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I've got a decent mix of Shelly, Zigbee and various Tuya sensors spread through the house. Don't do any smoke monitoring (not sure I'd trust anything wifi based for this) but all automation and temp monitoring in rooms. Small zigbee temp and heat sensors paired with the excellent zigbee mmWave motion sensors and a smattering of zigbee plugs. The plugs and mmWave sensors act as repeaters too which makes the whole network more stable. Have a zigbee 30A switch for my immersion and another on the car charger too. I run it all through HomeAssistant having moved on from Homey a year or so ago. I haven't spent a lot of time making it pretty but it works for at-a-glance monitoring. Some of the zigbee sensors occasionally need reset and power outages of the repeaters causes chaos but all good otherwise.

As its actually nice today, tried out running the heatpump in reverse to cool the house. To keep above dewpoint (home assistant takes care of this) set at 16C, had the slab down to 16 within 4 hours and the house is noticeably cooler when walking inside. Have 5 panasonic fancoil units in the bedrooms which will test once the painters are done.

Only person than can answer this correctly is your structural engineer. We came across a well, right along the edge of the foundations. Call to SE. Said to fill with lean mix concrete, she then designed a ground beam to span over. I would not let your demolition contractor tell you what to do. They are, after all, experts at making things fall over, not stand up.

You can easily have a modern twist on a design without it being a pastiche. Go with what you want. It is your land and money.

Hi @JohnBishop, for temperature and humidity I've tried Sonoff, Aqara and Tuya. Avoid Sonoff, the one I had was more out of calibration than the others and dropped off the network more despite being closest to the dongle. My Aqara ones are excellent (this model) and give the finest resolution data. However they are more expensive than... Tuya, which is what most of my sensors now are because they were less than £3.50 each. Beware there are two models on AliExpress, IH-K009 and ZG-227Z. IH-K009 are slightly more expensive and have performed better, but I have no idea what the difference between them is. Zigbee range is surprisingly short (well it was a surprise to me) if you have more than plasterboard and timber walls in your house. I've ended up with a second Sonoff dongle in repeater mode 8m from the other to keep sensors in all rooms connected to the network. For plugs, I went with these WiFi ones preflashed with Tasmota (Esphome wasn't an option at the time). I currently have a temperature sensor and a WiFi plug automatically controlling my heated propagator.

I don't know any reason why not if more convenient. It was like that in my parents' house. Ring them, my local water co were very co-operative. When I wanted to have the lead supply pipe replaced, their inspector helpfully decided that it was "too difficult" to relocate my existing meter under the sink so they would "need" to install a new one under the pavement, at their expense. Also he did not enforce the requirement for the pipe on my side to be 800mm below the surface, though he said he would have if it had been a contractor and not a job I had been doing personally. As I already had an off-cut of MDPE pipe the total cost was a couple of fittings, plus £20 for the 2ft cold chisel to get through the foundations.

Just cut a noggin to add height to the sole plate. Insert between the vertical studs. Like below

Now i have seen the picture, even if that particular car moves, another one will promptly fill the vacant space. The only way you will "reserve" that space for the workmen is park your own car there, and don't move it. I can see this will be an ongoing battle even when built, there will be a lot of resentment that you have taken 1 "public" space away in order to create 1 private space for you. I expect you will frequently find it blocked, sometimes blocking you in sometimes blocking you out. Been there done that when i lived with my parents, frequently had to call the police to get a car moved to get out. At least the double yellows meant they could slap a parking ticket on it as well as move it. But if there are other cars parked right up to it. they can't just push it down the road a bit, so unblocking your drive will probably require a truck to come and lift it. Best of luck but I fear you have a bumpy ride ahead.

I had to get G3 for Build control but to be honest as @TerryE said, these things can explode under certain conditions so I would have had it looked at anyway. Plumber spent 20mins checking it over and charged me £300 for the pleasure - still a big saving overall by doing it all myself. As far as servicing goes, its the PRVs and expansion vessels which need checking - easy enough to do DIY so no need to pay a plumber.

Having recently had to deal with a leak for my sons “hidden” cistern, it’s best to sort easy access now and not wait till water is flowing everywhere 🤷‍♂️

Yes. But no more hazardous that allowing unlimited flammable gas into the building via a 22mm dia pipe. Or 240V mains. Or using a cooker. I continue to think that the fuss is overdone and the annual "maintenance" can be carried out by anyone who can follow printed instructions. My disillusion with maintenance contracts was complete when I discovered that if you take one out with BG it does not even include carrying out the boiler mfrs recommended annual service tasks, merely an "inspection". So for example they would not remove the covers to clean out the condensate trap on my Vokera boiler, which does require GasSafe certification. And I bet they do not remove the cartridge on the UVC pressure reducing valve to clean the strainer, or check/adjust the expansion vessel pressure, which should all be part of a G3 service.

