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I think the point Dreadnaught is making is that this is the big boys' collaboration to fix the very issue you are mentioning ie to produce a unified system to bring order to the current mess. As it seems Apple Google and Amazon are on board with this I suspect it is worth paying attention to.

you can get same effect at a fraction of the cost https://www.dimplex.co.uk/optimyst I have had one for ten years and will befitting a couple in my new house just for the effect you have to see one in the flesh to see how real the flame effect is thechoice is a personal one -- but the cost to supply and fit will be very different and very green

Hi everyone. I have been lurking on the site for the past few weeks and have decided to introduce myself as we have started to get the ball rolling on our self build. We are in a lucky position to have been gifted a site and one of my best friends is an architect, who visited the site with us yesterday. We are hoping to get a PP application submitted in mid 2022. Our site has a wee old stone house on it with an obvious fire/chimney and windows - so we are confident of obtaining PP on the basis of replacement dwelling. I have scarred the Internet and asked friends in the trade for approximate prices per sqmt and have heard anything from £1,000 - £3,000sqm. That is obviously a massive difference and depending of the specification. We hope to build a very air tight house with ultra efficient u-values and MVHR and oil boiler. I did a detailed payback analysis for PV, battery and ASHP and it just does not make sense to go this route - payback came out circa 33 years. In terms of Superstructure build I am hoping to go ICF - is there a market for ICF construction in NI? Concrete first floor is also a desirable. As this is very early doors I believe we can afford a budget of £300k for a house size circa 230m2. In people's humble opinion is this achievable or am I living in La La land? Attached are a couple of photos from the site. Thank you - looking forward to contributing in the future ?

Yep, that looks fine. There is no need for an earth connection to the unit, it is just a means to join all the earth wires together so the pump etc get an earth connection.

Irrespective of whether the BCO requires them they're worth considering. It may be that your structure is designed a bit differently to ours and hence there's no need for them. The only reason for asking is that if you do need them, then solid timber is a useful way of doing the corners. In that case run a vertical batten down each corner to form the firestop. We used intumescent barriers elsewhere. I'd imagine they'll be fine, if I'd had a nail gun I'd probably have chosen to use it. Our roofing battens use 90mm gun nails as I got the joiners to do them. Off the top of my head: -Bevel the bottom of the cladding. Bevel joins if you have any. -Carefully plan the layout before you get going - you don't want to end up with strange widths of cladding either side of windows or doors. Might be harder with shiplap t+g (we had board on board so a bit easier to adjust the gap). -Think through the window reveal finishes and how the cladding meets them. -We found it easier to do any bottom cladding in one go, ping a chalk line then cut them all at once to get a good edge.

Yes well, we all know how that muscle got developed. So with all this knowledge, turning the lights on and setting the heating would be a doddle. I expect to see a working example by Friday noon.

Some other things to consider Above windows and doors you need a drain slot so if water does get behind the cladding it can drain out. Keeping insects etc out, stainless or plastic mesh at bottom of cladding and at any drainage slots above windows and doors. Page 52 on the below download link has Some details. https://www.gov.scot/publications/timber-cladding-scotland/documents/

I am. Every time I type kw or KW there is a reciprocal pulse of energy in Cornwall greater than the experimental energy input.

The rafters are 175mm deep and my insulation is 125mm deep so the 50mm gap is definitely there. I have spend a lot of time putting in insulation and it is more than friction fit… it’s hard to remove !.

1. That's what we did unless they were extremely close together for some reason. 2. That's what did. How are you dealing with firestopping (do you need to?). 3. We left them square. Under a big overhang and nobody will see them. 4. We had a diagonal batten at the same angle as the roof just below the gable, otherwise the rest were square edged. 5. It depends on the windows and also firestopping requirements. We ripped a lot of timber to size in order to get it neat. 6. We didn't have a nail gun, horizontal battens had 100mm screws through vertical battens into studs. 7. No! Wait until you get to the cladding! The TRADA guide to timber cladding may be useful for you, can buy as an ebook.

Latest update now really cold weather has hit us and some reasonable data points now in Sweet spot for heating is 4 degrees and above. Once you hit 3 for any length of time elec usage rises sharply.At zero degrees pretty much all day and night running costs are £5.45 day pellets would be £4.48. Suspect its defrost cycles causing the increased usage. Plus point however is that as they are 4 separate units they defrost at different times so you don't notice any heating drop. Running pellet boiler this week now to confirm usage of pellets is as I remember Overall still way cheaper to run than pellets but looking to maximise savings so hybrid running may well be the best solution overall. That said wouldn't be upset running A2A full time if didn't have pellet boiler in.

