windsor-tg

This is on the other side of the kitchen wall

Unfortunately there is not enough gap between the wall and the kitchen units to allow for insulated plasterboard

The ground floor consists of a through lounge and then the kitchen. Since the house is near a roundabout, there are no trickle vents on the windows at the front of lounge and at the back of the lounge. There is no door between the rear lounge and the kitchen. The kitchen contains a window which does have a trickle vent. The damp/flaking paint is on the external wall of the kitchen. The kitchen units touch this external wall. Not sure if thernally insulating the inside of the wall will help. I have attached a photo of this wall.

My son has a problem with his kitchen wall where paint on part of the wall (external) is flaking. I have had a damp surveyor visit his home and he said that due to the lack of airflow, there is high humidity within the kitchen which is likely to be contributing to the problem. The surveyor recommends a humidistat extractor fan is installed in the kitchen. Can anyone recommend a particular extractor fan that is effective & silent, and will reduce the humidity within the kitchen? We did not particularly want to fit airbricks at the top & bottom of the kitchen wall (to help with airflow) because of traffic noise coming inside the house

Thanks @Iceverge, I’ll give the silicone sealant a try once the weather gets drier and I’ve cleaning the wall and porcelain patio. The masonry protection cream is incredibly expensive! Would something like this (Thompson’s One Coat Water Seal) not do the trick? https://amzn.eu/d/gjoq1MX

thanks @Iceverge. I'll give what you suggest a try. I like the idea about applying a thin dab of clear silicone along the edges of the tiled steps but I'm not sure how I could achieve a neat finish with the clear silicone. Where you say "get a brush on silicone based sealant" - would that be to apply on the wall once it has been cleaned? Would you be able to recommend of a suitable sealant?

Hoping someone can advise..... I had a garden wall built around 18 months ago and the front of the wall (from the top to the ground) was k-rendered. With the wall touching the ground, I find that when it rains, dirt from the ground splashes up on the wall. I have attached a photo of my wall showing the dirt. Can anyone advise how best I can clean this, and is there anything I can put on the wall to minimise the amount of dirt sticking to the wall?

@Lofty718 - am I right to assume that the attched photo is not an electronic mixing valve that you're referring to?

@Lofty718, yes, my boiler is the new ecotec with the digital controller on the front. I’ve read mixed opinions about the Vaillant controls, some have said it’s the best thing since sliced bread but others have said that it will take many years to recoup the investment of these controls and their house does not feel as warm as before. I’m more than happy to find a solution that will reduce by daily gas consumption and happy to pursue going down the path of the Vaillant controls if it will work with my setup. Why do you say the sensohome will not work? When I got in touch with Vaillant technical team, they said I needed the vr71 to work with sensohome but you mention that I could use the vr70. Since my existing Heatmiser controls are all hard wired, I would like to continue using the hard wired concept with the Vaillant controls. For the UFH, why would I need an electronic mixing valve? I would find it a challenge to run any cables from my UFH manifold to the wiring centre vr70/vr71. I do have a wire though running from the UFH manifold to my existing wiring centre. I don’t know off hand the dimensions of my house but it’s an extended 4-bed detached house. Upstairs, I have 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms/en-suites and landing. On the ground floor, I have the kitchen, hallway, and 3 reception rooms. All the upstairs and these rooms are heated through the use of radiators. About 18 months ago, I had an orangery built which has UFH. I will view the Syzmon video soon as well as looking in reducing the boiler target temp which is currently set at 65C.

so I changed d.00 to 28kw. The speed of the boiler immediately increased and the modulation level went up to 4. I am now finding that the boiler flow temp is reaching the boiler target temp of 65C and the rads are heating up nicely. However, reading my IHD linked to my smart meter, I have found that I am using approx £15 per day of gas in the last few days of this cold weather spell. Would reducing the boiler target temp make a big difference to gas consumption? Also, I am not sure whether increasing D.00 to 30kw (the boiler's maximum capacity) is a good or bad thing to do? @Lofty718 - I have been thinking about the Vaillant controls but I first wanted to change the boiler to make sure it was running without any problems. The Vaillant controls are pretty expensive especially the ones I was initially looking at, i.e. sensocomfort vrc720 (wired version), sensohome vr92 (for controlling the UFH), vr 940f internet gateway. The wiring centre VR71 is really expensive so I then started to think about the sensoHOME setup. Still not sure and how bigger difference this will really make.

thanks @MikeGrahamT21. As far as I'm aware, the Heatmiser is connected through standard on/off. TBH, I'm not sure if there is such a setting on the Vaillant ecotec plus 630 boiler 😟

@Temp - I do not have weather compensation. I am using Heatmiser to control my heating and HW

I recently had a new 2023 Vaillant ecoTec plus 630 (30kW) system boiler installed along with a Low Loss Header (LLH) in my house. I have 21 rads in the house and a room with UFH. The LLH was introduced as I was finding (before the LLH was fitted) that my old boiler (Vaillant heat-only boiler) was anti-cycling as the demand from the UFH was too low for the boiler to remain firing. This issue has gone away since the introduction of a new boiler & LLH. I have noticed in the last couple of days that with the boiler target temp set to 65 degrees, the boiler flow temp (d.40) takes an age to get to 60+ from cold. Even when the boiler was running continuously (with just CH on) for 2 hours this morning, the boiler flow temp reached 61C (d.40), boiler return temp - 52C (d.41) d.00 on the boiler is set to "Automatic". The boiler displays 5 modulation levels and it is currently displaying level 2. Is there any reason on why the boiler is not reaching its target temp and/or why the boiler is not modulating at a higher level to get the boiler flow temp close to the boiler target temp ? Even now with both, CH and UFH, demanding heat from the boiler, the modulation level is at 2. Any suggestions on why the modulation level is not going above 2 will be much appreciated.

I believe I have S plan as I have seperate zone valves for the HW, CH and UFH Not sure what you mean by "If you have radiators where the controller sits" ? not looking at these controls to fix the short cycling

I am considering replacing my existing boiler with the new 2023 Vaillant ecotec plus 625 boiler. I currently have 3 x Heatmiser neoStat thermostats that are all hard wired back to the wiring centre; one for the central heating, one for a room with UFH, and one for the HW. I use the Heatmiser smart app on my phone to control the heating. I have read conflicting opinions about Vaillant controls; some people recommend the Vaillant controls as they modulate the boiler better, maintain even temperature within the house, and this makes the boiler more efficient. Others, however, have said it is a large investment that will take several years to get your money back. I have had a look at what Vaillant controls I would potentially need, and the cost is in the region of £800 Is it worth investing ~£800 for Vaillant controls or just stick with my Heatmiser setup?