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Morning all. I don’t drop in here very often these days but just happened to browse on my way back from an extended trip to the USA. Lo and behold I see a post from @Jeremy Harris talking about Sunamp so thought I stick my head above the parapet and say hi. I’ve just looked at when I last posted here. It was June 2020! Where in hells name does time go? So here’s a quick summary of what I’ve been up to in that time (possibly not in chronological order): Fully retired (two years ago). Finished my build which is well documented here and there on this forum. Then sold it in 2021 and bought a “project” which I gutted (nothing left but 4 external walls, the roof and a worrying array of steel and acroprops). Then spent all lockdown rebuilding it. Finished the house but am still working on the landscaping. Spend vast amounts of time faffing about on my small holding (came with the house). Have I learnt anything? Yes, a fair bit: Stop buying houses on the national park, planning is a PIA (but the views are exceptional). When you retire you can’t work out how you ever had time to work! I can’t sit still. Wish I could (I’ve always known this really). Renovating an existing property is way more difficult than a new build. Building during lockdown was a complete nightmare. The window supplier/installer is more important than the window! Actually had a great experience with this renovation which is a world apart from the pain I experienced with EcoHaus SW and Internorm. Just stay WAY clear of “bleeding edge” technology. Exhibit A: SUNAMP (I might comment on the thread which started this resurrection off). Land is a time sync, the level of maintenance is mind blowing BUT it gives you an excuse to buy a digger, tractor and trailer. Plus a myriad of attachments Well that’s it for now. I can’t promise I’ll return to being a regular contributor. I simply spend much less time time in front of technology these days. I much prefer being outside. P.S. I think I’ve got one more build in me before I fully reach my target of eccentricity and too many animals.

I’ve just posted on the “Introduce Yourself Forum” for those that don’t know me (or have chosen to forget 😁). You can add my name to the list of Sunamp casualties. Somewhere on this forum is a picture of one of my Sunamps (I had a pair) bursting its way out of the steel casing. It was replaced under warranty. What you won’t know is the second unit also failed. 4 weeks after I sold the house! I don’t know if the buyer eventually got any redress from Sunamp but from a couple of emails they sent me I don’t think so. In my latest build (actually a renovation) I fitted ground source with a lovely shiny cylinder full of water. The whole system works like a dream and has never missed a beat. I intentionally went for a German brand with a proven track record in the market. I would never go near bleeding edge, emerging technology in a property again. It’s just not worth the grief.

Quote from here https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-uks-electricity-was-cleanest-ever-in-2024/ Other key insights from the data include: In 2024, the country generated just 91 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity from fossil fuels – mainly gas, as coal was phased out in September – down from 203TWh in 2014 (-55%). Renewable sources more than doubled from 65TWh in 2014 to 143TWh in 2024 (+122%). Gas-fired power stations remained the UK’s single-largest source of electricity in 2024, generating some 88TWh (28%), just ahead of wind at 84TWh (26%). The remaining sources of electricity in 2024 were nuclear (41TWh, 13%), biomass (40TWh, 13%), imports (33TWh, 11%) and solar (14TWh, 4%). Some 58% of electricity – or 64% excluding imports – came from clean sources, both records, but a long way off the government’s target of at least 95% clean power by 2030. The emissions associated with UK electricity supplies has fallen from 150m tonnes of CO2 (MtCO2) in 2014 to below 40MtCO2 in 2024, down 74%. The reduction in the carbon intensity of electricity means that an electric vehicle (EV) now has lifecycle CO2 savings of 70% over a petrol car, up from only 50% in 2014. Similarly, a household using a heat pump instead of a gas boiler is now cutting its heat-related CO2 emissions by 84% per year, rather than only 45% in 2014. Again to circle back to should we be looking to swap out direct electric for HP systems... Yes, because we would be massively reducing the co2 output from those properties but also, it would reduce the demand for electricity For every home currently on electric you swap to a HP, you can move another 2 similar homes currently on gas to HPs without needing to increace the electric supply at all. If 10% of homes are on direct electric at the moment that means we could end up with 30% of homes on HPs without any additional generation capacity needed. (broad figures)

