SteamyTea

ROFL as they used to type in the 1990's

Well lets see if it consistently happens.

I think that is totally missing the point that Ultramods is making. There are plenty of resources on the WWW and Buildhub is just one of them. If the site is to succeed as the premier self build site, then it has to have easily accessible high quality information. Not just a library of links. We have Google for that.

My old Dad used to cut down this large weed every year and take it to the local tip to be composted. I was up there one time and pointed out his lovely example of Japanese Knotweed. He said, "Is that what it is I have been taking it to the green waste for 20 years". I bought him some glyphosate, problem solved, he outlived the weeds but they are probably scattered all over Buckinghamshire now.

@ultramods Not so different from what our old mate lineweight is suggesting over at the other place. http://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=15720&page=1#Item_30 It is amazing how quickly this sort of idea gets criticised and not acted on (my very first post was about open source housing and got bogged down in irrelevant detail) and being told it is too hard and that there are too many variables. I would have thought that was the whole point of implementing good practices rather than letting everyone reinvent the wheel, or a thermal break, or a gutter and downpipe. What may be useful are some static pages that show basic principles and formula used, maybe even a simple calculator, oh hang on, that has been suggested before and not happened as someone may have an out of date browser.

All depends if we want to inform, educated and entertain. I shall stick with entertain as there seems too many barriers to educate.

Aren't they called feature editors?

I was quite happy with DOS 5 and Windows 3. But things move on and apparently I can now use Notepad to read and write LINUX and MAC scripts properly (MS did the correct newline and carriage return, the others did not). OS's come in for a lot of stick, but it is usually the packages they are bundled with that is the problem, not the underlying system. I had a MS Vista laptop for years, never gave any problems. But then I tend to use portable apps rather than fully installed stuff, the exceptions mainly being MS Office, Adobe Photoshop and Turbocad. Means when it all goes tit's up I just take my memory stick out and plug it in another PC. Backups are dead easy too.

Give yourself about 4 hours to download and install.

I agree with Nick (on deciding if you go with PV) . What is the roof area and angle 'to the sun' i.e. is here a south facing side to your house, and can it be made strong enough to support PV? I know that there are parts of Aylesbury that still have very poor water pressure and flow, so get your water pressures and flows checked out.

Or no, if you want to install it yourself, it avoids the certification. What are you doing about the very hard water in Bucks? Fur up the heat exchanger and you may well be into a new thermal store. I had so much scale in my cylinder it actually poked itself out the side.

Probably not, it is the kind of 'sticky plaster' solution that an Architect will come up with. My solution would be gas for the DHW and an ASHP for the space heating as that will probably deliver at the lowest CO2 levels. DHW really is a pain as you either have to deliver on demand and possibly suffer the lower flow rates or store and suffer the thermal losses. The Sunamp does address the losses (as does a well insulated cylinder) and takes up less space.

I am not an expert on makes and models of combi's, and being from a renewables background, not that pro them. But from my understanding you get get some models that can modulate down, while still condensing (and therefore being more efficient) to a relatively low level. With DHW you do at least know your minimum and maximum usage, so model choice is fairly easy. And there is nothing to stop you having two boilers.

Then you look at all the heating options and decide. The options can include air to water heat pumps, air to air heat pumps, gas, solid fuel (though not a good idea), electric (low capital cost).

I like the idea of DCV, but is it really just a poshed up single room ventilation system? Some people have fitted CO2 and RH sensors to their MVHR, so this amounts to the same thing. Seems to me that when fitting MVHR, the initial design/layout is important as it makes fitting easier.

Welcome. Bucks is a nice county, have family there. Rather than think about the heating system, have you looked into the energy requirements of the house. Without knowing the heat demand it is hard to recommend anything. You may find that improving the overall U-Value is cheaper and easier than a more complicated heating system. Domestic hot water (DHW) and space heating really shoudl be kept separate, they do different things at different temperatures and at different times. As you are having a flat roof, have you totally discounted having photovoltaics? And how do you intend to get a 100% watertight roof?

Why does it need the internet to be set up? And why does a designer have to come. Sounds way too complicated for what is, after all, a domestic appliance.

what I would give for a bit more warmth

I listen to Radio 4 on Digital, so 40 years and 3 seconds behind the times.

So do I, they make a room into a corridor.

Cause it was Prep School, prepped for what had to wait till I was older, and moved to Oxfordshire.

I escaped Essex when I was 10, think I missed my bets years down there. Having said that, the South of France and the Caribbean where petty good. Just a shame I was sent to school in Kent!

Looks like a 1970's office intercom. "This is Carson your doorman".

So comes with the brick layer in the tub then, cool

I was, on your timescale. Truth is I hate going up in the loft, it is depressing because of all the junk up there.