SteamyTea

We used to make some very large components, such as the walk way at St. Mary's Hospital, London. The expansion/contraction was often mentioned, but no special measures put in place. We also made tooling for car seats, these are thermally cycled dozen of times a day, no issues. When I did my HND in Mechanical Engineering, one of the 'problems' to solve was the strength of two linked materials. It was usual to use copper and steel as the examples. I used glass and polyester resin. It had less movement for any given load in any direction than the usual examples. Re the contractor, I notice that they it says 'Glassfibre' and no fibreglass on the side of the van. Always a good sign.

Looks better. Just goes to show that people that know what they are doing can do a decent job.

Reverse image search. Change google to look for just images, then select your pre-saved image and drag it into the search box. Let google do its thing and if the image is popular, it will show other location of it. Regarding getting a spanking from suppliers, if we have a problem we ask our suppliers to send their best possible sample. If it is better than they supply us, they loose the business. What does Marsellus Wallace look like?

If you IWI then you can also put in a service cavity for pipes and cables.

Yes, they work a treat and mine has not needed anything done to it for 12 years at least, may be longer.

Can you get the part 3D printed, ask @Onoff

Yes, insulate and make the walls airtight.

Thermal conduction is to do with temperature differences. Convection is to do with physically moving, in this case, air. Now a ground floor sitting on the foundation, and then the semi infinite heat sink of the earth, will conduct energy from the UFH to the ground, so that needs lots of insulation. Between floors is a different issue in reality. Convection dominates. Warm air rises and then gets trapped by the ceiling. This reduces the ∆T between the air temperature and the UFH system temperature. Between joists is also, generally, an air pocket, so has fairly decent thermal properties. What is important is reducing unwanted, or uncontrolled, air movement between the house and the exterior. This will, apart from being drafty, cause disproportionate energy losses. So while the place is stripped bare, make sure that area is airtight, it is easy and cheap to do when nothing, apart from the joists, is in the way. Consideration must be taken into account for condensation risks, but that is a different issue.

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I really don't care much for people getting away with a few quid. What gets me is how we seem to have two laws covering everything. One says you must do it, the other says you must not do it. If only we were like Switzerland, if it is not compulsory, then it is illegal. Or just have one law "Don't be an arse."

Just cool it to 4°C

You could connect the ST via a plate heat exchange. But start off with getting the UFH fitted with a Willis and see how it goes.

Is this the sort of thing that they cover Cornish Units with?

Not sure about this, but if the building is relatively new, building control may have some records in it.

I assume these are solar thermal, not photovoltaic. Can you send then back or resell them. Failing that, you could plumb them in to supply some energy to your domestic hot water. You will probably need a new hot water cylinder, an expansion tank, lots of compression fittings, some flexible stainless pipe, a controller, antifreeze, service schedule and other things I have forgotten about. But the efficiency is tip top while heating the water, assuming the water is only luke warm to start with. PV is so much better.

I think this may be more to do with the nature of phase change materials.

Are these people that have not read building regs.

Welcome. As much as I like the technology of the Sunamp, it seems that it is still, like Spain, unfinished. Why do you want to get rid of gas?

Yes please, I am struggling to envisage it.

@Onoff Did you ever get a temperature display working?

Have a look at vacuum panels.

May sound odd, but have you looked at the Scanwegian coutries, not that far from you, and they know a thing or two about wood in buildings.

According to this About the same. Yes there is, but you need a whole load of information. Do you now how much insulation there is under the UFH pipes, and the overall heat losses from the area you are heating. It is not that hard to work out, just a lot of repetition and very dull. It is the same formula that you use to work out heat loss though a wall, just have to jiggle things about i.e. treat the surface area of the pipe as the hot side, and the floor as the cold side.

I got two cherry trees from PoundStretchers. You are welcome to them, one has been overgrown by the Pampas Grass and the other is a dry twig.

Just have re-read the original question, how about putting in a Willis and seeing how it goes. It will not do the DHW, but you could do that with a simple immersion heater. It will give you a better idea of what is actually needed, then you can design a heat pump system better. May be worth calculating how much DHW you actually use, and at what temperature it is both stored at and used at.