SteamyTea

Is WD good enough, I have some of that to hand. Or I have a trip to Truro. Just noticed they have a branch in Penzance

Thanks @Onoff, that seems to answer most of it

I have a little spare room, what I stuffed full of insulation. I could also go for a small one as I don't need as much water as it can supply. Do they all have the holes in the same place?

I thought copper would be OK. May have to get a totaly new cylinder when I come to get the thing out. They seem to be costly now circa £400.

I am finally going to have to do the element replacement next week. I have a Super Seven cylinder (about 30 years old) and need to change at least the bottom immersion element. The cylinder is approximately 18" (0.46m) wide and 60" (1.52m) tall. When I try and measure it it is a little wider because of the pitifully small amount of insulation, about an inch all around it. Now having a quick look on the interweb, I can get 11" or 14" elements and they can be made from copper, copper and incoloy, incoloy only and seemingly titanium. How as the last element lasted almost 30 years, and I am in a very soft water area (not always good as things dissolve in water, eventually), what should I go for and where is a good online store to get them from. So length and material, and where from. Cheers.

I think Mike's problem is for tiny, tiny leaks, ones that would not show up on a normal detector (I had one given to me by the water company, not sure what happened to it). I think they used sound, but where known to be unreliable and gave too many false positives.

Or a ten year old basic Ford C-Max, The Scenic had it too, and they are over 20 years old. Is there some kind of tape that could be wrapped around areas of high risk. Something with two parallel conductors and some dry salt. Connect to a meter and when it gets damp, circuit is made and a buzzer goes off. Pipe condensation may be a problem, but pipes should be lagged enough to stop that anyway.

Most cars have some sort of rain sensor that can stop and start the wiper (mine seems to stop them when I pull up at traffic lights). I have no idea where the sensor is, so must be fairly small.

Except that the allergy is caused by the faeces of the mites that live on the animals. Not sure about latex, but notice that emulsion paint is irritating my skin now.

Best way to deal with a cat.

There is more to MCS than just registering a system. If your idea was viable, it would have been done as the industry was riddled with crooks. Modules are so cheap compared to a decade ago, it is just cheaper to add more. There is still the DNO limits to adhere to if grid connected.

I think it probably is, as long as you get a competitive quote for the installation. There are two rates, the 'Deemed Usage' and the 'Generation Rate'. It i only the generation rate that has been cut. A lot of the costs in fitting PV are nothing to do with the FiT rate or the MCS system i.e. cost of scaffolding, labour rates, structural reports etc. But there are companies that just put in high quotes and hope they sell a few. We all know a few people that equate price with quality.

SAP stuff should be a separate document. It may not have been done yet. You may get the water usage, and temperature for your washing machines from the hand books, my Bosch does. They often have the energy usage too. A 'shower' can be long and hot, short and cool, cool and long or long and short, only you know that. Why measuring it is useful. Mass of Water = Density (or volume) of Water x Flow Rate x Time Energy to Heat Water = Specific Heat Capacity (SHC) x Mass x Temperature Rise. To use a cooking analogy (and I do a lot of cooking), a small pan of water boils a lot quicker than a large one on the same ring. In the real world, temperature rise and energy input is not linear. You loose more energy to the surrounding air the hotter something is. It is why you may read about storing hot water at a lower temperature. My DHW system 'lost' more energy over a day that I actually needed to bath in. So I insulated it more, and it used less. Just like a thick jumper keeps you warm when it is cold and a windproof jacket helps when it is very windy, the same is true of houses.

Not going to bother to read the article (some of us down here read, and read the Guardian). But does he justify the "studying for 7 years" at all? There are several ways to interpret that. Not that I would ever say a word against Architects, without at least one expletive

You can work out your domestic hot water (DHW) from your existing usage. Or start from scratch with a jug, a stopwatch and a thermometer. Your heating requirements should be already calculated for your Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP, or possibly ESAP, E being enhanced). If not, you can work it out from the building fabric i.e. what the walls, floors, roofs windows and doors are made from (thermally) and some local weather data. Bit more involved that that, but imaging that you have a section of wall and it looses 'heat' though it (heat is the old term for energy). If you know the temperature differences, then you can work out the losses. The temperature differences change by the hour, so you have to use the weather data to give you the range and frequency (how often they occur) of those temperatures. This is usually called Heating Degree Days (HDD) and is a crude, but effective method of working out temperature dependent heat losses. Then you need to add to that any ventilation losses, but that is another story.

I am just off for a coffee, don't think I will be thinking about your problems though

Laminate floors were best avoided anyway. Do you dislike traditional radiators? I do, and where they are located, usually under a window. And do you have gas? One thing to remember is that space heating and DHW do different things, at different times and at different temperatures. They are not good bedfellows really. Another thing to remember is that any unvented cylinder needs a certified installation and is meant to have an annual check (often not mentioned by gas fitters/plumbers). There is also a shift in primary energy sources, we are moving from thermal generation to renewables, and at a faster pace that even I imagined just 5 years ago. At the moment, gas is so much cheaper than electricity, even allowing for the efficiency losses and extra meter rental that, financially, it is the best option. I am not sure if this will always be the case though. You just have to do the sums and work out what is the best overall and maybe build in some future contingency i.e. can you easily swap out a gas boiler for a heat pump (the newer CO2 ones can produce a higher temperature). Also, how are you zoning the heating system? could you design it so that unused bedrooms can be at a lower temperature, that can save a bit of energy.

