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Showing content with the highest reputation on 11/29/22 in all areas
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Well a probably final update on this. The surveyors did come and look at our garden, they were not happy with the number of obstructions they would have to negotiate, surprisingly it was the trees that bothered them the most. I did mention to them, that my neighbour might be willing to have the cable under his land. Well yesterday, 6 months later, the surveyors were back surveying his garden, so it now looks likely that is where it will go. If he is happy then I think a satisfactory outcome.2 points
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We like a cool bedroom, which is why no heating at all upstairs works for us. Even at this time of year we occasionally open a window to cool the bedroom a bit.2 points
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We have a 7500l system, with attenuation. Supplying a tank in the loft and then to toilets. The overriding factor in installing was the fact we had to attenuate flow to a combined sewer, a requirement for the water board. During the design phase, we paid a SE to come up with an expensive system, that included attenuation crates, and a vortex valve, that really was overkill, and more suited for larger developments. We went to Rainwaterharvesting.co.uk , who "designed" their system to meet our attenuation requirements. Having lived with it now, for a few months, I agree with most things said on here, but for our build, it was the least expensive of the systems. And we had to get it in the back garden, before the foundations went in, During April / May 2020, whilst most of the country was sunning themselves in hot tubs on Furlough, and not speaking to customers.2 points
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This is just a visual update for people who are following my insulation saga. As you know, we are insulating the streetside wall with a good thick layer of cellulose-based insulation (cotton/linen/hemp). Of course I mean: insulating material, air, fireproof panel. I think this duct is for the stereo speaker cable: I didn't know one could simply remove the decorative mouldings and then reattach them, but that's what the workers have just managed to do. Does it all look good? Any comments?1 point
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No thermostat, heating is just on or off from the Cool Energy controller. If it’s set to dhw the tank is charged till it is satisfied, if it’s set to heating the weather compensated liquid flows through the rad and ufh circuit. Rad and ufh always together (ufh is one loop in the extension we’re building)… About as simple as I could make it. Will see how well it works when I get round to plumbing it up. Can’t see why it won’t though. EDIT: I'm rambling, sorry. The UFH and the rads work together, they are not zoned separately.1 point
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There is a void behind the main wall that has been filled with rubble and gravel to allow drainage. The smaller wall at the side has next doors patio on the other side with a small amount of soil at one end from a border. There is no membrane but hopefully what has been done will avoid the walls getting too damp.1 point
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I imagine it's there in part to hold the insulation up and in part so that one can set the fire-barrier panels against, well, something. What additional fixings? > Would love to know how they got your cornice down in one piece! I know! Polish contractor magic!1 point
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You might be interested in this topic if you've not seen it before: It's quite possible that the trip happens when your fridge/freezer cycles the compressor on or off. Compressors can produce transients and the presence of any digital kit on standby may be bypassing a spike to earth, or as in my case, a multi-socket adaptor with built-in surge protection. The problem with these is that surges are bypassed to earth causing the RCD to trip.1 point
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Unless a neighbor has a valid objection it’s usually straight forward No you won’t have to make a new BC submission Just send them the amended drawing once passed1 point
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I took the general consensus that in a near passive house, heating upstairs was not needed. My backup was I installed an electric point in each bedroom for an electric panel heater. I never bought any heaters and the points have not been used. We keep the bedroom door shut to stop too much heat getting in from downstairs. If ever the bedroom gets a bit cool, just open the door and and let some heat up the stairwell into the room.1 point
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Many, many thanks every one, so kind of you to take the time to offer such good advice based on your experience and expertise. I mentioned at the start of this thread that it is early days, and we are a small group of forward looking, active members who can see this opportunity for what it is. The Chapel membership is in rapid decline, about 30+ members, 92% are over 70 and 50% of those are 80+ but some of us don't want to see closure. We have decided that we need to push from the bottom, try to persuade our fellow members to think of their grand children and grandchildren, and the Methodist central office not to cash in this asset and disperse it to national mission projects. The person who bequeathed the land did so for the benefit of our Chapel members. If we were to achieve our objective then we would create a sustainable facility with a less intimidating church environment, which would attract more of the younger community and benefit several generations to come. I would like to compile some ball park figures for the project to support our case but the timber frame companies I have contacted so far require Architects drawings before they can quote. My quickly scribbled sketch is not suitable. I will post again if/when I have any news, and will almost certainly looking for more advice.1 point
