lizzie

our neighbours at nearby barn had their static craned over (old wall was protected so couldn't knock it down). Access down our private drive very tight for big lorry carrying it then they had to park sideways on crane it over and turn it 180 in the air and bring it down into a very tight space I watched the whole thing, was impressive. Perhaps better to have a static brought in on back of a lorry with a crane fited rather than tow a mobile and have a separate crane. Experienced operators can sort most things

A new thread needed I think...sorry for hijacking this one. Mods how do we move the internorm posts to a new thread please?

I've got the Karcher. Its ok, can be a bit fierce though you need to take care on some surfaces.

+1 for terrible Internorm installations ...and still not sorted. Those of you with Internorm problems did you get all your sign off and warranty docs from installer or Internorm. I've had nothing from anyone. I refused to pay the balance of the bill - it was their fitting fee - I have used that towards rectification work. Could that be why no docs? Darren Long at Internorm was involved for a while Thomas Hagen too busy to come etc etc.

Just been listening to an item on this on Radio 4 - lady with GSH pump was lamenting the lack of people to maintain/service.....I know how she felt given how long it has taken me to find someone to come and sort MVHR.

Have a look at what is on TV...be prepared to lose your privacy though

our local b&q have it.

Tried everything for removal....sticky stuff, wd40, meths, god knows what else. Its very difficult to remove if its been on any length of time. I think I paid two labourers the equivelant of a weeks wages each (over a period) just working on this. I still have some left on and I am gradually working away at it trying to get it off without damaging the factory finish paint on the frames. Mind numbing stuff, .

Our driveway man turned out to be one of these...we started to pursue him knowing that he was a wily character and would likely just put his company into liquidation. Thats exactly whats happened and liquidators fees vastly outweigh any assets so only people who get any money are the liquidators as per. I am determined this man will not get away with this (we now know this is not the first time) and do it again to anyone else.......list of about 10 people like us as creditors. I hope I can get him banned from being a director of a ltd company again plus letting as many in the county as possible know his personal name so if he pops up under another company name people will recognise him. Won’t get me my money or drive sorted but damned if I will let this one get away with it, had a long line of stetson wearers on this build so a lot of angst to disspiate and he is the one to get it...and he deserves it. @Odyssium if you think he owns property you know a bit about him...presumably you have been down the trading standards/local councillors route....that leaves you the TV expose programmes, or ask your lawyers if they can recommend a reputable enquiry agent to do some background digging on him.....might cost you £500 or more for a report though and even that may not be much use to you.

I'm in a very windy location high up on top of exposed ridge thats why we went for pillars and metal brackets for the cross timbers and used hit and miss for fencing so wind could go through otherwise it would be blown down regularly.

I have a circa 2000sf ft bungalow. Yes extra costs for things as you mentioned. I’ve always thought it was cheaper to build two storey. Perhaps deciding which would suit you (and planners) best and getting some rough costings would be the place to start.

My very grateful thanks to you all for your help. Engineer has been and swapped exchanger for enthalpy one so fingers crossed for improvement there. We spent the next 2 hours trying to sort the air flows. My system is shown in Volts (German technology!) so we have had to convert volts to the various other measurements to work back to Building regs, fortunately there was a chart in the handbook that helped with that. It seems my system automatically calculates the flow through each vent back from the manifold so it adjusts each one once you set the benchmark level so no individual adjustment of vents necessary. So we worked out what I should have for the volume of the house using @PeterStarck table (thank you so much) and fractions for conversion then we measured the flows with the trumpet and converted that back to volts. We then looked at what I did have relative to what I should have which was a revelation. As suspected my system was hopelessly out of balance....by a very long way. I was extracting a great deal more than was coming in and I had negative pressure. Its likely this is what has been causing me the breathing issues, feeling like it is stuffy and I cant get enough air. System has now been rebalanced - calculated using @JSHarris and @HerbJ helpful info. Spookily it worked to the rough chart I had done following the @PeterStarck formula too. Engineer said it was spot on. I now have a balanced system and have been advised to run on level 2 and only use 3 as boost as and when necessary. Level 4 is a blow your socks off job and unlikely ever to be needed. Engineer is coming back in a week or so to hopefully get UFH sorted and give gas boiler it's first service. We will live with new MVHR settings in the meantime and if any tweaks needed he will do then. Thank you all once again, superstars.

Thats exactly what engineer has just said.

I have mine between pillars...we filled the cavity with concrete. Didnt use posts in the end used brackets on the pillars, no good if you dont have pillars though.

