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I'm heating my house exclusively with wood (Mostly spruce and alder) for three or four hours in the evening. Today was a dull overcast cold day and no solar gains, but before lighting the stove the house was 18c, the last stick went on about 10.30pm yesterday evening. All the wood is from the surrounding land and so far my heating bills since moving in July 2020 come to a couple of quid. The trouble with the forum is some members easily forget that people circumstances differ considerably, a member in the Highlands surrounded by home grown wood is different to a self builder in Kent. If you have the wood, willing to to do a bit of work and happy to pay the upfront stove installation cost, go for it.

I would say it depends where you live. Out here in the sticks in the Highlands, I have no problem with them. But all I know is you are in or near Bristol. If you are in a town or city I would say no, if you are out in the sticks then maybe?

CT1 - thin bead between the seal and the trap, same between seal and tray then do it up and leave 24 hours.

We had an ASHP installed a few weeks ago and are still working out how to get the best operation. We went through a period when it was tricky to get hot water and it turned out to be a number of things. Our system is installed in an S plan rather than the standard Y plan. In other words, it can be run as a standard boiler that allows space heating and DHW heating to be on at the same time. The ASHP is only configured to 'space heating' and had weather compensation on. This resulted in us trying to heat the DHW with the heat pump running at 37 degrees. The pump and valve circulating the water round the coil in the cylinder are on as soon as the water heating is turned on, however, the heat pump might be pushing cold water for 5 or 10mins if starting from cold. During this time our ASHP is cooling the water in the cylinder rather than warming it. If we are running both heating and DHW heating from cold it takes much longer to start pushing water that is hot enough to warm the cylinder, extending point 2 above. We had an immersion that was set to do a legionella cycle once a week by turning on the ASHP (not an immersion) but that was pushing weather compensated 37 degree water through the cylinder, in an effort to get water to >60degrees it was taking our previously hot cylinder and cooling it down to about 35. In our system we have the heat pump just circulating the R32 into a plate heat exchanger and back. The cylinder coil and UFH closed systems are heated by that heat exchanger. The cylinder is 200l with large coil. The rooms are controlled using heatmiser stats like yours. There are 4 adults in the house, a 3 bedroom that is powered by a 10kW Midea ASHP. Currently we are getting water at about 46degrees by doing the following (solving the corresponding issues above); Turned off the weather compensation mode and set it to a programmed temperature. 40 degrees when we have the space heating programmed and 50 degrees when the DHW heating is programmed to be on. we have the DHW heating set to periods that directly follows the space heating times. I plan to add a clip on temp switch to the R32 loop to make sure that the circulating pump for the heating and DHW only runs when the R32 is > eg 35degrees. when we run the ASHP at 50 degrees we have the room stats programmed to be a couple of degrees lower having the effect of shutting off the heating and pushing all of the hotter water through the cylinder coil. the legionella cycle is deactivated. I had gone into the detail here in case some of this is relevant to your situation. Factors I've been trying to consider include efficiency of timing the water heating, might be a mistake, but trying not to heat the water overnight or early morning when the outdoor temp is coolest, also running the heating and the DHW heating for a period to get the cylinder up to 40s then blasting (!) it with 50 degrees to give it a final top up of heat. I'd like to set it so that the valve for the cylinder only opens if the water in the R32 loop is warmer than the cylinder but not sure how to do that without bashing out a Raspberry Pi controller (I'd be grateful for some advice on that one if there is a simple way without me writing some Python and hacking together a load of electronics). Alternative would be to dig up the concrete again to connect the cylinder sensor to the outdoor unit and run it on a Y plan but I think the current S Plan gives more flexibility and potential for efficieny. Some things I noticed with your system; you appear to have 5 pumps! your boost timer seems to be connected to a pump rather than the immersion. I haven no idea why you might do that. It looks like you have an Ecodan pre-plumbed cylinder with active heating. I don't think it uses a coil unless you have the solar version. It actually pumps the water out of the cylinder, through a plate heat exchanger and back into the cylinder again. Mitsubishi recon this heats the cylinder quicker, and maybe they are right. So the stuff on the bottom right of your cylinder in the picture is the pump, scale trap and heat exchanger. If your cylinder is hotter than your heat pump is running then it will for sure cool your water down very quickly. Also note: if the cylinder pump comes on when the heat pump is not on for some reason it will have the same effect of cooling down your hot water rather rapidly. Our ASHP only comes on when a heatmiser stat calls for heat or water heating. Yours coming on and off without a call seems weird. Are you using the wireless neo air stats? they have a 'safety' mode that turns the boiler on (I think from memory for 7 mins per hour) if the signal from a stat is lost (including a flat battery). If you are using those wireless ones you can turn off the 'safety' feature at the wireless controller. (given that it is pre-plumbed and designed to be used with your heat pump and the big box of electronics on your cylinder it seems odd that you would be having those problems unless sonething has been configured incorrectly.) I'd be inclined to periodically check the pump below the TF1 to see if it is coming on when the heat pump is either off or running cold. That would quickly chill your hot water!

