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Update! Pretty much all done now. So, order of works was - scrub&wash walls, repaint 2 coats including painting up into top of walls slightly, then use left over render to render wall tops sealing edges of paint hoping to prevent any water getting behind it, outdoor tile adhesive used then to bed slate capping and a piece of DPC in between each slate beneath the mortar line (the mortar line between each slate was where the worst water run-off marks were leading to algae), then pieces of slate used behind each post, also sanded/re-oiled, so it stood off a few mm from the wall, plus bottom of posts trimmed so any water will drip slightly away from the walls. Decking scrubbed, jetwashed then re-oiled, very satisfying job! Time will tell to see how long this all lasts before I need to clean it all again.

My Brickie has used used lime and cement in the past and both have been fine. He now swears by resin and used that for the last patio I had done. Just brushed in and then goes off so less mess and easier to use is why he likes it. Seems fine so far! this sort of stuff https://jointit.com/products/joint-it-simple/

Planning officers are not especially technical. They may welcome advice such as yours and change these rules. For example, I have explained to planners why their drainage hierarchy and strategy was flawed. A shocked silence was followed by realisation that this was suddenly obvious, then an invitation to present my own strategy with planning applications, with explanations.....and they always accepted these. I doubt that they alterered their guidance, but that would require the cost of consultants....the ones I was saying were wrong. But try, or tell them that you are substututing Am2 at B output, with Cm2 x D output. They will be happy. Seriously, they often welome sensible technical advice.

the education system since 1990 has ruined the kids. They are at school all day every day for years and years and when they leave cant do elementary maths or write a letter. It's beyond sad. Need to bring back grammar schools, reduce uni intakes to the real professions, probably 15% of what there is now and mainstream vocational training at 13+ No reason the non doctors, lawyers, dentists etc cant have learned the first 3 years of a trade by the time they are 16 instead of leaving school thinking they can be a social media millionaire when in reality they are already on the scrap heap and just don't know it. most politicians are the same as teachers, went to school, then uni, then into politics/education. No clue whatsoever about the real world. It's unfixable now the left have infected all areas of life with alphabet gender bollox, full time dole etc etc , there will be social unrest at some point and a reset.

It's a joke isn't it. I think even I'm becoming jaded by it all. Doesn't help I noticed half my panels haven't been working since installing the SE battery. If I don't spot this stuff, how is Joe average going to keep on top of it? Turns out half the optimizes had lost pairing. A bunch of reboots and several hours with support and it's working again. They tried to blame wiring error, but after they fiddled with some anonymous settings in the inverter and I did several more system resets, all optimsers are back. /Shrug And then there's tickbox heat pumps installed so poorly they are worse than resistive heating. It's going to take a generation (of tech maturity and users) before any of this becomes vaguely mainstream reliable.

EasyRoof are another. Just be sure the panels you choose fit in the in-roof trays that you buy. There are lots of combinations that WON'T work, so beware. https://edilians.co.uk/easy-roof-evolution.html

Just install a Willis heater in the flow to the manifold(s) with manual bypass / changeover valves then? TBH if you've already a G3 requirement with the UVC then go with KISS and put the immersion in the buffer

+1. People lie or don’t do what they say they will all the time. The good news is that you paid by credit card with Section 75 cover and got your money refunded. That’s a savvy buyer. Warning bells to me are sellers who only accept bank transfer or debit card. I know lots of people who have lost their money that way.

yes - my “real world” is as a partner in a consultancy that does M&E design for architects and other construction projects … it’s the stuff done prior to the house being built… it’s called design stage and produces the specifications and plans that BCO require … far from industry standard - the industry uses the Approved Documents as the standard, along with other sources like Robust Details to define agreed approaches. The NHBC “standard” along with the LABC “standard” are used by their inspectors for warranty purposes - they are essentially their additions to the ADs (as per above) which they require to meet their warranty terms. Issue is that on a large build site their standard inspections are applied 1:3 or 1:4 of each design on the plot - that can mean inspecting only 6 or 7 houses in a 30 house development. The rest ..? Well, I’ll let you make your own mind up.