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A buffer will limit cycling, that's what they do. The bigger the buffer, the longer the run time and off time.1 point
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All sorted on the digger front One came up very local to us and we happened to see it on Facebook just after it was posted. We viewed it the next day. He was a very nice chap and well known in the local area for being fair to deal with. It is a Takeuchi 016. It comes with 3 buckets and has a cab (essential for us) He has owned it a while and it had one owner before him. Lots of interest in it but we got in first. Some people are buying to export apparently?!1 point
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@Ultima357 did a great write-up of a DIY actrive carbon filter with seemingly really positive results...1 point
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A few notes, hard to be specific without drawings etc. 1. The MVHR will do nothing to prevent smells entering the house. In fact it'll be worse than currently. You'd need an activated carbon filtration system as well. 2. The 75mm ducts may need to be doubled up for some rooms - say anything over 7m or so. Definitely over 10m. 3. How many stories does your house have? The duct runs take up more space than you think. 4. Each plenum should be at the far corner of each room - have you planned duct runs that take in to account joist direction? Are these routes clear to push a duct through? If not, it will get messy and expensive.1 point
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So i've found a solution for 30 quid: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07HSN5YSK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 A 13A power socket is available at the site, but I rather not use it as I have various other things that need power there and so using it will require bulky multiplugs. Query is whether to go with this unknown brand Linovision or pay more to get something better known?1 point
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I may be wrong, but I don't think that's going to help the smell issue is it? Might actually make it worse if you're ducting smell in to more rooms?1 point
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Not about heat pumps, where he perpetuates all the old tripe about them.1 point
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I don't think they're rated for use in shear. Have just been digging around for a declaration of performance and only tensile strength and pull out strength is listed. Can use screws to hold things in place but I'd always rather a proper bolt and toothed timber connector.1 point
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Facing stones like a flint wall using cobbles. Easy enough to do for a beginner and doesn’t need to be massively neat.1 point
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You might want to consider using acrylic render mesh behind the second coat of render - but as others have said, be guided by @nod. It smooooves out da bumps.1 point
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This might be noisy at 55%. I'd buy a bigger unit. 30% at trickle is plenty. No experience of Nuaire. Have you priced filters? Some brands can be expensive.1 point
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Serious suggestion, I would just paint it with a good rough finish masonry paint. I am not a fan of render on walls like that, probably because up here where we get very cold weather in winter, I see no end of rendered garden walls where the render has blown probably due to water soaking in then freezing.1 point
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It’s fairly obvious where the condensation is formed, just wipe it. If it doesn’t come off, on the inside. My windows (unoccupied new build) have loads of condensation on the outside every morning, presume this will go when it is heated?1 point
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Thanks Andy.. given me food for thought.. every day is a school day.1 point
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I can't think of a 7671 reason that would prevent it. If there was then the large numbers of commercial buildings & hotels etc with lighting controlled by scene controllers/virtual switches/touchpads etc would be noncompliant. Or for that matter spaces where the lights are controlled entirely by e.g. motion detectors with no direct manual control. 