Hi @Jeremy Harris. Firstly, any opinions or information hereby given by myself are my own views, experiences, and knowledge ONLY, and are to be taken as such. I am just a random bloke on the internet. However….the FACTS, ones which I can evidence, are as follows. I know of a number of these units which have forcibly ejected the PCM from the case, however it is purely a matter of my own deduction as to the cause for some, and direct and factual knowledge for others, given whether I was involved directly or indirectly, and whether I had the opportunity to examine the failed unit(s) or not. Also, some I installed and some I simply attended after they failed. Firstly, Jeremy, I do not wish to give you a bum steer here, seeing as it makes sense for you to go KISS and adopt the new unit offered to you currently FOC. Please ask if you require further clarification, as with ALL MEMBERS, by sending me a PM to enquire about my experiences / feedback, and reasons why I would perhaps pursue your other options. FYI, I do have better things to do y’all, so please only PM if maybe you are currently in conflict or suffering difficulties, but I will help members as much as I can (if I can). Perhaps @readiescards can enlighten us as to whether SA compensated him for property damage, when his units failed at his rental property. If so, then I assume they would meet your costs, @Jeremy Harris, for repairs to your home too. An architect I know suffered the same fate as you Jeremy, in their new home, as did someone aforementioned in this thread (someone who was on their 7th replacement SA unit before turning his back on their final offering, understandably then favouring an UVC which to date AFAIK has not flooded his home, unlike the SA’s). I can only assume the architect was compensated for his damages, especially with having to move his family and new born baby into a hotel for a week or two; that unit also leaked from a 1st floor airing cupboard and molten PCM made its way all through the hall/stairs/landing etc wiping out the house electrical system as it went. The title of this thread says “catastrophic”, which I heard a lot from folk where these things had gone, often spectacularly, wrong. Some of these instances are documented on Buildhub, pre-covid, IIRC, on public forum. I can throw up some links if anyone is interested, searching is relatively easy though for anyone who cares to investigate for their own satisfaction. The biggest kick in the bollocks is where these are the customers only means of obtaining hot water. To date I can recall only 3 ‘catastrophic’ UVC failures in over 30 years in the trade, all due to negligence or ignorance from either the owner or the installer. Only one was due to the actual cylinder failing, and that was a POS Ariston (glass lined) one where the sacrificial magnesium anode had not been replaced. To date, the number of failed SA units I alone have dealt with / been associated with is in double-digits; the first number is not a 1. That’s just me, a non-registered installer (I was never ‘registered’ per-se but I was drafted by them and became the 1st SA installer in the UK, outside of SA that is, employed indirectly by themselves in that capacity for nearly 2 years), and the majority of my association was not as a new installer but by being a repair or replacement agent, often under duress. During that period, and then beyond, I visited various units ranging from the early version of the Sunamp PV, all the way through to the units that preceded the “Thermino” range; the latest version of the UniQ, which had the onboard electronics vs the large wall mounted controller. Again, for completeness, I have zero association or experience with the newest Thermino range, but my own opinion there is that it is very much the same box which the sales & marketing team have given a new name, perhaps simply to disassociate the new product from the muddied reputation of its predecessor. Sunamp, Thermino and Aquafficient (AFAIK) are the same product from the same source. Having been left at the frontline with several disgruntled customers my love of these things quickly diminished, but, for clarity and completeness, up until this point I thought these things were ‘the future’ and I was a huge advocate of them. I genuinely thought they were the mutts nuts; more so when they were actually affordable in comparison to a quality UVC! Currently, as Jeremy states earlier, the pricing of these for supply & fit via their ‘trusted partners’ is now just completely insane, however there is no law against overcharging unfortunately. I can evidence instances where SA refused warranty claims, until I got involved and supported the claimant in their representations. Miraculously, once I got involved, free units were then immediately doled out (supplied and fitted free of charge)…. In most instances initially SA refused to honour the warranty claiming the units had been fitted in a “non-standard” way. It was a little embarrassing for SA when I told them that @readiescards refusal could not possibly be upheld; seeing that I worked closely with SA to pioneer one of the few dual SA low & hi temp installs in the UK at his property and Sunamp had endorsed and approved directly my own design for his installation, scrutinised and approved by the man in charge himself no less. Odd that they forgot about this, when first approached by the client independently. “Well done Sunamp”, my arse. @Jeremy Harris, I wonder if you could clarify if it was after this thread was posted that you got your offer of the replacement? Feel free to ignore this question, it is purely for my own curiosity, but it would be refreshing to hear that this was a genuine olive branch that you were offered with some signs of sincerity… Anyhoo…..I think you all get the idea of my position, so let’s get to the burning question: “Why do these things keep going pop?”