The 'exploding' demand for giant heat pumps Published 7 hours ago Share IMAGE SOURCE,MAN ENERGY SOLUTIONS Image caption, This MAN heat pump system in Denmark is one of the biggest in the world By Chris Baraniuk Technology of Business reporter There are 2.5 million litres of water in an Olympic-sized swimming pool. If for some reason you wanted to bring it from a pleasant 20C to boiling point, German firm MAN Energy Solutions has a heat pump that could do it. And it would take less time than Kenneth Branagh's film version of Hamlet. "We can do this in less than four hours," explains Raymond Decorvet, who works in business development at MAN Energy. "Or we could freeze the whole thing in about 11 hours." Theirs is among the largest heat pump units in the world. Heat pumps work by compressing gently warmed refrigerants to raise the temperature of these fluids. That heat can then be passed on to homes or industrial machinery. Heat pumps require electricity to work but can produce around three or four kilowatts of heat for every kilowatt of power they consume, making them highly efficient. Plus, some designs can provide cooling as well. Heat pumps are increasingly popular with some home owners but domestic devices are relatively small and tend to have outputs of several kilowatts or so. MAN Energy's biggest commercial heat pump is thousands of times more powerful - with a total heating capacity of 48 megawatts (MW). It can produce temperatures of up to 150C and heat thousands of homes, not just one. The company recently installed two of these machines in the port city of Esbjerg, in Denmark. In this installation, the heat pumps' CO2 refrigerant will absorb a small amount of heat from seawater. Compressors boost the temperature of the CO2 and the system can then transfer this heat, providing water of up to 90C to a district heating system serving 27,000 households. IMAGE SOURCE,MAN ENERGY SOLUTIONS Image caption, Industrial-sized heat pumps are a thousand times more powerful than domestic versions "The demand for district heating is exploding," says Mr Decorvet. An urgency to move away from fossil fuels is leading to a rush - particularly in Europe - for bigger and beefier heat pump systems that can power entire towns. But who has the biggest, megawatts-wise? It might seem like a relatively straightforward question but it is actually quite tricky to answer definitively. Not least because heat pumps don't tend to work at maximum capacity all the time. In Esbjerg, MAN Energy's heat pumps will run at about half their potential output, for instance. And trying to compare the world's largest heat pump systems is difficult because, often, they are made up of multiple smaller heat pumps chained together. Take the district heating system in Stockholm, Sweden, often referred to as the largest heat pump set-up in the world. This is probably true, it has a maximum capacity of 215MW - but that total is the sum of seven heat pumps, two 40MW and five 27MW devices, a spokesman for energy provider Stockholm Exergi explains. Elsewhere in Sweden, Gothenburg has a 160MW heat pump system that consists of four units. Two of them are actually bigger than those in Stockholm, with capacities of 50MW each. They have been in operation since 1986 and probably hold the title of the most powerful individual heat pumps currently in use, though they are clearly rivalled by newer devices such as those made by MAN Energy. Last year, German chemicals firm BASF and MAN Energy announced their intention to build a 120MW heat pump that would, reports suggested, be the world's largest. It would have provided heat for industrial uses at a site in Ludwigshafen. However, it was not to be. "BASF has decided not to proceed with the project," a spokesman told the BBC. The firm is exploring other potential heat sources instead, which it hopes will be more economically attractive. IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES Image caption, In countries like Sweden big heat pumps are used to heat whole districts Size isn't necessarily everything, notes Dave Pearson, group sustainable development director at Star Refrigeration. Efficiency matters and he argues that ammonia - his firm's choice of refrigerant - helps to make heat pumps particularly efficient. Veronika Wilk at the Austrian Institute of Technology and colleagues have studied the use of heat pumps for industrial applications, to provide heat in pharmaceutical, food or paper factories, for example. So long as they don't require very high temperatures beyond 200C, companies are increasingly turning to heat pumps, Dr Wilk argues, because it allows them to move away from natural gas, which has become extremely expensive following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But industrial heat pumps tend to be merely several MW in capacity or so. You are more likely to spot truly giant heat pumps in a district heating system, such as those mentioned above, says Dr Wilk. "The beauty of district heating is that you can decarbonise a lot of households at once," she adds. IMAGE SOURCE,AIT & KRISCHANZ Image caption, Veronika Wilk points out that district heating can decarbonise a lot of homes in one go There are many other examples of heat pump-powered district heating systems springing up. In Vienna, a 55MW system using three heat pumps is due to go live this autumn. The machines will harvest heat, around 6C, from treated wastewater, explains Linda Kirchberger, division manager asset decarbonisation and new technologies at Wien Energie. The treated water used to go straight into a river. "Now it does a detour and we take it through the heat pump system," she says. The system will lift temperatures from 6C to 90C and the heat will go on to supply 56,000 households. In 2027, Wien Energie plans to double the system's capacity with three more heat pumps, reaching 110MW in total. While still impressive, and weighing more than 200 tonnes each, these individual units have a capacity of less than 20MW. The manufacturer, Johnson Controls, confirmed to the BBC that its largest heat pumps have a maximum output of 28MW.A similar system, also using heat from wastewater, is planned in Hamburg, according to reports. It will have a capacity of 60MW, though this too will rely on multiple heat pumps linked together, a spokeswoman for Hamburg Wasser, the water company involved in the project, says. But keep an eye on the future. In the Finnish capital Helsinki, a plan is afoot to construct a gargantuan heat pump system with a total capacity of 500MW. This will likely be comprised of multiple units, as in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Esbjerg, but Helen, the energy company behind the scheme, has not yet revealed how it will all come together. MAN Energy is one firm bidding for the contract. A spokesman declined to explain exactly what configuration of heat pumps would allow the company to provide 500MW of heat. Mr Decorvet says, simply, "I hope we are going to win."

