Nickfromwales

Rotate the tray 180 degrees?

As my dad always said, if you've nothing good to say.........and it's a little tricky to calculate something when you're getting into a vehicle and driving from that point. Some of us aren't retired, remember Thanks, dad.

Hi. With an ASHP, the heat output is nowhere near the amount of energy of a gas boiler for eg, so the flow needs to go to a single discipline at any one time to allow a cylinder to reheat in a 'reasonable' time. DHW output from the ASHP in the above quote, I assume, would be dire if the cylinders were attempting to heat in parallel, unless it was a larger, high temp unit producing the required heat. Do you have the particulars of the quotation / design proposal? High temp split unit / other? I think that would become far more problematic with 2x smaller size UVC's due to the inability of the end user to 'share' the stored energy equally amongst the occupants. I could see the ASHP chopping from UVC to UVC and ignoring the heating for extended periods here, and with radiators that would be notable. A setup with a decent slab with UFH may have less issues there. Could anyone here comment on how long a, say, 9kW ASHP takes to fully recharge a 300L UVC from, say, 70% depleted? @PeterW ? Concerns, as per the above. The SA wins on form factor, and a single size 12 unit would suffice for most domestic settings, however the ASHP would need to run out of its 'comfort zone' to get beyond the melting point of the SA PCM and the CoP would be worsened accordingly. Acceptable to some as an off-set to the Balancing the flow from 2 UVC's would be the challenge, eg so that one doesn't run cold and start blending the max hot water temp from the combined output, so that solution would only really be viable if the UVC's were in series or the UVC's were identical in size and the cold inlet and hot output pipework were hydraulically similar at / from relative T connections. If the stairs are sloping, then the assumption would be that the second cylinder would be half the capacity, or less, so in this instance the series connection setup would be the only option. Ok, is there any option to increase the size of the space at / under the stairs at all? Maybe with a stud wall moving etc? 1650x660mm would get you up to 300L.

I'd go 22mm P5, glued and screwed, and then a layer of 6mm ply glued and screwed ( PVA combed out with a 3mm notch mosiac trowel and screws ( 4.0x25mm ) with the 6mm ply laid onto the PVA when wet ) and stagger the boards to keep the joints away from each other. Bombproof, and what I've done in every 1st floor wetroom install I've ever done, eg with a wooden / joisted floor.

+1 to attempting to replace the pipe. Accumulators ( the rubber bladder inside ) have a useable service / lifespan to consider. 2x 500L acc's on the supply side will give a stable pressure range to work with, and have 500L of useful potential between them, max. Always over-size here. The big issues from differential pressure fluctuations, I believe, are mostly caused by the stored energy being regularly / routinely depleted. Acc's should be sized / specified to retain a minimum of 30% of the stored energy for anything other than occasional adverse conditions. I'm sure there are other softener manufacturers out there that have a unit which can cope. I've fitted an acc on a Harvey unit without such issues, so maybe just down to the topology of the plumbing and a bit of sensible pre-planning in the design of the system will avoid any abovementioned problems.

They do now, apparently. But beware ill-informed over-eager sales folk The latest iteration seemed to be a nice offering, but 2 out of 3 I fitted for a client failed, after they replaced the 3 that failed before them. SA acted swiftly and reasonably in the replacement of the units, but it was a mammoth undertaking, and a royal PITA for the client. It's largely down to correct 'model' selection, and adequate sizing, as to how reliable an installation will be. The newest have no real reason to fail, but boffins continue to expect to manipulate and examine these under microscopes vs just plugging them in and walking away from them, which is what SA NEED you to do in order to succeed. That will be one MF of a shelf....... I think SA recommend sitting one directly on top of the other, but a bit of a ball-ache then to lift the lid off the lower unit to access the electronica. These would best be fitted on bespoke 1" box steel frames so the upper unit sat at least 150mm above the lower unit. These would need to be UBER robust, and bolted back to the wall with some BFO bolts, because if that ever toppled over it would kill anyone it landed on. Best you go pick a size 9 up and see what you think about the 'one over' option..... Why dont you just go for a single 12? 270-280L DHW equivalent size is quite substantial for a domestic setting.