In our area there is the pink ladies charity that is really helpful with helping out with situations like this. Is there a charity locally to you that would help? Even to help organise re what you would need to get in. They might be able to call in a few favours for you. People are good given half a chance.

I was about to reply on another thread, and realised I was hijacking it, so here is a new thread. We are putting 2 log burners into our highland conversion, and I consider myself eco considerate (got a badge for it). I'd be interested to hear if you disagree with any or all of these. FOR 1. It is very rural so it is not going to annoy or harm anyone nearby. 2. For the first 2 years there will be demolition timber, which would otherwise go where? A big bonfire probably. 3. They will provide quick heat whenever UFH is going to struggle, and allow us to keep the background heat down. A surprise change in the weather is readily dealt with. 4. Lots of surplus wood in the commercial forests around. Not the best and will require work, but otherwise it will probably be piled and burnt at some stage. 5. Aesthetically it is very attractive 6. We have an area of woods....rather lovely primitive, soggy woodland, but some can be harvested. I also favour planting some timber for pollarding. 7. The burners we are intending (Spanish) are 82% efficient. This is realistic as we have one already and it burns 30 big logs to every tiny ashpan. It has air inlets at the back to burn the fumes and you can see this working. This compares with.....what? isn't electricity 25% efficient by the time it reaches us? 8. In a well-insulated house it won't be a very big burner, or used much. 9. Other local houses have them too, and it doesn't seem to be causing any issues. 10.The flues create air flow and ventilation by stack effect, even when 'closed'. 11. There are are umpteen mills around, all with waste to get rid of. They seem to sell it even though the price doesn't seem that great to me. Otherwise it goes where? 12. If selling, they would be expected by most people. 13. We don't have to use the fires. AGAINST 1. Burning is burning, and makes fumes. 2. The air is so incredibly pure around, and there is lichen on the trees that depends on clean air. 3, Perhaps the smoke will hang around and be a nuisance. 4. The flues create air flow and heat loss when not in use. 5. Capital cost. 6. Holes in the roof. 12 against 6 isn't the issue as the weightings could be different.

I'm all for them. I've planned one for ours, we are rural, so will be ASHP but in the event power was to be lost (now admittedly I've only jad a power cut once in my life thats lasted 2 days when a farmer took out pole) it will provide backup. But I have 2 acres of woods that I manage myself so free wood,.sustainably managed and we are not near anyone and my neighbours 400m.away have one. Plus...I like the smell of it outside. I know thats silly.as thats particulate going into my lungs...but shit I used to smoke 20 fags a day. I'd advocate a stove witha direct air feed also to retain air tightness

I'm doing a stable conversion too and it's been very slow and painful, with so many constraints, as you are finding, it seems much more difficult than designing and building something new. I got another structural engineer's opinion and it was different. The first said underpin all round, the second said it was ok not to if we didn't dig the ground bearing slab out.

We ditched the log burner in our new build. Have an open fire in the current house and a log burner in the previous cottage. We love the cosiness of them in the winter but not the extra cleaning and drafts when not used. We have decided on one of them fancy electric fires instead that will be flush and be about the same width as the TV. Also I thought you we are only allowed to burn kiln dried wood nowadays. It's also one less hole in the house/roof. I won't miss lugging the coal/wood into the house as I get older.

