Nickfromwales

Hi. If you do not tackle ventilation heat loss, you can have a shedload of insulation and it will feel like you have 25% of what you installed. Fabric heat loss is relatively inconsequential, but ventilation heat loss is dire, so to build to a good standard, and then drill holes in the shell for extractor fans, and then fit trickle gents to every window would be barking mad IMO. With the house sealed and an MVHR installed, you can recover ambient heat, instead of pumping it out to the clouds, and reduce your space heating requirements. That then reduces the energy bills forever plus reduces ( scales down ) the heating system. All of these decisions have ‘knock-on’ effects, so you absolutely should approach this with a “fabric first” ethos, or it will be downhill all the way back to a swelling which slightly improved upon our fore UK BRegs. Get a plan as to how you will make the dwelling(s) airtight, eg as one airtight envelope, and reassess from there. If you cannot get under 1-2 ACH ( target 1 or less ) then MVHR is a waste of time anyways ( as natural infiltration will surpass the airflow rates of the MVHR ).

At your own peril. Any decent installer should refuse to lay directly over a deck board. You need the plywood as a binder, and to allow you to stagger the joints so movement in the deck doesn’t transfer to the LVT, which it most definitely will.

Yup. Doesn’t take much effort to find that info tbh. It’s in every manual.

The My Energy Eddi was reformatted to work specifically with a SA. The 4 core cable allows L,N &E to be connected from a fused spur eg so it electronica is always ‘alive’. The additional live is for connection to a 20a DP switch which is fed from the Eddi. When there is sufficient depletion of the SA, its internal relay will click shut to allow power in from core #4. The Eddi is then the gate which opens and closes to allow input of those sporadic pickets of solar excess when they are detected by the CT clamp. There is nothing to upgrade, other than your knowledge. Consider yourself now upgraded.

He's 100% right, tile adhesive sticks to plywood like shit sticks to a fluffy blanket. I would NEVER tile, or recommend anyone tiled onto, chipboard. This is where we differ. Hardie backer board has almost zero flex, buy a sheet and see for yourself. Completely unsuitable for a suspended timber floor with known 'possible' deflection where tiles are to be applied, AFAIC. When tiling over ANY substrate that is porous / dry, it is 1st year apprentice practice to dampen or wet the substrate, and, if necessary, also then utilise a recognised and suitable pre-tile primer to key and 'size' the substrate. Your chap mentions this problem, but goes on to say he would use the same adhesive over the plywood subfloor ( under the Hardie ) to bond that down? Yes, the screws..........If that solution relies on the screws, your in a very precarious position. I've never tiled a floor with this method. I've done "more than one" of these in my days as a tiler.....with some budgets as high as £25k for one room. Tile + adhesive would very happily sit on the 4 or 6mm plywood I mentioned earlier. A significant amount more than the equivalent adhesion to the Hardie, as per your chaps own admission Karndean / other LVT would also need the plywood layer over the subfloor deck board. Plus a feathering compound, used to fill the screw-holes and fill the board joints, to give a flawless finish. No free lunches here i'm afraid

It is an odd approach to expect the deck material to correct issues with the substructure tbh. It's normally the substructure which is made robust, and the deck is then installed atop as a non structurally-functional overlay for walking / point loading upon. Been doing these for a long time, ask my back and knees, so sound, practical advice there OK, great. You won't struggle to get heat up through the P5 + Plywood, + tiles, just it will take a lot longer to respond ( but will also stay warm for prob 50% of the initial heat up time after you've turned the heating off again ). Choose a self-learning room thermostat and it will calculate the time required to get the room to temp at the time you want it to be. They usually scrub that info and keep 're-learning' so they make allowances for the changes in season. Poor mans weather compensation if you like.

They're reluctant to discuss anything with anyone on spec's, but some members of the public have PCM 34's and a very select few have PCM 43's. Gagging orders were signed to get the 43's, as they were basically out for R&D only, so there's little to no feedback anywhere on those I expect. Where is that stated? A link would be useful, thanks. I was having a beer with one of their current 'approved installers' recently, and he was saying how much he struggles to get any info / feedback / response from SA regarding the correct specification of a particular unit for a particular circumstance. With the Thermino now being the current working revision of the Suamp Uniq, with many options / models for X,Y & Z, you think this would be under control by now, but it doesn't sound as if they're staffed to deal with anything other than orders and shipping. And that's from someone who started that conversation without provocation from me. I pretty much pre-empted every word that he said, as he was saying it, so little has changed afaic. They've never wanted to deal with questions for individuals, just mass sales for dumb clients who don't know or understand why they've chosen this product, other than a silver-tongued salesman told them many, many wonderous things about them, but not one of them a historian I expect..... A colleague of mine is on his 3rd unit atm, with his new replacement having been delivered after a battle over warranty.

Are they producing a lower temp PCM unit currently? They state these are compatible with a HP, but tbh that just means the owner needs to get the flow temp up past 58oC ( phase change is at 58 hence the name "PCM58" ) but you need to go higher to get a discernible recharge rate. When heating these from a wet external source ( whatever guise that took ) I usually set it to be at or close to 75-80oC so the unit would recharge ( change state ) as quickly as possible. HP's must have to run for a LOT longer to get the same transition, so at lower CoP for a lot longer I assume?