We've got black limestone slabs and we used the resin grout system when we laid the patio 4 years ago and it's still in perfect condition. I also give it a coat of screwfix no nonsense clear exterior sealer every year which stops the sun bleaching the colour and helps to stop water ingres. If you drop something from the barbecue you won't end up with a greasy mark on your patio as well.

How old is the house? Could some of it be lead paint? Check the precautions required

Don't expect much acoustic performance from PIR. Density is your friend there.

Looks really good. Very satisfying when a project like that comes together.

There are people that will make anything for a price. When we built our house in 2007 we decided to get some built in cupboards for a utility room made in a style that matched the kitchen. They were made from Tulip wood and cost us about £3k fitted but unpainted. Photo below. I could probably have made them myself but had a house to finish. We asked three local companies to quote to fill a space with floor to ceiling units in a similar style to those in the kitchen. Left them to work out the details. Actually what I did was go visit a few first, I said I might be looking for some work done and they showed me a book of what they had done for other people. Also got to see their workshop and what they were currently working on. Called them back later to ask them to come and quote. Fitting floor to ceiling units is tricky because you can't get them in through a door upright, and if you take them in laid flat you can't stand them up because the diagonal is taller than the ceiling if you get what I mean. They may have to be made in two parts, a top and bottom.

It depends on the earthing scheme to a point as well. I'm on a TT earth so ended up with SWA and a 100mA RCD + 80A switch fuse box. (But my tails were a slightly silly 20 metres...) Suspect you are on TNCS earth so you'll only need SWA or RCD. I do have a blue book, but I left it on site - @Marvin happy to let you have a read of it and the on-site guide if you want since you're local to me. I might even have a spare length of 25mm2 SWA getting in the way, although it might be a fraction too short.

Nice job @Temp One I knocked up a few years ago for my daughter.

BS:845-1 and Approved Document A state cavity plus 125mm and then select the nearest standard length. Search around though as I’ve seen 350mm cheaper than 325mm..!

Except that it is permanent so the floor bends a bit, but just once and stays there. If anything it reduces bounce from movement.

Was actually in a rush to leave the office.

