NSS

Cheers @ProDave. It's a Paul Novus 300 fitted with the optional F7 filters at present. I'd anticipated having to get some F9s but, so far, it seems that may be unnecessary.

A mate who worked (at the time) for Keyline ordered the Perinsul we needed, but had to buy full packs rather than individual blocks so you may struggle to get just four.

Hi @lizzie, that is spooky! I only wrote the post because I figured that one day somebody might be facing similar issues and Google may bring them hope. Never for a minute did I expect to find someone on Buildhub already walking the same path, but delighted my post has given you a little lift. Mrs NSS sends her best and says, hang in there, it'll be worth the wait

Some of you will know that we've recently completed our build and moved in. What you may not know is why we built the house we have, and why it is quite literally proving to be a breath of fresh air. Mrs NSS has had various health issues all her life, not least chronic asthma, but a little over 4 years ago things got a whole lot worse. Cumulative damage from the asthma had left the lower third of both lungs in shit shape, and this had led to a 6-weekly cycle of chest infections and antibiotic courses. This vicious circle eventually resulted in hospital admissions for pneumonia and pleurisy, and a diagnosis of Bronchiectasis, a degenerative lung disease for which we were told there was no treatment/cure. My first and only question to the clinician was, "Okay, so what can we do to slow the progression?" The answer, "in an ideal world, live in a hermetically sealed bubble". Essentially, eliminate as many of the irritants (airborne particles and allergens) to her condition as possible, and that's what I set out to achieve from our new home - not so much building the dream as building the bubble. Four years on, plot found, research conducted, house designed and built, and the news is so far so good. We've been in for about two months now and the difference has been remarkable with her reliance on inhalers significantly reduced, and sleeping much better due to reduced congestion. This week she had her regular respiratory check up and her breathing was found to be the best it has been for several years. Yes, it's early days, but if this house enables me and Mrs NSS to enjoy quality time together for longer than may otherwise have been the case, then it will have been worth every sleepless night, every bead of sweat, and every single penny. Whatever your motivation to self build, take a deep breath and go for it - you won't regret it.

Thanks all

Have to admit to also having thought the deadline for VAT reclaim was 6 months, so most grateful for this nudge and am now busily pulling the info together. As always with HMRC, I've found the 'guidance' on what is and isn't eligible for reclaim a little unclear, so can anyone confirm whether VAT is or isn't recoverable on the following, please? 1) Building Control Inspection fees 2) Hire of site office/storage (container) and portaloo 3) Fitted kitchen units & worktops (I know VAT on appliances is excluded) 4) Fitted bathroom furniture and sanitary ware 5) Fitted wardrobes Cheers, and Happy New Year to all.

If anything, I'd say it makes it all the more important that the other elevations (and roof/floor) are well insulated. Works both ways too as unless your rear elevation faces North then you'll benefit from solar gain in the colder months. Stunning looking property BTW.

Do you not have any glycol in the UFH pipes?

For the long cuts we just switched the blade into the circular saw.

I guess the fact that you're using grey boards means the cut ends show more than they do on our off white ones.

What are you cutting it with? We used a special fibre cement blade in the chop saw and didn't have any issue with chipping (nor scratching). Also, you're cladding before fitting windows and doors?

I once drove from Southampton to Plymouth on the Bank holiday weekend at the end of May (1988). It took 26 hours and 57 minutes. Granted I went via London, Norwich, Leeds, Newcastle, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Carlisle, Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol. Total mileage was 1,570 at an average of just over 58mph No chance of repeating that these days. Edit: To clarify, three of us shared the driving.

Okay, spoken to the installer and they say that a blending valve is not only unnecessary, but that heat pump manufacturers generally advise against using them. I'll get my tin helmet

Are you buying?

Okay, thanks for that. Anyone else care to endorse this approach? As for the last point, we don't have both on together. If we want to boost the towel rail temperature we simply put the UFH stat for that room into frost protection mode whilst the electric element is on and then switch it back to normal afterwards. With no circulation the towel rail warms with minimal 'leakage' into the feed and return pipework.

Not sure I need to understand what it all does, or doesn't, do, just what would be the simplest way of putting it right (preferably without it costing too much more!). The UFH seems to work well enough, with flow rates on the manifold valves balanced as per (or close to) the design values, and floor surface temperatures when zones are on peaking evenly around 25C ish. My main concern is getting good flow at an appropriate temperature to the air rad. The installer has suggested to Panasonic that we move the feed from the current tee position to between the circulating pump and the manifold, but presumably we'd need to have a valve (perhaps the currently unused 2-port one) downstream of that tee so as not to be circulating water through the air rad unless there is demand. Anyone got a view on this?

Manufacturer describes it as being suitable for most heat pump applications. https://www.seconsolar.com/low-loss-header-3265-p.asp

The only tee between the diverter valve and the LLH is the one that feeds the air rad.

Okay, as most of you will have guessed, a lot of this is going straight over my head. Here's a close up of the 'plates' on the LLH.

Not sure how it effects what you're saying, but it does have a buffer.

Would that not 'choke' the flow to the manifold too?

Both the company who did the original design (since gone bust) and the company that took over were/are specialist heat pump installers.The latter certainly doesn't have a background of traditional boiler/radiator CH systems, and they also undertook our Solar PV install and integrated it (via Power Diverter) to our DHW tank immersion.

Sufficient to take the chill off of a towel, and we can boost them with the electric heating element when the UFH is not running.

Actually there are steel radiators (dual fuel towel rails) in the two ground floor bathrooms. Each is fitted in line to the respective UFH circuits.

Yep, that has me confused too, particularly as the 2-port is not actually wired into anything. They are both Honeywells, V4044C1569 and V4043H1106