Nickfromwales

Does anyone actually know how long the different anti-freeze solutions 'last'? ASHP's will still be subject to freezing conditions, so how effective are the Sentinel products vs a proper Glycol mix? Makes you scratch your head as to why a pipe buried 1.5m down would be better protected against freezing than surface mounted / exposed ASHPs and pipework

Forgive me if your repeating yourself Peter, but do you have PV? I am very much interested in the concept of the Genevex, but I think it becomes the wrong choice in a medium to large dwelling, particularly when you are using it as to fortify the space heating. Its clear that auxiliary heating mediums are required when you use UFH, ( towel rads and UTH in bathrooms / walk-in-wardrobes / dressers etc ) so you then could consider the SA as a device to provide wet heating to either those ( so you stay in phase with solar PV generation eg storing for nighttime use rather than consuming on demand from the grid ) or a wet duct pre-heater. I am however still not sold on the Genevex as a stand alone unit and am currently looking to fortify one ( in a medium sized dwelling with no ufh ) with a SA but finding it a bit off a brain teaser. I assume the Genevex will boost daily off the 1kW immersion for legionella purge so the DHW temp of 45oC you state is probably the base figure, and it regularly resides hotter than that ? Question is, do you preheat with that by scoffing heat out of the Genevex's additional coil so Genevex > SA > DHW where I see the problem being that the Genevex will be the first device to drop off and, as its a DHW priority device, the space heating would suffer considerably, or do 'we' circulate heat from the SA unit/s into the coil and go for cheaper heat only SA units with DHW only ever coming from the Genevex, but with the Genevex then only ever kicking over tho DHW when the SA/s have been depleted. I think the former is a no-go for sure, so then I ask would it just be easier to leave the Gnevex out, have a generic MVHR with passive heat recovery, fit a wet duct heater ( energy for which would be primarily from solar ) and use the SA's for DHW and space heating energy. Please do post your estimated electricity usage. Also good point about the heat recovery after showering, as that residual heat would certainly help things out. My head hurts now. ?

You have some choices. Cheaper ( capital cost ) cylinders ( buffer and UVC ) which will typically have higher losses, larger physical footprint, and annual service / maintenance costs ( G3 ) etc. More expensive SA units ( combined kW heat energy storage ) with far lower losses, 1/3 the physical size by comparison, and zero service / maintenance requirements. Quite expensive if you need the PCM34, which you only need if you have an ASHP, but in a passive standard / other equally low energy dwelling and PV I am finding myself recommending SA heat storage and ditching the HP. The money saved on the HP goes towards more kW of SA storage and it is, to coin a phrase, "a very elegant solution". You could certantly go for an ASHP to drive your UFH, with it also giving you DHW from an UVC. That would all be at a reasonable CoP and be "free" when the PV can support it, but then you also have the capital cost of the two cylinders, the glycol in the primary water circuit ( brine ), the costs when the glycol needs disposal and replacement, the lifespan of the ASHP and then the 'ugly factor' where do you put it and would you hear it, the latter consideration more so only when its providing DHW in reality as when driven softly these are quite quiet. You could use the cheaper and higher performance PCM58 eDual. 'e' tells you it has immersions so you can hook it up to the PV, but more importantly you can also then run off grid electric when a) the suns not out, or b) you have guests / higher DHW demand just by using the Boost button on your solar device. The idea would be to max out on SA size vs the amount of PV ( and PV performance ) that you have and rely on the grid as little as possible. The mention of some PV being able to export limit is a very interesting thing as you could chuck much more PV on ( if you have the opportunity / funds ) and really utilise the SA's to their fullest potential. As for sizing that would be specific to the property and hugely affected by your DHW demand. Given your above, I would say a pair of 6kW eDual PCM58's, or if you wanted to purchase sooner the sale price is still available and then its seriously worth jumping up to 2x 9kW units. Big question is, what standard have you built to ? Ultimately the sizing of the units is dictated by your kW heat loss figures for space heating, and then your DHW is added on after that. Your DHW is easy to estimate but space heating would need to be stated as a figure to work on.

Wow, thats a long time to be dedicated to DHW priority. Very long indeed.

I suppose I should have added : IF the combi is being used for space heating and there's no UFH. That's typically what the 185 is aimed at.

