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Same saying goes for car sales men.

I’ve just pre ordered 30,000 of these. I’ll be rich beyond my wildest dreams. Just don’t tell anyone ok

OK, I've just made an interesting discovery, that I think may get around the Sunamp UniQ eHW failing to charge until 50% discharged problem. Yesterday was quite sunny, and as luck would have it the Sunamp must have been a bit below the 50% state of charge point when we started exporting, so the unit charged up fully during the day; probably the first time it's done this from excess PV generation recently. We ran two showers off this morning, which would have used around 4 kWh worth of hot water at a guess, and this wasn't enough to trigger the Sunamp to charge. We have blue skies and bright sunshine now, and consequently we're generating around 3 to 4 kW, yet the damned Sunamp wasn't making use of this and charging back up (this really, really annoys me). So, as an experiment, I switched the power off to the Sunamp at the isolator, waited 20 seconds or so, then turned the power back on. Lo and behold the contactor clicked on and it's now happily charging. So, one bodge way around the failings in the Sunamp Qontroller may be to fit an additional time switch, that just turns the power to the controller off for a short time and then back on again, perhaps set to do this in the early morning, just after we've drawn off hot water for showers. Not ideal, but as I have a spare time switch I'm going to wire it in to the constant power feed to the Qontroller and see if it improves the utilisation of excess PV generation. Based on what I've just seen when I turned the power off and on again I'd say that it should make a big difference, but only time will tell. The other glimmer of hope here is that if turning the power off and on again resets the Qontroller so that it works as it should, then it should be fairly easy for Sunamp to change the code to do much the same (I hope!).

Perhaps you shouldn’t have included Brexit in the first line of your tex

This is a painful topic. I am not arguing that it should not be discussed. Could I suggest to all, responses to this thread should be drafted with great care. Care not to give offence, care not to take offence. And care not to be offensive. Think also, please, of how some may read more (or less) into your post than intended. Perceptions matter. To answer your point directly, @gc100, an extremely high proportion of my build was sourced from Germany or Austria - the design rationale is German too. I agree with you, No Deal will add to the challenges I face. And so increase costs.

Yep, I have everything I need down here - now. It helps that the other house is only 20 m away so if there s anything I need it's easy enough to go and get it. My son stayed last night. He brought a pizza and a bottle of fizz. Had to go back to the old house to cook the Pizza as my oven is not connected down here, but no big deal. By 3 am we had added 4 bottles of my Christmas fizz to the mix. We both slept like logs despite no curtains - and I have done very little today lol

Since my last blog post things have been fairly quiet. Our frame manufacturer, Lakeland Timber Frame, have confirm that our frame is in production and we have a date for erection of mid January. The crane company have visited site to check the narrow access and hairpin bent for themselves, they’ve confirmed that their smallest crane will be able to get onto site, with difficulty! Ss with a start date agree it was time to get the scaffold up. Originally I’d considered buying my own and selling it on after the build, however that option would have cost me £12,000. The alternative was to hire scaffolding and get it erected at a cost of £5,000. After a lot of careful consideration I’ve gone with a local scaffold company. Looking at the size of the scaffold and the shear amount of scaffolding required, ii think I’ve made the right choice. So far they’ve used six wagon loads of scaffolding kit and it’s taken 9 man days to errect. I recon there’s another 2 days to finish it off. The other thing I’ve had on my list of things to do, is get all the very tall Ash trees inspected. This is the sort of thing that tends to be low on my agenda as it’s not really Build related. However it’s just moved up the priority list after a loud thump at 3am yesterday morning. The tree just missed a plastic oil tank and party constructed outbuilding and the site loo, that’s it under the branches on the right. I couldn’t get far enough back to get the whole tree into shot, I recon it about 120 feet tall (long!). If it had fallen the other way it would have flatten on our residential cabin and us! I’ve got about six more of these and they are all going! The tree also took out the overhead power lines and at one stage 65 homes were without power for 6 hours whilst the cables were replaced.

Slap your hampton on it when the red light's showing and report back!

Really? We wouldn't have guessed from your comments. ?

