LA3222

I suspect there is going to be a surge of people complaining about ASHP in the very near future. The Government creating artificial drives to encourage uptake of renewables tends to lead to homeowners switching over with little understanding of what they are and to what homes/circumstances they are suited to. Unscrupulous installers don't care about the aftermath! Most people on here are focused on airtightness and insulation levels. In these circumstances I fail to see how they are nothing but a good option for providing both DHW and heating. I expect they are no different in terms of peaks and troughs in power usage than any other source when considered across the full 12 month weather cycle. With Solar PV you can then get around 3:1 output from any energy generated by panels and use the ASHP throughout the day rather than trying to confine yourself to off peak energy usage? Yes the initial infrastructure can require some capital outlay which some may balk at. Myself, I tend to take the line of it costs what it costs, I see the work I do know as putting in the infrastructure and then over the lifetime of me living there it will work out very cost effective, even taking ASHP lifetimes/ PV panel lifetimes into consideration. If any of them require changing it will not cost so much as the 'infrastructure' is there, its just parts change. I am in an all electric situation, with 280m2 to heat and DHW for 2 kids who like long showers to consider. An ASHP and PV makes sense to me.

Do you run it from the grid or do you have solar to help with costs?

I am trying to decide on ASHP sizing. Using the heat loss spreadsheet I believe I can get by with an 8.5kW ASHP. The problem is that I want a 300l DHW tank. All the sellers i find with the Ecodan seem to pair the 8.5kW version with maximum 210l tank. I am considering to go up to the 11kW ASHP so I can get the larger tank - is there any reason 'not' to go ahead and oversize the ASHP? The UFH will run off a buffer so there shouldn't be cycling issues with that part of the system?

My general impression is like Steamy says, a lack of understanding leads to the default/easy answer of the system is crap. Tends to be the case with most things in life and as pointed out if the system is sized so that energy in = energy out then what's the issue. If the house is all electric then ASHP seems like a no brainer to me. If you also throw solar into the mix then surely an ASHP is the ideal condiment to go with it.

Yep lol, just amended my price as you quoted me ?

I assume your 6k is ASHP and UVC? An 8.5kW ecodan is £3500 without VAT which can be reclaimed.

A new ASHP isn't a lot of money when considered against total build budget. An ASHP is around the same price as a Uniq 12.

Just stumbled on this, plasterboaring velux will be a job at some point. I have two big velux in the sunroof, I didn't do angled reveals.

I was looking at the SunAmp for my DHW but have well and truly abandoned that idea now. For me the negatives still outweigh the pros. The only downside for UVC and ASHP as I can see is the G3 element. Yes standing losses are higher but its going into the heated envelope so I don't see it as an issue. How is a SunAmp better? The only pros I can see are self install and less heat loss. So if the heat loss is a non issue that leaves self install. If you can find a G3 certified plumber to sign it off there is nothing to stop you doing most of the install.

As has been said by others, minimum hire tends to be 12 wks with a nominal rate after that. Mine ended up being up for 16wks, you'd be surprised how much you can get done in that time. They will also do adjustments as and when required, think it was about £100 a time when I had something changed. Don't underestimate how.much work will be involved in doing this yourself too, a scaff crew will come mob handed and get it nipped in a day or two. The key thing for me is liability. Yes you may be covered under your insurance policy but I wouldn't want to test that in a court of law. I'd be amazed if insurance companies didn't require a 'competent person' to erect the scaffold in order to be covered and how do you then prove/demonstrate your competence? Seems like a massive rabbit hole to potentially find yourself going down. Yeah it feels like money for old rope but suck it up and get the pros to do it. I would only use my own scaff if I was the only person using it. Contracters - hire in. Like John said, get a tower for nipping smaller jobs at your leisure later on. Funniky enough, I did that too - spent £800 on a tower as I have some work to do on the dormers in the summer, solar panels to put on, and a vaulted ceiling in doors to work on. I intend to keep the tower as you never know when it will come in handy.

All looks good. Windows look very tight in the openings - do you have much room to get compriband in? I had the opposite with mine in that I went with the gap stated by manufacturer of 13mm all round, could have been half that in hindsight. Are you fixing through the frames or using brackets? Both have pros and cons. Brackets are causing extra work for me now as I cut ply to pack out around them so plasterboard can sit properly!