. The answer, not only in my opinion but also from first hand experience, is systemic bean-counting in the manufacturing processes, plus the dismissal of mine and former SA employees suggestions for making these things more robust. The top line obviously came above everything else. These things were first put together rather clumsily, and the tour of their manufacturing facility back then was ‘interesting’. SA PV’s just choked up with limescale due to the tiny micro bore pipework in the HEx, and the cheap option “water conditioners” recommended to the customers were not even touching the sides of combatting scale etc. If you live in anything resembling hard water, you will need a full-on water softener to stand a chance here, but all I found were plug-in bits of crap with a clamp on the pipe performing miracles, or not. The amount of crud that I got out of one SA PV in the Forest of Dean was clearly the cause of that lady having no hot water (or resolution) for 13 weeks or so, which is how long she was given either excuses or zero communication for. You could understand if this was a one-man band, but not what you’d expect from a company of that size / structure, absolutely terrible. Things seemed to worsen with the advent of the UniQ, IMO, where these would often swell up with overheating of the PCM to the point where the lids were bulging 75mm upwards, and the forces thereof were enough to snap the M5 Allen head bolts off that held the lids on. That and cheap overheat stats keeping tripping out rendering the unit dead. Pics of those still provoke gasps, as you need to see it to actually believe it. Most would jump to the assumption that the incoming cold mains pressure had compromised the SA HEx, but no. To this date, I know of not a single unit that had a failure that had potable water constantly leaking from the HEx. Let’s be Sherlock Holmes for a moment, “Fetch my pipe, my dear Watson, we may be here a while…”. Mains pressure leaking from an instantaneous water heaters HEx (heat exchanger) would result in a flooding of a property where you needed wellies. This type of failure would result in a constant flow of water coming out at mains pressure, until discovered, and then the mains being switched off to prevent the 10’s or 100’s or 1000’s of litres of water, or more, being lost. In a nutshell, If it was a cold mains related failure, you’d bloody well know about it. These instances seem to recount my experiences, eg where the units puke out the excess PCM due to it ‘going nuclear’ and the only damage / evidence is the small-ish volume of molten salty yogurt making its way through the fabric of the building (vs constant running cold water flooding out everywhere). Jeremy says in his instance this may be because the PCM sealed the leak, but me, personally, I doubt the PCM could ever hold back static cold mains pressure, and even less where there would be a path already created from the hypothetical hole in the HEx, carved by the molten PCM, to atmosphere. The issue actually was / maybe still is (admitted to me directly by an ex Technical rep at SA) that the thermistor string that resides vertically in the core was ‘on the move’. Curious of this explanation, whilst stood in front of another trio of failed units in one home and yanking my hair out in despair, I checked the validity of this information / theory. It seemed kosher as the thermistor string was only held in place by gravity plus an ill-fitting compression cable entry gland (I’ll post the pics of these parts when I can find my other iPad) which seemed completely incapable of doing its job; the gland couldn’t close down tight enough at its max excursion so was pointless / useless. This chap was clearly a clever lad and had looked into this with vigour, arriving at this conclusion from (I assume) multiples of other similar instances of failure which forced him to surmise. Saved me a lot of looking / testing / time wasting because he was spot on! Shame he’s not there any more, but SA had difficulty holding onto good people, particularly those who had an opinion. So, to explain what was happening, the PCM would ‘flex’ slightly during heat / cool cycling and this created physical movement within the core of the cell. There was a flimsy tube set into the centre of the PCM core, which allowed the thermistor string to be pushed downwards into it, and each heat / cool event seemed to be creating a little movement which somehow squeezed or otherwise manipulated the tube which translated into the upwards migration of the lowest thermistor of the string. This could