Bear in mind that it isn't just your neighbours who'll be breathing in all that crap. Even with an "efficient" woodburner and good extraction, you'll still end up far higher particulates in your house than if you didn't have a fire. I can't stand the things. I hate the smell, I hate the watery eyes, and I hate the sore throat I end up with when I walk around the neighbourhood during woodburner season.

when I lived in Oxfordshire, still days in winter were more common. In my 1930;s house this had an unwanted effect. The house had an open fireplace that I continued to use for a year or 2 before I modernised things a bit. It had no provision for an air intake, and the actual structure was quite air tight, it was just the doors and windows that leaked. So on a still day, with the fire roaring, it turned out the easiest path to draw air into the living room was in fact down the chimney into the (poorly boarded up) bedroom fireplace, down the stairs and under the living room door, filling that bedroom with smoke in the process. I soon learned to crack a window open when lighting the fire.

Get a m&e consultant to design the installation and provide a spec, then it can be passed on, that way everyone should be pricing the same. get them to arrange the utility supplies too, saves a lot of grief….. that’s what I do cause dealing with utilities is just stressful.

0.75 will do one light, but it’s physically weedy and the screw terminals in most outside lights will chew it up if you don’t use bootlace ferrules. I’d not run anything smaller than 1.0mm2 personally, but a 3a fuse and the 0.75 will suffice.

Have a look at these. They are available as a cassete version, which can be built into your own furntirue or fire-place. We've even plumbed one in, so it'll never need topping up. Some of them have a heat element in them, but ours doesn't. https://www.dimplex.co.uk/optimyst In my opinion, while it's not fire, they look more realistic than bio-ethanol if you're after a log-fire effect and also don't emit any smells at all.

they are carbon neutral. Much better than a gas or electric fire.

Put a flat screen tv behind a fireplace surround and play the log fire channel.

I'm looking at these as a compromise. No actual flame, but a nice look https://everhot.co.uk/Everhot-Electric-Stove.aspx

https://www.screwfix.com/p/no-nonsense-smoothing-tools-straight-joints/92313?kpid=92313&ds_kid=92700058168036893&ds_rl=1249416&gclid=Cj0KCQiAhf2MBhDNARIsAKXU5GQLWGlCfSGvwVskgQPErwF4yqfyPiMXfa6YzSpaZnnytYcjBkx4GnUaAhDlEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds get something like one of the above for pro results. bag of baby wipes to clear the excess. and a decent silicone I like Dow Corning, as I have expensive tastes?

Things like this make me rethink "Just 8% of the UK population make up the emissions released by burning wood indoors. The Guardian found that half of those people preferred this method for aesthetic reasons rather than functional (heat) purposes. In response, Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation urged people to only use wood burners if they had no alternative source of heat."

Armoured not needed, 0.75mm2 3 core (assuming fittings are metal and therefore need earth). Push it through plastic conduit or even UFH pipe or garden hose anywhere it’s open to being walked on or buried etc.

Hmm no, though you are doubting me because also we have this weird thing on the immersion heater which states we’ve only use 1.14 kwh since may. @Mr Punter would love to know whether I just don’t know how to read a meter or it’s broke!

Mains or 12 volt depth of cable run in flower bed or under slabs etc? powered from? rcd/rcbo protection?

If going the external insulation you've different levels that you can go to. Obviously the more you do the better the job. These apply to detached, semi detached and terrace. If you take out the footpaths around the base of the house this will allow the external insulation to continue underground say 300mm or more if possible. Removing the fascia and soffit will allow you to continue the external insulation up further between the timber rafters and connect with the attic roof insulation eliminating any cold bridge. Leave just enough of a gap to ventilate the attic if you've a cold roof buildup. Replacing the windows at the same time as external insulation allows you to move the windows out so they're in the line of the insulation. You'll have deeper reveals internally which is better than the deeper reveals externally which will be a cold bridge. This looks a lot better too as avoid old looking windows with a new fresh rendered house. If you externally insulate you still need to pump the remaining cavity of the wall to prevent thermal looping.

