magazine/upgrade/radical-retrofit-transforms-pennines-historic-barn

Ours was six weeks at this time of year between fitting the first floor and the roof being water tight. We used Caberdek and had the joins taped and we didn't have any problems although water pooled on the floor and I swept if off when required.

They will likely charge for doing a new connection there normally I take such pipes only to the property boundary nearest to the existing stopcock

My house is also Passive house and around 330m2. However, we’re only discussing room stats and I’m very much into KISS. Im happy to discuss room stats,or anything else house related, with @joe90 as his approach is something I can relate to and if I make a mistake it’s only going to cost me £30!

Thanks all. @markc it’s called a man shed but it’s very “multi functional” and used by volunteers and workers as a bit of a bace camp so cooking, washing, heating etc etc with an extension planned in the future so wanting to put something in to cope with future ideas…. @billt thanks I think I will go with the next size up of the one you recommended @ProDave thanks for steering me away from MK…. I had one in my basket ! @Nickfromwales Thanks I will buy some 16mm SWA and get it installed ready for my spark to connect and ask him about the earth. right time to place the order.

I'm sorry, but that is rubbish. In 25+ years of installing all types of heating systems I have NEVER, not once, heard of any manufacturer ever stating that you must switch your heating on and leave it on 24/7 in the heating season. Nope. Nada. Nil. The summary here that it SHOULD be left on to keep this dwelling up to temp is a totally separate statement altogether. How about this; You could perhaps contact Vaillant, state to them that as a market leader in all heating and now renewables, how the fcuk could they have a system leave their factory headed for a guaranteed suicide mission?! Utterly and completely unacceptable from: a) a manufacturer of this pedigree, and b) if this was an MCS accredited installation then possibly a legal matter also, as clearly all questions in the MCS tick-list were filled in by Enid Blyton. At the minimum at least some improvements should have formed part of this contract, or the installation should 100% not have gone ahead. To give some completeness to my utter bewilderment here; I once worked for a business communications installation firm, and the comm's side of it was installing nothing but Panasonic KX series switches. When I started they were getting busier and busier and I was informed that I was to be sent to the head office in Bracknell to become accredited to install the Panasonic range of comm's products. When I asked why the original ( already employed and working alongside me ) accredited installer wasn't suffice I was told that in order to be supplied with the qty of products they were then ordering, there was a requirement from Panasonic to have at least 2 accredited members of staff at the firm. They did not want their products being installed poorly and then to have their reputation this damaged. They said that, or they would refuse to supply X qty of products. I assume here that the MCS installer is at fault primarily ( further assuming Vaillant did not install this themselves and a private / 3rd party installer was used ) as this installation was mis--sold on a good day, and illegal on the worst. @zoothorn You have blood on your hands here, as you have stated you knew this would not perform as it should in terms of the current state of the builds fabric and ventilation heat losses eg maintaining a decent ambient internal temp in the same way a high-temp heat source would. That is a separate statement and not intended to be applied to the issues of noisy / faulty / incorrectly installed equipment btw so please do not reply any differently. In terms of what to do next; Have the 11kW mono block installed. Any less than 11kW then tell them to FO as the maths will not have been done again at that point and around we will go. That will give you heated water entering your property in a manner that befits putting your frustrations to bed as there will be no internal compressor ( suitcase ) unit at all. The most you would have is a plate heat exchanger to separate glycol mix from your internal primary heating circuit brine and a standard UK circulation pump to circulate the heat from the HeX to your rads / UVC. Problem here will be completely resolved in that instant. New problem; The system will still struggle to heat your block of swiss cheese. You know that so no need to post it here ever again. Possible solution; 1) Fit massive radiators ( not BIG radiators but MASSIVE ones ) and do nothing to the fabric of the build, use whenever you like, and say no more about it. 2) Improve the fabric and ventilation heat losses by plugging up holes / improving glazing units / replace or overhaul door and window to get them to seal / install IWI or EWI and so forth to then stop the heat that this system creates from escaping the second it is created. 3) As 2 is a longer term plan, budget dependant etc, then for the interim you should fit low speed tangential fans to the undersides of the existing ( too small for the immediate ) radiators which will blow the heat away from the rads and around the room. Google will show you makes / models / give advice on improvements and installation etc, but as were nice folk here......... here's a Link to get you started 4) Buy a lot of jumpers, from the money saved from not using heating at all. 5) Fit fossil fuel based CH and move on with your life. Clear concise advice above, and I am not being critical or horrible, but you cannot get a pint out of a half--pint pot mate. Somethings gotta give. Summary; Allow them to fit the new mono block ASAP. The sack of shart that is there now is damaging your brain. FYI they fitted a split because they are inherently high-temp and better suited to your block of Swiss cheese. Up to 80/85oC flow rates are then possible, but subsequently the defrost troll that lives under the bridge will want to tax this system to boot. Question the size of the rads they fitted and insist in larger doubles in the worst rooms ( which should have been made massive on the first install but hey--ho ). Enjoy not having the internal compressor, and your new found relative peace and quiet ( allowing for the low hum of internal HeX pump, if so required, which will be as quiet as this install is EVER going to get ), but do not moan about being cold or the system not performing extremely well as you know deep down that it won't until you improve the house that it is forced to reside in. Good luck, and I genuinely mean that. To all; So nobody loses any sleep :- DISCLAIMER: to date I have never actually seen the defrost troll. Should this situation change, I will update here accordingly. "Focker, out!"

