Nickfromwales

Oh, lol, I assumed that would have been a given. My bad!!

If you have multiples of cavity walls, assuming all original walls would have been, then blowing them full of beads would be a good place to start ?

Explain that it is a green / eco let, and put a timer on so the appliances become live at 11:00 and go off at 15:00. Will probably backfire lol, but you'll be please to know that my company buys failed rental businesses that have recently received bad advice

@Peterstark? Can't find his posts?

I'll get back to you on the results of that experiment Don'y hold your breath. My PV costs will be an "at cost minus favours to date" sort of thing, so my payback will be 5-6 years max, probably less. Rebuilding my gazebo, and possibly re-roofing the man-shed ( where the first of the array will go ) to make everything favour a very long, steady solar day. Optimisers will be my friend, my current bills, the enemy. "This time, it's personal".......

I dread to think what my base load is, as it’s a busy home with 2 adults + 4 kids ( 11-17 ) with all kinds of tech left plugged in / chargers on / vampire loads-a-plenty. @SteamyTea, please don’t work it out, or I’ll have to start removing sharp objects from my home. I’ve got about 8kWp of PV going in soon, plus a 9.6kWh battery system ( surplus stock from a non paying client which has only cost me a couple of £k ), so hopefully I can stave off the rising electricity bills soon! They’re the older 2000’s ( Pylontech ) batteries, does anyone know if mixing those with a couple of the newer 3000’s will cause any issue? Hoping to add 2 more cells as I think I will charge these without issue. Iirc if you parallel rechargeable batteries of differing capacities, they try to achieve “equilibrium “. @Onoff? Will be adding more PV later in the year to connect to my home-brew ‘thermal battery’. Will add some statistical data when the system is live.

Yup. 👍.

If you have the empty bottle on the ‘wrong’ side with the changeover set to the ‘then wrong’ side, you won’t get gas coming through. So long since I did an LPG install I cannot remember how these operate / what can go wrong. Have you got a hob / fire you can check for gas coming out of? You may well have gas available and not know it.

Exactly the kind of people who I do not invite into my home.

Can't you start with blown-in bonded beads in all of the cavities? They won't fall out around reveals / openings / heads etc during downstream works, and will be an effective start of your draught-proofing and insulation adventures.

Weight of bottles seem to suggest they are full? Which appliances have you checked to ascertain is gas is coming through, or not?

Have you flicked the lever back to the primary side ( left IIRC )?

Hi. Why not go around the front 3 sides and not disturb the bank?

When the systems I've put in for clients have been fine ( in Hep2O ) the question has to be asked where it is applicable and where it's not. If it's in a cold drafty home, fair enough. In an airtight high-spec dwelling the delta is often not so converse, plus the issues seem to be far less with plastic vs copper. I always insulate at the plant, and for the larger primary distribution eg to the manifolds, but after that I only ever insulate the hots and the hot returns tbh. Systems where there is a water softener and some larger bore primary stuff, the stored ambient in there often staves off the slug of ice-cold mains water that usually causes this problem, so it is horses for courses, not just a one answer for all afaic.

Low surface temperature radiator / cover

50mm duct per single insulated pipe? Or a pair of hot and cold per duct?

Or never, eg if the concentrate of Glycol / other system treatment chemical is monitored and maintained ( as it should be regardless )?

Don't ( modern at least ) ASHP's shut down with low pressure warning like a boiler on a sealed system? Treating ( or slightly over-treating ) a system with Glycol seems fit and forget, tbh, and is near zero maintenance. Add the ASHP's own safety mechanisms on top of that and you need a doomsday event before this becomes a serious consideration.

I wouldn't use anything else!! You would just excavate down enough to cut and joint the pipe. UV? That's only e real world concern if the pipes are outside, but then they are already produced to be outside in direct sunlight....al-a every house you drive past which has waste pipes / soil pipes on the external facades. If there is a tray on top, zero damage or degradation can occur at the end of the day. You are, I'm afraid, worrying a little too much here. I still speak to people I have fitted bathrooms for, some over 17-18 years ago and some over 20 years ago ( before I had kids and my oldest is nearly 18 ) and they're still functioning perfectly well.

I only use 50mm on showers, and run 40mm to basins as far ( close to the basin ) as is practicable. I only reduce down to 32mm pretty much at the basin. 40mm works fine if you’ve got a decent fall, but the 50mm ( afaic ) is much better. I like insurance btw because I post here about jobs I do for others ( as I run an M&E company ) so I tend to go belt and 3 pairs of braces, but I’ve always gone the extra mile tbh, the reason I’m always busy I suppose!!

Yup. A 50mm pipe can run almost flat and still work perfectly due to the better air break internally, massively better than with a 40mm pipe. I recommend either swept bends ( vs elbows ) or 2x 45 degree bends to go around corners.

That’s the quickest route to get up and running, even if that goes on to borrowed time again. Then the immediate pressure will be off you, and we can work on a solution / investigation of what is actually causing this contamination. I’ve pulled out 20 year old systems with less crud in them tbh. Was the water that was flowing through that elbow ( in your pic ) potable water or primary heating water?

Looking good. I must get the last of my sh-office wrapped up this summer. The winter has been miserable, so was lacking in inspiration. Solar PV and my battery system going in next hopefully 🤞 as the shed / office roof gets a lot of sunshine on it, that and the attached gazebo roof. Deffo going to add cheap rockwool insulation in though, gets too cold or too warm. Will this be a man-cave or just storage?

I've done this more times I can remember. As long as you seal up with a frame sealant, and do NOT create a damp bridge with cement etc, you'll be fine. Yup. Take a look at a few of the houses around your area when driving about the place. They're commonplace. Horizontal needs a little thought, but vertical is pretty much safe as houses as long as it's not fitted opposite the fall, aka 'splodge' zone, of a discharging 110mm foul branch. Where the 50mm waste pipe ( I never use 40mm on subfloor shower installs ) exits the building and changes direction, fit a 50mm T and put a cleaning eye / rodding access cap so you can clean back to the trap, and downstream to the foul pipe with ease. Deffo 50mm for this instance

A bit like passing your hand quickly or slowly over a lit candle. One you wont feel, the other would burn your hand. I've just installed a similar system for a client, with UFH pipes set out at 120mm c's, and a 7kW ASHP. I fitted a low loss header with a manifold that services the whole ground floor from one central room stat. On the cusp of warranting a buffer, but zero space and the ( potential ) repercussions were not sufficient to warrant the upheaval of integrating one tbh. Current project sees a very different building with a main 2-storey dwelling, but with a few sporadic projecting single-storey 'wings', which will be 3 sides to the elements, so that one will deffo be having a minimum 200L buffer and probably 3 or 4 room stats to properly manage the differing characteristics of each of these spaces eg to maintain one ambient.