@SuperJohnG & @ProDaveThe pump was directed by @PeterW on the first page - an earlier iteration of the design. The expansion vessel was added based on the drawing I found in some Ecodan documentation, this also shows a pump on the return flow too? Dave, your point ref three port valves I'll have to think about. I need to draw the setup you described first so I can weigh it up properly. @epsilonGreedy Jonathon, mains pressure is just under 3bar. I do intend to use a water softener, not decided yet on whether to take a hard water supply for drinking water. Its something that has been discussed elsewhere here, some do, some don't. I think I'd have to try it to see how we get on with it maybe before making a decision.

Finishing flush would be nicer like you want, I'd say you may have to suck it up and lift the door if there is space at top? Short term pain but long term gain? I'm sure I have seen @nod say before that the bed depth should be the same as the tile depth?

No feedback ? I known its a bit of an epic read to scrutinise, I can only assume that my efforts have been exemplary and the system design is optimal??

Thought it had been much longer but seems to only have been a couple of weeks since I was last chipping away at this. I have now got Visio and have cannibalised the drawing done by Andy (cheers?) on here and now have a plumbing schematic for critique: @PeterW, @Nickfromwales if you chaps could spare a few minutes to take a look and shred my plan it would be much appreciated. Ta all.

A well compacted surface of type one will stop the sand flowing issue. A lot of builds on here have same foundation type and used sand, they all seem to still be standing?‍♂️ when I trimmed all the perimeter eps off the sand under it all was still there and damp. That's after 10 months - my experience is albeit limited so I may be proven wrong but I can only comment on what I've seen done on here and with my own two eyes on my build. Ref getting your dpm down John, if you can then I would as belts and braces. The sand isn't going to be trashed overnight but if you can get it down sooner rather than later its one less thing to be concerned about. If the sand was dry then yes, you could screed the full width easily. Wet sand is a different beast and just harder to manipulate. I did wack it after, didn't really move it much tbh.

A lot of people have used sharp sand without issue. Mine was exposed for four weeks in Jan/Feb 20 when we had something like 3 named storms on the trot, real horrible weather to do the founds in and the sand went nowhere. I thought it might and was concerned at the time but every time I did more work I checked with lazer and no change.

Yarp, as @Onoff says. I made a mistake here though, as I didn't think things through properly at first. Needed a 50mm sand layer so I bought 50mm timber battens thinking ill lay them flat and that then gives me 50mm of sand. No. Your hardcore layer will be +/- 1" maybe, so this pushed my batten too high in places. What I then did was rip them all down to 25mm thick. Was able to use a lazer then to pack them out to the required height and any undulations in the hardcore didn't matter. If your sand is damp it will be harder to screed so don't set the rails too far apart, maybe 2m? Use a 'stiff' pole or timber to screed it so it doesn't flex in the middle. If it does, it will ride high in the middle leaving almost imperceptible humps. I did that and couldn't get the EPS to sit right at first, I ended up pulling it all off and redoing the sand. The sand layer will make things easier with the EPS if it is done well.

The joys of being a one time purchaser - have to take what you can get most of the time. The struggle is real?

This^^^^ Foam guns aren't rocket science. I've used loads of foam in the last year, loads, and I quickly gave up cleaning them. Waste of time. Can runs out, switch straight to a new one. Close valve when finished. Use knife to clear the end of the nozzle pre-use. Easy.

Around 900sqm so a fair sized job, but still a one off?‍♂️

Stick to the illbruck i3 system and you can't go wrong.

Had first estimate back, £4/sqm to board, £6/sqm to skim. How does that stack up in terms of pricing? A quick search of this forum suggests it not the cheapest but its not a rip off, just the top end of what it should roughly be?

You have to remember, these chumps are trying to part you from your cash. The fact they are running high numbers for gas cost etc tells me all I need to know. They are rigging the game in favour of their product and hoping you don't scrutinise too closely.

Nope. Everything that ever gets mentioned on here circles back to the same thing - gas is king. I'm all electric, no gas available so the permutations are rigged towards heat pumps. If I could get gas, I'd have gas.