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How airtight do you want it. You have trickle vents in windows and an extractor fan in the wall. Just scrim the joint and plaster it. Nothing else needed here.

Even though I'm disappointed in the airtest result of 1.8 (the thermohouse roof panel system is NOT airtight, despite what they say!), I'm happy enough. First time seeing an EPC with no potential improvements! We hit the passive House heat requirement target but not the airtightness so certification not an option.

Hi all, Just wanted to say hi. Quick intro: We bought a house that needed all the works (loft extension, rear extension, side extension, garage conversion), essentially the cheapest and least developed detached house on the street We applied for planning permission to extend, taking footprint from ~2200 sq ft + integrated garage up to ~4000 sq ft. Then we got some advice from architects + builders, and everyone guided us to demolish and start again, partly due to VAT savings (first big surprise/learning) So we then applied for planning permission to demolish and rebuild, which we achieved about 9 months after we originally completed on the house. At our architects guidance, we hired their recommended QS, and conducted a tender. Costs came back eye-watering... (second learning: pick who runs your tender carefully and be comfortable they will ensure you get value for money, trust your gut!) So we re-tendered ourselves, selected a main contractor (who is local, and came by recommendation), and his team started on the foundations 6 weeks ago We're hoping to be out of the ground in the next couple of weeks I just wanted to say hi, super excited by the project. And excited to learn from the group on here.

Roll up Roll up! There’s a new game in town - the SunAmp Guessing Game. No, I’d never heard of it either until I was forced to play it. It goes like this. Install a SunAmp Uniq summat or other (14kWh - Ok, 13.7) Hitch it up to some solar panels Wait for the sun to kick the PV to life Watch the electrons being converted (via that Mr Eddi and Mr Solis) from this-to-that-to-the-other. (Very pretty little animation too) Look at the readout which tells you how many of those tortured electrons are sitting in your SunAmp waiting for you to Have a shower, wash the dishes, scrub grandchildren clean before their mother sees them Easy innit? Well no. And thats the game. See, SunAmp hide vital information from you. Like how much ‘hot water’ is ‘left’ in the tank. (Sorry nerds, can’t be arsed to describe it more accurately). Lets imagine the tank is full. Its been a lovely sunny day: full-speed charging of the SunAmp. And I take an 18l per minute shower (excessive I know but want, want, want). 10 minutes later I’ve got rid of a fair bit (say at least 160 litres - you can’t change the flow rate on the part of my shower that I use [iBox]) SWMBO has a bath - say 50 litres. Both at an unknown temperature but above 20. How many kWh’s worth have I used? No, I’m damn well not gonna take a thermometer out and measure the temperature during my shower or in her bath. So I can only guess how much ‘hot water’ is left. Anyway, couldn’t do the maths. Interesting. Next question: In relation to tomorrow’s DHW needs, Boost or Not to Boost ? (shunt mains electricity into the SunAmp instead of PV) What hot water are we likely to use before tomorrow? Some/any/nowt? Lets say nowt .... Well wassa weather forecast for tomorrow then? Partly cloudy for NW Ingerland Hmmmm, got enough water for our showers tomorrow ? So how many kWh is that likely to be? The only way I have solved this question (have we got enough hot water ‘left’ for tomorrow) is empirically. And annoyingly, the answer to this ‘game’ depends on how much cloud there is locally. Heavy clouds, easy, no cloud, easy. Partly cloudy: nightmare. Too little PV, I need to boost. Too much and PV generation goes into the grid. Sod that. The problem becomes guessing: how much sunlight will get through on a partly cloudy day. where is the sun in its cycle how many leaves on the trees the local wind effect on cloud (we live within the coastal strip: ie. in the ‘cleaner’ air mass) All because SunAmp can’t / won’t / CBA to give us normal users an indication of how much energy is left in the tank

Do you have UHF, is that drying the trap out?

Was thinking more of @Gone West saving on his electricity.

