Nickfromwales

Hi Amanda, and welcome. You sound like you'd be a valuable addition to the crowd here so please stick around . If you wish you can request blog rights ( they have to be granted by one of our admins, @PeterW, @recoveringacademic or @TerryE ) and log your adventures there . You could read @JSHarris's blog as that has some great info about dealing with solar gains, from a continuously recirculating UFH system, through to tried and tested reflective window films etc. Searching this forum and its predecessor Ebuild will see chat continued here from the latter, with a wealth of warts n all reviews derived from selecting, installing, and living with such system, and their associated disciplines, which is priceless. Search, ask, and enjoy!

I always wondered about where the water goes after rain hits the slab and goes down between the slab and DPM, which is essentially a pond liner. I just assume the DPM will likely have a tear in it or water would weep out of any overlapping joints ?

If you can easily get the UFH loops to terminate at the buffer then keep it all together, but if it's far easier to remotely mount the manifold then do so, plus even though you'll get losses off the additional connective pipework when the heating is running it'll be adventitious loss. Run the rads off the boiler by all means but make sure there is a 22mm gate valve across the flow and return of the rad feeds ( AFTER the 2-port valve ) so you can introduce a little bypass. Essential with an oil boiler as it wont modulate and would suffer when the house is up to temp and the thermostatic rad valves are only partially open or closed. Getting the house up to temp is a doddle, it's how to manage things when it's up to temp and idling is the real PITA.

Screws are pennies, blast them in ! Filling, sanding and redecorating costs significantly more my friends.

A very quick way to raise it without getting grey hairs. Just make sure it's 100% fully bedded in tile adhesive to get the heat through.

+1

A bit more

A bit here

Fack me....Edward Scissorhands would have cut those out neater Show them the door. Rebook the tiler and take the hit. These issues will come back time again with cracks and cave ins. Have you checked how many PB screws have not been driven fully home? Eg not proud so you can feel them but not torn through the PB surface paper ? 'Heads popping' will last years. . My current customers house looks like someone shot the ceilings with a tommy gun. Have you paid them for the aforementioned atrocities?

A point a little too specific to apply to a UK residential dwelling imo. By the time fire and smoke sought out and breached such transits, the smoke detection system will have been wailing for a long time. We ( British BRegs ) favour the early alert aka smoke / heat alarms rather than structural integrity it seems, and apart from fire resistant light fittings I doubt any serious concerns will ever be raised high enough to make intumescent 'transit packing' commonplace for residential, not whilst we enjoy open hallways with open staircases at least.

Wouldn't just pumping the void at the rear of the CU with B5 F/R expanding foam do the job. The wires aren't going to combust so it'll just be the CU-to-void transit to protect. Having only that to cover won't affect the 'cable in insulation' aspect as it'll only be a short foam 'plug' of around 2-300mm.

Existing gas ranges . Meter was in the basement and had to be relocated, plus adding the 2 u6's meant the above shake up. Big hoo-haa which resulted in just adding unnecessary cost .

I have just had a chip shop, and two flats with 24kw combis connected by our local gas transporters WWU. They came out and surveyed and the guy shook his head gently......."oh, that's a 2" galv pipe mate, were going to have to dig the road up as the main is in the opposite pavement". Ok.? Full road closure booked for a Sunday as the shop traded on Saturday and the guys ( all two of them ) duly arrive at 8:00. They go over the road and find the pipe the other side of the road, which is 32mm . They then tell me the screwed galv pipe was cut off and used as a conduit with a 32mm mdpe pushed down it to upgrade yesteryear. Again, ok. ? So so they make a 63mm manifold feeding a new u16 for the chip shop on 63mm pipework, and 2 x 25mm branches coming off it going to 2x u6 domestic metres for the flats. I ask, bearing in mind they've charged £1800 for the roadworks and manifold ( but could not charge any more for the pipe replacement as it's their responsibility to upgrade steel pipe for free under current legislation ), when are they going to dig the road up and hook up the new 63mm pipe? They say "no need, we'll just hook the new 63mm emergency tap in the pavement to the 32mm and it'll be fine". Wtf. New manifold with the 63mm red handled isolation. Teed off for 2x u6's New 63mm EGC in the pavement And a bloody 32x63mm reducer back to front. One rule for them and another for the payment line ??

At between £5 and £7 I just don't want to have to study the label TBH. Buy a Sikaflex product and you know your getting the right stuff.

