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Screed laid this morning, all good, no leaks no issues, no pressure increase. Remarkably smooth & uneventful. Big sigh of relief.

A 2 port buffer looks like this - the grey box being the heat pump

The irony is that very efficient houses, where the heating requirement is especially low, will often be cheaper to heat by gas as their energy requirement is dominated by DHW where Heatpumps struggle to reach cost parity. This is entirely a function of our electricity market pricing strategy. However, given our greening grid, in all cases a HP now outperforms a gas boiler when it comes to CO2 - which wasn't the case as little as 16 years ago. Whichever way you look at it discussing Heatpumps, even subsidies, isn't politically controversial. It's no different from a consumer program discussing and informing viewers about how to find out which benefits they can apply for. Is "moneybox" going to be canceled because they advise on disability allowance or unemployment benefit claims - about as politically charged subject as you can get at the moment?

Whilst I have a heat pump and think they are good, in the right circumstances, I find it hard to believe for most people, that swapping a gas boiler for a heat pump will reduce bills by much, if anything. I have always believed a heat pump with a SCOP of 3 will deliver similar running costs to a mains gas boiler. You would have to achieve a much better SCOP to achieve a saving and I just don't believe the average retrofit ASHP can achieve that.

I would settle for not being charged extra. At the moment. we in "remote" parts are charged MORE for our electricity due to distribution costs. Back in the day when electricity came from a small number of big power stations and there were none of those up here, then you could just about follow the thought process that they had to build lots of long high voltage pylons to get the electricity to us. But NOW more is generated here than we can possibly use and they are building more pylons to transport the power south. So at the very least charge the cost of that to the users in the south and reduce our charge for being "remote"

They are not the same thing, a 2 port buffer would straddle flow and return and provide hydraulic separation, a volumiser will sit in either the supply or return pipes (not both) and provide zero hydraulic separation. Buffers are in general bad because they introduce distortion, which in basic terms is a difference in flow temp on the primary and secondary sides of the system. The ASHP will therefore run hotter than is actually needed. If flow rates are equal each side in the primary and secondary circuit then distortion doesn't occur, but if that's the case the buffer is serving no purpose, so the additional pump is an additional electric drain.

To be clear I'm referring to a 4 port buffer tank, or indeed a 4 port llh or phe in a domestic situation other than a mansion. In principle they aren't an issue. In practice they are almost invariably, it seems, badly specified and/or badly controlled and so cause mixing between flow and return. This means you have to increase the flow temperature for any given emitter temperature, reducing COP significantly. In extreme cases the mismatch in pump speeds either side can deprive the heating system of energy and compromise defrost. They are mostly installed principally to protect installers from call outs, not for any legitimate system reason. Finally they make fault diagnosis more difficult and mask issues that should be corrected. Unfortunately many installers still use them but interestingly will not defend their position when asked to on the Renewableheating hub podcasts about buffers. A 2 port buffer tank, also called a volumiser, will still reduce cycling and suffers from none of the above problems.

On that.....'next problem' plasterboarders. Thanks for the advice and re assurance.

Ok, great. FYI, on a 'huge' basement we recently quoted for I also recommended installing a layer of 75mm or 100mm EPS around the whole thing after the tanking was done; a), to provide some resistance to the static ground temps, but b), more importantly, to protect the external tanking solution from mechanical damage (a stone / other reducing effectiveness or causing a failure) as I really didn't want to ever have to revisit this for the sake of a couple of £k worth of (seconds) sheet material. 2 birds with one stone afaic, and a good place to invest in a second or third set of belts & braces.

If they sign off the cylinder as a G3 annual inspection the warranty with Telford will be fine. Telford don't care who inspects it, just as long as the benchmark book gets stamped / signed each year (book this a week or two early so you don't lapse).

Thanks for the good advice. I suppose that one thing in favour of the shuttered concrete is that they will make a waterproof sealed box, including "lid" (my GF), which will be above ground, then Dan Wood will come along and put a DPC down, so there isn't really anywhere for the water to go. I hope!

