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Everything posted by Nickfromwales
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Yup. That's 100 times better than going in slack and no means of centralising the internal 'bores'. "PROCEED!"
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They don't make 'em like they used to
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Give it a few days and you’ll be like Billy Elliot My shoulders are hurting just looking at the pictures ?
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Will the 80 x 110 Geberit adaptor fit into the ( lubed-up first ) bent pan connector? That is a slack junction otherwise and not something I’d do unless there was ABSOLUTELY no other choice.
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Not a favoured solution tbh. Are you saying push a bent pan connector into the existing soil where it exits the wall, leaving the open mouth of the bent pan connector to accept the Geberit bent connector? 3 bottles of Fursty Ferret in btw. ? Baby steps ok
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Yup. You can cut the black Gebetit 90o bend to any length as long as it still seats fully into the 90mm x 110mm adaptor. ? Robust and in line with the frame MI’s.
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You can’t with a framed WC. You need the black long pan connector @Onoff shows which gets you clear of the wall and out to the pan outlet. With a bent pan connector you’d finish flush ( lol ) to the wall but also too high as you’d be resting on the metal bar of the frame that the Geberit black bit clips to.
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The Build - Reflections & sign off.
Nickfromwales commented on Redoctober's blog entry in Our Journey North of the Border
Well......it’ll keep the rain off your head at the very worst Tres bien, Rodney. ? -
Which ASHP are set up to cool
Nickfromwales replied to Triassic's topic in Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHP)
Don’t the split units require an external fan unit? Plus, my above solution doesn’t have the bulky office-looking surface mounted unit cluttering up the wall -
Bath Surround / Boxing In, and concealed pipework
Nickfromwales replied to Onoff's topic in Bathrooms, Ensuites & Wetrooms
Could do with a nice mosaic skirting board in there.......... -
+1. I'd buy one of these instead and sling the plastic bolts in the bin.
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Which ASHP are set up to cool
Nickfromwales replied to Triassic's topic in Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHP)
That's the ESBE valve I have to fit if using a SA for pre-heat to a WB combi, so I'm aware of them, just the thought never crossed my mind to use one there to max out for the duct coolers. Noted, and appreciated, thanks. -
Nice curves Jamie ?
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Heating the house scenario.
Nickfromwales replied to Russell griffiths's topic in General Self Build & DIY Discussion
It's really quite difficult to comprehend in fairness. It's just never cold. The fabric of the build, walls / floors / fittings etc retain the heat from the day and the whole house 'interior' acts as an emitter. In the current build we're on, over Xmas and with the UFH flow temp on at a little over 22oC, the house maintained 18-20oC dependant on the amount of solar gain during the day. That was without a working MVHR system, with 2x 180mm holes ducting out through the roof, and a leaky ( unfinished ) airtight door to the garage. We would open all the large sliders, the double garage door, the utility door to the garage, and the front door to let the ( bloody cold ) air whistle through whilst the floors were swept up and the dust was intolerable. That saw the inside air temp drop to around 7oC for the duration of the cleanup. Upon closing all of the openings, the temp of the house would stabilise within minutes back to the previous comfortable 20.5oC it was to start with. You just cannot suck the heat out in such a short space of time. If youve had a good enough day to have the doors all open and the 4-legged walking fart-boxes running through, then you'll have had heat input into the house fabric whether you wanted it or not. The secret is the fabric's ability to retain it. Turning the UFH off on a Monday would see a notable drop by around Wednesday. No sooner. That's WITHOUT heat recovery remember I really do wonder when our dogshit British building regs will get a swift kick in the nether region.............Don't hold your breath. -
For @vivienz I'm fitting 4 x speakers for the open plan kitchen / dining / living space, but only at the dining and kitchen 'two thirds'. Where the room ends as the living space a TV will reside, so I have suggested a decent Sonos Sound bar is fitted there so that entire open plan space can play from one music source. All the amps will be the Sonos as it's just so damn simple and robust, eg plug n play. As far as the 2 speaker or 4 speaker option, that's a no-brainer. It's far better to have 4 lower volumes to flood a section of the space rather than have to turn 2 speakers up much louder IMO as you then don't have the person stood next to the speaker suffering fro the higher volume required by others slightly further away. As far as positioning goes, the further out to the corners the more aggressive the bass will become, and then you'll need a graphic equaliser of some sort to wind that back a bit. If your a dance music lover then thats not so problematic, but if you simply want good vocal clarity, a good dispersion for the high end ( treble ) then do as I'm doing and group the 4 speakers equidistant over the general 'listening area' and you'll not go far wrong. The 4 speakers combined will still run off a single stereo amp, you just parallel two speaker cables which shows the amp a 4 ohm load instead of the 8 ohm load. That will squeeze a bit more performance out of the amplifier, but make sure the amp you choose is happy to see the 4 ohm load. FYI domestic speakers are typically 8 ohm, so the amplifiers are set to deal with that, generally speaking. You can get away with 4 smaller speakers with less visual impact when you group the 4 as you'll be sharing the bottom end ( bass ) between them, instead of relying on 2 much beefier speakers to fill the room with the whole musical spectrum. In the bedrooms I've gone with 2x larger, more fuller sounding speakers, these bad boys, just so as to not clutter the rooms up any more than is necessary. In the downstairs open space I'll go with 5 1/4" most probably so am looking to see whats available with CA, as they're a damn nice speaker. Bathrooms are getting some too, so will require a marine / harsh environment unit to suit.