very well have been happening maybe by only 10th’s or 100th’s of a mm a time, but that marked the beginning of the end. As the immersion heater is installed at the very bottom of these things, and the electronics that switch 230v power to the immersion on / off rely on feedback from the thermistor string, as the lowest thermistor creeps away from the heat source that provides the temp reference the longer the immersion stays on and the hotter the PCM becomes. This continues from bad, to worse, right through to ‘salty ceiling mode’ kicking in. Basically the immersion was then staying on way past the point that the PCM melt-point required, which then led to the PCM58 effectively boiling (I think it did that at around 85º) and there’s the source of your salt-puking problem. The PCM cell is a sealed unit and comes factory fitted with its own internal ‘PCM PRV’ which opens to allow the PCM to escape when over pressure is terminal, eg to allow it to go ‘POP’ and stop it going ‘BANG’. The aforementioned project where 3 units failed in a few months was painful to be around / associated with, as SA paid me to go and replace them with these “new” UniQ’s (with the onboard electronics) and I thought “phew, now time to pack my shit up and go home again” as I was confident these new units would be “all sorted”….. “Nope”, and back I went, again, to be screamed at again. The point being, these people did not listen, or learn. My new found confidence at the arrival of these replacement units was short lived, as when I returned back to this site and opened up the first of the then failed replacements (yes that’s right) I couldn’t believe what I was looking at. The build quality was horrific, cable management was not just rough as a badgers arse but also (IMO) dangerous, with single PVC 230v cables not in containment or grommeted and more. I have MANY pictures should anyone think I am just a raging buffoon or a liar. No wonder they didn’t last very long….. That’s where my SA adventure ended. Hello UVC, I’ll never be unfaithful to you ever again. So, on to the next issues…. These things were sold as not needing G3 certification, “requiring no expensive annual maintenance or inspection” and so on, but I’m not sure what the advice (instructions) from SA is these days. If anyone could post here to clarify, eg if this is now superseded by a new sales patter (stated in black & white that G3 is now needed or not needed) as this may now have changed, that would be nice to hear about. I had always been sceptical of this ‘no G3 etc’ claim as the units all require expansion vessels, these are supplied by SA and their inclusion is stipulated in the SA MI’s. Mentioned previously in this thread is an instance where someone mentions possibly a unit failure being attributed to the EV being spent and ineffective; I’d look into this though, as if you’re not told to check these in the MI’s then why would (should) you be accountable for this item then failing and you then being incorrectly or unfairly deemed “out of warranty” and left to foot the bill?!? That’s negligence in my books. I think this suggested lack of requirement for service / maintenance was total sales BS, yet it made for an excellent USP. *Has anyone reading this been told of any annual service requirement for a Thermino or Aquafficient? Please say now, or forever hold my piece*. As with any EV, the one fitted mandatorily to every SA unit surely has to be commissioned to match the back-pressure pre-charge according to the incoming mains water pressure, for every single unique instance / install, and this then can only be proven to be doing its job of protecting the unit IF IT IS INSPECTED AND CHECKED FREQUENTLY. This periodic service / inspection protects against a failed EV unit being inadvertently left in commission, for one, but also allows for changes to be made to these values downstream eg if the street (network) pressure at the dwelling has changed since the unit was 1st installed, aka “good practice”. Now we come to the cherry on the G3 cake. So…..NOW you have to install a control group to a SA unit (a combination of valves that provide incoming cold mains pressure reduction and pressure relief (discharge)) a-la an UVC install which requires annual inspection to check these safety devices are in good order / functioning correctly etc, BUT, does the new SA MI state that you need to prevent over pressure from mixing taps if this is a replacement or retro-fit instance? Because if the pressure reducing valve is only at the SA cold inlet at the device, then the network cold mains pressure will simply bypass this (by reverse pressurisation through back-flow from showers / thermostatic valves / mixer taps and so on) and render all that completely useless eg a total waste of time and effort. No mention in the new SA Thermino MI’s about the pressure relief valve being a D1 or D2 discharge and how it should be installed / terminated / pipe size charts etc? Just say's, from what I can find online, to fit a 6 bar PRV with no mention of what happens when that opens!! Surely if a PRV can be discharging potable water to a drain for the rest of time, if unnoticed, it should then be governed eg fits into G3 categorisation? What a mess…