I've used a few of these https://www.screwfix.com/p/british-general-cfsw07-9-module-7-way-part-populated-main-switch-consumer-unit/3571x. They seem OK to me, but I don't have an exhaustive knowledge of CUs. They do other sizes. If you want completely unpopulated ones select 'unpopulated' on the Screwfix consumer unit page and it gives you 12 options.

agree with the above . Eggar Protect - with special glue is the only product I would use if I had to put the finished floor in. https://www.egger.com/shop/en_GB/egger-protect If you put standard P5 chipboard in no amount of correx / tarpaulins will prevent water damage over that timescale. Past experience says the plastic sheets wick the water in (capillary action) and once this gets to the joints they will swell and become expensive Weetabix ? I would go for the loose osb option unless it is a floor cassette, if so you have to question and reduce the 5-6 weeks until water tight.

It might be better just to pay the extra for a flooring type that already has a coating on it that can withstand a certain exposure to the weather. I would not just be using standard P5 in that situation. Does the floor have to go in now? I have never worked on a TF house that has the floor deck put in at that stage but I know some specify it as the floor forms part of the racking structure of the building. In our case just a few sheets of OSB were loosely fitted just to make a working platform, but not part of the final floor so it did not matter if they got a but wet.

And often, just removing them, rotating them 180 degrees and putting them back will make enough contact to get it running again,. at least for a short time, thus proving it is just new brushes needed.

This from the Wunda website which is the one they supplied https://www.wundatrade.co.uk/shop/home/quick-shop/wundatherm-quick-shop/controls-quickshop/touchscreen-thermostat/

Have you checked the brushes? They usually just screw out each side. 5 to 10 mins to remove and examine. I’d start there as they wear down and then just don’t meet the armature any more ergo motor stops turning one day.

I guess you have soft ground at depth, whereas I have soft / hard / soft / hard / rock, with frequent cobbles and boulder suspected. On your beam costs, for the apparent scale of it, it doesn't look overly horrible, but any saving is worth having isnt it.

So they are using a mini piling system such as grundomat yes? Driving rather than drilling is considerably cheaper, but even so, your piling costs are low, so well done on that. I had quotes for my job that were cheaper for both piles and beam using driven system that was lower than piling alone when using odex. Its nastily pricey.

Am I reading that correctly as 26 piles?....All at an estimated 8 metres?....And that's odex? For £8900?

I agree that it doesn't matter whether the energy comes from electricity, gas or oil but I think it's more complicated than that. IMHO it is the temperature of the water that is important and the differential between the air and water temperature. In a well insulated house the differential can be low with very little convection and the environment feels comfortable. In my current house I don't believe that even with a very large surface area of radiators at 45C the house would feel comfortable. I'm not going to spend thousands experimenting, I'll just insulate as much as I can to reduce the oil consumption.