I use EBT mostly, and yes there are a load of different types available.

After all the hard work getting it airtight, I'd definitely be having them back for a positive force test of it were me. "What if" is a question you'll be asking youself for a long time otherwise, and curiosity would get the better of me.

3 bottles of Gower Gold, and a stinking kebab........living the dream. Enjoy your Saturday night folks, see you tomorrow for another exciting adventure. ??

Good, healthy exchange . I now understand your setup isn't at all as crude as I first assumed, but c'mon.......when has assumption ever caused any issue ? I lost all faith in weather compensation TBH, when I fitted a full Vaillant setup and even their own tech guys couldn't tell me how to get it to behave, so now that I know you have a fully autonomous setup I kinda get it. I would still raise the buffer temp for DHW but I think that would upset your system a bit.

Having the UFH simply running 24/7 is not how I would design it, especially in a low energy dwelling, if I understand correctly and you aren't regulating by a roomstat. At the very least I would want a stat like Jeremy managed to find ( with 0.1oC increments ) so the heating flow would shut off with incidental temperature gain. If the house temp rises this way surely it would be crazy not to have a means by which the system recognises this in order to stave off further heat injection? Fwiw, i think your 'getting away' with this because each instance is unique. I believe your house is capable of absorbing and dissipating the heat as the HP provides it, even with the flow temperature linear to the HP hysteresis, whereas in a better / smaller / even lower energy dwelling it may be problematic. Take @JSHarris and @jack's homes, detailed similarly in terms of the requirements and equipment to maintain them, but @jack has found he would have benefitted from some UFH upstairs. Also we cannot take into account personal comfort levels and perceptions, so as said, these all need to be accepted as unique cases and advice considered accordingly. Plumbing? Piece of cake

Agreed, but it is a design in its barest, crudest form imo. Hitachi are probably unaware of the potential for overshoot in a PH and it also removes a heck of a lot of low cost energy for DHW preheat as you cannot define the two temp zones ( the temp of the buffer and the temp of the UFH flow ). If you simply add a cheap TMV prior to the secondary pump you'll be able to store the buffer at 40oC, which will provide a much better preheat temp and virtually wipe out any low flow hysteresis and cycling caused by running 'direct'. This will see the HP ramping up to 55oC less often and save on the electricity required to otherwise provide DHW. I think this simple tweak would give you a better performing system and a decent long term return. ? PS, I'm here to pick up advice too, and am trying to forget the way I used to think and undertake jobs. This place is a goldmine of irreplaceable, invaluable and impartial knowledge. ?

Still reliant on the HP controls .

Ok, so assuming the lower SET temp of the HP has little or inconsequential hysteresis, which is the bit I'm struggling with here, it does seem a simplified solution at a glance. The only thing that would stop me from doing this for a 3rd party ( customer ) would be that there is no secondary safety net as the system is wholly reliant on the controller for the ASHP maintaining the low flow temp. If that ever throws a fit, then you could have excessively hot water allowed to feed into the floors, uncontrolled, which could cause damage to the floors. Its fine for homeowners to concoct their own solutions, but as an installer I absolutely must put in the required safety measures and failsafes or foot the bill ( or get sued or prosecuted ) if I don't. My stance is maintained, I'm not a fan of this design, sorry. FUI, A blending valve is a few £10's and would give you the failsafe, simply fitted before the pump .

Ok, so ASHP > buffer then buffer > pump > manifolds?

I like strong cool coffee, but coffee only in the morning and tea for the rest of the day. I hate it when a customer makes a brew and I need an asbestos mouth to take a sip. Then I put it down to cool, forget about it, then the customer spots it and thinks I didn't want it, says "don't like my tea eh?" and then never offers to make another cup . So, I go to Greggs and buy lunch, they give me the meal deal and it comes with a hot drink for pennies, I stroll back into the job swigging my brew and the customer says "I'd have made you a cup if you'd have just asked me" Stone the chuffing crows. These days I just say "where's the kettle?" and make my own. Thirst vs manners.....thirst wins.

When working on various RFA vessels i noticed those signs for FOD or FODDER. I asked and was told "Flying Object Debris" as they were on the helideck and inside the hangar. Didn't even register just how important it was to have a clear helideck TBH, but I guess it's drummed into the naval staff from birth. One of our jobs was to replace the roll out extension / earth leads that ground the helicopter. Wouldn't like to be the lucky guy who gets to plug that in .