Defo get one. Only 100 quid from wunda

Back end of.

Good point, but with such a low power input, I doubt it would ever need to turn off.

The element may be OK, but how about the thermal cutout, and a bog standard thermostat, can they cope with the extra arcing?

I think in a home wood burner, visible smoke is more to do with the water content being driven off. From the colour you can estimate the temperature, so if you know the area that it is radiating from, you can work out the power it is delivering. Temperature (°C) Colour 480 Barely red in the dark 600 Dark red 800 Cherry red 950 Orange, barely visible in sunlight 1100 Orange-yellow, visible in bright sunlight 1300 Light yellow, nearly blinding, welding goggles required. 1500 Nearly white, blinding

https://www.google.com/search?q=Emlite+Total+Generation+Meter+£21.60+Emlite+Total+Generation+Meter+single+phase+(with+extended+cover)+Create+a+trade+account+for+trade+pricing+83+in+stock+(can+be+backordered)+Emlite+Total+Generation+Meter+quantityADD+TO+BASKET+ADD+TO+QUOTE+SKU%3A+6TOTAL-ECA2+|+Category%3A+PV+Accessories+Technical+Reference&rlz=1C1CHBF_en-GBGB920GB920&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Yesterday was colder than normal winter temperatures here and generally overcast so little in the way of solar gains. It was 18c in the house when the stove went on and I heated the entire house (140m2, maybe take a bit off for our utility & porch) to 23.5c over the course of the evening. That was me burning one medium sized trug full of split alder/spruce logs and some smaller branches. Our stove is a Charnwood 4.8kw with air feed under the suspended floor. It's colder then yesterday outside and it was 19c when I woke at 10am and now its just above 18c. Stove will be lit in a hour and half and the cycle will begin again. Was outside collecting some wind blown wood this morning, in the end I had a total of three wheel barrows, that will eventually heat the house for a couple of weeks. Cost me nothing, but some time and effort. As I collected the sticks a robin who seems to follow me around, collected some worms from the soil. He was happy, I was happy, we were all happy.

Looks cold in the East Highlands today! A view from West Highlands, no low lying snow but a bit on the mountains. Trotternish Ridge and further away across The Minch to the Torridon hills.

Yes, but I charge a lot for it. Use the same business model as Crapple. Not going to tell anyone I am pulling the plug in the kit tomorrow. Ding Ding, I am in the bus.

And SteamyTea Basics. Thought I would add the list just to make it the longest post ever.

Which ones are you using in new build? We've used a "cassette 500 projects" ("projects" is plumbed-in version). This one had no heating element at all. I want to see if i can turn it on/off with a relay so it becomes part of the lighting scenes, not tried yet though.

That, and an LPG hob, head light charged and gas camping lights to hand, and you can survive quite a long power outage.

I’ve talked the other half out of the log burner. The house won’t need the heat so it was for the aesthetic only. While they are carbon neutral they do contribute to pollution inside and out. The new debate is whether we have any flame effect in at all.

We've just fitted one, not used it yet though as not quite moved in yet. I actually recommend these further up in this thread, but it's good to hear from someone thats used one for a while.

A 2 kW portable generator would give you enough juice to keep you going. And a lot less PM2.5/10s in the house.