7671 is concerned with two main things: * Isolation in emergency/for maintenance. Usually in domestic that would be by the circuit breaker at the consumer unit (strictly speaking you could argue there should be a mechanism to lock it off if the consumer unit is not in same room as the fitting, to avoid the risk of accidentally turning back on while someone is working on it - but in practice I think most people assume that the small number of people/communication in a house is likely to be adequate protection). BS7671 doesn't actually allow a normal lightswitch to be considered as an isolation or emergency switching device. And even if the switch type was approved, it is very common in UK domestic to have live conductors at the ceiling rose/fitting even when the light is switched off, so isolating the entire circuit at the consumer unit is the only real option. * Functional switching - the requirements here are much looser (basically just about what users need) and the regs specifically allow for controlling the current without having to actually connect/disconnect the circuit e.g. electronic controls. Functional switching is only required if there is a need to control part of a circuit independently of the rest of the installation. So from that perspective so long as you have some means to turn lights on and off in whatever combination suits you as the user, the electrical regs are satisfied. This is a very good point. Any system that isn't essentially failsafe - e.g. the lighting "just works" again after a powercut - may pose safety concerns that you would need to solve. To be honest, I am quite a fan of having standalone battery-backed emergency lighting in homes, I think the argument against requiring it is that occupants will be more familiar with the layout than in eg. a public space, but try to stumble out of bed and out of the house in the dark without tripping over something and you may think again, especially with kids! There are plenty of not-ugly options these days and/or smoke detectors with escape lights built in that I would consider. Very wise to consider that, or that you may have guests/a home exchange. And indeed that you may find your chosen manufacturer goes bust/drops support for all your kit/is inspired by car manufacturers to pivot to charging a monthly subscription to "enable" the kit you already own. So I would definitely be cautious with anything too "fancy", definitely not something that can only be controlled from a phone app or some proprietary home assistant type thing. But any of the kinetic energy based switch solutions are pretty foolproof I would say, certainly Quinetic stays configured after loss of power. So from a regs point of view they still provide the required functional switching and from a user point of view they are basically "fit and forget" - a guest / future owner might never even realise there's no wires behind the switch on the wall. Personally I would go with a kinetic energy switch with a relay/dimmer box & stick to a standard "dumb" lamp - I'm fairly suspicious of smart lamps as my experience (admittedly not recent) has tended to be that mixing electronics and lamps doesn't end well as they tend to overheat and die, and it anyway feels very wasteful (cash and environment) to shove more and more electronics into what will always be a consumable. Obviously it's fairly likely as an electronic component the switch will fail and have to be replaced sooner than an old-school switch. But IMO that's not that different to a dimmer switch - it's pretty common to have to replace them and people still seem to prefer them over a basic on/off.1 point
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I'm a Civil Engineer, but mostly as contractor. I loved working with Architects and other Engineers to optimise a project. To look good, to be brilliant value, but mostly to keep the weather out. I told them where the money could be saved, without cutting corners, they called me a philistine, then we worked something out. Please don't criticise any profession so wildly, as there are better and worse in all walks of life. But you must choose according to their skills. Some Architects are very practical, while some are 3d artists. You didn't choose Hadid or Gehry if budget was an issue in the slightest. You didnt choose me if you wanted a temple to yourself / city/ business. My view is generally that my job was to keep people and their goods, safe and dry for the next 50 to 100 years. Add a bit for looks. Budget? Working to a budget is not necessarily the same as getting best value....that is where specialist contractors come in.1 point
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It may be a matter of semantics - all I can speak to is my years working in multi-disciplinary practise. The Architects lead the visual and spatial design and the Architectural Technologists led the technical design. The Architectural Technicians do the drafting/modelling work. You could not run any project without all three working together with mutual respect. In my experience working on major projects, the Architectural Technologists are absolutely as vital as the Architects for a successful outcome. Neither could get anything done without the Technicians. Your experience as an Architect may differ. However, in the context of this thread, for a straight forward domestic job - for example, an extension, I'd trust any of them to do a decent job.1 point
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If between glass panes, glass unit has failed. Replacement glass unit required.1 point
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Not crazy at all quinetic receivers and wireless switches will give you a normal looking install!1 point
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425 to 650k some of it to do with estate agents that wore rose tinted glasses for overpriced tat that needed a fortune spending on it. Others we're more than new builds.1 point
