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Ok excellent. We have somewhere to work from. Option 1. UVC only Option 2. ESHP only Option 3. UVC plus solar. Assuming UVC and solar last 20 years and the ESHP lasts 10. Option 1 . UVC 300l costs £700 plus annual cost for 2200kWh ( all on TOU ) is £330. Adding the cost of the cylinders over 20 years is £365/year. (300L stored at 70deg is about 14kWH so plenty of capacity to ensure TOU is used only) Option 2. ESHP costs £2500 and runs at a COP of 3, annual cost of £110 ( all on TOU) . With a 10 year lifespan the annual cost is £360. Also a 270l ESHP at 49 degrees will only store 6kWh so any more use you would move to day rate which would wipe out any savings. Option 3. UVC plus PV. (No feed in tariff) Assuming a 4kw array with a diverter would cost £6k. You should be able to use about 2700kWh per year in the house with some timed dishwashers etc. The difference from option 1 will be 500kWh of energy you don't need to buy at 15p/kWh so a nett positive of £75/year. (£6000/20 +£700/20) +£75 is an annual cost of £410. If you get a feed in tariff of equal to E7 rate you could make that £335/annum. TLDR 1. 300l UVC. £365/annum. 2. ESHP £360/annum 3. UVC plus PV £330-410 per annum. No wonder you're confused, it's far too close to call and for the price difference of a bottle of nice wine it isn't worth worrying about. I would get a 300l UVC with a timer switch and forget about it. In fact, that's what we did!!

Based on slightly better than Building Regs level performance data, the proposed 16kW ASHP seems about right for a 420m² house. Of note is the caveat on your "Building fabric summary" image in your first post "*These costs are based on an air source heat pump providing the space heating.". So the 6332kWh annual figure quoted is the electricity to run the heat pump, equates to 21,044kWh of annual energy loss through the fabric and ventilation. You therefore have a 50.1kWh/m² annual energy loss. Is this planned to be a long term home? If so you are saddled with these energy losses for the time you own the home. I personally would be looking for cost effective ways of reducing this figure. 15kWh/m² annual energy loss is an achievable target. Going for the 0.12 U Value wall option for instance. The stated air tightness target of 5m³/h.m²@50Pa is really quite poor. Your EC shouldn't be suggesting an MVHR system at that level as it will bring no benefit, just cost a load to Install, run and maintain. MVHR's come into their own at 3m³/h.m²@50Pa, and are best at 1m³/h.m²@50Pa or lower. If this is your long term home I'd suggest targeting 1m³/h.m²@50Pa. You describe the property as having some large double volume areas, in those circumstances you'll find that good air tightness considerably lowers your energy losses. If you are to target 1m³/h.m²@50Pa air tightness, then I'd research your chosen ICF. I've not looked into ICF much but the feedback I've picked up from this site, on wood-concrete ICF blocks, is that there is a lot of work involved in getting good airtightness from them. Maybe there are alternate ICF solutions that will make the job easier. If you can target better energy performance from the fabric of the building, then rather than the space heating requirement driving ASHP it will become DHW. You've specified a 400l UVC, I'd say that's the minimum size you should go with for the size of property, or perhaps a 500l. If you are heating the hot water via an ASHP you need to be able to store the water at 50°C or less to keep the ASHP efficiency at a reasonable level, so you need a greater volume of 50°C water than if you were heating it to 65°C. With large UVC's, you then need to watch your re-heat times. ie. you may get your space heating down to just a 6kW requirement, but you may still want to specify a 9kW - 12kW ASHP for better UVC reheat times. My own property is a similar size to yours, my heat loss is calculated at 15kWh/m² per annum, but has come in at around 12.75kWh/m². At today's prices that's around £535 per year for space heating which is a £1,700 per annum saving on your current performance targets. Index linked over 20 years gives a reasonable budget for performance improvements at the build stage.

Normal opening heights are 2100 or 2035 The majority of width openings that I do in MF are 910 1010 Disabled 835 bedroom 710 cupboard

Here's a credenza I made for my daughter. It's solid, not veneered, (cos she's special) but has bookmatched doors and back panel.

Ah. The expelled gasses including water vapour will dissipate pretty quickly once outside and any slight breeze should prevent almost all of the steam from getting into the vents. Cooking is a pretty sporadic event with a fan running maybe 15mins per day, that's only 1% of the time. For decades gas boilers have been expelling steam under soffits, many hours per day and I've never heard of any issues. I can't see your situation being a problem.