Another perspective is the wider market of commercial building automation. None of the consumer systems currently available are suitable for large buildings. A major focus of Matter (and therefore Thread) is for it to be a system suitable for building automation and control. Companies that specialise in building automation and control such as Siemens, Schneider Electric, Assa Abloy, Lagrand, even Lutron, are all taking central roles with Thread. Oh and here is a full list of the participants in the Matter Standard as of today (and more a joining constantly): ADT Security Services Green Energy Options Piaro Afero Inc Grundfos Plume Design Alarm.com Amazon Apple Inc ARM Ltd ARRIS Solutions Inc Assa Abloy AB ATLANTIC Group Atmosic Axis Communications Ayla Networks BEGA Gantenbrink-Leuchten KG BELIMO Automation AG Belkin International Inc BOE Technology Group Co Ltd Bouffalo Lab BrightAI BRK Brands Buffalo Inc Bureau Veritas Consumer Products Services Busch-Jaeger Elektro Cable Television Laboratories CAME SpA Card Access Engineering LLC Chameleon Technology UK Ltd Charter Communications China Electronics Standardization Institute Comcast Cable Communications Management Connectivity Standards Alliance Control4 Coway Crestron Cypress Semiconductor Corp Danfoss A S Datek Smart Home AS DEKRA Delta Dore Delta Electronics Deutsche Telekom AG Develco Products Digi International DigiCert Inc digitalSTROM AG D-Link Corporation dormakaba Holding AG DSP Group DSR Corporation DT&C Co., Ltd. Easee Eaton ecobee EDF RD EDMI Ltd Eglo Leuchten GmbH Element Materials Technology Ltd Eltako GmbH Emerson Commercial Residential Solutions EnOcean GmbH Espressif Systems Essence Group E-surfing Smart Home Technology Eurofins Digital Testing Eve Systems Exegin Technologies Ltd Facebook Inc Fortune Brands Global Plumbing Group Future Home AS Futurewei Technologies Gardena GmbH GE Current – A Daintree Company GEWISS SpA Google LLC grandcentrix GmbH Granite River Labs Guangzhou Elite Education Technology Co Ltd Hager Controls SAS Haier Hangzhou Sky Lighting Co Ltd HDC I-Controls Honor Device Company Limited Huawei Technologies Co Ltd IKEA of Sweden Infineon Technologies innovation matters iot GmbH Inspur Software Technology Co Ltd Insta GmbH iRobot iThinx GmbH Itron Inc Jasco Products Company JiangXi Innotech Technology Johnson Controls Inc Kee Tat Manufactory Holding Limited Kirale Technologies SL Kroger Co Kwikset Landis Gyr AG Latchable Inc LEDVANCE LLC Leedarson Lighting Co Ltd LEGRAND Lennox International Level Home Inc Leviton Manufacturing Company LG Electronics Liberty Global B V LIFX Logitech Lumi United Technology Co Ltd Lutron Electronics Mastercard MediaTek Inc Microchip Technology Midea Group Miele-Cie KG Mill International Mitsubishi Electric Mitsubishi Electric US MMB Networks Morse Micro mui Lab Inc Nanjing IOT Sensor Technology Nanoleaf National Technical Systems Netatmo Niko nv Ningbo Sunpu Ningbo Suntech Lighting Technology Co Ltd NodOn Nordic Semiconductor ASA Nortek Control NquiringMinds Ltd NXP Semiconductors Netherlands BV ON Semiconductor OPPO Orange SA Origin Wireless Inc Osram Sylvania Inc Otodo Panasonic Corporation Panasonic Marketing Europe GmbH Panasonic North America PanKore Integrated Circuit Technology Co Ltd Perspecta Labs POLYNHOME Powerley Procter and Gamble PROFALUX Proxy Inc Qingdao Yeelink Information Technology Co Limited Qorvo Qualcomm Remotec Technology Ltd Resideo Technologies Robert Bosch GmbH Robert Bosch Smart Home GmbH ROCA SANITARIO SA Ruckus Wireless Sagemcom SAS Salto Systems Samsung Electronics Co Ltd Savant Company Schlage Lock Company LLC Schneider Electric Sectigo Ltd Secure Meters UK Ltd Sengled Co Ltd Sercomm Corporation Shanghai MXCHIP Information Technology Co Ltd Shenzhen CoolKit Shenzhen Heiman Technology Co Ltd Shenzhen Orvibo Technology Co Ltd Shortcut Labs AB Siemens Industry Inc Siemens Schweiz AG Signify Netherlands B V Silicon Labs SimpliSafe SITERWELL Electronics SmartThings SoftAtHome Somfy STMicroelectronics SAS Synaptics System Level Solutions Inc TCL TeLink Micro LLC Tesla Texas Instruments TietoEVRY TP-Link Corporation Limited Trane Technologies TUV Rheinland of North America Tuya Global Incorporated Ubilogix ubisys technologies GmbH Underwriters Laboratories Universal Electronics Velux AS Viessmann Elektronik GmbH Vimar SpA Vivint Smart Home vivo Mobile Communication Co Ltd Whirlpool Corporation WS Audiology Denmark AS Wyde Labs Wyze Labs Inc X-HEMISTRY Inc Xiaomi Communications Xylem Inc Yandex LLC Yo Labs Inc Zehnder Group Vaux Andigny Zhejiang Future Lighting Zuma Array Ltd Zumtobel Group AG Z-Wave Europe GmbH Zyax AB

Appreciate some people like this method but I’m not a fan, I prefer to end the cabling in a box with a face plate and plug in a lead- I’ve flood wired my house for multiple TV points in different corners of rooms.

i have the Hive system from british gas, its very easy to install. The rad trv's are excellent as they allow you to manage heat in different rooms much easier.