You'll be gluing and screwing a new deck board onto these though? That will help enormously.

Wedi is a little difficult in execution, so I'd recommend a GRP former if you're planning on tiling the 'tray'? Diamond or Impey dependant of drain finish / type, and size of area. Also with Wedi, you cannot go for a mosaic less than 50mmx50mm as the tray material / construction suffers from point compression failures. Eg stiletto on a 25mmx25mm piece of mosaic = down she goes.

Plus a noisy pump for a half decent shower, a much larger ( 50 gal ) with cold water storage tank ( and space for ), plus all the pipework in between the two tanks and having two separate hot and cold systems ( one gravity one pumped ) etc. £400? Nope.

Easy to conclude then, that stored hot water would be better all round, vs instantaneous, and maybe an argument still exists to oversize the UVC to harvest enough cheap rate energy to get through a typical 24hrs on a 'single charge'.

If 4 bed / 4 bath, how many occupants? If bathing is sporadic you can get away with a lower flow, but as @PeterW says, we need to know more. I think it would be a good idea for the comms pipe to be 50mm to the point where your neighbour T's off, if that will be where their meter is, and then you pick up from that 'manifold' in 32mm to come to your boundary and your meter. Much more info needed, please.

Dependant on your consumption of hot water, a 180L UVC ( un-vented cylinder ) will give balanced high-flow hot and cold water supplies to all mixer outlets. Relatively cheap to buy, requires a G3 registered fitter to install, and ongoing annual G3 inspections, but will be very efficient, quiet, and will require no bulky, noisy cold water storage tanks which you need if you go for a "cheaper" vented cylinder. With vented you may also need a pump to get a decent shower /fill the bath quickly. If you change to Octopus Go! tariff then you can heat the cylinder once a day, overnight, at 5p/kWh. You may need an occasional midday top-up depending on your bathing / hot water patterns. An UVC is simple, efficient and reliable, with few moving parts. If you go for a stainless cylinder, and keep the G3 up to date, you will get a lifetime warranty from Telford. Speak to Trevor@cylinders2go and mention the forum for favourable prices. Instantaneous water heaters are the anti-christ. You can go for a decent electric shower, but the bigger the kW rating, the more dependant they become on the cold supply being dedicated solely to the shower times. Flush a loo whilst using these and watch the thing shut down. The most reliable / least erratic electric showers are around 7.5-8.5kW but will never ever come close to the showering performance of a balanced hot water feed from an UVC. You would still need an electric multi-point heater to service sinks / basins even if you go for an electric shower, so cost will soon start to spiral, as well as that becoming a more expensive install, and far more points of faliure. With stored hot water you can choose to cherry pick low cost pockets of electricity, but with instantaneous, you're Donald Ducked.

Yes, but not as accurate as a ‘regular’ quality thermostatic mixer IMO. They are ‘cool’ but too many moving parts / points of failure ( again, IMO ). You have to ask why you would choose a digital shower off a high pressure / balanced hot water system. Pumped digital off a gravity cylinder is a very neat, compact solution, but with a balanced high flow supply I think there’s no need to introduce the expense / complexity of ‘going digital’.

I wouldn't use a digital shower with an instantaneous water heater, such as a combi, as the supplied hot water temp can fluctuate a lot in a multi-occupant dwelling. Even flushing a loo or filling a kettle will affect the hot water output of even the best combi. With any instantaneous water heater you 100% need to go thermostatic in any respect, and a good quality mixer shower will serve you perfectly well. A quality thermostatic mixer will adapt to input hot water fluctuations almost as they happen, and then zero additional boxes / thechno-paraphenalia / moving electro-mechanical parts etc.

I find the screws have much better purchase with P5. I use screws with a part blank shank so they don't 'jack' the boards up off the joists. Vortex screws ( 5.0 x 50mm ) are a favourite. Link.

Go and buy one of each, test them, and come back to me Screws also chew through OSB much worse than with P5, so I don't use it for flooring, only 'racking' on walls.

