Dreadnaught

Hi @Simon R, great post. Thanks for posting. A splendid to hear @Jeremy Harris being mentioned. You mentioned the site "wood online". I tried Googling it but came up blank. Do you have a URL for it?

Interesting discussion. Playing devils advocate, @PeterW, the reason you might buy a spool of cable and terminate it oneself is because Cable Money only sell a range of lengths (3, 5, 10, 20m, etc.) and, with decent gear, terminating is actually quite easy. What say you? (This is relevant for me is I will be running my ethernet network soon-ish in my new build.)

Slightly off topic but somewhat related is the matter of the reclamation of VAT under the government's "VAT DIY Scheme". If the property is deemed by HMRC to be being built for profit, I believe that the ability to reclaim VAT under the above scheme is also lost.

One subtle point of difference, @puntloos, for you to consider (and maybe ask MHRC about if you are calling them). I am under the impression that the 2-years mentioned is just a useful rule-of-thumb. The real underlying principle is whether the new property being built to make a profit or not. The 2-year figure is a time interval that can often demonstrate that, at the time of building the property, there wasn't an intention to sell it to make a profit. However it is the underlying principle that matters and not the time interval as such. Two examples that illustrates the point. 1) A self builder builds a house for themselves without any intention to sell. Life changes, such as a change in job location, mean that they sell it the moment it is finished and move with their job while making a profit. I think that it would probably be easy to convince HMRC that this was their PPR with no CGT to pay. 2) A self builder builds a house, lives in it for two years and sells it for a profit. They tell HMRC that its their PPR so no CGT to pay. Self builder then does the same thing subsequently three times in a row. Would HMRC then make the case that the self builder is actually a developer building houses for profit. I think they might. Would back taxes become liable, I don't know.

Yes, I see what you mean. Perhaps they are the same item, and with that part number it is for Vaillant's gas boilers. Or perhaps they used the wrong stock photo on the internet page. At just £5 it could certainly be worth a try!

Hey @Dan F, you could get your multimeter out and test the resistance of your one for us. You could sell the information to each of us for £250 a head and we'd all still make a profit after we've spent less than a £1 on materials 😄 (Joking).

Those light fittings looks splendid. Dimmable too. I see some have drivers built-in but others require an external driver. I am interesting in a driver that can be connected to HomeKit. I wonder if they can be driven by, for example, IKEA's LED TRADFRI driver. https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/tradfri-driver-for-wireless-control-grey-60342656/

Thanks @john0wingnut, I hadn't heard of NIBE. Had a quick look. I see they do a 6kW model using R410A. Is that the model you have?

Thanks Dan. Speaking to Midsummer about paying £300 for a resistor that costs pennies, they initially suggested an R32 Samsung unit instead, which has cooling enabled straight from the box. But Samsung's equivalent of the UnitTower (called Climatehub (!) is pricier so all-in-all there was not much saving to be had. And the Samsung heat pump is noisier too. Given the saving on the resistor I checked heima24 for the price of the Arotherm Plus itself and UniTower. I would have no qualms about importing it from Germany rather than locally within rip-off-Britain. To my surprise, the German list price was rather more than my UK quotes.

Good point. Here's an example from Belgium: https://lbge.be/product/vaillant-codeerstekker-voor-activatie-van-de-koelfunctie-0020269259/, €51

From the "£300" quote was from the wholesaler, Midsummer Wholesale in this case. The only seller I found was this one, £391.20 inc. VAT. https://www.heatingandbathrooms.com/coding-plug-cooling-function If only we could find the Ω-rating, I bet you could buy one for pennies and solder it oneself.

About the cooling resistor for the Vaillant Arotherm ASHP … I just contacted the company who will supply the ASHP and they said "Yes you need a coding resistor for cooling function. It's pretty pricey. About £300 from memory." Anybody know of a cheaper solution? Or did anyone buy it with the resistor already fitted? This video shows the resistor fitting, which, other than the protracted checking-for-a-gas-leak, seem to take about 2 seconds.

Does that require the optional Vaillant RH sensor I wonder?

I will be having ASHP cooling with my UFH for my bungalow. I think in reality it can only reduce the temperature by, say, 5º – 6º or so, so helpful but not a panacea. Worth watching this. Unconventionally, they succeeded in cooling their ankles.