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+1.
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Which ASHP are set up to cool
Nickfromwales replied to Triassic's topic in Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHP)
Following this with interest.... I am part-way through installing all of the M&E stuff for @MarkA and the core of the heating will be via an ASHP. Mark asked from the outset for cooling, both in the slab and more specifically in the bedrooms also, so I've started off by getting piped for that a-la @JSHarris's install eg to provide slab cooling, as the first line of 'defence'. The flow and return pipes have been extended to both the attic plant, ( above the bathroom that divides bed 2 and bed 3 ( vaulted ceilings )), and the small cupboard space left in the eave of bed 1 where each space will house a single, dumb, duct cooler dedicated to each room. They have been further extended to the ground floor plant room to allow for cooling to be retrospectively added to the one downstairs bedroom ( 4 ) if the need ever arises ( or to inject a bit more heat for that matter ). Bed 1 & 3 catch the southern sun, bed 2 is on the opposite side, as is bed 4, so the biggest dilemma is to manage the cooling 'per room' as opposed to 'all on / all off'. We've allowed for heat / cool capable room stats per ( bed ) room so these can be individually brought in / out of play according to the effects of the solar gain. My thoughts, ( yet to be proven ). So what I have done is run 2 more 92mm MVHR ducts from the duct cooler, then under the floor and back into each bedroom, as a cooled air re-circulation setup, where the fan at the duct cooler will blow cooled air directly into the ( part-lowered but still vaulted ) ceiling sections where the warmest air will stagnate. I have then installed a single air extract point at each opposite end of the room, down at a little lower than socket level, where the air gets 'sucked' back up to the duct cooler for cooling and re-introduction to the room. Concerns would be that if the slab cooling mandates the ASHP 'cooling temp' being as low as you say Jeremy, then will there be a risk of getting condensate collecting in the return lines? I was thinking not, as by then the extract air temp will have been lifted by the effects of collecting the unwanted heat from the room. As far as stagnation, that will be dealt with by the fact that these systems are auxiliary and will work alongside the standard MVHR which will continuously reintroduce fresh air. I will choose fans which have 3 speeds, handled by the wall mounted stat / ctrl to keep the controls as dumb ( K.I.S.S. ) as possible. That will be the means of dictating how much or how little cooling is employed at any one time. The idea being that speed 1 would be quiet enough to sleep with, and speed 3 would give you a decent 'breeze'. All theoretical until I switch it on, but I'm ( very ) quietly confident. Discussions have been about prevention being better than cure, so to manage the heating ( cooling ) effectively it seems best to address it before it becomes problematic. This can be managed, effectively I hope, in one of two ways; 1) Don't let the rooms get too hot before introducing the cooling system....."Simple!" So, predict if you need to boost cool, eg if you know it's going to be a sunny aka problematic midday / late afternoon then you can simply hit a boost controller to force run the cooling side of the system PRIOR to the hysteresis of the stat detecting the increase. It's quite obvious when you're in a 'passive' house ( well insulated / airtight in other words ) and the sun is up and at 'em.It gets warm, and it does it quite quickly, which means the cooling would have to fight to bring the temp down after the stat failed to predict the degree of heat rise and 'set-back' according to it's pending impact. Now to revert to the prevention technique, that can't really be done autonomously unless you have a weather-predictive what-not an an entry-level home automation system with some basic intelligence, but there is, as I say above, the ability to just give it the human touch. Simple, and free. If you're in, use your noggin, if you're planning a day out, give the house a 4 hour boost ( £20 time-clock will suffice ) and have the cooling system run to offset the additional heat gain. Results, house never gets to the problematic heat level, and the fabric of the dwelling stays close t, or at, the comfort / desired ambient temp. 2) Weather compensation. I have decided to re-invent this a little after seeing @Barney12's BPC duct cooler in his MVHR intake from atmosphere. That is connected to a 'geothermal' brine loop that simply, very simply actually, recirculates the temp of Terra-Firma to the duct cooler. A bit of uplift when the outside air temp gets very low, and vice versa. Better than nowt but could be improved ( but remembering firstly that @Barney12 doesn't have an ASHP so this geothermal option had significant attraction ). Ok, that said, when I fitted the SA ( Sunamp ) units there I decided to give this ( already previously installed ) setup a kick in the dangle-berries. I stripped it all back, introduce a PHE ( plate heat exchanger ) and a flip - flop ctrl system so heat could be injected into the duct cooler from the SA if the outside air temp got ridiculously low ( Dartmoor ). Worked rather well if i might say so. Ignore the clutter, Einsteins desk on a good day Ok, continuing point 2)..... The whole point of a comfortable home should be, that you can wake up and not know if its summer or winter IMO, so that said, we go back to 'weather compensation'. In Mark's I intend to fit ( probably a pair of ) the above duct cooler unit(s) with the specific intention of getting outside air as close to a constant 20.5oC as possible. They will be installed in the inlet from atmosphere, immediately prior to the MVHR unit. FYI, as Mark will have an ASHP we have not gone to the added expense of an MVHR unit with internal heat pump as that's a minimum uplift in cost of £2k. The idea being not to introduce a problem in the first place and then have to deal with it afterwards with a significant separate additional system. That said there is still merit in having cooling in the bedrooms IMO even with such a core prevention strategy in place, BUT, with that preemptive measure in place, the auxiliary systems can be dialled back and made far simpler / lower spec etc and thus have less impact on the inhabitants eg from from noise pollution etc caused by being forced to run such auxiliary systems at full wallop. Homework for this weekend includes looking for some decent units and looking at the max airflow rates through them to decide what will have near zero impact on the air intake path to the MVHR ( hence my thoughts to parallel two units and be done with it ). "Seems like a nice, straightforward job"...................... -
Morning! 9 ports on a single manifold will work perfectly well and significantly reduce costs and complexity. This cannot be practised in an install where a lot of the loops will then exceed 100m in length, but if it means one or two are at, or slightly above 100m, you'd be fine. I have done loops in far worse places ( insulation wise ) and had loops of 130m in one zone, and it worked VERY well. The designer / supplier will of course cover their arse and insist on the dual manifold if even one loop creeps over this tipping point, as that'll need to be adhered to in order to offer a warranty. Yes 100%. They are disgustingly inaccurate in conjunction with UFH. DO NOT fit them at any cost. They work well with radiators which are able to make speedy changes to the air temp, but UFH is a long and low output into a very energy dense emitter, so you'll have a stat that misses the room getting to temp ( and then you'll have a big overshoot ), and then it'll miss the room cooling back down ( and then you'll have an even bigger undershoot ). The hysteresis of the heating will be governed by the response times of the stats, so choose those very well. You want a stat with a minimum of 0.5oC hysteresis 0.2 would be better. Why do you seem wedded to NuHeat? Wunda are very good, do free designs after you commit to a purchase, offer good support and I've fitted a mountain of their gear to date without issue. A good few here have used them too. Shop around, buy the kit yourself, but under the beady eye of the designer + supplier. Then it's no more difficult for an installer to fit than any other system as the thought has been removed entirely and the system will be sold as being fit for purpose.
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2-part leveller like we chucked on your floor will suffice. Really no need to go for a full concrete screed cap, as that'll need to be at least 30mm to stay stable. SLC will be kinder too, with no need to level it manually. . More chance of that breaking up vs SLC. Reconsider !