Anything more than three mil needs filling prior to skim Or it will crack through

My experience with newly tiled floors and UFH is tgat ive never had any issues due to UFH The temperatures are quite low Polished concrete floors are known for being extremely durable I’d just put the heating on low and gradually increase it

Easy way on this is using scaffold poles (assuming you have access to some nice big Forstner bits..??) Shape bottom of the 150/150 post and drill out 100mm with the forstner to the size of a scaffold pole. Knock a 450mm length into the bottom of the socket so it’s tight. Connect your legs to a 150/50 with 2.No. Coach bolts in the face of the posts and also add a temporary brace about 600mm from ground level. Now lay it out in front of the house so the scaffold pins are toward the holes / house. You can now raise the lot into the upright position, brace against the wall and it will all work fine. Just level the top rail, plumb the uprights and concrete the lot in - you could even use 2 or 3 bags of postcrete to make the job quicker.

They're lousy for heating. Anything less than 37C feels cool to humans. The air leaving these will be at more than say 21C setpoint but less than 37C (for efficiency reasons). It'll make you feel cold. It will annoy you. They're great for cooling. Anything less than 37C feels cool to humans. The air leaving these will be at less than 21C setpoint. It'll make you feel cold. It will please you. it will still not please you as much as still air at 21C would please you. There is a MATERIAL variation in performance between units. It is DIFFICULT to work out what it is. Explore here: https://www.eurovent-certification.com/en/advancedsearch/result?program=AC&product_type=AC1%2FA%2FS%2FR&keyword=&champ_23=3-4#access-results Or look at the attached spreadsheet where I compare five units. Row9 = standard bracket Midea, €650 for the 3.5 kW / 12000 BTU kit. Row11 = basic bracket Panasonic, €650 for the 3.5 kW / 12000 BTU kit. Row12 = standard bracket Panasonic, €1300 for the 3.5 kW / 12000 BTU kit. Row13 = premium bracket Panasonic, €2600 for the 3.5 kW / 12000 BTU kit. Row15 = premium bracket Panasonic, €2200 for the 2.5 kW / 9000 BTU kit. The ratings are built around cooling mode. The 3.5 kW class units provide ~2.5 kW of cooing at 30C ambient. COP4.75 for a basic one, 6-6.25 for a standard one, 7.5 for a premium one. Not much difference you might think. In the more common condition we see 1.6 kW of cooling at 25C ambient. COP7.25 for a basic one, but 10.5-11 for the standard one, and 12.25 for the premium one. That's a material efficiency bump. The differences get even more spectacular in heating mode. When it's 2 degC out the premium unit manages 2.25 kW at COP 5.75, but the standard unit only do 1.5 kW at COP 4.5-5.25 (that COP falling off a cliff if you push them harder), and the basic unit just 1.25 kW at COP. The premium units also come with more defrost / snow / ice type equipment protection than the standard units. That premium unit will still be giving you 4.2 kW at -10 degC with a COP of 2.75+ which is damn impressive for heating. You definitely want these units if it's your only source of heat. Standard class units will probably do if you're only cooling or only operating in the shoulder seasons. 2.5 kW class units work even better. 2 kW at COP 6 when it's +2C out, 1.25 kW at COP 8 when it's +7C out, 3.6 kW @ COP 3 when it's -10C out. You're better off with two of those than a single larger unit. One upstairs one downstairs. Downstairs takes more of the heating load than upstairs but both are available in limit conditions. Vice versa for cooling. Multisplits don't work as efficiently unless you ONLY use the one head at a time and you undersize the outdoor unit. (i.e. you have the 2.5 kW outdoor units with two 2.5 kW heads) That's due to the operating range limitations of the outdoor units. It only has one sweetspot if you're going for the ultimate performance. I threw in a standard range 3.5 kW Panasonic unit in the UK in a fit of heat induced insomnia rage a couple of years ago. Works adequately for shoulder season use. Not worth paying double for the premium unit. I wouldn't use it in preference to the gas boiler in winter for comfort reasons though. The XtremeSave Midea performs decently for the money. (standard panasonic performance for the basic Panasonic price) Don't buy the Midea Blanc etc for €50-100 less. That extra €50-100 makes an enormous difference to the performance. For ~€999 fitted we're going to pop one in the apartment to take the edge off in summer and the edge off in spring/autumn when it's the odd cool day but the district heating hasn't started up yet. You won't justify the step up to premium if it isn't the main source of heating / cooling. The basic range is never worth it for cost of ownership reasons. I am still seriously tempted to use an air to air unit in the cabin build instead of a ground source heat pump. COP 3 ish at -10C is approaching what the ground source unit does anyway. Heat distribution and comfort from a lack of drafts swings me back to wet heating systems though. MoreDetailPerformance.xlsx

They need filling before they are taped

I would say that it's critical. I guess you could retro fit helical bars used in crack stitching on either side of the wall. Same as Mr Punter has said; use screw in wall starters. Possibly just take off the top few bricks if there not fully set yet and fit them.