Thanks @nod. Makes sense. Sounds like you don't use GA3 or GA4 Steel Angle on your projects. Am I right? Another question if I may: for openings over 1.2m, do you cloak the side studs with deep channel? And do you form the head beam from extra-deep channel with a stud attached inside?

@nod, another MF question for you if I may. How do you line an MF wall with 18mm OSB? What do you use as the supports attached to the studs? Do you use a combination of GA3 and GA4 Steel Angle or something else? My MF supplier can only order GA3 in packs of 10x, which is rather more than I need, so I am wondering if there is an alternative ingenious way of lining with OSB. (I note that there are the "Service Support Plates", in packs of 100, but they seem designed for one-off small pattresses, for sockets, etc., rather than lining a full wall.)

Interestingly, if read the manual correctly, the weight of Propane contained in the ASHP is just 0.9kg, which is rather smaller than the smallest usual gas cylinder (see below). And which, in liquid form, would, if my conversion is correct, would be just under 2 litre and so might fit in your kettle. This in turn would evaporate to form 520 litres of gaseous propane.

This will give you a flavour, at least for the AroTherm Plus model: Operational clearances: Propane related fire-risk clearances, especially from drains:

Boundary disputes are very tricky. Having just come out of one myself, I agree with the most common piece of advice. Seek an amicable solution with your neighbour without involving specialists or lawyers. On what basis are you asserting your interpretation of the position of the boundary line? A fence should always be completely upon the land of the person installing it (technically even including the concrete around the base of the fence posts). As said, there is nothing whatsoever to stop you erecting another fence entirely or your land adjacent to it.

Price seems a little high. I would recommend splitting the job in to two parts. Groundworks in preparation for the raft. And the raft itself. Personally, I would say neither part is suited to a general builder. Use a groundworks specialist for the preparation. I used a team I found locally that were digging up the streets to lay new cables. I just stopped in the road and asked them if they were interested in some side work. For the raft itself, get a local concrete specialist to do it. He will have spent most of his time doing commercial jobs (such as the floors of warehouses) but will have no problem adapting to your needs. You'll get a much keener price. I agree with the others: make sure an SE designs and specifies your raft. From the SE, you should give the dimensions drawings, detail cross-sectional drawings showing steels, and a steel schedule to your concrete guys. He will pass the latter on to his local steel supplier.

I have hust been quoted £12,000 (zero VAT) to install a 5kW monobloc ASHP (R290) and matched fully-plumbed un-vented cylinder for my new build. Elsewhere I've been quoted £4,300 ex VAT for the same AHSP and cylinder, supply-only. So that's £7,900 on top for labour and minor sundries. Oh, and I'm eligible for the £5,000 from the Boiler Upgrade Scheme ("BUG") too. I know MCS has a lot of overheads and ASHP installers are in short supply. He may well have all the work he needs for months ahead. And there are costs for guarantees, overheads, etc. But I still assume the installer has a parrot on his shoulder and a tricorn hat. Everything is in place for the install. UFH & manifold. Insulated pipe from outside to inside. Even the external temperature-compensation wire. Its as simple an install as you're likely to see. Disregard the £5,000 from the BUG, could a normal G3-registered plumber install this instead? YouTube shows it being a relatively simple install and commissioning seems understandable. Anybody taken this route and can provide encouragement?

Which regulations are those? Are those regulations related to the coolant, R290 (propane) only? Is there some form of minimum distance requirement? (Am considering an AroTherm Plus ASHP for my build.)

Thanks yes, its both toughened and laminated (outer pane) 👍 Was going to be a ground-floor window within 800mm of the ground before being bashed in transit.

In this photo you can see the glazing unit from one my Danish IdealCombi windows. Its from a window that Idealcombi replaced as the frame was broken during delivery. The glazing unit is fine. Wondering if I can mount it as an internal window in my build. Any thoughts about how I could make a frame for it and mount it horizontally securely within the wall? I am going to have MF walls (70mm studs). I can create the opening for it quite easily in the MF wall, like that for a door, with a reinforced MF beam above and below the window. That's the easy bit. Any ideas? The unit is triple glazed, 620 x 2220 mm …

Thanks @nod. Now I understand. Got it! Ingenious.