This makeup as well with steico boards as sarking. And propassiv inside for air tightness and vapour permeability. Note that the timber rafters are the posi rafters.

You will struggle to get a good value with attic trusses without using PIR - which I wouldn’t. Posi rafters will go right to your wallplate you don’t even need a dwarf wall if you don’t want. You can do a 304mm posi rafter and blown cellulose insulation. That’s my makeup for our habitable attic rooms:

Don't worry - we are not suggesting foam cavity insulation. @SilverShadow and I would recommend expended polystyrene (EPS) beads. They are mainstream and fine if you can get someone to do the job. We have seen what has been done. I am now worried re what else has not been done, or has not been done right. I rather think an RICS surveyor would be a wise move. You want someone who is prepared to 'dig deeply' to spot any and all potential issues.

Very many thanks for that marathon response, Nick, full of tremendously helpful information, not least that it seems that my theory about over-pressure may well be completely awry! I've tried to trim down the key elements with replies, below Ours is fed from a Harvey water softener, always has been, and I've never seen any signs of scale in the pipes. Last time I did some work on the plumbing was to install a "bum washer" toilet a couple of years or so ago, and the pipes I cut into to plumb that in were as clean as a whistle, thankfully. I can understand how hard water would play havoc with something with small bore pipe work, though, but I doubt that has contributed to our failure. Matches our experience, I actually left the water supply on to the Sunamp after the failure, just because it didn't occur to me that this could be related to a water leak, given that the leakage had stopped. We both showered with reasonably hot water from it the following morning, both because this was going to be our last chance to use hot water for a while and because I felt it made sense to get the heat out of the unit so the PCM went solid and stopped leaking. It did puzzle me that the leakage just stopped, TBH, as you rightly say, if water at 3 bar was entering the PCM cell then it seems unlikely that solid PCM should stop it. This seems to make perfect sense to me. I haven't had the lid off (simply because I didn't want to interfere with anything Sunamp might request) but the PCM has mostly leaked out around/through the grommets where the pipes enter and exit at the rear. Looks to me as if the stuff may have come out of the top of the PCM cell, perhaps. It's then run down the back and formed that big icicle of solid PCM. Based on what you've suggested I've just had a look back at the energy data for the past couple of weeks (I run Home Assistant and have a separate OM115 meter on the Sunamp supply). What I tried to look for was an indication that it had drawn more energy than normal, in other words that the power had stayed on for longer, in the days leading up to the failure. There were two days when the energy used was much higher than I would have expected, first on 2nd January, then again two days before the failure, on 9th January. The night of the failure, 11th January, seems normal. TBH I can't see how we'd have used 8kWh of hot water on 9th January, there was nothing out of the ordinary the day before to have used a lot more hot water than usual, nor on 2nd January. Regarding the new requirement for a cold water PRV at 6 bar, in our case this is a bit of a nonsense requirement if it is intended to protect against the static cold water pressure exceeding 6 bar, simply because our well pump could never achieve that, even if the pressure switch were to fail and keep it turned on. I'm sure they will fit one, given that it's now a requirement, but I'm not going to be overly worried about it ever operating, TBH. I still have the drain and tundish from when the Sunamp PV was installed, so that can be re-used. It's easily visible, so I can check it regularly to see if there is ever a leak. Thanks again for taking the time to write this Nick, it's really helpful. I will try and take a look at the position of the sensor string when the unit is taken out, to see if it has worked its way up within the dip tube. If that may be the root cause, then it seems simple to better retain it. I had to change the sensor string when our original control box was replaced, and well remember it just being a loose drop fit down that dip tube. This was over 5 years ago now, though, and it has never occurred to me to check it.

Just to give an update on this, for anyone who’s interested: I got my estimate wrong in my first post & the builder, & his irate wife, have chased for payment several times on three outstanding invoices which total about £10,800. I haven’t paid any of this £10,800. I arranged for another builder to spend a couple of hours with me on site, looking at all the problems. He provided a report/quote detailing remedial works, etc. I paid this builder for his time, so I’m not going to feel bad if I decide to use another builder when we get going on site again. I’ve deducted his bill, the cost of the remedial works & around £2,500 for consequential loss (my time away from my business spent dealing with these problems) from the £10,800. I have yet to get a cost to get the drains sorted out; once I have this, I’ll end up with a figure I’m prepared to pay the cowboy builder if he sends me a credit note (probably around £9,000 – that’s the credit note – not the amount I’ll be paying). The mortar was assessed as being good & strong, so we’ll be OK to fix up then build off the wonky walls. Thanks @Roger440 for prompting me to get this assessed. I wrote the builder a very long email with pictures attached, explaining each of the main defects in detail, a breakdown of costs for remedial works & my intention to pay him once I’m in receipt of a satisfactory credit note + information he was supposed to give me which I have not yet received. Also, I included a detailed explanation of the saga of the c £7,000 he overcharged me earlier in the build, before reluctantly issuing a credit note, so in the unlikely event he makes a court claim, I have everything I need, all in one email. I sent the email just before Christmas & I haven’t received any more demands for payment, nor any other communication since.

How about GRP or stainless steel? I think the problem with all material selection is not the materials, but the manufacturing and installation. Usually material limitations can be designed out.

Just to drive home the point, as others have said, and hopefully provide some clarity, the original post refers to the principal designer (PD) role under the building regulations. This is a separate role to the PD role under CDM, but just to confuse things they decided to use the same titles. CDM principal designer Responsible for ensuring H&S has been considered in the design in terms of construction and future maintenance and any risks are designed out and preparing H&S file at the end of the project. Doesn't necessarily have to have designed anything themselves, as designers have responsibilities under regulations. CDM principal contractor Responsible for H&S onsite during construction phase. Prepare the construction phase plan, provide welfare facilities and coordinate contractors. Basically manage the site, individual contractors still have H&S responsibilities under the regulations. BR principal designer Responsible for ensuring and declaring that the design is compliant with the regs. Architects should really be doing this under there role in completing technical design stage anyway. The only real additional requirement is they must sign a declaration. Again, designers still have responsibility for there own portion. OP there should be no issue in architect continuing to act in this role during the works but you will have to consult with them if there are any changes to the design. BR principal contractor Responsible for ensuring construction is as per the design, and therefore compliant with regs. Has to sign a declaration on completion and therefore assume a lot of risk. PAS 8671:2022 is where to find the full details of the PD role but there is a brief summary of that and PAS 8672:2022 here: https://consultations.hse.gov.uk/bsr/building-safety-competence-information-pc-pd/supporting_documents/Building safety competence information for principal contractors and principal designers.pdf If you are competent you can be the client and fulfill all these roles. PD and PC roles under the building regs don't place any more requirements on the lead designer and main contractor then they would usually have contractually anyway. The purpose is basically to clear up the fact that it is not the building control's responsibility to ensure design and construction comply with the regs and if you manage to get something non-compliant approved and signed off, and it later comes to light, there is someone to be held responsible.