@JSHarris Is there any science behind the 56°C temperature, or is it an arbitrary set point that 'just seems to work'. @Nickfromwales ° instead of o, alt plus 248. Just get a PC and stop using a kiddies iPad. @DiabloI have got my photography grey cards out and my IR thermometer. White is at 22°C, Black at 21°C and Grey at 20.6°C. Probably within the accuracy of the thermometer.

Most of my life I have had parquet flooring. I have got used to it. Means home to me. But every time I go to a house with a decent carpet, I just love it, I could walk up and down my Aunt's stairs all day and fall asleep on her landing. I don't know if any research has been done about falling onto an uncarpeted floor. It was a fall that set the catastrophic chain of events that led to the death of my Grandmother and to the NHS having to admit they had superbugs (she was one of the 12 that never got compensated, but we had to do the legal work). The previous owner of this house fell and was unable to get up, leading to his death (and a wee weed floor upstairs). I don't know if a decent carpet would offer enough protection in a fall compared to a solid, or thin carpeted floor. Something worth thinking about though.

I used to suffer from childhood asthma, was pretty bad when I was a toddler (scared the hell out of my parents as we lived 1500 miles from nearest hospital). Luckily we found out that I had an allergy to most 'pets', so avoiding them cured the problem (my mother always had a cat though, and I hate dogs so avoid them anyway). When I left home and moved to the coast my asthma just cleared up. Unfortunately university ends (almost) and I had to move back in with parents for a while until I bought my first house. I was 21 and my asthma came back with a vengeance. I moved into my own place, an old, damp Victorian terrace, the asthma persisted. I changed jobs too and was working next to the pattern shop, they used a softwood timber there called gelatin, related to the rubber plant. In 18 months I had 10 months off work. Changed jobs and got a lot better (was a lot of detection work to find out it was the timber). I also moved house, to a more modern, damp and mould free place, and that seemed to help to. Made up my mind in 1986 that I wanted to live by the coast again, just took me nearly 20 years to do it. Eventually moved as far west as I could practically go and have not been troubled with asthma since, though I do still get hayfever (which is just an allergy anyway). My mother is now cat free and staying with her is joy, before it was not. Her persistent cough seems to have got better as well, though not fully gone. About 10 years ago I started to get terrible eczema on my hands and arms. Put it down to a change of washing up liquid at work. Found out that it was actually fish that was causing it. I sell a lot of fish, tonnes of the stuff. I was also eating it 3 or 4 times a week, as we all know how good it is for us and I quite like it. Because of that, I got a very croaky voice, could hardly speak at one stage. I was finishing of my second degree at the time and was about to start my teacher training. Over the following year, I got worse and worse. I put it down to stress (working full time, studying full time, bad relationship, financial worries, some social isolation, you all know the story). Eventually I worked out the cause, stopped eating fish and I got a lot better. I even gave up smoking for a while, but that made no difference except to make me feel stupid and slow. I think I did some permanent damage to my throat with my fish eating, leaving me with a voice like Bruce Willis, rather than Kenneth Williams. So it comes as no surprise to me that fitting a good ventilation system can markedly improve asthma and other allergy induced breathing problems. Getting rid of all pets and making sure there is no mould or fungus in the house is good too. Oh and no wood burners. I also find that dry air is better for me, so humidity may need to be controlled.

One thing to consider is the physical size of any heating/DHW system. Gas Combi is probably the smallest. As soon as you get into storing energy i.e. DHW, then you need more space. Now if it is just you, and the occasional guest, it need not take up much room (your house has about double the footprint of mine). I live alone, but have had a lodger in the past, and a 200 lt cylinder was fine. If I was starting from scratch, I would fit a Sunamp, with PV and an ASHP (no gas and I know how they work). As odd as this sound, I would also consider what I have at the moment, Economy 7. The capital outlay is very low and I am a low user (sub 4 MWh/year). There are limitations, but being single, they are easy to work around. I find it is always worth doing an estimate on an E7 heating and DHW system as a reality check when looking at quotes for other systems. You may need to fit a water softener as well, they take up a bit of room. I don't have the problem. Partly why my DHW cylinder has lasted 30 years, but I do need to change the lower element now, but scared to as the cylinder may buckle and spring a leak.

Or you will frequently both run out of juice as you assume the other has not. ASSUME = ASS out of U and ME

Easy Work out the time it takes to charge a battery Take the tool with the largest power draw and work out how long it will last on one charge. Divide that by the above, that will give you the number of batteries and chargers needed. Example Battery takes 1 hour to charge. Drill last 1/2 hour on full chat Therefore. 1 / 0.5 = 2 You can add in a bit of diversity. Say the drill is only used at half power, or only half the time, that will reduce the amount of batteries needed.

That was going to be my question. The only reason I can think for wanting oil filled rads is that they run at a lower temperature and can be covered over more safely i.e. wet washing. Though I would never recommend coving radiators of any sort. If you want to heat air, heat the air.

The upside is that the beach looks a lot better with a fresh covering of gravel. Usually it is covered in shit, from both dogs and the failing sewage system when it rains. Portreath really is a smelly place and even though it is close to me, I hardly ever go there. Time for a coffee in a proper port I think.