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Have you any details on the lagoon design? I've not researched this yet, but I'm finding that on out site It might be prudent for us to hold some water back. I was planning RWH for the house, and the latest rain has confirmed I need to do something, as the rubble drain for our treatment plant has backed up recently 🤔 I've got about 4 acres of field draining towards the coast past my treatment plant and not getting past my new track, so currently pumping this to help it on its way to the sea. I've got some more stone on the way to bring the level of my track back to the original field level, so it doesn't pool.1 point
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Agreed most or all of the above. I put a 10m3 harvester in for our own office...no client wanted one but we would test it. 100% of roof water into tank. Double the suggested size. It never ran out of water. The big bonus was that sewage charge was based on water use, so also tiny. And small water pipe in reduced rates. Saving apparently huge. Environmental benefig big too...less water bought and disposed of. But I have no idea the electric cost for the pump. The pump broke down and polypipe weren't interested. Got a repair eventually. Pump broke down again. Leased the building and tenant not interested so harvester sits unused as an expensive manhole. Moral....I might do one for myself, but wouldn't recommend it. But rainwater butts are simple and good as are soakaways and ponds.1 point
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I think you maybe looking at the wrong form! It's G99 A1-1 that you want. Certainly for my application there was no site or location plan needed. To go with the form youll need a single line drawing of the house electrics and a type test certificate for the inverter which youll get from the ENA inverter database1 point
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Fantastic, what a lot of useful information, might take a little time to digest but very helpful. The worship space we are suggesting would be about 165m2 with vaulted or semi vaulted ceiling. There would be 37 linear metres of wall space suitable for radiators, would that provide sufficient effective radiators to heat the room from an ASHP? Yes, the existing Victorian, solid brick Chapel is is a nightmare to maintain, and we are for ever calling on the heating engineer to fix the boiler. The Chapel was constructed in a time when there was a membership of 200/300 now we are down to about 40 and outgoing funds far exceed income. We feel the sale of this large building and parking space, along with some potential grants, would possibly cover the cost of the new build. The sketch design we intend to present to the Architect includes two meeting rooms for community use, hire, meetings, craft activities, training, coffee room, etc etc. We feel that by offering a fresh, warm welcoming ambience suitable for worship, Sunday school, meeting/function rooms, suitable for community activities, that we would provide a very low carbon building fit for purpose/use by several future generations. The village does not have a village hall so we would hope to create a community hub as well as a Methodist Chapel. I feel it is our responsibility, as the senior generation, to try and mitigate some of the damage we have inflicted on our precious planet and this unique opportunity is a way of doing that. Unfortunately some people can not look forward and are locked in the past so our small supportive group here in the village have some persuading to do to convince the powers that be that a low carbon, sustainable building is the future. This land was bequeathed by a local member for local use, but not sure the powers to be see it that way. I can see that 3phase and off grid are probably not the way forward. What is an multi split air to air system, who supplies those? Sutton lane site plan 2 (1).pdf1 point
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Nope. 3 m3 of water costs me £21, so apart from some relatively small running costs, would soon add up if I did normal things like washing a car and watering a garden. I have had about 900mm of rain this year (exceptionally low), if I used half of that, it would save me £100/year.1 point
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Would save me 21 quid each time though.1 point
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Will you be running outside taps off this also, for gardening / window cleaning / jet washing patios? If not, then I wouldn’t install one tbh, as the investment doesn’t ever look holistically kosher to me when I’m asked to include one for a new build client. Unless you’re maximising the savings by seriously offsetting your mains water dependable then I’d seriously spend this money on more PV which makes far more sense. Cost of system plus cost of installation, maintenance / cleaning filters, inevitable pump replacement, additional segregated plumbing system in the house, electrical consumption during operation etc etc vs just buying water from the mains doesn’t make sense at all to me, unless you go for a huge tank say 10,000L which WOULD make sense, just about. I’ve recommended to a recent few clients not to bother with RWH unless the size of the tank is a minimum of 7-8000L, as when you get a dry spell <2500L of a typical 3000L tank will be gone quite quickly and you’ll be back to running off mains supply anyways. When it’s raining there’s more water than you’ll need even for outside taps etc as the garden is already wet and you’re inside in the dry not using them / washing car / windows / patio etc. Then add the inconvenience of typically having to have an indoors break tank for the pump to fill, which means you then have a gravity feed to WC’s and W/M, and then that’s me out completely. Most modern cisterns won’t be suitable for such