Have you thought about the office as part of the entrance hall/circulation space or do you want it behind closed doors?

What is in the garage? What do you use it for? Machine tools etc.? if nothing special the just get a garage consumer unit with a breaker for lighting and one for sockets

Yes I would double up the sole plate, it’s holding no weight really, just itself ?

I think you're overthinking this. Bang some nogs in between joists perpendicular to where the top of the stud wall will be. Build the wall up to joist height and then fix into the nogs. Job done.

Great points form all. For all. In the past often we wanted to make sure that a pile could carry the design load. Say you have ten / fifteen piles then the SE / Geotech Engineers may come to site an pick one or two at random for testing. The static load test basically involves bringing a lot of kentlege (heavy weights) to the site and making a cradle spanning over the head of the pile. You then put a big jack between the pile head and cradle and pump it up while measuring how much the pile sinks by and the time it takes to sink by a certain amount. This a bit like the CBR test that you see mentioned for your access / drive or hard standing... but more complex as the risk is higher. This static testing takes a lot of time to set up hence the cost. You need space and there is a cost to; bring the kentledge to site, build the cradle and make sure folk don't get sqaushed! One other (not least) problem is that you have to calculate the probability that you have not just picked the two best piles! Now with modern calibrated piling rigs and computer analysis the piling contractor can gather a lot of info on say a driven pile capacity as they are knocking it in. A concrete pile say is a bit like a tuning fork so you can measure the frequency of the vibration as the hammer hits the pile and how much it is driven in by each time this happens. You then compare this with a known data base of responses. You can even let the pile rest for a while and go back and give it another few taps with the piling rig as some piles behave a little differently once the soil / water pore pressures stabalise from the intitial intrusion of the pile. A bit like bread or reheating a curry the next day.. piles can be better or worse after a few days! Good point Mr Punter. Concrete piles can shatter under the ground. They may take a static load test too. One thing about a static load test on a pile that you are going to use is that you often only test it to the working load or a little more. If you test it right up to the point of destruction then you now have a useless pile and that poses a problem. Often a dynamic test will identify piles that have shattered as the frequency response is different (burst tuning fork) still a problem but at least you know and can do something about before you construct a building on top. The ODEX pile is pretty cool but simplistically is a big drill bit with a large say Bocsh type SDS drill on to top but a lot more expensive.. not available at Screwfix. As the hole is drilled it's cased with a steel tube to stop the sides of the drill hole from falling in. In say parts Glasgow (off the top of my head I can't name locations in the rest of the UK.. any input from BH folk welcome) there is a certain type of boulder clay that contains boulders the size of cars / houses. Surrounding these is often a very soft material. In a BH context for low rise domestic housing this is not often a major issue, provided your pile is not scuffing the side of the boulder, load it up and the end will be stressed just like when you break a drill bit hitting a nail in a bit of wood. The ODEX pile concept (not new though! ) is also good for when you have say cavities in the ground like mine workings or a layer of fine sand / silt that washes into the bore. To kind of finish this. You can see on the BH resource that it's really hard to get a handle on the cost of piling. However, hopefully you can see why the cost of dynamic testing is less than the static load test appoach in cases applicable to what we are doing on BH.. much depends on the type of pile you have though. A screw pile is a different animal and needs a different approach for example. Again for all. As a starting out BH member looking at piling. For me the first step is to look at what you need the piles to do. Do you just need them to carry vertical load or do you need them to carry sideways loading too. Sideways loading can occur for example when: 1/ Your house is elevated off the ground and thus the piles need to act a bit like a cantilever to resist the wind load. 2/ You have an elevated house due to flood risk.. near a river where you want the flood water to be able to flow under the house. Here you have to take into account scouring of the ground around the pile, getting hit by floating tree trunks etc, the sidways loading of the water on the pile.. 3/ You are building on a slope with a soft layer of clay that could slip and impose sideways loading on the piles. If piles need designed for horizontal loading then the cost can jump significantly. For piles that only need to carry vertical load then often much easier on the budget. The key here is to spend money on a good site investigation. For example trial pits, window sampling, shell and auger rig, boring if need be. This gives you the raw data. In terms of reporting there are two "halves" to a soil report. An investigation report.. this has the data that was logged and that is it. The other half is what is called the interpretive report. Here say the Geotech Enginneer will tell you what kind of piles will be suitable, how big / long they may likely need to be, alert you to potential ground contamination and so on. An interpretive report carries a lot more liability so expect to pay a good bit more. On the other hand expect to save money when going to tender. In the round you'll probably come out quids in and you will reduce you financial risk! Just you'll need to stump up early doors... which most folk are reluctant to do as often folk think site investigation is just like council tax. Hope this helps.