Most of us are wise enough to accept there is nuance in the specific install case for each heat pump. Some nuance that is missed is different usage and heating patterns of different houses. If you require your house (no matter it's energy loss) to be at a fairly constant warmth then ASHP are a good option, comparable to fossil fuel. Retired folk or WFH for example. However for the house that is only heated briefly in the AM and PM for 9-5 workers domestic heat pumps don't have enough power to cope with this in old houses where as boilers do. For similar performance with an intermittent heating strategy you'd need replace this: With something like this:

It's 's a waste of effort insulating any pipe that is only occasionally heated up like pipe runs to basins etc in my opinion. Anything that's permanently hot like a hot return loop or pipes attached to a cylinder need to be well insulated. As for cold, it depends, if you are showing no evidence of condensation on them I wouldn't bother.

The black neoprene and cheap grey EPS stuff are near identical in thermal performance, which I was surprised by, so I now install EPS internally with wall thicknesses to suit the application. I seldom insulate the cold pipes tbh, as plastic pushfit (Hep) pipe seems to be a world away from copper in terms of condensation risk. Plant rooms need everything insulating imo as the temp differences there are the most adverse, so defo the cold mains supply to manifolds but only in a 9mm or 13mm wall product. Insulating the hot pipes where there is no hot return (in such a dwelling) seems pointless too tbh, so I just put hot & HRC together in the same insulation to wrap them up nice and toasty (25mm wall) and then call it a day after that. Very different advice would be stated if this was a typical uk home with pipes under voids / in cold attics etc obvs.

Too late.......... Probably.

Do all your neighbours hate you ?.🤣🤣 could you park it around the back of one of their places in exchange for some beer tokens.

Hire a machine for a couple of weekends get your pad down for the static caravan, get some services run to it, hire a septic tank that sits under a porta cabin. move into static buy own digger put in sewage treatment plant off hire septic tank. or buy a trailer and take your digger home with you.

Here https://www.jcbinsurance.co.uk/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=1508918350&gbraid=0AAAAADnpox4SddR7DG583GDQX5rhwyRtt&gclid=CjwKCAjwn6LABhBSEiwAsNJrjltOHLE6MrY2E_qua6IEefdP_eu84Miy0Iv-pTQMIFx82tyLune2XBoCSjMQAvD_BwE

I just hide mine best as possible from eyes on site. and I paid for JCB insurance which covers theft. Was about £300/year which is quite reasonable. Call them up and get a quote.

The point is there are several competent person schemes for electricians in England as well as Scotland. It makes my blood boil when a blinkered institution like this will only allow you to use one of them. It has to be either ignorance, which needs challenging, or the NICEIC are somehow "encouraging" them to only accept NICEIC contractoes.

I used the same stuff as @jack, within 2 or 3 days it had all gone. I bought this sprayer https://www.buyaparcel.com/matabi-81847-berry-7-sprayer-5-litre-mtb81847/ with the 5.4m extension https://www.zoro.co.uk/shop/maintenance-and-outdoor/lawn-and-garden-sprayers/telescopic-lance-5-4m/p/ZT2594450S The extension works OK but it is a bit whippy when fully extended, and the locking system is friction only so does undo a bit to easy. It is definitely worth it as no ladders needed to reach the top of my gables.

Photo from when ours were done in case it helps. Took them 4 goes and a visit from the structural engineer.

Exactly, if a podcast on Heatpumps is to controversial politcally, then a motoring podcast would be equally controversial.

This is the pressure today, very slightly up on the worrying lower figure yesterday. I dont think i have an issue do i?

The BBC should be banned full stop There miles away from the BBC of thirty years ago Far from impartial

Make sure that if you have a safe, your sister does not loose the number/key, just in case your mother looses the ability to communicate. Think I will be using and angle grinder a lot this weekend.

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