@Lewis88 follow what has been drawn up by sbms, that’s probably one of the most clearly laid out drawings you could want.

Same here all the windows and doors replaced with PVC double glazed back in 1994 still got them 30 years later - glazed units might not be up to current regs but they all still seal perfectly no leaks or drafts - never had a single glazed unit fail and they haven't gone yellow either but they were the best quality units we could find. Neighbour is on his 3rd set of windows and doors and he's only been in that house 20 years - first set to replace aluminium framed originals, they went yellow in a few years and then one by one the glazing started failing - most recent set has already had glazing units replaced Buy cheap rubbish you need to buy it more often

3g everywhere is best but if you have to choose to make compromises then proper wind and air sealing is massively more important than U values. This obviously eliminates any kind of sliding brush seals. Look for triple rubber seals that work by being compressed between the frame and sash. Pay attention to the rubber welding in the corner of the seals as this is an area often skipped. Use a separate concrete precast lintel on each leaf of the cavity and save some money over the worse performing catnic ones.

It was getting to summer and I was keen to start, so I asked our local bc if I could do a phased building regs submission. they said yes. so I submitted the drawings for piling and ringbeam design from the structural engineer, while we were getting the piles in we asked for a list of stuff bc wanted. very little in fact, sap assessment was the one they really wanted, the rest was just loads of drawings forwarded from other designers. structural design for roof timbers. structural design for all lintels and steel work structural design for block n beam. we had the house up to wall plate level before we had submitted everything. we also had a couple of conditions relating to cladding choices and stone, I told them that I could start building because these conditions didn’t effect the construction of the house it was only the outside facade, we got these signed off a few weeks before we placed the orders for the materials.

I will have to look that up. It's a pair of contacts on the main ASHP not the controller, and you have to enable that with one of the DIP switches in the control board. Do you have the installation manual for the HP itself, it should be there, if not I can photograph the relevant pages of my manual.

I think you have probably found the solution. IIRC Farnell stocked the right one for me but I didn't want to buy one as a spare for precisely that reason. Steca would not confirm it but the loss of time and date following power interruptions led me to the same conclusion. I think the first replacement inverter may have been old stock as the model had been superseded.

IME they all pad the quotes with an unquantifiable amount for "MCS compliance costs" or some such which means some scope to haggle. Tell them you would like to give them the work, what can they do for you? "Nothing for the dumb" as my mother used to say. Various horror stories about BG on Vaillant forum, I would steer clear of them.

Like my 2011 Steca solar inverter it might have a supercapacitor for backup, 3V Panasonic IIRC. Not very reliable, have had whole inverter replaced twice under warranty bc it failed, will try and fix it myself it it goes again as is now out of warranty.

I have a 5kW version of the same era with that same controller. I concluded very early on that the controller was the most illogical thing known to man and there was no way the average "man in the street" could program that and set heating schedules etc. So mine is controlled from the "room thermostat" input and that connects to the UFH controllers and a perfectly normal central heating time clock that everyone understands. So I don't even bother to set the time on mine, let alone anything else. So I honestly can't say if forgetting the time and mode is normal or not. The main thing for me is, do any parameters that you have customised remain after a power cycle? THAT would be a right royal PITA if they all needed resetting after a power cycle.

S Devon. I think your quotes are pretty high for 7kW, unless London/SE. Try asking the HG if they can match the BG one or come near it.

BG will probably subcontract the job so it's anyones guess who will do it at what standard. Press them to tell you. Gledhill are reportedly not testing their cyls 100% and leaks and rattling internals have been mentioned somewhere. What size? FWIW I got a Vaillant 12kW HP, 270 l thermal store and 8 new rads for well under your BG quote.

I agree. Cold I actually don’t mind too much it’s the endless rain that drives me mad. A mate of mine who’s a former royal marine always scoffs at my moaning and states “your skin is waterproof”. But there is nothing more miserable than working in the rain and where I am on very heavy clay it doesn’t take long before it resembles the battle of the Somme. My solution (as is your plan) was to build a couple of posh sheds. The main workshop is fully insulated and is my default hiding place in the rain.

Just disconnect the flow & return where they connect to the conservatory manifold and cap them off with a speed fit stop end. Remove the blending valve and pump. Obviously you can't remove the pipes from the floor and it would make sense to leave the manifold in place. Conservatory disconnected. Of course, once everything is fitted and they have gone home some one might reconnect the flow and return to the manifold....

OK, your aforesaid mentioned malfeasance warrants my forbearance

Norrsken. in Bournemouth.

