Nickfromwales

Template all the way.

Grey matched silicone = ✅ CT1 harder = ✅✅ Stain the white grout ? = ✅✅✅✅✅✅ Stick with me kid ?

Not a problem on the trims where you can wipe them to nothing with baby wipes, but try an internal angle and not getting it onto the white grout.

Try a bit.

Have you bought the grey CT1? I’m guessing not , because if you had, you would NOT be recommending it for this application. CT1 in the 1mm grout line? What colour? How is the white grout supposed to make a seal against the CT1, or how would you stop the grout so there was a gap for the CT1 to go in the last 1mm? Not going to happen ?? Read back, as I mentioned using the white grout and ramming it under the tile and into the intersections where the grout lines rise. Then I mention using grey silicone. Not inferior when used to your advantage ?. White CT1 goes custard yellow and anything other than clear is the worlds biggest pig to get a token bead with that doesn’t look like it’s been applied by a Wildabeasts hoof. Just imagine the grey over spill going onto the white grout, and from there it’ll be downhill to the booze cabinet. CT1 isn’t available in shades of grey, and the grey they have will look like gutter sealant. To summarise, I’m not a fan of that idea

Apple it is, my old fruit

Just fit them horizontally with the side outlet uppermost, and fit bottle vents to automatically release any trapped air. Prob best to avoid heat rising to the heater base tbh, but can’t really say it would be to any detriment as I’ve removed scores of them ( immersions ) top-loaded and facing down in old copper cylinders. Sealed and pressurised is totally different to gravity / convection flow, so imo you can fit these however you like and they’ll work A1.

You need some of this and bloody soon too !!! https://www.polypipe.com/housing/pressure-systems/pre-insulated-pipes/pre-insulated-coil/pre-insulated-pipe-25mm-x-10m-twin-pipe-coil

Are you serious ? Your heating pipes are buried in the driveway heating the ground ?!?

To clarify, 4m of underground ( under slab ) run before rising up through the slab, or 4m of exposed cable inside the dwelling? If its the latter then I expect them to start whinging at 3m, but if the former then they're just being ridiculous. As Dave says, the guys on the ground are the ones to keep on side with, and when I asked for about 6m of internal cable ( on a gentleman agreement that it would be lost in 400mm of ceiling void, they just said they'd look the other way. They also reconnected all the meters ( job was a relocation of two, and one new service ) which they're not obliged to do either. 3 phase seems to be coming up a lot nowadays with folk having various recommendations for future proofing with EV's and charging. A PITA for load balancing and PV integration though.

Depends how straight the tiles are. If like most ceramic they have a slight cup to them then you may well be better off doing the gap and siliconing. Put some packers down to rest the tiles on and pick the best tiles out of the bunch and see what the results are like. PS, so does everyone else

At least it wasn't a cheesy sausage eh

Nothing not to like there chief. Once grouted it'll be a thing of beauty.

Until checkout where the hidden p&p charges always seem to pop in discretely. ?

The issue is with zoning heat into the separate rooms If one ever turns out to be a bedroom for eg and is smaller then you may have no option of having that room run cooler or warmer. After that theres no problems at all. Plenty of good products out there to bond a sole-plate stud instead of screws or nails With 50mm screed you will need a good degree of flow control as the temp swings will be quite acute. What standard are you building to?

Cash is king. Its xmas time, they may have kids. Argos / eBay gift voucher?

Two in parallel to get the flow rate. Make sure the pipe work from each outlet to the T and from each inlet to the T are equal so they each share the same flow rate ( pipe resistance ).

You can go posh and zone valve them, or you can go caveman and just use a pair of 1/4 turn lever valves. One on the flow from the original heat source and the other on the flow from the Willis. Just swap them both to redirect flow from the pump to the chosen device. 1 may struggle whereas 2 would easily cope with the flow rate normally associated with the 28mm pipe.

Willis heaters, my good man. Inline thermos flask sized water jackets where a standard 3kW immersion heater gets inserted. Bingo. Stack multiples until you get to your required heating input. 2x usually will suffice. Cheap as chips for a simple backup solution. ?

Three ‘words’ eh? ? You must have had a few ?

Thats the reason with every heat pump install I’ll spec and fit some form of injecting grid electricity, whether it be Willis or direct immersion or an e-prefix SA. @joe90 how warm is the place on just the one 3kW immersion? I take it you have to run it for a good while to get up to temp, eg no on / off-ability to speak of?