Say it is a 5 W LED. If you just turned it on and left it, would cost about £10/year. I just remember where the switch is, seems easy to turn a light on, or off, at the wall.

The Tenement House 0141 333 0183 https://maps.app.goo.gl/tTFz6D52E1egu2d66 Check out the photos here for another time capsule...

I use the Home App and I find it to be fine. I think that all of the home-automation apps are criticised and the adage that "you-can't-please-all-of-the-people…" applies. The Home app's functionality will be extended in time but it can already do everything that you mentioned in your original post, especially if you are comfortable using the Apple Shortcuts app as welll for some more advanced automations. Keep in mind that: (i) the best home automation shouldn't need human intervention but be programmatic; e.g. blinds that rise at sunrise, or rise when the brightness of sunshine exceeds X; or using motion sensors in rooms; and (ii) in addition to using the Home app, you can control your home using Siri from a Homepod, iPhone, iPad, Mac or Apple Watch, or button, or from Control Centre on any of those devices (and all work well in my experience). (And Siri is now much better than it used to be.).

I hear what you are saying - but seems a big expense to get alittle boost we use our optimist every night in autumn and winter to give that cosy effect of a log fire at a fraction of the cost of a log burner and all the associated chimney costs and possible roof penetration problems. everybody makes their own choices and nothing wrong with that

That’s a very interesting post, thank you!

Loftboxes are great, as they can deal with high and low levels, and feed masthead amps etc

F plugs are about 10p each. Learn how to fit them to coax, it is very easy and robust and a quick way of making good patch leads just the right length. A much better connector imho that the old tv coax connector, especially the modern variants of that with a silly little tiny screw to clamp the inner connection to the pin (I much prefer the older, now hard to find ones where you soldered the inner core to the pin)

I would talk to icf supplies in Essex, they will sort you out a contractor.

Sounds like nobody is requiring you to have one, so personally I wouldn't bother. And you may already have left it too late, unless you know for certain that your roofer is approved to provide one? Even if they can provide one, you need to check whether or not it's actually worth anything - the market has a poor reputation. Verify what is actually covered, what needs to happen before you can claim, and whether the insurance company is reputable. If it's a UK insurer regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority that would be a good start.

No, my arguments were and are not intended to be anti-science at all. Never have been. They've been about how science is more messy, complex and revisionary than has been put forward, but also that mainstream science represents a limited perspective on knowledge about the world that needs modern revision and enhancement. In latter parts its also that the body of knowledge of science, just like society, has a tendency toward herd mentality with both current and historical problems of accuracy and correctness (you can look this up to confirm that it isn't a conspiracy theory). This really is an unfortunate example of how it is now almost impossible to have a balance and nuanced rational debate about such an important topic. It has been reduced down to a couple of dualistic boxes. If someone comes along that doesn't completely agree with the box you associate with, then that person must be alien and belong in the other box. Just to reiterate, the point of my argument and others on this thread who've also been flamed and accused of denial (which is entirely untrue) is much more to with knowledge, or epistemology, which sadly seems to have gone over yours and others heads. The important part of this debate on knowledge is that there are other forms of knowledge that provide alternative guidance to action in the real world. Let me spell that out - it can tell us what to do about climate change in the real world, in possibly more effective ways than those approaches currently being proposed at a grand scale. Because, lets not forget, that while there is almost conclusive evidence that climate change has been brought about by human activity, there is almost no evidence whatsoever that the solutions proposed are going to have anywhere near the effect it is hoped. Nor is there any robust evidence that the proposals aren't going to cause more damage. There is actually growing modelling, evidence and opinion to the contrary. If you take the time to read some sensible scientific texts and studies about this very topic rather than interpretions in more popular media - one of them I may have linked to already by Tom Murphy, Energy and Human Ambitions on a Finite Planet - you might find that there is significant amount of scientific thought put into the problem but in ways that question the sanity and scientific basis of current proposed fixes. One of these goes straight back to the very start of the thread and heat pumps. Heat pumps are part of the solution but they are also a dangereous distraction as they take our eyes of much more important balls. I'll sign off with a quote from the beginning of Tom Murphy's book (he's actually a 'proper' scientist too and professor of physics in case anyone wondered so there,'s no confusion) and then if you want to explore more and reflect on it, that's great; if not and you want to call me an inferior infant in the shadow of you, a proper grown up, then so be it : " " Laters ?

It can but will be inefficient. A2A will have a setup to support coil evaporators and not a gas / water heat exchanger. Those tend to need a slightly higher gas flow rate, and having a mix of multi splits on the same condenser will be a challenge.