You can get heat pumps that do it, forget the make but made in Italy. They a have the normal water connections and additional pair of refrigeration lines that go to second coil in the cylinder. Or you can use a small water to water heat pump, they are available, connect via a close coupled tee to the UFH return piping.

Not completely there is also the downward and upward heat transfer, how quickly the heat or cool is moved either upwards or downwards. Very good insulation below the pipes makes a difference. You would think so but, you also have to careful you stay a over condensation temperature. More cold water in floor equals a cold floor and risk of condensation. Plus your heat pump will alway manage the delta T between flow and return, get the floor too cold your heat pump permissive to start cooling again may not achieved, so your room go hot, cold,hot, cold.. it's all a balancing act. Ran my UFH on cooling today. Start temperature of the water in the floor was 20.5 degs. End of the day at 5pm when I turn off the system the water was returning at 17 degrees. Comparing the house temp today and yesterday in similar conditions, sun all day. Yesterday pumping the UFH around all day, but not cooling, living room was 27 degs, by this time, today cooling on 22, but feels cooler. Set ASHP with a 12 deg flow temp, (tried higher but delta T could not manage it) so ran once and didn't give a permission to restart. ASHP ran most of the day, switching of about a 10 times over a 9 hour period, living room 22 degrees, but felt cooler. That's with floor U value of 0.09 and 300mm spacing and circa 100mm concrete screed.

Given that the floor was designed - I assume at your request - for 8mm deflection, there will be loads of spare capacity for the extra board layer. It is probably equivalent to having and extra 2 average sized people in the room. I would just get on with it.

Work surface which is 3.5m long and the shelf are made from a tree we took down (Scottish larch) and we had it cut into planks. Work surface is made from 4 pieces cut, biscuit jointed and glued. Both the bench and shelf were then lime waxed. The units are Howden kitchen cupboards, instead of using the plastic feet and kickboard, I just made a 20mm plinth for the units to sit on.

You probably don't need to do a CAD drawing. Just give them photos of the style you like and dimensions. If they are going to be fully fitted let them come and measure up. Perhaps ask them to give you a sketch to confirm they have understood what you want. I've used the free license version of Fusion 360 to design and build a bathroom cabinet. Like all CAD packages there is a learning curve but there are lots of youtube vids.

Update on summer house, photos to follow, once I complete the external paint. Walls are airtight and fully taped. Sliding doors are far from airtight, with gaps at top and bottom of each sliding panel. So would have been a bad candidate for MVHR. Instead have a single dMEV fan which runs while someone is in the room and for 30 mins after. UFH is all operating, and currently running in cooling mode, with the rest of the house. First day with cooling. Last night at 6pm it was circa 29 degs in the building with the internal blinds closed. Similar weather today so will see how it goes.

Yes, I know of a large housing development just outside Glasgow where this is the case. Where required, to comply, you must put X m² on the roof, I keep asking why is it done in m² - it should be measured in kW for crying out loud, stupid unit for PV, anyway, so you can go and get the cheapest, lowest efficiency panels and install them and still comply. At work the mechanical engineers will give me the SAP calc results where PV is needed and I based the PV intent drawings on the required m² (rounded up to whole panel obviously), I then take that area and find the most efficient and best peak generation panel I can find at the time then convert it into kW Peak - that is the figure I put on the intent drawing and electrical specification in the tender package, this means the contractor only knows the peak generation figure and will stick to it. I also ensure that the intent drawing (for roof PV arrays) and other associated drawings show inverter positions, isolators and connections to the main switch board to ensure that the design is complete and that it is not just panels I want them to install. The use of a note along the lines of "Contractor to complete design, supply & install fully commissioned operational PV generation system of x kW peak" also helps to ensure that we want a working system and that is what they must tender for. It is usually the big house builders who skip on the inverters and just install the panels as they are doing it all themselves.