Yup. The deflection is the biggest concern for me. Is it caused by the end of a joist dropping? If so, the whole run would be affected not just the corner. Tiled floors do not like movement, especially if it is to get worse over time due to the degradation of a wooden joist etc. Ah. I would have said more insulation under, prob another 50-75mm of rockwool maybe, but that's not happening now. Is the pug mix up dead level with the top of the joists? Marking out is simple. Chalk line will sort that out in minutes. Mark the left and right hand side of each end of the joists onto the walls, and then use the chalk line to ping 2 lines on each substrate for accurate fixing ( anywhere between the two lines is safe then ). Use a tape measure and take photos for any intersections / tricky areas, drawing each onto the substrate before even picking up the screw gun . Don't do this when tired / fatigued, as most of my major F_ups have been late on a Friday afternoon after a long week. Lay P5 chipboard deck, not plywood, and go for 22mm thickness if tiling, with that bonded with PU glue at the joist top and a minimum of 5 screws per joist. Then fit a layer of 4 or 6mm plywood atop the P5, glued ( PVA combed on with a mosaic tile trowel ) and screwed, with screws ( 4.0 x 25mm ) going in at 100-120mm OC. With the ply, you 100% won't need the decoupling membrane, as long as the deflection is as you say and no more.

Time is a bloody precious commodity atm! The Grundfos Comfort HRC pump seems to be the KISS companion for a fit & forget solution tbh, with models / options for steady flow ( modulated pump activity to suit the required temp ) or constant flow. Both can be timed / otherwise activated, but pulsing the HRC pump on - off - on - off - on is just utterly pointless imho. When you open a tap, say the kitchen sink, do you want warm then hot water, or hot water? Waiting for water to go from warm / tepid to hot would piss me off even more than not having an HRC at all. Why fit all the pipework and components, plus wiring and controls, and then turn the bloody thing off?!?!

Ah, lol, can't blame a man for trying I do forget who I 've said what to, as there is a huge amount of traffic on BH these days. Solar pergola?

You could just keep the several thousands of pounds in your pocket and fit a cold mains accumulator. RHW....... In the summer you're still using potable drinking water, in the winter it's already raining every few days. IMHO, a waste of time and money with NO breakeven point, as the pumps fail and cost a lot to replace. You cannot even fit a bypass to supply potable water to those select outlets as the water is classed as category 5 ergo you cannot make a physical link between the two systems. Use the money to buy more PV

Yes, so do we. FFFS ( first F is for Foam ).

Just a small squirt of exp foam in the gap under the pipe as it passes through the stud would be fine. If you clip then you reconnect the pipe to the OSB which will be like an amplifier. Better off using all round patent band as a sling and screwing it top dead center into the metal frame if a mechanical fix is what’s preferred. Personally, I’d just foam and call it a day.

Plenty of different ways to store energy, and lifting weight or pumping ( anything ) seem valid tbh, just cost and practicality vs longevity for key driving factors afaic.

With studs at 600mm OC, deffo 11mm. Screws will turn out of 9mm if you fix anything with a cordless drill. I’m racking walls out on my current clients MBC TF and I’m using a mix of 11, 15 and 18mm depending on what’s known to be going where. On walls which need the 18, but I don’t want to lose space, I’m in-filling between the studs instead of going on top of them. 15 and down is generally just fixed on top fir ease / speed.

I take it you mean avoiding using peak rate grid electricity for these events, AKA “load-shifting”? I’m a big fan of the idea of utilising the ‘huge’ ( 1000 - 2000L ) TS btw I fitted a 2600L TS for one client, to take the brunt of what his log gasification boiler had to offer in a very short period of time. So also ‘load-shifting’ at its best. What is the size of the ‘decent’ array you have? Solar PV drops to between 25% and 0% in winter, so a 10kWp array in the winter becomes a 0-2.5kWp array ( with the 2.5 being what you’d get on a bright winters day, which we don’t get very many of in good ol’ Blighty )

Yup. A common misconception amongst clients so I explain this before installing. You can walk from one AP and get to the next and the device is clinging onto the weak original signal. Then it wakes up and says “oh, there’s a strong signal, let’s consider using that”. Then takes it’s sweet time to migrate.

Yup, 12-15 even 18 months is about correct. The info is out there alright.... I've even posted links to it on here showing the sleep function. They do both AC and DC versions, just to confuse you even more lol. The DC is my favourite, as it allows you to load it up to the hilt without incurring the wrath of the DNO, eg allowing you to go to max allowance on PV kWp. For completeness, I am personally going with Iconica Hybrid inverters with AGM batteries, as any "brand name" battery is overpriced / unrealistic economically in terms of RoI vs useful lifespan ( IMHO ).

Waste water can go in a 32mm pipe tbh, if it's a single appliance, but with the number of bends and the distance Bruce is right, go for 40mm to be sure. It is a very simple job, and just needs the existing kitchen out of the way and new pipes run along at skirting level for cold feed and waste. Remember, if you buy the right condenser drier you will find on the rear a couple of silicone hoses. These can be disconnected to allow the condensate to drop into the washing machine upstand trap eg you will never have to empty the water collection tray

. Way too much water, so there's nowt left of the paint. That's why it's failing and the surface is powdery. Rub the wall down gently with an old towel and start again.

Buy a 10L tub, roller a trial wall yourself, see for yourself

Just spoken to a DNO to arrange 3ph for a client. No need for specific info at that stage, other than expected loads / combined max microgeneration output etc, and were awaiting a decision currently.

Better than my shed 😭. I wish I’d insulated. Tbh, I’ve only feather-edged one 1/4 so I may pull that off and just stuff the 4x2 frame with rock wool. Either that or pour vermiculite into the voids and just remove the top couple of planks. Anyone know if vermiculite has any reasons to not use it? Do vermin like the stuff etc?

Where is this supply going in to? Hogwarts? 🤣