low pressure supplies, and I had to swap out the fill valves on the 1st floor WCs for one client ( who had already self installed the tank ). You’ll need ‘attic’ space to install this coffin tank if you want any useful pressure ( head ), and access to it for maintenance, plus accept the noise of it filling and emptying. Or, depending on the size of system, you may need an accumulator for attenuation if the gravity break tank isn’t an option. Another pita is, when you eventually need to run off potable mains water, that will be when you prob still have over 500L or more left in a 3000L tank, ( eg when the pump float drops down and mains feed system kicks in to top you up from metered, potable water ) and that 500L capacity is rendered unusable for the lifetime of the system. Not sure if some manufacturers state useful capacity vs capacity? Salespeople rarely dwell on negatives btw This system is designed to not fully fill the tank when consuming potable mains water, so, for periods of little or no rainfall ( aka summer ) the frequency of the pump running will be far greater than in the rainy seasons, further labouring and fatiguing the expensive pump. Then the mains filling ( run dry / failsafe ) system needs detailing; This is normally achieved by installing a rainwater gulley trap in the floor under the stairs / utility / other inside the dwelling, and a cold mains water feed then gets poured into this via a solenoid and an open pipe feeding mains water into a tundish > gulley, eg to eventually get to the tank but purposefully indirectly . FYI, you are NOT allowed to install the cold water feed in the turret of the tank as RHW is classed as Cat5 water ( as bad as sewerage ) and an A/B ( iirc ) air break between potable mains supply and the RWH must exist for water bylaws compliance. For a previous client, we ended up putting this into the garden shed, as there was zero chance ever of me installing a rainwater gully inside a residential domestic dwelling!! Plus the noise of the water gushing into an open tundish would be less than ideal afaic. That could be timed but it’s not recommended, ergo this could go into ‘fill mode’ whilst you’re trying to shower, sapping valuable cold mains pressure for extended periods of time, and often……. The pump failing once every 10 years will pretty much wipe out that decades savings for a small capacity system. Looks great on paper no doubt, but not in reality. So, no from me, unless the numbers make sense, which they don’t. Buy more PV instead.1 point
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Yes interesting project. It would make a change for such a building to be something other than a very cold impossible to heat stone building. Net zero is easy. Any house with enough roof space could fit enough PV to generate in a year more than the building uses. It would NOT mean zero bills or off grid because most generation would be in the summer so you would be exporting and most usage would be in winter and you would be importing.1 point
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The variable rates are not determined by the BoE base rate, they can also depend on swap rates, and the lenders discretion. We're with the Hanley, i think the current rate is around 5.94 and started out at 3.69. Their increases have loosely followed the BoE increase, last increase for example was +.75 on the BoE but .55 on from the Hanley. The ecology website says their current rate is 5.49%, 4.74% could have been before the last increase? We're on interest only and in a few months expect we'll be paying over double the original rate.1 point
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What an interesting project. I'm guessing it's circa 300m2 internally so not drastically different from a large house. I second the notion of rapid response heating. If UFH you'll be best to do it in as thin a screed as possible with closely spaced pipes. However I think a multi split air to air unit would be more than sufficient. A good brand should be near silent as well as keeping the building cool in hot weather. Aim for excellent airtightness and install an on demand MVHR unit and the building will never get too cold. For the kitchen an undersink water heater on a timer would be economical. Given the intermittent occupation and very low water demand almost all solar power will go unused if off grid. I would completely isolate the ideas of power generation and usage because unlike an office or house there'll be tiny overlap. If aiming for the lowest environmental impact using materials with low embodied energy is important. If you build just from things that used to be plants you won't go far wrong.1 point
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This sounds like an interesting project. Net Zero is an odd concept, pretty meaningless as well because it just relies on accounting i.e. self generation, at any time = usage, at any time. It is the 'at any time' that is the problem. I could make my small house net zero by just closing it up and moving out. So, in my opinion, the first thing you need to do is work out the weekly occupancy of the place i.e. how often is it open and needs to be usable. From that an energy profile can be established. It will not be 100% accurate, but even if it is within 20%, it is something to work to. When the building is in use, the power requirements will be quite high, when it is not in use, they should be close to zero. Most of the time the building will be empty I suspect (the large Methodist Chapel near me is very underused and has an all or nothing heating system). So while adding additional insulation (better