HughF

Arghhh….. decisions decisions…. I’m now thinking of putting a spare radiator that I have left over from the order (it wouldn’t work in the kitchen) on the wall in the extension and running just on rads. The time lag between the two systems being troublesome, along with the wiring and controls issue. Rads are easy, pump in the ashp just drive’s everything based on WC and a programmable stat. My wife will understand rads, stat comes on, rads get warm.

All I will say is that when you cut the straps off the coil, it doesn’t uncoil. It took three of us to unravel it and get it into the trench. Very difficult thing to do. I think it’s because the pex pipes are bonded to the pir insulation, and that’s then bonded to the outer casing. I dug 900 down, and it still came out the ground at 45 degrees at one end). The good news is that 32mm mlcp press adapters will fit onto the end just fine, although the kit comes with compression BSP tails that you can assemble with hand tools.

Had to condemn the back boiler due to a ventilation issue…. Just had a week off the day job getting it installed with my builder. Been a long week of self doubt (will this keep us warm?) and sleepless nights but I think we’re over that now. All new pipework throughout, rads sized for 45 deg at -4, three Smiths Ecovector fan coils where we didn’t have space on walls for larger radiators. I did heat loss calcs in two separate packages, the freedom toolkit and heat engineer. They both came out around 6.8-7kW at -4, with the old double glazing (we’re replacing that at the moment) and the uninsulated timber floors (which we start on on Monday). Lagging, thermostat, and some more lagging to do tomorrow. All parts and my builder for a weeks day rate, just got change out of £12k. More than I thought, but the rads came to £1200 and the ecovectors were £1400…. I haven’t bothered to calculate a payback period, we needed a new heating system, and if these rads and pipework last as long as the last system (installed in ‘86 by the council, after the previous coal fired boiler had done 40yrs) then I’ll be happy. At least that’s 18-19000kWh of gas (our average annual consumption) that we can leave to be burnt in a ccgt. I’m thinking we’ll swap an £1800 gas bill for £1200 ish uplift in the electric bill, before we even consider solar and battery. Oh and to anyone thinking that hi-line eFlex underground pipe is flexible, it isn’t….. what a sod to install.

Hmm, lots to consider. I’ll have a good think.

I’m thinking about a simple control strategy for the ufh in my extension. It’s only a 15m3 area, 2 loops of 49m each in slab. Rads in the rest of the house, single zone, trv heads in the upstairs rooms only, full weather comp. Could it be as simple as powering the ufh mixer from the ‘heating valve’ 230v output from the ashp? I’ve brought both the hw/3port live and heating/cooling valve live up into the airing cupboard in a length of armoured. I have a wireless room stat that will be hooked to the volt-free call-for-heat. Do I need to consider a slab sensor or other, or can I just run this simple, low and slow and drive it off the heating zone valve feed? It’s a relay output, on a 6A breaker in the ashp.

Well, that escalated…. Having removed the old rad from the hallway wall, and from the kitchen, pending a new kitchen, my wife quite liked the wall space that appeared. 3x smiths ecovectors on order for Thursday. Hallway, kitchen and a 12v for the bathroom.

Internet connected smart thermostats (there isn’t anything smart in a hive, it’s and on/off stat) all require cloud functionality to operate. Thats because they communicate over port 80 which is always open, and it doesn’t require any ddns setup to tunnel back directly to your house. The best option is to chuck it all in the bin, move to boiler/hp manufacturers modulating controls, and set/forget the temperature.

I’m questioning their claim of better heat transmission ….

Is that a grundfos selectric bronze secondary return circulator? It looks very similar to one I have on the floor at the moment. If so, I expect that it's the call for heat from the cylinder temp sensor, as the secondary return is draining the cylinder heat away.

It isn’t…. I’ve done the calcs based on the improved spec (post upgrades). There isn’t much in it, a drop from 7.2kW at -4 to 6.1kW iirc. Worse case I’ll just drop the flow temp at the cold end of the WC curve. Rads are sized for 45 deg at the moment. EDIT: sorry, I see your question was aimed at the OP

We are insulating and bagging the floors just to get the thermals up. Still running radiators in the house. Extension is on ufh though, 150 spacing on 200 pir.

Smashing, I’ll go with what I’ve got then.

Mine got wet back in June/July as the walls were going up and it washed out a bit too…. It dried out eventually

Ended up sealing all the cavity closers back to the inner leaf and all the corners. It’s horrible stuff to apply into a corner as the release liner is paper, so you can’t easily pull it out from between things without it tearing, and it’s not a split liner. I foamed all the windows inside and out with fm330, didn’t tape the windows back to the closers because I ran out of time before the builders came back and boarded. What’s done is done….

Do you think it would be possible to do a reasonable job of a floor by copying the EBS system but using standard roofing membrane for the bottom layer, and air tightness membrane for the top layer? I’ve got a small section of floor to do over an alleyway in our bedroom and I’ve got enough breathable and non-breathable roofing membrane left over.

OK, don't ignore me... we need a fan coil for under the kitchen kickboards/plinths... Go...

Quote in, £628.12 plus vat…. Think I’ll try and stick to plastic.

I know there is a real benefit to insulating below DPC, and for various reasons, we haven't done so on our extension. Is this something that I can get done as a retrofit, using blown in EPS beads? Assume that holes will need to be drilled below DPC in the blockwork that comes off the founds. Cavity is 150mm full fill rockwool, with I think one course of air below the rockwool before you hit the cavity concrete fill.

Yep, understood... My preference would be for uPVC obvs, but the landlord will probably have the final say.

Current ones have done 50yrs... And this isn't my house - If the landlord wants timber replacement, he's getting softwood.

Anyone? EDIT: Found WoodenWindows.com, they don't do french, but they do flush... £662/window, in primer... uPVC is cheaper, and is french opening Sent an RFQ to timber windows direct, who my friend has used for his replacement sash windows.

Luckily for all concerned, my neighbour is perenco Wytch farm 🤣. I can get away with doing all sorts of stuff down here.

Just about to get my Cool Energy all plumbed in, I feel a switch from BG to Octopus is in the works…

I feel an appliances direct r290 mini split butchering project coming on 🤣

Ah, gotcha... an outdoor unit that looks like an indoor unit... It would need to be quite large...