Put a couple of screw in wall starters before you build any higher. Also, fix a wide strip of stainless eml across the join before you render.

2.5m for the ground level where it stands, so minus the deck height. Personally I'd split the difference unless you have a neighbour that would be likely to complain.

When we lived in Kent we had very hard water and I fitted softeners in all the houses I lived in. They're straightforward to fit and all but one were twin cylinder type that don't required an electrical connection. They all seem to work in the same way and I have used Kinetico, MiniMax, TwinTec and Crown. Most seem to be made by Harveys.

welcome and congratulations. all the fun stuffs starts now. we look forward to seeing how your project develops.

For your eps you want to go direct to the manufacturer. avoid the merchant for most things. manufacturer delivered a half attic load to me no problem. saved a fortune on pir prices.

Lion / tiger poo is supposed to work well too. I recall that freshly shed snake skins placed in the loft seemed to scare the mice away.

I found Live Home 3D excellent for floor plans. Had all the key stuff to draw to scale, indicate location of furniture, doorways, etc... $30 for a license felt very fair to me.

This 100%. Wasted £500 on a condensing tumble drier - never used it and probably never will as the humidity control with MVHR is awesome. Air is fresh, no condensation, dry stuff indoors in a few hours all year round - it is great. I think these things work best in a new build / total ripout as you can make sure that the bends in the pipes are minimal and in the right places - noise is a common complaint and these are probably mainly in retro fits I imagine.

What data logging equipment are you using? A pencil and paper, reading 5 electricity meters and typing the numbers into a spreadsheet. Very low tech.

My solution to the running out of hat water issue (with an UVC not a sun amp) is a Stieble Eltron 10kW modulating instant water heater in the hot pipe out of the tank. It is set slightly lower than the tank temperature so normally does nothing, but if the water starts to run cool it kicks in. And given the slow re heat time with an ASHP, if someone has a shower before the tank has fully re heated, the Steible Eltron will make up the difference.

Ours was installed a bit over a year ago and here's the stats from its built in data logging. 249 kWh consumed running the ASHP 6724 kWh energy saved through heat recovery. So about £700 saved over one year and a bit (assuming our ASHP COP 3 would have provided the heat otherwise)

The problem is not much better with a conventional unvented hot water cylinder. The ASHP uses the lower of the 2 thermostat pockets to measure the tank temperature. Near the end of a sunny day like today it is reading69 degrees. All that lovely heat courtesy of a bit of sun, some chemistry and some electronics. BUT from watching what happens next, there is "room for improvement" Someone takes a long shower (far longer than necessary, but they blame the duration on the amount of products needed to be applied to their long hair, a problem I do NOT have). The water at the top of the tank is still coming out piping hot, but what has happened is the hot water in the tank has all just "moved up a bit" and at the bottom replaced by cold. As soon as the hot / cold transition gets above that lower thermostat pocket, the ASHP thinks the tank is cold and fires up, and I am there shouting at it saying why the b****y hell do you want to come on? If I were designing this system again, I would specify a whole row of thermostat pockets up the tank, and I would specify an extra tank tapping near the bottom of the tank, not far above the cold inlet tapping, and I would have a circulating pump that could come on to stir up the hot water in the tank to even it;s temperature out a bit, and hopefully avoid the ASHP coming on when not really needed. but I can't see a way to retro fit that with no tank tapping low down to circulate the water to.