Yes, any conductor inside an enclosure that needs tools to open, like a CU box, only needs to be single insulated. I believe that's the rationale behind needing two layers of insulation that aren't bonded to each other, but for the life of me can't find the relevant supporting evidence right now. IIRC it goes right back to the very first introduction of Class II equipment, which then led on to using two layers, or a single, thicker, reinforced layer of insulation on cables. This is about the time that the design of the BS1363 plug changed to include partially insulated L and N pins, IIRC. Things like meter tails, for example, just had a single insulation layer years ago, not two as they have now. The same went for cables used to supply incidental lights, or pendant drops, although these now have to use cable with either double insulation or thicker, reinforced, insulation.

Dry fitted only but we can see where we're going! Slight prob at the mo is that the bath is right down on the 4 tiles on the left but there's clearance between bath lip and tiles on the right. They're not lifting the bath on the left but there's just no clearance at all. Could likely do with the feet adjusting but there is no way I can get to the one far left...maybe slide a stainless plate under the "low" feet.

Bloody hell, what a clown! Sorry. Now where is my dunce's cap.

If is best positioned somewhere reasonably centrally to keep the runs to your manifolds simple and ditto for the external inlet and outlet pipe. You will also need some routine maintenance access as described in the installation manual. They also tend to be a fairly noisy -- on a par with a fridge but continuous when running so housing it in a cupboard or a services room (rather than a living one) is a good idea.

Following as this is a possible solution for me to. Thanks for asking !

I'm supposing, too, but my supposition is the opposite one: there's no particular voodoo in the Sunamp PCM to stop or start the phase change, it just happens with temperature. The voodoo there will be to do with not having the liquid in contact with the heat exchangers which turns solid when the first batch of cold water flows through not immediately sticking to the exchanger and insulating the rest of the liquid. This is the classic problem with all phase-change heat stores. My assumption is that, unlike the hand warmers, the contents of the Sunamp are at around 58°C so the liquid-solid phase change doesn't spread in the way it does in the super-saturated solutions in hand warmers which are stored and used at much lower temperatures. If all the latent heat turned to sensible heat on the first use then there'd be little point in having the PCM in there in the first place. Also, the temperature would rise a lot (at least 75 °C) yet the water comes out at pretty much the same temperature throughout most of the discharge.

Then that light's the stupidest thing ever. Ok two of you concur = worry over. I think its 'view new xyz with utmost suspicion..' as soon as I get it/ guitar, amp, car even.. probably due to fact I rarely if ever have anything new! or I'm just thicko. Im Terryfkwit2 to Onoff- that's clear enough! I am concerned re. the wood top > cooker & hob. Will wait on PeterW's opinion on this 1st. cheers chaps

The problem is nailing the hanger to the joist down that gap. So nail the hanger to the joist, slide the joist into position, then nail the joist to the wall plate. A magnet on a stick to hold the nail, and 50mm is enough room to swing a hammer. P.S. To me the hanger looks too short. Every one I have done, the hanger is long enough to fold over at the top and also nail into the top of the wallplate

as with, i think, @ProDave we've just got mobile unlimited from 3 and currently getting quite a good speed without the ext. antenna

I have lots of low level lighting on PIR. Outdoor along my pathways and indoor along my hallways and in the bathrooms and also in niches in bathrooms. No fumbling for lights in the middle of the night. Guest w.c. is also on PIR...gets them every time LOL ...looking for the light switch.

