Nickfromwales

Not directly, no. I've read a lot on here re "the competition", however it's a "yes" in the case of Panasonic Aquarea and I am VERY impressed with those for the price, very impressed indeed. Fitting another 4 of them shortly for current turnkey clients, all with cooling requirements which the Panasonic does out of the box. The Stiebel unit has all of internal compressor side completely encapsulated in EPS, and all of the internal pipework etc is heavily insulated with neoprene, and the inside of the chassis etc is all sound-deadened with more neoprene panels / self adhesive sound-deadening, and Stiebel really seem to have really gone to town on this ( noise pollution / local audibility ) and this thing is literally 'whisper-quiet'. The Panasonic isn't far behind it, to be fair. For clarity, I have designed everything holistically to allow this unit to have a flow temp of sub 24oC flow temp into space heating and a room internal temp of 20.5oC ( which seems to be comfortable whilst standing still / sitting, but a little warm when undertaking any activity. All of this would of course be unachievable without the airtightness having also been detailed to the nth degree. I am still gobsmacked at how few of the "big hitters" fail to pay proper attention to this type of detailing... instead they just pay it some lip service and those who don't know, don't know. But when the AT test is done, "Oh!", do they know THEN!. Obvs too late to do much about it by then though Stable door / horse / etc. I design bespoke for each client, so never is there any element of 'copy / cut & paste' with my M&E proposals. I am also a 3rd party external contractor and liable for my actions / the end results. This particular house has 500mm ICF walls, AT score of 0.88 ( but I defo expect that to improve after some tweaks and hope to see sub 0.6 or better ), AND it's the 2nd storey where I've recommended that the A/C unit is installed. This is a studio / recreational room and on a super-sunny but windy day it may be impractical or a nuisance to have the wind blowing a hoolie through there when the occupants are trying to purge / cross-ventilate to have the room comfortable to use. This is NOT a bedroom, so the issue of 'summer overheating" shifts from a manageable purge / temp decrease before bedtime to a room requirement of "nice" all day / any day, on demand. With a PH there is no switch to flick to raise or lower the temp ergo I was firm on my specification here. In honesty the unit may never get used, but anyone who has an A/C unit and uses it in the summer will tell you in an instant that it makes that room / space absolutely wonderful to be in, with an almost "fresh" feeling. When the windows can be opened the clients will absolutely do so, so would I, so would you, but if it's 24/25oC or more outside then that's the temp that room will then instantly raise to. For sub £3k for a quality Mitsubishi unit, plus the benefit that this unit will offer heat also in the same price tag, then on a build which is the ouch side of 7 figures, £3k is a price that I thought worth purchasing some insurance with. If it was my house I would use it routinely, and my son is up in the attic of my leaky stone box in Wales and without his A/C the room would be unusable for at least 3 months of the year. As it stands he has many unwanted visitors in the summer, eg some of my other kids going up there to bunk for the night because his room is just so damn pleasant to be in. I'm downstairs sweating my arse off, with the house at 22oC or more, and his room you could bloody well keep meat fresh in! 🥶 In the above clients home I also fine-tuned the design for the MVHR; so that it had a fresh inlet at one side of the room and an extract at the opposite side to absolutely maximise on the air quality up there. Also remember that with cooling via MVHR, you need to use a lot of boost, so, the whole house would then have the elevated flow rates and possible audibility / compromise caused by it. I think it would be a shame ( aka a bad design ) to have to impact the entire household just because one room was problematic ( for the sake of £2-3k anyways ). If the clients come back to me in 3 years time and say it's never been used, I'll buy it back off them. That's how sure I am that it will get used. Folk who build to this standard PH / PH+ / NZEB etc become a little "bedazzled" with the nonsense that the sales-folk offer up, which is often just generic regurgitation of stuff they heard someone else say, and very rarely ( or more like almost never in my experiences over the last 8 years of 'PH' ) make their comments absolutely specific to the dwelling and the occupants, and life beyond moving in. I have to be held accountable for things to work, not just to fit, so I have a very different ethos to some others out there. In a nutshell, that's why I specified this home this way The next one may be different, as will the one after that! In your instance this would either need the AHU's 'blowing' directly into the spaces you wish to cool, or having a second fully insulated distribution duct network ( if you wanted to centralise for eg ). Is this as the primary heating, or is it a lamination over the UFH as an auxiliary system for targeted heat / cool?

What frame / model?

“Who’s coat is that jacket” is a close second. 👊😎🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Yup. Polyplumb. Some of these exact fittings still available on eBay.

On one’s own, more like!

Stiebel is expensive, but after being hands-on with the installation, commissioning and setting to work of it, I am very impressed. The controls system(s) are VERY comprehensive, and it benefits from temperature blending ( mixing ) sets which allow pinpoint accuracy when delivering cooling. The AHU can get water as cold as 10°C whilst the UFH can get a steady 15-16°C, simultaneously. I have designed this house with an ethos of “prevention not cure”, so the A/C unit will likely not get much use. If necessary to cool that one 2nd storey room, then it is there to perform a task that it is not sensible to ask the whole-of-house MVHR system to do. Nor would it be capable, ergo it was something I mandated in my turnkey M&E “solution”.

For the domestic heating and cooling I chose Stiebel as it shows a COP of 6 by design, for this particular uber-low temp dwelling. Stiebel don’t ( iirc ) do an AC unit. The pool just needs a ‘dumb’ ASHP so I will choose accordingly based on service / reliability / longevity. I chose ( will finalise my choice ) for the units based on merit / suitability and what will serve my clients the best.