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Apologies, but only seeing this now. I'll have a look when i get 5 mins, but at first glance it seems a little pointless going for such a small accumulator. That will have <125L of useful volume and is dependant on the incoming cold mains value. Have you done a reading for static pressure and dynamic flow rate yet? To decide on an accumulator volume these need to be known, and your max cold mains dependency understood.
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Bringing a derelict UFH system into service.
Nickfromwales replied to daiking's topic in Underfloor Heating
Hi @daiking The 15mm feeds will suffice, you'll just need to put a manual bypass ( standard £5 gate valve ) across flow and return at the manifold, immediately prior to the pipes being connected to it. It'll make almost no difference whatsoever to the running of it, like near zero, and would only really impact the heating up when you want to warm it from cold ( and then TBH you'd not really suffer as 15mm flow and return will still keep a 2600 x 700mm K2 double radiator blasting ) so tell your plumber to have a chill pill and just connect to the 15mm ones you already have. The only time the boiler will 'suffer' ( short cycle excessively ) is when the UFH is used on its own, so I'd try to never have a system configured where that would be the rule, or the exception TBH. When the UFH is up to temp it will require less than the boilers minimum output even at max modulation ( you have a Baxi Duotec IIRC? ) therefore will be a design load that is outside of it's 'happy place'. Running the bathroom towel rads simultaneously at the bare minimum will help the boiler out no end, so at least one of those should stay on manual ( bypass ) radiator valves, but the other 2 (?) certainly should have TRV's fitted. Leave the one in your ensuite on bypass valves and change the others to TRV's so visitors / kiddies are less likely to come into contact with them Plumbers ( on their mothers side ) do this in bathrooms ( leave out TRV's ) as a knee-jerk action, and are bell-ends for doing so. Get those done asap for comfort and safety. The blending valve on the UFH manifold will allow you ( as in you personally ) to adjust the flow temp of the UFH loops to whatever you want, so once plumbed in and commissioned you can tweak this daily. You can get two set points marked with Tippex and change the temp a little 'seasonally' for selecting between the shoulder months and deepest winter for eg, same way folk with boilers turn the flow temp up a bit when the weather becomes a bit sharp. You would do it at the manifold and not the boiler so as to not affect the flow ( surface ) temp of those emitters, again promoting comfort / safety. Connecting this lot up is a doddle, so don't let anyone start tearing pages out of the Problematic Plumbers Bible, simply do as above, connect up the flow and return to the manifold, and get the slab warmed. Remember the 50p per day is only due when you need to heat the slab, so no banks are going to be broken here, and I reckon you'll only need to provide a bit of background heat from the slab to make a huge difference in the house. UFH via a slab is a bloody good way of getting 'comfort' heat into a space, so try it low first and go from there. As far as controls are concerned, run with what you've got and just put a simple £1 1g1w light switch as an on/off switch so you can remove / introduce the UFH as required. Start off cheap and cheerful, and add complexity later if you find it's necessary "Proceed" -
Bath Surround / Boxing In, and concealed pipework
Nickfromwales replied to Onoff's topic in Bathrooms, Ensuites & Wetrooms
The fact that it's coming along is good enough for me !! -
MT-TUA-17S-11-9240 not responding to input signal
Nickfromwales replied to readiescards's topic in Other Heating Systems
A simple capacitor may suffice, but my knowledge is mostly electrical not electronic I’m afraid. -
MT-TUA-17S-11-9240 not responding to input signal
Nickfromwales replied to readiescards's topic in Other Heating Systems
I’d be inclined to say to put a relay in between the switch and the ‘controller’ tbh, as this is the exact same switch that @PeterW and I fitted in @newhome‘s install ( which = “ tried and tested “ ). The relay will not change state with ‘ ghost voltage ‘ but it appears the controller clearly is responding to this sub manis voltage signal so IMO I think that would sort it. @readiescards, Take the live trigger ( output ) wire from the flow switch and have it power the coil in a normal relay ( solid state may not be a good idea ) and have the relay convey the common ( the live into the flow switch ) to the pump controller unit. That should give a definitive on or off signal to the unit and resolve the issue. In @newhome‘s it went; switch > relay > pump and worked well, just yours has an electronic component downstream which clearly doesn’t like ghost voltage. -
Bath Surround / Boxing In, and concealed pipework
Nickfromwales replied to Onoff's topic in Bathrooms, Ensuites & Wetrooms
Coming along nicely