Why start the problem in the 1st place by using 18mm chipboard?!? I haven't used that weak weetabix pap for donkey's years. 22mm minimum in every instance for me, and then no silly issues or need for 3D CAD drawings then . If you really are losing sleep over this, go get yourself some pine T&G floorboards and go 'old skool'. Ditch the idea of 18mm, and get onto the next problem. And yes, you ARE over-thinking this, but you're focussed on the wrong solution AFAIC.

The likelihood is, is that the tiles have a known manufacturing defect which produces a slight cup / bow in the length of the tile. Quickest way to check is to put the tiles against a pane of glass and see what the average tolerances are, across a few samples from a few different boxes should give a good indication. The 33% bond is so you don't get a big dip / jump ( we call them "kickers" ) where the centre of the tile, which would have the most pronounced part of the 'bow', meets and crosses the corners of the tiles above and below, thus giving the most pronunciation of the 'defects'. As far as anything else is concerned you will be fine, as long as you're happy with the first m2 or two after laying and examining the results. FYI, if you use tile 'self-leveling' clips to wall tile, you can probably pull some of the defect out. Believe it or not, tiles will bend a little. You'd need a lot of clips though. You'll need to use cementitious tile adhesive with a full bed and butter technique to achieve best results. Ready made acrylic adhesive will stay 'wet' for way too long to hold the tiles accordingly eg to control the defect. In honesty, it would be best to lay these out and see how they look, as the defect may be far less of an issue than I assume, and possibly no issue at all.

The uplift to 150mm makes zero sense to me tbh. I second the opinion of not going from 150 > 110mm even though the flow / solids would be at the dead centre and bottom of the pipe at that point. If I was on site there would be no mention of 150mm pipe whatsoever. 110mm can run for a hell of a distance with as little as 1:80 fall, and still accept branches from 2/3/4 even 5 WC’s before ever even thinking of upsizing. If upsizing gives any kind of confidence boost, then it won’t cause issue, but it needs to go all the way to the external IC unmolested eg no reduction before it’s final discharge to the sewer chamber.

Apologies. They both boast the same ‘qualities’ but both are acrylic, so both will reconstitute with the presence of water / moisture / extreme humidity etc. Neither better than the other afaic but I wouldn’t use these in any areas other than ‘dry’ sections of wall. I’ve been tiling for over 25 years btw, and only ever had one job go tits up, and that was customer supplied ready made ( acrylic ) adhesive which went into the skip ,via the 3rd floor window.

If we’re talking ready mix stuff here (?) then ditch that tripe and get some powder adhesive and mix your own. I do like all the BS names given to the above-mentioned tile adhesive “power shower proof” and such other nonsense, but the facts are simple…….your tile adhesive isn’t ever supposed to see the shower water as the tiles / grout / sealants take on that responsibility!! Just get some Mapei / Bal / Ultra etc, 20kg bag for a couple of tenners, choose the slow setting versions ( commonly referred to as ‘standard’ or ‘extended’ set so you get an hour to play with it ), and that will serve you very well indeed. That will also be a cementitious adhesive which you can immerse in water with zero degradation. All of the DIY ready mixed stuff is garbage, and will reconstitute with any downstream exposure to moisture, so avoid that for any areas which are frequently / constantly exposed to splashing / running water.

Only 1 channel required with a combi. This is a standard controller in that instance; https://www.screwfix.com/p/drayton-lp711-timeswitch/39024?tc=CB1&ds_kid=92700055281954502&ds_rl=1249404&gclid=Cj0KCQjwvr6EBhDOARIsAPpqUPGrFCfJSVFNTkucCLu4d3WrezSzYYT-csZUKleAzMrbf48YGiDxcl8aAtSxEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds This has 'volt free' contacts so can be used with either low or 230v

Frosted glass, with a more discernible blind at the half height marker down, just for privacy during nighttime use. The other window is quite well thought out, which only needs 'blinding' from the windowsill to the horizontal bar.

Even less desirable option ! Kind of thing you get in the motorway services.....