Today was a big day for any self builder. The day the second most important bit of paper ever arrived, the building control Completion Certificate (The most important bit of paper being the granting of planning permission) This “ends” a long chain of events that has taken way longer than we ever expected. It all started in October 2013, that’s a staggering 8 years ago, when we completed on the purchase of the building plot, though it was at least a year before that we started looking for a plot. Construction did not start in earnest until Spring 2015 when the final design, planning and building warrant was in place. Construction started well with a local building firm contracted to do the foundations and build and erect the timber frame. But that all ground to a halt by Spring 2016 when it became clear there were no buyers for our old house in a stagnated housing market and we had to terminate our arrangements with the builder, thankfully on good terms with them. Since then it has been a slow “build as you earn” self build doing way more of the work ourselves than we ever expected, and building to what turned out eventually to be a very low cost, and somehow against expectations, we finished the house that we could not afford to build. The VAT reclaim was paid out a few weeks ago and that paid off some interest free borrowing we had accumulated finally leaving us with no debt and a very modest amount of savings left. Phew. The house is about 150 square metres in total floor area and the final build cost has come in just a shade under £1000 per square metre not including plot price, services and professional fees. So now the house is “completed” does that mean we are “finished” No of course not. Some things have been left out for now and some not fully completed. So our “to do” list still includes the following: Bedrooms and stairs still need carpets and most rooms still need curtains or blinds. An airing cupboard needs to be formed around the hot water tank and we might still build the pantry in the corner of the kitchen. Outside there is the balcony still to build, some decking and paving, at least one more shed, a bridge over the burn, the car port and the tarmac entrance still needs it’s top coat and some drainage installing. Then there is fencing and making something of the garden. So at least another 2 years work to “finish” which will make it into a 10 year project. No I would never have believed at the start it was going to take that long, and it was not until I typed this and looked up the dates that I realised we had been working on this for 8 years already.

Great insight Dave and great achievement to come in on budget well done

Yes completing those early entries was a job I never got round to. I must do that. I shall be pouring a glass of the good Whisky later, and we will be going out for a meal at the weekend.

Well done @ProDave I picked up on a google search your blog on e-build and that was what led me to joining e-build and then when that ended I discovered that everybody had moved here. You now need to transfer your earlier entries over to your website to complete the story. I hope you and your family have a wee drink to celebrate.

I'm struggling to see where the 35% increase is. Quote: £4K, 50% (£2K) paid in Januayy Final invoice: £2K + £300 (materials increase) + £420 (equipment/labour), so £4720 in total, 18% more than original £4K quote (I wonder if the OP is doing 720/2000 and getting 36% as the increase) Customer was told materials had gone up 10%, which was accepted, and the £300 covers that. As others have said, I'd be paying the £300 but challenging the £420 for extra equipment/labour

Yes, it's essential to read the pressure/volume flow rate curve data on the MVHR spec sheet to get this right. Not hard to do, though, as there are a few online calculators for estimating duct flow resistance.

Think you have to be careful, because the unit may quote it can deliver say 300m3 per hour, but that's at no or low static pressure loss, once you get the ducts in the pressure loss might mean you struggle to get close to it. i.e. if you have long duct runs the furthest, it will need the system to run at a higher static pressure to overcome the frictional losses and mean the total available supply is lower due to the static pressure imparted by throttling down the vents closest to the unit. I over sized by about 25% as it's easier to throttle something back, it will run quieter and for longer by being less stressed.

More or less, although it's handy to have a bit of spare boost capacity, I think. IIRC our MVHR is currently running at a rate that's about 70% of the background rate given by Part F, which seems to be OK, but there are only two of us in a 130m² house. The same size house with more occupants may well need a bit more ventilation, and my guess is that the Part F rates may be set for a typical mass house builder type house and occupation density.

Our experience, mirrored by others here, I think, has been that the ventilation rate given in Part F is higher than needed, rather than lower. We turned our MVHR down a bit, whilst monitoring air quality (RH and CO2 concentration) and haven't seen any detectable change from doing this. We can set four speeds on the MVHR, and run it on 2 (about 30%) most of the time, with 3 (about 70%) being the normal boost and 1 (about 10%) being a very low setting for times we go away. I don't think we've ever run it at speed 4 (100%) although it may ramp up to that automatically when the integral heat pump is running.

My neighbour who designs and installs MVHRs, says aim for 50% normal operating range. Feels the building reg values are far too low. But, if I followed his recommendation I'd need two 300mh3 units for my 300m² build.... So that's not happening!