Monoblock ASHP

Does the space heating suffer whilst the hot water is regenerating?

Tidy. You'll fit right in. ??

All moot if you choose a "bathroom fitter" as they ( as I do ) do the lot from start to finish. If separate trades then deffo the tilers job. Plus, if there's any extended time between one and t'other you'll not want the tanking getting scuffed and dusty in between.

The DC array had me thinking..... bigger array and no need for any grid-tie and its constraints. Then I thought of keeping things all AC but splitting a bigger array up into 2 halves or 3 thirds and just having one as the generic ( no grief from DNO ) 3.96kW array, and the others as non grid tied PV > SA dedicated arrays. Then a third option came to my attention, the SolarEdge inverter, with export limitation. Whack the lot on the roof, grid tie, and the system restricts itself to 3.96kW export. The caveat is that the DNO are still as aware of this as they are of inverter driven Heatpumps ( still in the dark ages with both ), so they may ask for a witness session ( some charge for that ) to actually witness the unit actively limiting. Once satisfied, they sign you off and thats that. More to follow when I dig a bit deeper on that, but ill add to a relevant PV thread instead of cluttering this up.

With comments like that you'll be needing the 'high-heel jammed into the scrotum' emoji. ??

If it's in that state outside, the inside must be terrible.

Yup, just spotted it.......? When your right, your right. ?

That's not an envious task, as I've said. I think you should express your happiness with bacon and beer. I'm a fussy tiler, and that's looking absolutely spot on. ???

Needs to be "through-roddable" so grey will only be allowed to go straight to IC, or be Y branched into a foul, unless the gulley has removable caps to allow easy through-rodding. Kitchen sink and utility ( food waste ) straight to IC

Every single rise to waste from under the house should be 110mm, without exception. Do not run even 50mm for a basin under there, ill be surprised if your BCO will be happy with that either. You should not have a trap / gulley there as it can block or even prevent rodding ( unless you have it on show and can easily get to it ) "no ta" to that! Traps on the end of each run will suffice re smells etc, and if you vent effectively at the plant then you shouldn't get any built up gases in the run anyway. As you have a plant, why are you even considering getting a pipe to atmosphere from inside the dwelling? A vent to atmosphere is only stipulated if you are connected to the mains sewerage network, as each property has a responsibility to vent the sewer gasses to atmosphere to vent the entire network. AAV's ( stub-stacks ) will more than suffice in the upper rooms, and if the downstairs rooms have less than 1300mm to the invert you won't need one at all as the water pellet won't have a chance to from a vacuum when flushing. Adding anti-syphon traps to the basins or remote small-bore AAV's will suffice there. If a vacuum cannot form then there is no requirement for air admittance as it'll be doing zero. You should be fine teeing grey water into foul under the house, so that may help to reduce the number of pipe runs to / from the IC's.

Yup. I mask the worktop with pvc ( insulation ) tape, silicone, wipe with baby wipes, and then de-mask. Once the mask is removed one more wipe up so the silicone is not visible any more.

I would already just be buying one tbh. They're just not that expensive.

Clear CT1 to bed it in for fixing purposes, and wipe back with the baby wipes. Have a look at the casting and see if the shadow gap isn't excessive, if it is then wipe a bit deeper and leave to dry. Then finish with a bead of ( cosmetic ) white silicone which can be refreshed when necessary.

+1 to running it over ground. Just leave 10m or more of slack on it and you'll be able to move it to one side to excavate, and then simply drop it in and cut off the excess.

Problem is, is its not just the cost of the frame and the pan that needs to be factored in. Its the cost of boxing in, either full or half height to conceal the cistern / frame etc which all adds up quickly too, so not a cheap option I'm afraid.

Ebay is loaded with good deals. Ive bought loads on there, on behalf of customers, and only a few things have been that bad that I've returned them.

Question is, is will you get parts in 10 years time

Just insulate them and surface mount them if theres any real issue in burying them during the build, in anticipation. The good news is they'll naturally vent back at the manifold as they're lower not higher than the house slab.

Don't shop at Selco. Any bathroom paint I suppose, as long as it says wipeable / scrubbable. I only saw the diamond stuff around a hob splash back and was very impressed. In fairness your high-traffic areas should be tiled anyhoo, with the paint above that.