Track lighting?

Aren't the cylinder rated at 90 degrees and protection is set to vent the pressure at 90, so if you were to store at the temperature the protection system would operate. So not a practical idea. Not sure how you would heat it that hot anyway as most immersions only can be set to 80 and have a thermal trip set at a hard 85 trip, which requires the immersion to be manually reset. If you replaced the immersion from a higher rated one from a thermal store, you would be circumventing you certification. Thermal store possibly, UVC no.

You wouldn't do it these days, but 30+ years ago it wasn't uncommon.

Can anyone with experience comment, is this safe to do? Ie. heat the water in UVC up to 90°C to store the energy? Thinking more about the tank, assume you would fit a thermostatic valve to keep taps and showers safe.

I'm glad it helped. edit: Bugger just spotted a mistake. PV reduces the cost to £260-£180 so you're on the right track.

I bought a load of the Deanta Ely doors which are the same look. The veneer is thick on sides and top/bottom to allow for trimming, but it is thin on the front and back over the engineered core. We cut a door up to make a custom short one for an understairs cupboard so it was very clear how they are constructed.

Mad idea for both supply and outlet. Over thinking something that doesn't need fixing.

A Class L unit to tolerate the dust AND not spread it into the air like cheapo vacs do. Something like this: https://www.tooled-up.com/makita-vc3011l-l-class-dust-extractor/prod/211939/ Get the cloth bags with the plastic entry rather than the cardboard one. Slide the bottoms off, empty them, turn them inside out, then chuck in the washing machine. Fold the end over and use a binding comb to seal it again to re-use it. You won't baulk at the cost of the bags this way / can use it for sucking up epic volumes of dust. The hose is small. It won't pick up lumps big enough to use a shovel on. That's probably ok. The shovel is faster! Pair with darth-vader style powered full faec respirator mask for personal protection fro the dust: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Trend-AIR-PRO-AIRPRO-Shield/dp/B081TWHB2X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=18P15ZAXSQC18&keywords=trend+airpro&qid=1681058151&s=diy&sprefix=trend+airpro%2Cdiy%2C184&sr=1-1 (better to buy that and a class L than a class M vacuum IMO)

Screwfix Titan TTB774VAC. Cheap so you won't mind bashing it around, and can be used wet or dry.

Henry. Not a Dyson as the warranty prohibits uses with building waste, been there and they wouldn't cover the warranty.

That should be fine for getting any of the services into the house but a long radius bend would of course make it slightly easier, especially for the water. We did have a struggle getting the BT cable to the vicinity of the house. It came down a pole and into BT ducting which was about 25m long and included 3 ninety degree bends before it got to the entry to the house. That thin cable in a long narrow duct with the three bends was a bitch to pull through.

STOP right there. 50mm EPS is nowhere near enough insulation under UFH. 100mm absolute minimum, 150mm much better.

They're bolted together so moving them would just mean undoing the bolts (main reason being so that they can't be prised apart for access). It would be a few hours of faffing, but they could be moved seperately. I did it this way with the thought in mind that if I can ever put them on my own land I could still move them.

This is, of course, important IF anyone actually gives a shit

Most containers have 32a C-form 'plugs' LINK mounted on the outside, and then you just have a panel socket LINK on the outside of the kiosk. Make a 32a flying / aka extension lead to go from the supply / kiosk to the container, a-la how caravan's hook up for a 2-week stay and want 230v. Have 1x 32a for some power sockets, and off that 32a radial / socket arrangement inside the container you just fit a 13a switched fused spur and use that for your light feed and switch, with a 5a fuse installed. Then just have 1x 32a additional for plugging in the welder, so all you need is a CU with 1x isolator and 2x 32a RCBO's and you're cooking on gas. Or electric.

I think you mean mobile unit. I think temporary structures are only allowed for less than 28 days a year. The planners can decide its not mobile and request a planning application if they think it needs one. I'm not sure what the criteria is. If they do that you could fight it by proving it is capable of being lifted onto a transporter.