I saw a couple of plumbers on a site and asked them If I had heard it all correctly. They were not surprised @CalvinHobbs we are fine with the organisation (or have managed all the battles so far - do a search on water main running under site ) Our main aim is to not look back and say "wish we had thought of that". I think the favourite option is to plan a move onto the local camp site and hope that we can manage to stay put. The electricians are here and working on getting us connected. UK Power due next week. We could run a hose from the existing house, as we have been up to now, but would have to lag it in the coming weather or keep rolling it up!

The cladding now with the scaffold down. I am really ok pleased with the look of it.

No, my arguments were and are not intended to be anti-science at all. Never have been. They've been about how science is more messy, complex and revisionary than has been put forward, but also that mainstream science represents a limited perspective on knowledge about the world that needs modern revision and enhancement. In latter parts its also that the body of knowledge of science, just like society, has a tendency toward herd mentality with both current and historical problems of accuracy and correctness (you can look this up to confirm that it isn't a conspiracy theory). This really is an unfortunate example of how it is now almost impossible to have a balance and nuanced rational debate about such an important topic. It has been reduced down to a couple of dualistic boxes. If someone comes along that doesn't completely agree with the box you associate with, then that person must be alien and belong in the other box. Just to reiterate, the point of my argument and others on this thread who've also been flamed and accused of denial (which is entirely untrue) is much more to with knowledge, or epistemology, which sadly seems to have gone over yours and others heads. The important part of this debate on knowledge is that there are other forms of knowledge that provide alternative guidance to action in the real world. Let me spell that out - it can tell us what to do about climate change in the real world, in possibly more effective ways than those approaches currently being proposed at a grand scale. Because, lets not forget, that while there is almost conclusive evidence that climate change has been brought about by human activity, there is almost no evidence whatsoever that the solutions proposed are going to have anywhere near the effect it is hoped. Nor is there any robust evidence that the proposals aren't going to cause more damage. There is actually growing modelling, evidence and opinion to the contrary. If you take the time to read some sensible scientific texts and studies about this very topic rather than interpretions in more popular media - one of them I may have linked to already by Tom Murphy, Energy and Human Ambitions on a Finite Planet - you might find that there is significant amount of scientific thought put into the problem but in ways that question the sanity and scientific basis of current proposed fixes. One of these goes straight back to the very start of the thread and heat pumps. Heat pumps are part of the solution but they are also a dangereous distraction as they take our eyes of much more important balls. I'll sign off with a quote from the beginning of Tom Murphy's book (he's actually a 'proper' scientist too and professor of physics in case anyone wondered so there,'s no confusion) and then if you want to explore more and reflect on it, that's great; if not and you want to call me an inferior infant in the shadow of you, a proper grown up, then so be it : " " Laters ?

~30 years of every gas fitter I’ve ever worked with telling me the same thing is good enough for me to go on. Gas “rules” seem hopelessly open to the interpretation of DIY’ers and over-confident self-appraising buffoons a-plenty. Just deem yourself ‘competent’ and crack the (expletive deleted) on. ?. I doubt you’ll find it, as I couldn’t even get definitive answers on this from the GSR themselves, ( when this came up here a while back and I found myself up against another brick wall …..) Do your own thing, if you live alone and nobody will ever come inside your property, ever. That’s ‘OK’ apparently, but if you cause the death or destruction of someone else, you’re liable. Why I struggle over conveying this is just utter disbelief. It would be less of a battle to move @pocster’s walk-on glazing onto a new owner.