Hi. If you do not tackle ventilation heat loss, you can have a shedload of insulation and it will feel like you have 25% of what you installed. Fabric heat loss is relatively inconsequential, but ventilation heat loss is dire, so to build to a good standard, and then drill holes in the shell for extractor fans, and then fit trickle gents to every window would be barking mad IMO. With the house sealed and an MVHR installed, you can recover ambient heat, instead of pumping it out to the clouds, and reduce your space heating requirements. That then reduces the energy bills forever plus reduces ( scales down ) the heating system. All of these decisions have ‘knock-on’ effects, so you absolutely should approach this with a “fabric first” ethos, or it will be downhill all the way back to a swelling which slightly improved upon our fore UK BRegs. Get a plan as to how you will make the dwelling(s) airtight, eg as one airtight envelope, and reassess from there. If you cannot get under 1-2 ACH ( target 1 or less ) then MVHR is a waste of time anyways ( as natural infiltration will surpass the airflow rates of the MVHR ).

I think to be safe you have to give them an "opportunity to rectify" the problem. You did that by inviting them to come and look but in court they might make up some story and say they did agree to fix but you got someone else to do it while they were waiting for parts to arrive. If you haven't already done so I would write recorded delivery with a copy of the report/list of work that needs doing and giving them a date in two weeks to agree a plan and timescale to sort it. Keep a copy. You can say in the letter If they haven't responded by that date you will get the work done elsewhere and seek to recover costs.

I have just installed our Stiebel Eltron DHC-E 8/10 instant water heater. I have had it over a month now, but this was prompted by another "run out of hot water" incident this morning * This is an electronically controller instant water heater that modulates it's power to maintain a fixed water output temperature set on it's dial and can heat with a power up to about 10Kw It is connected in line with the output of the unvented hot water cylinder. The idea being most of the time it will do very little, but in the event of the hot water running out, it will take over and at least produce some hot water so ones shower can continue (although you will probably have to turn down the flow rate to maintain a sensible temperature) Just a few observations. This has gone to the top of my list of most awkward appliances to make the electrical connection to. Whoever designed the cable entry arrangement needs to be condemned to a lifetime of fitting cables into them. I was also confused by two L terminals. The manual says L L (L N) so my best interpretation of that is the left hand L terminal is L and right hand L terminal is in fact N I had deliberately left the UVC cold while I was installing this heater. The tank temperature was probably in the region of 30 degrees and I was able to get a hot enough shower temperature with a decent flow rate, though the heater was flashing it's light to indicate it was running at full power so not achieving it's 50 degree setpoint. In normal use I have the tank set to 48 and the Stiebel Eltron set to 50 so it will do a little bit of uplift. * This is the third (or is it 4th) "ran out of hot water" incident. We have a 300L UVC. This morning SWMBO had a "hair wash" shower and I timed her at over 15 minutes in the shower. Immediately afterwards, daughter had a shower and about 5 minutes in, complained it was getting cold. SWMBO tells me this is unacceptable. As part of my "research" I did the bucket and timer test and found that the rainfall shower head is delivering 17 litres per minute. That will empty a 300L tank in just under 18 minutes. I am trying to educate the ladies that a shower tap is not a binary device, it can be anywhere between fully off and fully on and it does not need to be fully on. In the mean time I might look at some form of flow restrictor, but I don't want anything that makes the water flow noisy.

Yes agree with Water, so long as you can deliver good value. At the top end that may swing more towards creativity (time spent) vs cost (your fee), at the self build end that may be driven by cost primarily with a bit of uplift for the flare / unique personal touch that an interior designer can bring. Really at the top end your work / reputation should speak for it's self and folk will seek you out anyway by way of personal recommendation. Is there any milage in having a look at what sort of uplift the kitchen / bathroom companies are putting on the base cost of the units say as many of them seem to be offering a "free design service" I don't know but maybe some parts of their model can be adapted to suit the interior design? At the self build end, if you are thinking about the business side of things then they (kitchen bathroom companies) have a pretty heavy software developement cost, but when you actually look a how functional the software it's not too flexible which leaves another door open for the interior designer?

Why they charge us so much for water.

Connected to a suicide shower.

Our shower heads on full tilt I measured about 11 litres per minute. So a 300L shower would take about 27 minutes. When you are only storing DHW at 48 degrees, it will not be mixing much cold water with that. The Ladies in this house seem to delight in long showers, my daughter in particular half an hour is about normal. I am convinced she just stays there until the water goes cold. And she does not understand the concept that you can run the shower at less than full water flow. 10 minutes is a long shower for me, by then I have long run out of places to wash and hair to shampoo.