Don't know if cross-posting to other forums is allowed(!), but I have documented my build here: https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/shipping-container-workshop-aka-the-bunker.480285/#post-9067112

I was building an extension for a great customer once and the neighbour flatly refused to allow me on to his property to point the faced brickwork that was facing his house. I tried and tried to explain that it would be better for him to allow me access but he was having none of it. I had no choice but to leave gravity defying snots hanging off the brickwork. the next day the ‘cowboy builders’ were exposed on social media. He’s. Still got the snots though. 😀 just saying. I’ll now join buttercup and grab my coat.

My impression is all his questions are about the neighbours extension, trying to find something "wrong" in what they are doing. But he won't post pictures for us all to see he just PM's some to those that ask.

1. You need to request and pay for a new meter head from your DNO. Use https://www.energynetworks.org/customers/find-my-network-operator to find your DNO 2. You need to request a meter installed by your chosen electricity supplier (British gas, octopus, etc). This should be low cost, but can be long lead time. 3. You need to pay an electrician to install a consumer unit and outlets for whatever loads you'd like. They'll also need to design appropriate earthing strategy for a big metal building. If #3 is too expensive try asking for some more quotes. There's no shortcuts to those three steps, other than paying your neighbour for electricity supply indefinitely. Personally I'd put a single 32A ( or bigger) inlet on the container and distribute that via a small CU internally. Keep the content of the pole kiosk as simple as possible

@Russell griffiths Ive been looking at what in your opinion is a better system, unfortunately for me I have lost my money and had paid for all the blocks, the offer from Italy to buy ISOTEX direct at a 45% discount will probably work out quite a bit cheaper than an alternative polystyrene system. Although i'm waiting to hear about transport costs. But i will be getting quotes and take it from there.

You can also buy dry silo mortar in bulk bags from some suppliers. Just add water. It’s not cheap and has to be very well covered as the slightest bit of water ingress will ruin it.

Not sure but this may be the source, or just another using the same unit. https://www.auer.fr/en/products/heat-pump-water-heaters/edel-water-heat-pump-water-heater/

Personally Its not just the security - its trying to avoid my house being a debugging and configuration scenario with potential for everything being reliant on a single point failure (or reconfiguration if it changes). I can see some advantage to cloud and certainly local wifi, not a total luddite , but laying a bit of signal bell wire once with a switch and a central time-clock is pretty much guaranteed not to break with software updates or router changes etc. Nothing against full automation - just not for me in my house.

IT myself for a couple of decades - currently cloud compute with a strong emphasis on security and regulatory compliance. I like a happy medium where I have the option but I maintain full featured control without WiFi. Not a fan of black box solutions where I can get in there and inspect the security setup. That rings alarm bells for me.

My reading of the manual is there are 2x dry contacts on both V & D machines, which are the PV input - but presumably also the simplest way to override the onboard timer with a 'heat now on immersion' command without hubs/cloud etc. Both manuals seem to talk about 2x levels of PV input but not much/any more detail I could see. One of the dry contacts on that board is shorted by default - might indicate that could be a simple external control/timer input? (or might not - I'm really guessing - no direct experience) Update - theory? - one of the contacts is immersion and the other is the compressor/A2W via the onboard timer - hence why its normally shorted? I really don't want my heating or DHW connected to wifi - worked far to long in IT to think its a good idea to add layers of complexity on a basic switch.

FWIW If you look at the manuals - dimplex edel and vaillant arostor have suspiciously identical compressor/circuit board layouts, would be interesting to know if there's much more than marketing between them - looks like a shared technical design at some point - or off the shelf product?

That is my biggest concern with EASHP - in theory the install shouldn’t be much different, aside from a couple of extra holes for the air supply/exhaust. However I can imagine your average plumber not wanting to take the risk on something new like this, and the handful who have experience with these charging a premium… might still explore it

However, trying to secure finance on my build the lender will not accept indemnity insurance or a retrospective warranty, beware!!!

Magic Man, right at the end of the job.

if it goes under the bottom of the door frame it will be a bugger to change, id be tempted to get a 'magic man' to come and fix it. or put an over sill ontop of it.

i put the 600x600 tile effect fibo panels in mine when i did it. mainly because i had lost loads of enthusiasm at that point and just wanted it done. They were easy enough to fit, i used my glass fitting suction handle thingy's. the trim for those god awful plastic panels are the same size and wayy cheaper to buy.