Yes, that’s the foundation assumption. Self ordained lunatics bend this rule and try to justify that there is a loophole they can negotiate around. Idiots.

No idea on price, but they’ll quote for you without issue. Build time = bloody fast! One project was 300m2 2-storey, double attached garage, loads of steel / open spaces, 5.4m vaulted ceilings in all 3 bedrooms, parapet / balcony for each bedroom. From a hole in the ground to a finished structure in 31 days ( broken up by a few weeks whilst the concrete cured ). Unbelievable pace. And I got that AT score down to 0.27ACH. MBC guarantee 0.6 or better as standard with their turnkey. Factor in peripheral costs savings downstream of their departure when comparing costs. They leave the build pretty much ready to plasterboard internal / clad externally. 👌

( TBD ) A2W ASHP for the swimming pool and pool hall space heating. A2W ASHP ( Stiebel Eltron ) for domestic space heating and cooling ( via slab plus Brink Air Comfort AHU ) and a Mitsubishi split A/C for the 2nd storey ‘studio’ room. 👍

The linear ones look a million dollars imo. I've only seen these recently, not sure why, but I'm now specifying them for a lot of clients, particularly where there is a more contemporary "sharp" feel to the room / space. I have always thought the generic valves look outdated and utilitarian, so these are the next best thing afaic. A bit more work, but I think they're well worth the effort.

Guesswork, and wrong, I'm afraid. This is where the self-install "competent" people fall down. You can kill yourself, that is permissible and you won't get prosecuted posthumously, but, you cannot cause the death of others, and that includes your unsuspecting family members. So, unless you live alone, and have the only key to all the doors, and can prove no innocent 3rd parties will suffer from your mis-adventure, you CANNOT work on gas in your home. End of.

You know when you've said or written a word too many times and you forget how to spell it, well that was me. Done. Head fried. I've looked back at previous posts I've made, and I have changed to draft, instead of writing draught. Spell check / predictive text is undoing all that my teachers installed. OK, all sorted. Back to the thread please!!

Ok, lets get down to the real crux of this issue..... My bloody spell checker says draughts, not drafts. Now my brain refuses to tell me which one is right. Cutting out draughts from older homes Energy Saving Trust https://energysavingtrust.org.uk › Blog 11 Jan 2022 — Draughts come into your house through gaps and cracks. First, look for any obvious gaps – visible light under and around doors and windows is a ... Now that's from the EST, and that's how they spelt it. SO! Lets have this out before we go any further plz. I need to know.

Ah. That picture shows more depth / detail. That looks like a sole plate. What is the depth of it? Prob say screw a plasterboard to it and leave it there if the walls been built up off it. Sooo many bloody daft / weird things done by our predecessors when building, it’s hard to keep track. Plasterboard, ( MR ), and plenty of screws.

If you want AC in an airtight house ( as I am currently installing for one of my ( PH+ ) clients ) then you do NOT make any holes to atmosphere. I chose a split AC system with a compact external unit, F-gas lines through the house, and a fixed internal unit to heat / cool that is room-sealed ( with a condensate drain ).

I've worked alongside MBC TF on a few of their turnkey PH foundation and guaranteed airtight frame projects. I'm very impressed with what they offer, how quickly the house goes up, and what the end results are ( I got one in at 0.27 ACH which they said was their best result in over 7 years of trading ). TF is very good to get exceptional scores with, but cellulose-blown vs SIPs is just a hands-down winner for me. The sound seems to travel through rigid insulation walls vs cellulose filled frames, and the decrement delay is about as good as it gets. Certainly meant the M&E side was a lot easier and I could spec MVHR to suit the AT score, which also translated into a massively reduced heating system spec. Choose well, as a fabric-first approach will defo pay huge dividends.

Same here. Never use 40mm for a shower, 50mm is night and day better and offers a decent bit of space for a natural air-break too.

Nope. Chop it out, replace with plasterboard, and do it properly Plaster and wood = no Bueno. The likelihood is, that it is not very well secured so will have a bit of movement, and plastering over it will end badly. If you're tiling why not cut this out, clip the cable back, and apply a bonding coat or rough it back in with some sand and cement 'compo'? Needs to go. 👉

Yes, sorry. I use the few holes they provide for initial fix, to clamp the timber > Sikaflex > metal sandwich together. Get things plumb, and then blast a few more in ( where they need pilot holes making ) for belt and braces.

Similar outcome.

They had one absolute clown in charge of the gang I was around. Chap called Charlie. Sharp van, blunt tools. Rude, clueless bellend with zero interest in quality or diligence. Had to stop him fire boarding all the steels in a single compartment dwelling. Thousand of pounds worth of completely unnecessary work that he thought was a great idea. He’d even convinced the BCO to get on board. Ffs. I had a quiet word with the BCO, and a not so quiet word with bellend face. Needless to say, that “extra” didn’t go ahead. If you choose these idiots, then expect the worst.

I always elongate the slots to leave both thread holes exposed. They’re both covered by any pan, regardless.

Dennis would be snapped up in seconds, if anyone could convince him ( all they would need is a custard donut tbh, he is cheap lol ). Great guy, excellent work ethics, and a walking multi tool. Hopefully he left shrapnel-free and paid in full. Anything less would have been a huge insult to his hard work and dedication.

I wonder who will check for duplicate images.