LA3222

I'm well and truly wavering, 5 grand for a couple of sunamps will hopefully buy me an all singing, all dancing UVC, ASHP and a plumber to install it all - hopefully with some change left over.

This is such an inconclusive topic that the more I dwell on it the more im thinking that UVC may be a more cost effective solution. I'm thinking of 2 Uniq12s but thats 5 grand pretty much. I need to cost up the ASHP/UVC option really as that may be the nail in SunAmps coffin for me.

This is what I used (pipe reamer from Wunda):

Yep, on blockwork. So I'm there or thereabouts on pricing which is good to know, thanks.

Just out of interest (as I need to get this nipped pretty rapid so won't be changing tradesmen) what is the going rate for render work? I'm having a silicone render put on, 10mm basecoat and 1mm silicone IIRC? and the rate is £50/m2 incl materials. At the time I was looking for a renderer this figure tallied roughly with the cost breakdowns I got back from Estimators Online so I didn't interrogate it any further. Now I'm catching up on budget stuff I was curious if this is good value or not?

So if I understand where you are coming from - say you need 500l of hot water a day, you buy a tank that holds 500l. With a SunAmp you buy a size equivalent to 500l but due to ambiguities with the charge state you never know if you have 500l or 50l? (Crude numbers just to clarify if that's what you mean?)

Do you have issues with running out of hot water then? What aspect of the setup is a 'specifier' required for? Surely calculating your DHW requirements can be done yourself and then its a case of sizing the SunAmps to how much you require?

Rog, what does that mean for us mere mortals though?? Is it a good or bad thing that it is one of Bryn Davies companies? I know next to bugger all about kitchens and whats good vs whats not?‍♂️

Out of interest has anyone used these? We were going to use DIY Kitchens but then came across these at the Self Build centre - thought they were the same company at first, why are so many kitchen suppliers springing up with very similar names!

I'm no expert so can only give you my opinion. That lintel looks a right mess to me, I'd definitely look to replace it. I'd also be trying to work out how I could stop the issue repeating.

My sole plate sits on an insulated raft much the same as most of the timber frame houses on here. Design was done by Tanners, much like a lot of peoples on here so I trust it works as it should. @magutosh I will look at my spreadsheet later. I haven't done it yet - not paying someone either, will do it myself. House is 280m2 so a lot of walls to cover!

I went with 142 rather than the thicker 171 option with the intention of adding 70mm of insulation internally. My reasoning is that the thinner panels and internal insulation will help to reduce thermal bridging where the support timbers are in the panels themselves. Think that puts me around 0.12 for walls and ceilings. What do you mean?

Having just browsed through that thread it seems a bit disingenuous to suggest that the LG heat pump only has "occasional niggles". Seems to have been a right PITA and required your professional knowledge to resolve, a skill set not available to all self builders. Like @joth suggests, that thread is a good warning to give the system you used a wide berth.

Midsummer Wholesale. My reasoning is the same as yours for two of them - makes sense to me.

Ha, yes it is. I haven't had the time yet to sit down and work out an actual value for DHW so I am just plumping for worst case of 2x12s for budgeting reasons and if I come down from there then the money can be reallocated! I intend to put a 3ph electric shower somewhere so in reality, if I run out of hot water there is always a fallback option - I just need to find time to crunch some numbers and see where I land with DHW requirements. I am pricing up PV from the supplier and they do the SunAmps so added them onto the quote to see what they come out at - won't be buying for another 6mths or so I reckon.

How is everyone that has them getting on with their SunAmps nowadays? Not heard a lot of talk about them recently! I'm creeping closer to making some decisions in the plumbing department and have a quote of just over £4thou for 2 x Uniq12s - I'm being a bit lazy, does this price stack up with what others have found/are finding?

Glosford Timber Solutions

I looked at Clays - they were one of two I whittled down my list to, however I found them very difficult to correspond with. In the end I decided if they cant answer my emails when they dont have my cash, what would they be like when they did! So I went with the other company - they were 10% more expensive but I would rather deal with people who will respond to you. Not to say you didn't have a great experience @Stuart Adamson, just giving a different perspective.

2018, Northern Powergrid. Within a day of me paying they said couldn't work out the owner but they'd do it anyway.

Makes me laugh reading some of your comments at times - I always have to take a minute and decipher what you are saying! So, the lead sits in the blockwork by 40mm, silicone over that, bead on top. Jobs a fish! Cheers?

AIUI the lead will be chased in as a straight run and then the renderer will bring his bead just past that in a straight line giving a clean finish? I think I'm overthinking this one as those spots I mentioned that are neither protected by a cavity tray or lead are unlikely to have anything come through anyway - it's a silicone render which should be a fairly effective barrier against anything but the harshest wind driven rain?

Just drawn a rough sketch quickly, as seen. My question pertains to the location of the stepped cavity trays in relation to the lead flashing for the roof tiles. My walls are blockwork and will be rendered, this means that the lead will be chased into the blockwork in a straight line rather than coursed in step with the blocks. The cavity trays though are stepped and run with the blockwork coursing. So where do this cavity trays sit in relation to where the lead is chased in? On the left of the image the stepped cavity trays (shown in black) stop at a line parallel to the roofline. The lead flashing is chased in and touches the corners of the cavity trays, the issue here is that there seem to be lots of little white patches which are not protected by lead flashing or the cavity trays? On the right of the image the stepped cavity trays are pulled closer to the roof line, then the lead is flashed in at the correct height. This means the channel chased for the lead cuts through the cavity trays but in this instance all exposed surfaces are protected. Which is the correct way to do this?

@Oz07 I have been googling extensively and nothing seems to be explicitly black and white. @Brickie The finish is silicone render. My front/rear walls are 14.5m and the sides are 8.4m. After a lot of googling and trying to get an answer out of BC/Render Supplier/Architect I have told the brickies to put one in the middle of the rear wall and two in the front. The reasons for one then two are they split the wall conveniently in line with where down pipes will be so can be hidden easily enough. I have made this decision using the following information: Concrete Block Association (https://www.cba-blocks.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/CBA-4pp-Movement-control-datasheet-rnd2.pdf) TYPICAL SPACING OF MOVEMENT JOINTS Un-reinforced blockwork 9m NHBC Technical Guidance Movement Joints in Masonry Walls (http://www.nhbc.co.uk/Builders/ProductsandServices/TechZone/NHBCStandards/TechnicalGuidanceDocuments/61/filedownload,65370,en.pdf) Dense concrete block and brick (using dense aggregate gross density exceeding 1,500kg/m3) - 7.5-9m The only niggle with my plan is that the blocks I am using are 1450kg/m3 so just below the 1500kg/m3 that NHBC state, but I think that they are close enough - that's only 3% so this is the plan.

@Russell griffiths my longest wall is 14.5m, there are eight openings in that wall for windows/doors. No mention on architects stuff about expansion gaps and BC haven't made any comment either! We are using 7N medium density blocks.

Are these required in the blockwork skin wrapping my TF? The architect never mentioned them, the brickies haven't so I assume that the answer is no however this is a prime example of something that I catch a sniff off that then keeps niggling away in my mind until I can find a definitive answer - haven't found one yet so I hope someone here knows?‍♂️