Well, for my own job, I can get pre welded cages for under £1k and the concrete isnt much on top at all. The piling cost is a killer though for six piles.

I am another one that shunned the ASHPs programmer as WAY too complicated. So that is set to 24/7 and just used for setting and reading parameters. I use a bog standard 3 channel central heating programmer, something that just about anybody knows and understands and feels comfortable with. 3 channels heating downstairs, heating upstairs (bathrooms only) and Hot water. Below that is simple room thermostats so 3 downstairs and one in each bathroom.

Zoot, that is wrong, it is underpowered if it’s not “fit fir purpose” I.e. the size of the house and it’s insulation levels give you a figure that any heating system has to produce to heat that space. If your house needs 10kW to heat it then a 5KW system is underpowered.

No, the ASHP programmer is sooo complicated I gave up (even with Jeremy’s help as he had the same ASHP and controller) Ours is on 24/7 (UFH) the ASHP heats an 80litre buffer tank controlled by a stat on the tank set to 35’. Our ASHP only heats water to one temp (and we set that to 48’) for both DHW and heating. The room stat calls for heat and this switches on the pump on the manifold. The manifold temp is set to 25’. I switch the buffer tank off during the summer by a switch giving open cct on the buffer tank stat. Perhaps not a Normal set up but it’s simple and works.

Leave it with me. ? Personally I like the shape and the overhang - somewhere to put the hot tub! I also played with the position of the second bedroom, the bathroom and the study to get the cloaks closer to the front door. Did you ever think of a porch? I wasn’t keen on the bath being across the window in the bathroom - difficult to open/clean the window - although if you’ve got a great view and a bath eye-level window I’d keep it there. From your comments it looks like you have thought of the design and orientation of the house. The only other comment I would make is about the size of the bedrooms and study - they seem a bit small and I do appreciate what you’ve said about being nearly minimalist but I normally make bedrooms capable of accommodating a double wardrobe (tick), a dressing table and a chest of drawers. This is what I was taught many years ago when designing housing association homes. You may also wish to consider making your bedroom and en-suite wheelchair friendly - I’m not talking about grab rails - just in terms of wheelchair accessible - unfortunately a linear en-suite doesn’t really lend itself unless a wee bit wider. I’d also make sure the study was big enough to accommodate and additional storage - perhaps a set of shelves or a filing cabinet. I think the design quite easily lends itself to being “future proofed” - something to consider? Thanks for reading.

beware that may not be possible. What is the 5 acres currently defined as ..? If it is agricultural or paddocks you will need to be careful as planning will not allow you to do this. Given orientation you need to flip the whole house 90° clockwise as you have all your glazing north, and a very expensive overhang roof doing nothing. A wider plot layout would help here.

A very quick sketch.

Thanks. I'm quite keen on considering orientation, sun, view, overlooking before thinking about "this cupboard is in the wrong place". But the advantage of BH is that you get good support on both sides (winks at @ToughButterCup), and we all have different angles. As a concept design it is important to remember that this is the architect throwing thoughts around - a sighting shot, and your role is to be an active client and give vigorous feedback - not be a doormat. I hope that is not taken the wrong way, but it is a common thing for self-builders not to be assertive enough and end up with the architect's vision, rather than their vision made workable and inspirational by the architect. Tea now with Any Questions. Brief comments later. I wonder what @the_r_sole or @AliG has to say. Both very good at this.

Did you see that bloke unload those trees, i wanted to climb in the telly and karate chop him in the throat.