When it comes to supply and demand, which is in essence what we're looking at with building materials, then there are pressures from both the demand side, wanting materials at the best price, and also pressures from the supply side, from suppliers being keen to sell materials. Trying to predict how this closely interwoven trading system will work after any change, be it worries over financial stability, changes in the value of currency, changes in taxation systems, etc, is near-impossible. One significant issue is that the very act of trying to make a prediction alters the market conditions, as people start to react to what they think that prediction may mean, rather than what may or may not actually happen. For example, if the prices of imported goods were to rise, as a consequence of increased duty being applied, then whether that has a real-world impact depends very much on several other factors. Does the increase in the price of imported goods lead to UK suppliers taking advantage of an opportunity to compete, whereas before they may have been priced out of that market? Will suppliers choose to reduce their margins to lower the price of imported goods back to a similar level as they were before the imposition of additional import duty? Would our government intervene and decide to waive the import duty on key goods in order to maintain UK industry? Trade tends to be self-balancing to a large extent, with those involved, on both sides of the equation, having a strong desire to maintain profitable deals. For that reason alone I'm convinced that the reality of any perturbation, on a general (not personal) scale is likely to be modest and fairly quickly self-correcting. I believe the major issues facing everyone right now are the lack of certainty, the total and absolute incompetence of our government to address the impact of that uncertainty and the knee-jerk reactions that some organisations seem to have made at a time when they have no way of knowing for sure what's going to actually happen over the next few months.

This article (posted earlier by @daiking) might be a useful contribution to the debate: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/brexit-scare-stories-ashoka-mody-imf-bank-of-england-mervyn-king-economics-trade-a8670416.html

@lizzie I would never call Bora a bad product, because it isnt. Its absolutely fine. But I think there are better products out there for the money. For instance, the Bora basic is easily matched by the NikolaTesla from Elica. The One from Novy is the nearest competitor with quieter operation, better extraction rate and a much cleverer central downdraft mechanism that rises and drops to 3 heights to suit the type of cooking being carried out. Benefit - You must have seen what happens when you have a pot on the boil without the strategically placed lid - rising steam doesnt get completed sucked down. The Novy counters this problem and when turned off, leave a clean continuous ceramic surface. The One Pro has better inductors and a higher grade ceramic that virtually anyone else on the market. The Panorama from Novy is a completely unique concept leaving all drawers usable (albeit 40cm deep rather than 50cm). Novy offers ceiling and conventional extraction as well with matching hobs that communicate.

Think its just the ones that sell cars.

LOL --especially the irish ones

@Tennentslager turns out that cookology is their own branded stuff. Fine if you want to sell the property on. Not good at all as appliance retailers generally have little longevity and there wont be anyone around to support the product if the seller is no longer trading. @curly - I have always been a bit sceptical of Bora. Its a good product. But for similar money there are better products. Having taking on Novy, I have to say their products are more innovative and quieter in operation. In fact we have switched most of our business from Gutmann to Novy. Thats how good I think the product is.

I am discussing this with SA this week. They have already approached me re a membership here so watch this space basically. WRT the 50/90 settings, I'm also awaiting an update on that. Whether that comes from SA or me will be up to them basically. Hopefully it will come from them ( so I can get on with some work lol ).

Problem with this type of device is that it needs the WI-Fi signal at its location to extend it (same as a plug in one), and by doing so is reducing the throughput capacity, It has to receive it then transmit so can only ever be half as good, and will add to the RF noise so aggravating an already non-optimal situation. It is no substitute for a wired in Access Point.

Yes, the immersion can heat up to a much higher temperature, as set by the thermostat in the immersion heater itself. Typically this would be set to around 65 to 70 deg C, I think. For further over-temperature protection, immersion heaters also now have a second, resettable, over-temperature cut out, to stop the tank from boiling.

I think that the Euro is not likely to rally if we leave with no deal, so there may be little change in GBP v EUR. I understand that the WTO tariff is 3.8% so if you import 65% of your materials it would add 2.5% to your materials cost. Assuming that materials are half the total, it would add 1.25% to your build cost.

Done, just put it on our village Facebook group.

Don't forget to take the covers off your smoke alarms now you are in.... Would love to have a nosey at your house sometime Congratulations - it all looks very much as though it belongs in the landscape and I hope you will have many happy years there.

Possibly, but given that the hot water system (assuming an unvented cylinder) is sealed, then it's very hard to see how any bacteria could get into the system in the first place, let alone multiply. As a safety precaution, wiring the immersion up with a timer to heat the tank to 65 deg C every couple of weeks would eliminate any risk. Personally I'm not convinced it's worth the hassle if you're on mains water, as the residual disinfection that the water companies leave in the water should deal with anything.