I reckon it’s the dimples on underside of tray, add a thick bead of silicon and put back in. yes the seal should work from above but I had a similar problem with my cast stone tray,

When a heat pump is running at full power, it is because the temperature difference between inside and outside the house is at maximum. This will affect the coefficient of performance, especially true for ASHPs. It is usual to size a heating system to cover 99% of the time heating is needed. This does not mean that during that 1% it supplies no heat, just that the CoP drops to parity i.e. you may as well have used a fan heater, or the internal temperature may be lower than the ideal temperature. The trouble with with methodology is that there is no scale, so you may be 0.1°C below the ideal temperature, or 15°C below it. So take where I live in Cornwall, I could set a minimum external temperature to -5°C and be fine. Up on the East Coast of Scotland, probably have to set that minimum temperature to -12°C (bit of a guess there as I have no idea what the temperature profile actually is). So apart from taking the possibility of frosting, in the case of ASHPs, into account, yes, set the size for the maximum load, or to the next available size up. It is possible to model the expected temperatures if you already know the external temperature profile. There are only two number that are needed, the mean temperature and the standard deviation (the spread of the temperature range). Then it is just a matter of creating a dataset of the temperature range and plotting it. This will create a chart similar to this: From that, you can add up all the percentages below the whatever temperature you turn your heating on from. These percentages are for the time the heating is on, not of total time i.e. 8760 hours in a year. So taking 12°C as the temperature you need to start the heating season, this gives a total percentage of 93% of the time for the real data and 91% for the modelled. Pretty close to the 99%. So probably going up to the next size HP will cover it, especially as my data is using the min real temperatures, not the mean, which is higher at 9.2°C and a SD of 5.4°C. The big frosting risk for an ASHP is between 0°C and 4°C, this is when water is most dense, so there is more to freeze. Summing up the percentage of time for those ranges give: Real 31% and Modelled 29%. By oversizing an ASHP (as opposed to a GSHP or EAHP), you get more running time before the defrost cycle needs to start. This is worth bearing in mind when heating DHW because that is for a shorter time and at a greater temperature (generally close to the units maximum). DHW is another reason to oversize a HP. The most important thing to do though is a proper heat loss calculation for your house, that will establish the power needed at any external temperature, the W.ΔK-1. Without that calculation being done, it becomes guesswork, and that is never good.

Yes, use double/triple deck terminal blocks. I use the Wago 2002 range which are the push in type (screw terminals are a pita) and are 5.2mm wide. You can mount the DIN rail to the back of the cabinet if you need to create more depth for the terminal blocks. You can get around 100 of the Wago terminal blocks on a single LXN DIN rail. Why 4-core? For RGBW you need 5 surely. Again, use the same double or triple height terminals, in blocks of 5 to connect all cores on a single level. For example you only need 10 triple height terminals to connect all 6 RGBW. Wow, thats a lot of cat6! Do you need all 224 cores to connect into your cabinet, or just some of them? I would terminate cat6 outside the cabinet on a patch panel or a 110 block and then only bring into the cabinet the cores you actually need.

but what is the *rule*? There's lots of opinion but nothing definite...

Just for my own interest I looked this up and found that the consensus reply from many sources was that solder joins are not allowed on gas pipework indoors as the solder could melt in a fire and cause the joint to leak into an existing fire, similar to not allowing yellow plastic gas pipe indoors that could melt in a fire. Despite what regulation is cited, this makes sense ?.

Sometimes, I wonder why I bother.

One thing from the above post. DO NOT try and run heating and hot water at the same time with an ASHP. Most have different flow temperatures for each and most let you set whether hot water or heating has priority (i.e. which one operates if both are demanded at the same time)

People keep saying in a well insulated house, individual room thermostats are a waste. I find that not to be true. We only have 3 zones downstairs, the living room, kitchen / diner and utility room. I find the living room heats up quickest and is the first to switch off, next is the kitchen diner, and lagging behind taking much longer us the utility room. If I did not have the individual thermostats, it is likely the living room would overheat if forced to keep running as long as the others. I am not trying to heat them to different temperatures. This really is a simple fit and forget solution. Anything else and you are relying on a lot of dead reckoning, and you will spend a lot of time tweaking things to get it to work properly.