I agree in practice, although others argue that there is a bit of leeway because the law actually says 'MCS Planning Standards or equivalent standards', and then contend that they can themselves install to 'equivalent standards'. I would counter argue that there is no recognised equivalent standard and so, if it came to a challenge (which is the only time it matters), you would need to convince your LPA of your interpretation, which they would be disinclined to believe. Given that all development is unlawful unless its expressly lawful, that puts you on the back foot and you would need to contest your case with the planning inspectorate or ultimately through the courts (in the latter case with MCS likely being called as an 'expert witness'), whilst risking enforcement action the effect of which is to disable your heating. This is hardly an attractive prospect. So if you do want to claim 'equivalence' then you would be well advised IMHO to seek, prior to installation, a certificate of lawful development (specifying the methods to be used so its clear you wont be using MCS). If its rejected you can then appeal to the planning inspector and make your 'equivalence' case before you commit. Of course if you are a long way from neighbours much of planning law can, in practice, be safely ignored, on the grounds that nobody is likely to complain and thus the LPA wont bother taking action. As @johnmo says monoblocs are pre-filled and do not require f-gas or gas safe qualifications. They are different, most plumbers have gas-safe but relatively few have f-gas which tends to reside in the aircon industry. Splits do generally require f-gas. I have not seen this condition applied to a planning consent (and I have looked at a fair few decision notices). I'm not sure it would even be lawful to do so because building regulations are, so far as I am aware, not a material consideration in planning which is (or is intended to be) solely concerned about the public impact of development. Planning decision notices may remind you of the need to comply with regulations other than Planning law, but that's not a condition just a helpful reminder of a requirement which applies anyway. However compliance with building regulations is always mandatory anyway (albeit that the regs themselves have many get-out clauses) If you have express planning consent then you don't need MCS (unless the LPA has made that a condition of the consent, which is unlikely). You must always comply with building regulations when you do any building work, but only some activities are notifiable (ie require you actually to tell BC). The ones I am aware of which are relevant to an ASHP installation are the installation of a new electrical circuit and the installation of a UVC. Both of these must (in England), so far as I am aware, be notified to building control unless they are carried out by a tradesman that is a member of an approved registered body. MCS is not an approved body for either of these, but almost any plumber/electrician will be a member of an approved body. Yes. If you have express planning consent then you can cheerfully self install without any further ado, either notifying BC about the UVC and/or new circuit (they may or may not care) or getting pretty much any plumber to do or sign off the UVC, and any electrician to do or sign off the circuit installation. It you apply for consent for a new build or major extension, and it happens to include an ASHP, then LPAs seem quite frequently to concentrate on the bigger picture not the minutiae of the ASHP itself. You are thus quite likely to get consent which includes the ASHP and you are good to go. Many on this forum have done exactly that. However if the development is solely the retrofit of an ASHP to an existing building, then you either have to go PD = MCS or you have to ask for express consent for the ASHP alone, which of course focusses the LPA attention. Depending on your LPA you may be faced either with an impossible task (eg mine) or they may wave it through with little fuss/constraint (eg @sharpener). If you do get express consent then what it says about new builds applies. In either case if you don't use MCS you don't get the grant. Otherwise its a turd. The hope on the horizon is flexiorb, which is developing standards alternative to the MCS ones. They have started with solar panels, but say they intend to go onto ASHPs. Its currently unclear to me whether they will gain much traction or be any more sane, although that appears to be their aspiration.

At the risk of offending our fellow members - WTF.. you can actually prove, using the three riders of the MCS apocalypse viz; data, physics and algebra that you only need 3kW and that your DHW demand is manageable in that envelope so why emit the carbon making an 11Kw unit when 3 will do it. This whole game is madness but if you want a decent EPC, in your self build, then your choices / options are limited.

>>> Install a supply for the builders in the garden, but make it robust enough (maybe brick built with a roof) and then run a supply from the meter to the house when the time comes. You can do any of the 3 you mentioned. I'm going for your 2nd option but into a GRP kiosk (see the forum for example). That way you only need the expensive DNO out once. You need a bit of extra room for that obviously. Re your 3rd option. It seems the tools most subbies use these days are battery ones - so it may only be a few big tools, temporary lighting etc that you'll be powering anyway. >>> Also, can the "permanent" supply be put into the house as soon as it is "wind and watertight"? Yes, in fact it'll be installed into an enclosure on one of your outside walls. For that, you only need the bit of wall it'll be permanently installed into. From memory, you need to install the enclosure. Then you call a supplier to install a meter. Then it's your task to have it wired further from there - as and when you're ready. And yes, the DNO prices are steep. Some of the work you can organise yourself, that is the 'contestable' stuff - but that's why you might want to have the DNO do the minimum work.

First hit companies house h dissolved in March 24.

Hi all , I am new to the forum , and have just started a wrap around extension on my house. Approx 100sqm , single and double story. I will be calling on you experience from some advice very soon if that’s okay. looking forward to the journey. thanks JeffB

A newer ASHP with an inverter would certainly be quieter, but not necessarily much more efficient. It really is a heating engineering problem you have, the same would (and quite often does) apply to a gas boiler when one of the controls has gone faulty (or never wired right in the first place. It's just that some people get bamboozled when you mention "heat pump" and claim they can't understand it. In reality, the ASHP is a magic box of tricks that will heat up the water when you give it a few commands from a programmer according to how it says in it's manual. You don't need to understand how it works internally, just read the manual, understand what signals it is expecting and see which one is missing, then investigate to find out why.

I think it is time you tried to get a local electrician. And that needs to be al electrician that has a good understanding of heating systems. It's a job to say if the heating is not coming on because something is faulty, or because it has never been wired properly at the start. What is pretty clear is your system is somewhat basic. You don't have zone control valves or a local control box on your UFH manifolds for instance. It is normal practice with UFH to have an individual thermostat in each room and a control box next to each UFH manifold to drive a row of actuator valves.

Can you be a bit more descriptive and include some pictures? e.g "The pump sounds like a tractor and is rusting to bits" Are we talking about the actual outdoor part of the ASHP? or a water circulating pump in the house? A quick look at the manual shows yours is not inverter driven, so when running it will be on at full speed, or off, with nothing in between,

Not today, he was in our restaurant and hour ago.

Yes if feels right to feed a Zombie - it just keeps shuffling along with with its limp hands on the ends of outstretched arms emitting a constant moaning noise. I wonder if Simon Pegg is on the forum, he would know what to do.

Every couple of week I pass International Plywood near Gloucester (I am on the M5). I often wonder if they are as good as International Rescue (a 60's puppet show).