The instruction to do this was probably printed in white ink on the white paper of the instruction manual.

Haha, it sounds like an old Windows PC .

Hi Sue B, When I was researching I visited two builds in Hampshire in close proximity to Four Marks but both of those will be finished by now. I would not be surprised if Marek has other builds ongoing in Hants. You are very welcome to visit here on the IoW if you can't find anything more convenient for you. David

Leave it a couple of days until the plaster is visibly dry, remember the slower the plaster dries the stronger it will be, and you want it to last a lifetime ideally, with the heating on at this time of year it won't take more than a couple of days. Also gives chance for plaster dust to settle, and you to clean it up, as its very fine, will clog the filters up well.

A Brett Martin AAV.

Wall sockets with built-in WiFi extender, such as: https://www.screwfix.com/p/british-general-2g-13a-sp-switched-wi-fi-extender-socket-white/7706V?tc=KT5&ds_kid=92700038618050646&ds_rl=1241687&ds_rl=1245250&ds_rl=1249401&ds_rl=1245250&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIjoja5-eU3wIV7pztCh0CWQ4YEAQYAiABEgKbcfD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Just in case anyone wonders about things like test leads etc that appear to have single insulation, then it's OK to have a single, thicker, reinforced layer of insulation for certain applications. Apart from test gear cables, the only other place you're likely to see single reinforced insulation in place of double insulation in a domestic setting are things like lighting circuits, where some types of, usually decorative, cable may be only single insulated, but have reinforced insulation that meets the regs for that application. We have an art deco lamp that has what looks like old cotton-covered cable, but which is really brand new reinforced single insulated cable with a woven covering over the outside to look the part.

Not really. Its only a 25 gal tank which would have emptied out doing the hot water. Then, with like 4 litres per min std on the ball valve, it will be refilling when you go and whack the cold tap on full so doesn't stand a chance. Not quite. The two bodies of water meet in the outlet pipework so not a true cold mains / gravity hot tap If the back pressure from running the cold flat out is greater than the outlet gauze / nozzle doodah on the tap spout then it'll start to push against gravity hot, if both taps are ever fully opened. You'll be fine in the interim if you just run the hot first and then shut the hot tap, and then open the cold tap on its own. Another quick cheat would be a single check NRV on the hot until the UVC fairy gets you a used tank for nowt when one pops up

The requirement is one layer of electrical insulation, and one layer or means of mechanical protection. The outer layer being sacrificial to the inner.

Can I ask the obvious question. Why do you want to terminate them outside? The logical and normal thing is bring the SWA cables inside, whole, and terminate them directly into the consumer unit with the correct glands.

I've learned my lesson. Never visit a BM. Order and have delivered. Too much temptation.

Will a film be made from this thread ? who would star as @Onoff Tom cruise ? Or boris Johnson ? Be an 18 for sure ......

I used to have a rare earth magnet glued on the end of a pencil - poke into bag to pick up a nail and easy to move out when I’d hit it once.

Again not quite true. Screws are not nails they are usually of different materials, have a smaller cross section at the root of the thread, and behave differently to nails in this instance and twist nails are not crude screws.

That should be on T-shirts

For the price of your build the nails cost nothing!!!, https://www.screwfix.com/p/easyfix-square-twist-nails-sheradised-3-75-x-30mm-1kg-pack/12788?_requestid=146176. I always nail every hole (but I am OCD according to some!), top tip, hold the nail with a pair of long nose pliers for the first hit, saves you hitting your fingers (ask me how I know?).

Back on the subject of washing...... Consider mounting your washer and dryer higher up if you have the room. Makes it so much easier on the back! You need to design the carcass/units well as it’s subject to a fair amount of vibration if you’ve got your big pants on a 1400 spin Heres mine and I don’t think I could go back to ground mounted.....

Middle ground! Window reveal Fit 3 large soffit tiles Fit 3 small soffit tiles Fit 5 large LH tiles Fit 5 small LH tiles Fit 5 large RH tiles Fit 5 small RH tiles Have a beer ? I don't think you need to include any 'waiting' in your list - your modus operandi appears to factor that in effortlessly