Depends where you were Saturday night

As @Barney12 and I have just discovered, with the Apollo GEM in this instance, not very well at all . As most PV diverters 'sniff' for the constant ( but variable ) flow of current, the SAPV was far more compliant with such external sensing. The UniQ setup is not that compatible IMO with the pulsed bursts of energy it initially requires to 'defrost' the PCM, so a little more thought is required. I've yet to look properly at this, what with just about now getting to grips with the feasibility / functionality side of the SA itself first, so there are yet still some unanswered questions that I have to ask to the various diversion controller manufacturers. I tried to speak to the tech guy from Apollo but he had such a strong French accent and not the greatest of English I really struggled to convey questions ( with my welsh accent ) and get the answers. Got repeatedly told how amazing and diverse it was, but I left that conversation with probably more confusion than when I started it TBH. The Mi Energy range of products will be my next port of call, so bear with me and I'll ( attempt ) to update here accordingly, but as you mention Dave, it ( the SA Controller ) would be far better and more universally integrated if it had a constant, albeit variable, flow of current at all times. I visited SA HQ on the 25th of this month and had a great opportunity to speak with Stuart Cunningham ( Training and Installations Manager ), Will Howell ( Production Manager ), and Trevor Cross ( UK Sales Director ) in their respective domains. Very interesting and informative, and demonstrates the huge mountain they've climbed to get this product to market. As a result of said visit, I have been told that other Qontrollers will make it to the market place as R&D allows, but obviously nothing will be released until its ready and proven fit for purpose. @JSHarris, Immersion on / SoC and other indicators / more comprehensive displays etc are already in the mix Please don't ask anything on that subject folks, as thats all I've been told. The SA Controller has user definable settings, and one parameter is the depth of discharge where reheat will be initiated ( call for heat aka demand ). This can be set to 50% depleted, or 90% depleted so a range of differing ways to stave off the issues with the 'defrost' cycle eg set up and size accordingly so the unit never gets so excessively discharged. Sizing accordingly is everything with the units, so beware that its almost always necessary to get a designer or heating engineer to do these calculations for you, either that or be scrooge-like with your DHW consumption and phase your energy usage to be in line with PV generation / other low cost heat input etc. Horses for courses there. The incremental price increases per unit, after you've accepted the initial 'hit', are quite reasonable and I always demonstrate the cost uplift to go to the next size unit which many feel is 'worth the money'. I'm an advocate of sizing for the worst case and to have room for storage of all but 100% of any surplus energy, so thats always my recommendation. For eg to uplift from a size 9 unit, in an eHw, to a size 12 unit is an uplift of only £300+vat. Thats a no-brainer AFAIC, given PV production isn't guaranteed every day, so bit of surplus storage is a good idea for when it is. Sizing to get through 24hrs without needing grid top-up / boost is the aim IMO.

The difference between the two units are simple. The early units didn’t get an immersion heater as such. The early development version ( the SAPV ) was just a closed cell with the only means of importing heat to the PCM being dealt with via the heat exchanger. Basically that means you need to heat water outside the cell and then send the heat backwards through the same heat exchanger that is then, in turn, used to export heat to DHW. The heat is produced by a very small Willis type inline water heater which has a pump and a flow switch. The pump speed regulates the flow so when the PCM is at or near frozen it runs slower to send the correct flow temp to the PCM. As the PCM heats through the pump return increases so the pump speed increases to pass water through the Willis heater quicker to maintain the correct flow temp. If the pump or flow is out of sync for whatever reason the Wilis can boil like a kettle and therefore the Willis OH ( overheat ) stat operates. As that’s seen as a terminal failure it requires manual resetting. In the newer, far far simplified UniQ range the immersion heater actually resides in the base of the cell, internally, and is surrounded by the PCM in the same way as the heat exchanger is eg 100% immersed / encapsulated. No need for pumps / Willis heaters / flow switches / PHE / and no need for all the inter-connective pipework necessary to convey ‘wet’ heat. As the SAPV is indirectly heating the PCM it can use variable flow & temp ( variable but continuous current ) to input a continuous flow of heat energy. The ‘complication’ that SA had to overcome with the SA UniQ unit is; as it has the immersion direct into the PCM it has the ability to immediately overheat the surrounding PCM which would destroy it. The ‘melt’ characteristic of the PCM doesn’t deal very well with intense / accuse heat energy being introduced from just one concentrated area ( that the contact surface of the encapsulated immersion achieves ). ( For info, the PCM can be destroyed by putting too high a temperature into it. Basically you can cook and kill it with no possibility of recovery. This is why there is the need for modulated flow and heat control with the SAPV. A bit bit like you wouldn’t use a blow lamp to defrost the Xmas turkey as you’d burn and ruin the outside but the inside would still be frozen solid ). Therefore the UniQ Qontroller has a programmed pulsed output which is used to gently heat and melt the immediately surrounding PCM around the immersion. It pulses on every minute or so iirc and injects heat in chunks. When the lower thermistor registers heat the Qontroller ( I think ) then let’s rip with full bore heat input. So, every time you fully discharge an UniQ unit it will go back to what I call the ‘defrost cycle’ as described ( so is not a one time first switched on event, it’s an every heavy discharge > reheat event ). The UniQ immersion also has an overheat stat, so terminal OH ( failure of the electronics to control the heat input for any reason ) would cause that to trip and isolate the immersion for safety. The UniQ range with an ‘e’ prefix ( eg 'eDual' ) have an immersion and are primarily intended to be heated by electricity. Units without the prefix ( eg 'Dual' ) do not have an immersion and are to be heated indirectly ( by a boiler or ST / high temp ASHP etc ). Now, pay attention folks..... An UniQ +I ( eg 'Dual+I' ) has an immersion. This unit is meant to be heated indirectly ONLY but you can ( say if the boiler / other goes tits up ) go and then heat it TEMPORARILY with the immersion in the same way you can with an UVC for eg. You should not heat that unit indirectly and with the immersion simultaneously, so basically if you have solar PV available during the day and your boiler is running you shouldn't use the PV to fortify the boiler flow, eg it should be one or the other. That would require a changeover arrangement where excess pv injection then disconnected the boiler call for heat ( demand ) signal temporarily and accordingly. Oh, and there’s other configurations available too, but my thumb hurts now. If you think that’s a lot to remember then feel my pain. I’ve forgotten my kids names since working through the chuffing manual ?

Shame, I thought you’d stumbled onto a good guy there. ?