OK standing seam v visible screws. Plusses No screw penetrations that might leak. No screws on show. Aesthetics. Can resemble old fashioned zinc or lead roofing. Negatives. Very difficult indeed to repair if damaged by, say, a branch falling. Some types require special equipment adding to the above. Very difficult to join lengths (not important on most domestic roofs). Tricky to seal around openings. Tricky to seal at ends (without screws or rivets) Some require special tools. In transport they don't stack neatly so there is lots of air and packaging. Getting a replacement is expensive. Fitted cost is more than a screwed system. On very big roofs they need lots of expansion allowance. Penetrations for flues etc need flashings to be screwed into the cladding and must be through the flat which then needs reinforcement. I offered standing seam to clients and they never accepted it due to the cost. Some wanted SS until they heard of the saving for screwed. Ie if we were picking up someone else's design, it was apparent that they hadn't been informed fully. Yes sometimes a screw can fail, but it is easily replaced. I reckon 1 in 10,000 required a return visit to replace. On a house there will be a vapour barrier beneath to catch any drips until nature seals it again. Fortunately I never had to repair someone else's ss roof. But did on walls. The damaged sheet can't be replaced without very extensive dismantling, so we had flashings made and screwed over the damage. I'd be interested to hear of real life competitive quotes for ss v screwed. But I think most users favour one and don't price both. My guess is that a 200m2 (on slope) will be £20/m2 difference ie £4,000.

No idea if this helps, but what about Solfit. Panels link together, so no trays required. Might be worth a look. British Company i believe.

Would like to sing the praises and reiterate the general consensus of using a credit card to protect yourself when purchasing. Long story short, tried to purchase something, website showed stock. Retailer couldnt/wouldnt deliver the item, obviously out of stock, later found out due to manufacturers lead times. Retailer would not respond to requests for information. Got arsey when I suggested cancel the order, finally cancelled then wouldn't refund the money. Section 75 team stepped in and sorted out for me. Yes, I ought to be a bit more savvy when buying, but I'm building to a tight budget and am looking for bargains everywhere. A few personal lessons to learn, but happy I escaped this time. A few rules to adhere to Section 75 | Your Rights Explained | Experian

50 rolls seems excessive. I just taped all junctions with windows and doors, and the house is very airtight. I think I used about 12 rolls.

I was chatting to a heat pump guy a few years back and he said there had been a few commercial CO2 installations, mainly cooling. I also seem to remember there were a number of domestic CO2 units available about a decade ago. Maybe @markocosic knows more.

all our controls and the secondary pump come off a different supply. Even if the ASHP was to expire and need to be isolated, we can heat the whole house either by immersion or boiler stove. Indeed even during a power failure everything bar the immersion can happily run off an inverter if needs be.

In my experience if the ASHP has failed it's likely to be supply failure (trip) or something foobar in its controller (or cloud portal there of). Either these would take out its backup heater too. That said, it'd likely also take out control of the circulation pumps and manifold actuators etc. One of several reasons I'm slowly moving my systems to have the ASHP just heat (cool) the buffer when told to and have Loxone manage everything downstream of that.

if you need to 'move' your DPC level up to accommodate for level threshold for example then a tray 1 block up from DPC (with weeps at youf FFL) will allow you to breach the normal 150mm that has to be maintained below FFL. Just make sure the brickie adds a second 4" dpc 1 block up on the outer brickwork as well. Costs peanuts to do and gives really good flexibility for patio's, sloping approaches etc

EPS miles better than celotex for floor, yes you have a little more buildup to allow for but you can get 300mm of xps for same price as 100mm celotex.

That is not always the case. There is a builder out there who is simply very good at it, efficient and not greedy. They can be cheapest and also very good. They choose their clients carefully. Finding them is your challenge.

Why not just use the factory backup heater that will be already integrated inside most decent modern ASHP's?

If you wish to retain the cill, how about making a window seat but instead of using it to store the usual clutter, fill the void with EPS beads. The top edge of the cill will need to be lapped with rigid insulation to break it from the window frame and inside face.