@Dreadnaught the Vaillant controller is more than just a thermostat - it also applies the internal room temperature to the flow temperature target calculation (when set to do so) and can self-learn to an extent the heating curve. The room temperature based adjustment shifts the configured curve up and down as a whole. Basically you want this in the coolest place of the house to provide the most responsive system. Ambisense can be added to it to have additional sensors and electronic TRVs around the place, but regardless of the inputs from those other sensors the control panel sensor will be used for flow temperature adjustment. Tuning the curve does however take ages and it is quite surprising in my case the result. 1970s house, CWI and double-glazed with radiators sized for 50°C flow. Five persons and to be fair quite high electrical load, 8MWh pa (computers!). But the curve has ended up being 0.65 with a floor of 28°C. It has taken a full year to dial this in. Based on my models the HP should be within 15% of rated SCOP this year. Since it has both 4-pipe buffer tank and a heat exchanger, I'm quite happy with that. Mid-season, the heat pump modulation ratios aren't as much as it appears because it recovers so much from outside. i.e. 30% compressor still gives maybe 60% rated output when it's about 12°C outside. So it will overshoot then shutdown then repeat; a lot of water is needed to slow this down. @ProDave To get anywhere close to the rated SCOP, the weather compensation is definitely required. Perhaps with UFH where the design flow is 35°C it is less important though.

Two acros under ridge lift back into position add some ties

I must be reading a different thread. I'm only reading regurgitated, +10 year old disproved conspiracies about corrupt scientists working in cahoots with political leaders to deceive the world's population. That's not new thinking, healthy scepticism or alternative forms of knowledge, that is denial. Thankfully the debate between the grown ups has moved on to what can be done to limit the damage that climate change will do.

If the wires overfly the new house you can ask for them to be re-routed, which I think is at the Lecy companies expense. In our case they went through the new build, the company did all the work at no expense to us of burying the cables and reconnecting the two poles between which the overhead wire was strung. We did have to pay to have the new connection to the house made however.

One of the big questions in construction. Wrong to have colours according to hierarchy, but sensible to mark out a banksman for easy recognition. It should be a bright colour, and so yellow, orange or white depending on which will show up best on your site. Red and blue don't show up so well, and black is lunacy (for managers determined to have a different colour)

Aha! I was born and bred in Macc... (parents and other family still live there)

The roof timbers will have been slowly creeping and shedding load to other parts of the structure.. which have just eventually given up the ghost.. hence the sudden appearance of the opening mortar beds.

They don't charge anything, though the manufacturer's have to use an accredited laboratory. But it's your money and your choice :)

Great suggestion above thank you so much. While on the phone to Anglian Water he said something about a trickle feed from the water meter. Something about a blue plastic tag. Anyone know what he is talking about? Husband was shouting obscenities so I missed half of it Of course the new owners could supply us with water at the site too. If they want to move in before Christmas we could make it a condition. We had already asked them if our sparky could run a, metered, supply to the bungalow. They did not say no. I think we are going to end up on the campsite up the road as the most stress free option. We are experienced motorhomers so I am sure we will manage. It does not have a laundry, Jilly, but there is a launderette in the nearest town and I am sure our friends would not mind us popping in to do some washing occasionally.

The new battery ones are good - if you go down the Makita LXT route then there is both a single and double battery version. Much better than a petrol one if you are an occasional user

Get a chainsaw helmet with mesh guard/screen, very low cost on eBay etc.

Well I've done my domestic hot and cold in 16mm, all used from left over Pex-al-Pex from the UFH. The price of Hep2o pipe I found to be significant. Emmetti manifolds take the 16mm pipe and the MLCP fittings are easy to use & so far 100% reliable.

Not installed it yet unfortunately... Will be another couple weeks I'd say.

How are you getting on with these units. Are you using them yet? These are one of my options (3x 1.1 unit) along with a Vent Axia Kinetic Advanced S - we are 160 sq m

I've Siberian larch cladding and reveals, but now it's up I'm concerned water could run down the cladding, particularly the grooves and hit the reveal where it might track back towards the building and window. Just wondered what my options are here, I do have extra larch, so could have it oversail the head but was also thinking I could put drainage holes in the reveal or could plane back the reveal so that the cladding is further out Or could fit a metal drip (zinc as per roof) above the reveal or any suggestions/recommendations very welcome..!