Your way works of course, but usually needs some clamping kit. It is still worth checking all the ends accept a nut before starting the work. Once you have had to fettle a bolt end in an icy hole, with a crane idly holding a column above it, you get more organised next time, and also protect the ends.

Our brickies requested Sika MaxMix - they definitely preferred the concentrated stuff. It's such a small amount I can't see it affecting colour significantly. We just used buckets for gauging. Whatever you do make sure it's simple and convenient. Make sure you explain to them why the gauging accuracy is important, I found almost everyone wanted a good result and would do things if they understood why it mattered. Are you buying all the sand at once? Our cement mortar isn't visible, so this didn't matter to us and you can clearly find the different coloured areas where we switched sand suppliers along the way.

I use these a lot, but the transformer does need some room. The fitting itself is great, and sits in the thickness of the plastered plasterboard, so can span joists etc. https://www.cef.co.uk/catalogue/products/4574883-4w-led-downlight-neutral-white-4000k?gclid=Cj0KCQjwocShBhCOARIsAFVYq0gksXEWnigiRIZLYBRXTilqjSoTipTMBPcQpeBzoMVTPSGjwCORsewaAmyJEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Some of the veneers have been 'bookmatched' - sequential slices from the log are reversed and appear almost mirror images when next to each other. It looks like each (100mm-ish wide) board has been veneered separately. If the log is cut to 100mm wide prior to having the veneers sliced, one can create many bookmatched pairs. Certainly more effort than randomly cut veneers, but like many bulk processes the additional costs to set it up can be defrayed over many doors.

I've never noticed any colour change with Optimix and it is by far the best. Try Fastbuild supplies for a good price. I buy it by the box full. No other plasticiser that I have used performs any where near as well. Buckets and lots of them. Easier to load into the mixer I would get 5 buckets for the sand and one for the cement. load the buckets on a 8 x 4 sheet and scrape them off level with the shovel. Anal not if they fill five at a time. It doesn't' take much longer than shovelling in to the mixer You're welcome

some inspiration https://www.youtube.com/@dameonhill/videos https://www.youtube.com/@TimAndKatsGreenWalk/videos

If IR heating was so brilliant, we would see it in almost every house. Apart from an old Granny 1 bar heater, or in a bathroom, does anyone know of anyone that uses it?

Radiant heating, if the radiation is not focused, follows an inverse square law with distance so if you want it to heat you, you need to be close to the heater. Otherwise it mostly heats whatever solid objects it hits and these heat they air so the room warms up. But it's no more efficient than any other form of direct electrical heating, you get 1 kWh of heat per kWh of electricity. Electricity is expensive; are you sure this "closed family member" has your best interests at heart?

I barely know where to start with this. What did he say was wrong with heat pumps (ASHPs as we tend to call them)? Many BuildHub members have ASHPs and are very happy with them, myself included. It's interesting that he sells and installs ASHPs for housing associations - are these retrofits and/or poorly built/insulated housing by any chance? Or maybe he or the company he's involved with don't actually know what they're doing and are undersizing what they sell/install for their customers. I can't think of any other reason someone would be so anti ASHP. As discussed repeatedly on BuildHub, hydrogen is unlikely to have a future in supplementing gas for boilers: As for infrared heating panels, they have their place, but primary heating for an entire home probably isn't it. That he's suggesting solar can be relied upon for providing significant energy during the heating period anywhere in Scotland is concerning. Solar panels won't output much in the depths of winter in Scotland, even on the best of days. Sorry to be so negative about your family member, but I'm really struggling to see how any of the advice he's given makes any sense.

Ah, meant to update this, block done, as well as roof, roof/ground drainage, temporary electric and the basic essentials so I could move in and use the space! This is slightly out of date, the fascia is on now, I'll take another pic sometime.

Hi all, Might be the wrong thing to do, and may be I should create another post, but I finished the slab today (with a little..well, a lot of help from my friends).

Disclaimer : I have been drinking since 6pm so the brain is starting to get a bit wonky. Maybe a spectator sport from herein for me tonight. I'll edit this out tomorrow, and it'll be like it never happened Fullers "London Pride". Says "outstanding" on the bottle, and I damn-well agree. Just using it atm to wash down half a tub of Ben & Jerry's Choc Fudge ice cream. "Happy times".

Internal walls aren't "structural" per-se, so you wouldn't be factoring in deflection etc. Are you referring to all internal work here?