Don’t use your finger 😉

Didn't you mean On the positive side, having now test driven several electric cars in preparation for when our ICE car finally bites the dust, they are an absolute no brainer once range anxiety is sorted and price parity reached, neither of which is very far off, albeit that it might wipe out the european car industry in the process. They are just better cars. Imagine if electric cars had come first and someone offered you a car powered by a load of small explosions with twice as many parts, poorer acceleration requiring you to visit a special place to fill up with an explosive liquid that pours fumes out the back. Its not going to sell! ASHPs however are a different matter. The technology is there, but we seem to lack the skills or tools to design the system well on a reliable basis, and then we supplement it by cloth eared LPAs like mine that demand unachievable and irrelevant noise specs. Hopefully the likes of Octopus will sort the former out - the grant harvesters and the Government certainly wont. I'm surprised that the ASHP manufacturing industry is not more active in the design/install market.

The electrical generation industry started, in earnest, planning and building windfarms 30 years ago. It takes the first decade to get though planning, then it was relatively small scale stuff employed, then the moratorium happened that forced the wind industry to develope techniques to cost effectively install at sea. Last year wind power generated more electricity than gas (I think). Now wind is the cheapest form of electrical generation, whether the fossil fuel industry likes it or not. Increasing solar generation is going to be the next target for growth, not nuclear, tidal or biomass, the economics don't stack up for them. Just looked up when Delabole Windfarm was built. 1991. It was proposed in 1989. So 2 years to get though planning and constructed. That was 32 years ago. What the (expletive deleted) is wrong with us in this country, we have really lost the plot on planning and infrastructure.

Fair position I'd say, similar here. Of course we have to be a bit careful blaming China, a proportion of their consumption is really ours as its burned to feed our relentless desire for cheap stuff. We outsourced pollution when we outsourced manufacturing, but that doesn't absolve us of responsibility.

I don't steal or murder. Some other people do. I will continue to not steal and not murder, even if they won't. I try to reduce materials, energy use and limit pollution. Some other people don't. I will continue.

Example Few question the process. We were a steel subby on a big contractors site. They were deliberately overdigging foundation pits, shuttering the size required and pouring concrete, then removing the shutter and backfilling with gravel. I mentioned to the project manager that this was wasting materials, time and money. His response was that this was on the drawing and they were getting paid for it. I'd say 30m3 of muck away, 30m3 of gravel, and all the work, all pointlessly. To me that is unfirgiveable waste, but most sytems only count skips as waste. Overdigging trenches is very common. The client is usually paying for the extra concrete. Self builders don't often have lots of timber offcuts at the end of the job. Big contractors do, but will have a certificate that shows it didn't go to landfill. "Use less stuff."

It has been the case ever since "sustainable design" became fashionable and attracted grants, (about 20 years ago?). The quangos set up to support "green construction" only knew about wind turbines, solar panels and reducing landfill. My company entered sustainabilty competitions. Our premise was for no bling, only proven technologies, on-site drainage, and, most importantly, integrated and efficient design ("use less stuff"). Judging panels were split between full support and utterly not understanding. One judge said we were cutting corners and not generating power on site. This improved a bit in a few years, and the turbines were seen to be useless and so on. But design is still usually linear. Client - architect - engineer - qs - builders. Few question the process. That was great for my business and any similar who had everyone in the same room, and we would make radical revisions at any stage. The overuse of materials could be 30% which is an awful lot of carbon. Self builders have the opportunity and desire to build efficiently. Efficient design , qusetion everything, insulation, airtightness . Be prepared to refuse alternative energy. Site control of waste (including overuse) on site.

Speak to CVC Systems directly and they’ll sort you out with whatever ventilation products you need. I buy all of the systems I install for my self build clients through them. Great guys, and great service / products.

Yes Ideally paint then paper but it's not exactly rocket science to paint after one wall has been papered. I reckon it would be 10 mins extra work to paint up to the paper with a brush if that. Then a bit of care with the roller near the paper. Were they planning to spray paint? That woukd be harder with one wall already papered.

You will need to put a membrane below your insulation and attach it to your wall dpc It’s worth putting a slip membrane on the top also BC will want to see all this before the screed is laid and should be very keen that everything is done right