than commercial building regs) may help if constantly heating, it may not be the best usage of the cash you have to spend. A fast acting heating system may be best, this is usually forced air i.e. change the cold air to warmed air, rapidly. The problem with this is that it tends to be noisy, and a Chapel should be quiet (my Quaker background wants it silent and no echo/reverb). It should be possible to have a system designed that is suitable, and the heat source can be whatever you like, as long as it is outside the building. PV is always worth fitting, especially in an underused building, the excess generation benefits everyone, not just the congregation. Now you ideally want excess generation all year round, but this is problematic in the winter. A 30° roof angle is less than idea, you really want the modules hanging off the SSW walls as they are then at a better 'winter' angle. Forget the NNE side, modules will be just expensive cladding. Ideally you will need some sort of energy storage to run the lighting, kitchen, ventilation, and the organ (get an electronic one and make some fake pipes). Some heating could be done by storing in a large concrete slab, but that means you are heating 24/7, which may not be optimal (depends on your initial energy profile). You could also store excess PV generation is a large water cylinder, then, when the building is going to be occupied, release that energy though a forced air heating system. Any stored hot water can be heating by any method i.e. gas, oil, solid fuel, PV, GSHP/ASHP, or a combination of any of them. It really depends on that energy profile. Other things to look into are any electrical equipment needs to have zero power draw when no being used. So don't go over board on the technology, a small kitchen can have a basic induction hob and an oven (usually larger than needed, commercial ovens are pretty basic inside), empty any fridge and switch it off when not needed (food will generally come in cold so will help cool the fridge anyway). Think about lighting very carefully. Single Phase or 3 Phase is really down to the expected maximum load, design it for Single Phase i.e. 100A maximum (23 kW). Then if close to that, get 3 Phase. Be careful how any PV is wired into it though, the Community Centre in Redruth has the PV wired into the two lightly used phases, while the more heavily used one has nothing (was a pre FiTs system, so totally useless). You will probably struggle to find an Architect that will understand the problems of spasmodically used, low energy, novel buildings that need to be off grid (even if connected to the grid). Use an off grid mentality when designing it. So to push the point one more time, work out what it needs energy wise, and when it needs it, then work on ways to reduce it, then look at ways to generate and store it. Not the other way around. You could end up with a very architecturally interesting building that need not cost any more to build than a basic building.1 point
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225mm posi’s leave very little space for services, so beware. If you look at the chord depths, and discount 2x from the overall height, you’ll see that you’ve around 120mm or less, and a soil fitting knuckle will just about, or if less won’t, fit in there. Have you planned your M&E layouts / large bore pipe runs yet ( FW & MVHR ) ? Leave the steel alone and get deeper joists would be my advice, unless your services are boxed in above / below the joist voids….1 point
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Sorry for the late response. I got this from a modbus steering. COP is actually the ratio of the magnitude of the heat given off to the (hot) water and the amount of energy needed to do this (power consumption). The flow/ minute (actually per hour, hence the x 60) represents the amount of water that is heated. The 1.16 has something to do with the amount of energy needed to heat a liter of water. It represents a moment in time and the actual COP on that specific moment. It is not us full in calculating the seasonal COP, or COP over al longer period.1 point
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This is how I work with this type of system. I run more of the counter ( service ) battens horizontally, so they can be fixed side on thus not needing to fix through the membrane, and then the boxes get drilled and screwed up and down into the horizontal timbers. The Egger board was installed to take the wall mounted TV’s, so they could be fitted with the correct depth / length screws so again the membrane didn’t suffer damage from any such retrospectively installed equipment. Injecting 330 foam all round the Egger board would offer further insurance. The sparky should drop down and go through to the next room in the joist void imo, or create a penetration with a conduit which can be filled with Illbruck 330 foam and made airtight accordingly. As said, you must lead on this, as most trades still have little to no experience with airtightness disciplines / products etc, and you should be prepared to provide them with the correct foam / tape etc if you want this doing correctly.1 point
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200/250/300 all share the same diameter base at 580mm - as long as you have the height (1120/1330/1650) then there is no limitation I can see. Once you go to 400 then the 710mm diameter is usually the limiting factor about getting them through doorways. The other consideration is the expansion tank that will be 10% of the tank volume - on a 500 litre this will be a floor standing 50 litre tank which is pretty substantial.1 point