Very easy to miss, Nick, if it wasn't for the fact that I'd used this exact PCB fuse before, back when I built the first iteration of our house environmental monitoring system (the very old Picaxe microcontroller based one) then I'd have missed it, too, TBH. I wasn't actually looking for it, either. I just wanted to compare the board inside our box with the one in your photo's, just out of curiosity, to see what had changed (not very much, it seems)!

I scanned all the MI’s but no mention, and not seen that type before. A long way away from the incoming terminal though! I suppose without any mention, a-la the PRV discharge details etc, then who’s to know? Shame the original docs took time to mention / demonstrate such provision, so another example of folk left looking for their own answers, but good to see it there and good for folks to know, thanks.

I've had a look inside our UniQ control box and it does have a 2A fuse on the incoming supply to the PCB, as does the board in your photo, @Nickfromwales. Not obvious unless you know what these Buss PCB fuses look like though. From one of your photos, it's marked "F1" on the board screen print: This would be fine for back-protecting up to a 3m 0.75mm² cable run, even though it's perhaps not ideal, in that it's generally best to protect cables at the supply end. It would prevent the PCB tracks from blowing though, I'm sure, and is probably good enough to protect the cable in the majority of installations, perhaps.

100% this. We should have had high level insulation back in 2016, but the new government scrapped it. The other part of the equation is ensuring houses are built to thwt spec and things like loft insulation aren't ommited. The building inspector system needs to be scrapped and moved back to council inspectors who's next job doesn't depend on them signing this one off.

That's two versions later than the last PDF I had. The version I had (just after I had installed the thing) was V2.0. I think the one I worked to initially may have been V1.7, maybe V1.8, can't be 100% sure as I made a point of deleting all the earlier drafts in case I opened the wrong one by mistake!

It IS possible for us all to be warm BUT the capital cost required to do so means it is not going to happen. Even with the high electricity cost at present, my house in the Highlands uses not much over £300 per year to heat it. I can only speculate how low that would be if I had built the identical house in a less cold part of the UK. If every house was that efficient, then most people could afford to be warm. But there is no way many houses will get anywhere near that any time soon. But what angers me is there is no reason why ALL new build houses are not that good already as built. Honestly the cost of doing so in a new build is not much and build time is the optimum time to insulate it properly and make the right choices like low temperature UFH etc.

EPS based ICF or a TF with a decent thickness of blown-in cellulose is the No.1 choice from my experiences, mostly with MBC TF’s passiv spec offering. Just absolutely graveyard silent at night (300mm in walls and 400mm in roof). Absolute bliss.

My own direct experience from SIPS is that each project has been notably, sometimes adversely acoustically transparent, with a lot of noise pollution making its way inboard. Particular annoyance for me was the roof structures, hugely more so when flat, with the noise of rain hammering against the roof; literally, in some cases, it would require you to raise your voice when talking inside / upstairs when ‘torrential’. One architect stated this “connected the occupant with the outdoors”…… I then suggested we fitted an additional retro fit layer of 100mm of acoustic insulation before plaster boarding of ceilings commenced, he agreed and in it went! When I’m in bed at night, the only thing I want to be connected to is the wife.

There were so many different manuals flying around back then even SA were sending the wrong MI’s out with units delivered to customers homes. I found one email with a historic manual: Top image shows the originally featured (obligatory) 3a fuse integral of the original units, titled “constant supply”, the one servicing the PCB etc, with other versions showing an external secondary supply dedicated to “control circuit power supply”, but at 6a. Here’s 2 shovels, take your pick…

That report projects that renewable will hit around 300Twh by 2030 and gas will fall to below 50Twh (less than half now) using policies as of June 2024 ie pre Labour. IIRC the tory plans didn't include any onshore wind (cheapest wind source) and labour have said they will remove the defacto ban. I'd say *if* a significant restart of onshore wind can be accompanied by more offshore and solar the the goal of having near zero (gas for backup only) electricity by the early 2030's isn't unrealistic.

Never wanted it, but workmate bottled out. I was hired as an Elf, but got promoted. Peter's Principle came into play.

Hello I am a civil engineer, 40+yrs of building and road construction/maintenance and building design. Recently moved to a "project" house in SP9 post code. Every month reveals further unplanned projects to go along with the planned improvements. Much of my work was in africa and asia so I will benefit from the insights here of trades and other building and related professionals with uk experience. I hope I can contribute to some discussions over the coming months.

I made a small L shaped kitchen with an oak worktop and it looked fabulous. However we took advise and oiled the worktop, and even for a weekend home it was just so easy to mark. Not practical at all, much as I like wood I’d never do that again. Our current worktop is shiny granite and I’m forever needing to polish it, so this time round I want something semi matte. I've fitted melamine worktops using a jig for the joins and with care you can get that spot on, but for any other worktop it’s supply and fit.

Atag A325ECX, rated modulation is about 7 to 31kW, at lower flow temperatures.

Hi there, Sorry to hear about the shoddy way you've been treated. Out of all the trades, i've always found builders to be the ones to be most-wary of I'm sure many on here will have much more sound advice than me (i'm usually the one asking for advice), but this article may be helpful in terms of next steps: https://www.checkatrade.com/blog/ask-a-trade/how-to-deal-with-cowboy-builders/ You can also get insulation retro-fitted into the cavity wall, as a last resort (EPC beads, for example) Apologies i can't give anything more specific - i hope you manage to resolve this

I hadn't considered the alkalinity factor Mike that's really interesting thanks. I had wanted the clay due to it being really effective at transporting moisture as a defence against possible short periods of penetrating damp(the cottage is in the central belt of Scotland with exposed stonework on the south and west, the west also being the gable, and it's a conservation area so there's no prospect of changing that with a render system - I had considered applying a masonry creme once I've had the wall checked for cement-based repairs or mortars to be raked out and replaced with lime if found, as I had heard that more modern iterations are actually as vapour open as they claim, but I've found it difficult to find definitive information on that as there are so many complaints and warnings about the old style ones) to help draw any moisture through into the wood fiber where the internal warmth can get it back to vapour quicker, but I think I do remember seeing a hybrid product that had both lime and clay so I'll look further into that. My internal finishes were all going to be pigmented clay plaster topcoats like the ones Russel mentioned or clay based paints so that at least shouldn't prove an issue. There will be a void at ceiling level as I was already planning to lower the ceiling ~30cm to run MVHR ducting and make plumbing up the new bathroom easier, but it shouldn't be an issue regardless as there's an existing attic conversion so once I settle on an appropriate method the insulation will continue up into the roof space with only the joists/rafters to impede it. I had planned to carry the vapour retarding membrane the roof probably will require down onto the walls just below the rafter level, tape them off there, and then use adhesive-backed coir or hemp strips over that so they'll take plaster which should link the roof and wall airtight layers. I'll have a read at your thread cheers. Another issue I'm encountering is how to deal with the interface at the rear of the house since it had a block cavity-walled extension added at the same time as the roof conversion some time pre-2000 and I also intend to replace an existing small pointless conservatory(it's north facing and only has two actual "walls", leaning against the existing stonework on one side and the block extension on the other) with a utility room extension which will be timber frame(specifically engineered timber I-beams because I can build the whole thing myself and save a bunch of money), so any suggestions there would be helpful.

And for any wall units, fix a temporary batten along the wall at the required height. You can then rest the back on the units on it while you fix them and get them all level too.

@Dunc you’re absolutely right - forgot this. Protek wanted a separate guarantee which was another reason I went with Build Zone. They also asked about 1/3 the number of questions protek did so my gut just told me there cover was more comprehensive. I felt if if accidentally answered one of proteks question inaccurately it’d be used later.

I like the island with no sink or hob. Great for serving up / parties and perfect for breakfast. Hobs or sinks on islands, especially with seating, are a bad idea. Unsightly and potentially dangerous. I rarely transfer stuff from the oven to the hob or vice versa so the distance would not bother me. If the tall unit next to the oven is a fridge freezer I think it looks small. I am putting a similar integrated fridge freezer in a 2 bed flat. Your place looks bigger and you may like more fridge space. I don't think the bench seating will work. OK if it is a banquette or booth to seat max 6 but this is much too big to sensibly use. Using them for storage will be a PITA and they don't look comfy for a leisurely meal. I don't like an oven next to a fridge. One heating the other cooling. I love the windows but be wary of echo / reverberation which can be quite grating. If you have space elsewhere in the house for the TV it may be better. We don't have one in the kitchen / dining and it means we tend to interact more.

Chip off a bit and try to dissolve it. It hardly dissolves in cold water but you can get it to dissolve in boiling. TBH, I suspect that even with mechanical removal / steam cleaner, it'll be hard to get back to a decent decoration surface. From the OP, it looks like you've got the edges of 4 or 5 8×4 PB sheets compromised that wont take decoration, so there is quite a lot to take down / replace. One alternative to stripping out the entire ceiling might be to sand down then put up a second PB layer on top.. @Nickfromwales, if this is isn't giving recurring nightmares, you might have some remediation suggestions.

Aluminium clad timber, triple glazed. im in awe of our windows every morning when the condensation is on the outside and the inner frame and glass are actually warm to the touch.

Here's a pic of some of our service runs in pozijoists. The main cable routes were contained in baskets secured along the length of the joist - very neat solution