@Russell griffiths that looks like cedar. Have you looked at Russwood. I think they have some of the best cedar around. You need a high grade for that look. Need to watch the colour mix too as cedar can vary a lot in the same batch. If it were me I would e-mail that picture to the nice people at Russwood (after a prelim phone call ) and ask them to suggest a cladding to replicate that and send you samples. Nice look btw.

@JSHarris I think there is a lot in what you say. Thank you.

I had samples from lots of suppliers...Rustwood, Vastern, Silva, Vincent et al all were very helpful in sending me bits of wood. I had them all lined up outside for months weathering. i knew I wanted vertical and I knew I wanted a hidden fixing profile. I always intended to have cedar but just couldn't find one that was exactly 'it'. In keeping with my house style I wanted a very crisp clean look not at all rustic.. One day the nice man at Vincent Timber in Birmingham sent me some random samples of his choice (after sending me lots of my choice that were unsuitable when I got them) - he thought I might like this and bingo.......Siberian Larch with a factory applied sacrificial coating of new age gris. I knew as soon as I saw it that it was the one for me. I am hugely pleased with it and the service from Vincent Timber was excellent.

Thanks guys you are all so good to take so much time trying to help. @HerbJI created the air flow details spreadsheet by noting what my system is set at and then next to it the factory defaults from the manual. I have more extracts (8) than supply (6) and you all seem to have the reverse. I did a table on the passive haus numbers @PeterStarck (see attached) but it doesn't look right at all. It is way out of balance. I had to go and measure all my rooms to calculate the volume as couldn't find a plan. I think I have calculated volume correctly length x width x height but no doubt I have done something wrong to have such a result. I am so confused by the whole thing I hope the engineer will be able to make some sense of it. I realise not having the commissioning detail may be a drawback and take him more time to sort it out (I am paying engineer by the hour). I have e-mailed to asked for commissioning report but the man who did it is away this week so I wont hear back until next week. I'm sure he will give it to me if he still has it. I think I recall I was told level 3 living was the day to day level and level 2 for night time or holidays, level 4 for bathroom boost, level 1 I don't recall any mention. I've had it on level 2 all day (since yesterday afternoon ) and only used level 4 boost for bathrooms this morning and still my humidity level is very low -its 29 currently not been above 32 today and the house feels a bit stuffy. Its quieter though and I can sit at my desk without the rush of air coming over my head as usual (vent is above my desk). The dead spot in the hall is less noticeable too so reduction in the vent speed is helpful for that it seems. The system has never felt right from the start. Maybe it's me not using it properly but it just doesn't seem to work as others describe theirs. I hope the man tomorrow can sort it out, I will give him my workings and maybe he will fall about laughing LOL...better get some cake in to go with the tea he may be here a while! mvhr calcs.pdf

+1 for UFH so nice to have

They are on the same wall about 2m apart. They are on the north wall of the house there is only about 1m between the back (north) wall of the house and the huge retaining wall we had to build....thats almost as high as the house only the top of the roof peeps over. We are single storey. Sadly I am a long way from the sea right in the middle of England so just about as far away as you can get. The wind comes in from the west over Wales hits the Malvern Hills then shoots straight up the valley (circa 30 miles) and hits us not a lot in between to slow it down but we have great views!

@PeterStarck thank you for explaining that so well. I have been trying to fit mine into it but not quite getting there now I understand better will have another bash.

I experimented again overnight. At 4pm yesterday I turned the mvhr down to its low setting (level 2 called absent) left the monitors all running as usual. We behaved as usual, made poached eggs for supper didnt use the hob extractor. On my own in the house (with dog) until circa 9pm when OH returned. 2 of us plus pooch here from then on. I checked monitors on waking this morning at 7pm. Very little change to pre 4pm levels, humididity went from 31 to 32 and then didn't vary at all, temp stayed within a point or so of 22.9. Co2 levels increased quite a bit from hovering around 400 to nearer 500. I guess this is due to less air changes with lower mvhr rates. OH reminded me the man who originally set it used one of those trumpet like devices you hold up at the vents. That was set for F5 not F7 filters though. He did make more use of the level 2 setting on the timers though, he had it set at that level overnight, I changed it all to manual as I felt it was wrong for my breathing as set so I change it up and down myself not automatically and rarely use level 2 I tend to stick with level 3 (living), so me over ventilating is def possible. I would have thought the overnight humidity would have come up with it being at the lower level for 15 hours though. That reading of 31 is in bedroom. Living area is 29. RH is 70 at the mo. Outside humidity monitor is in a sheltered spot out of the wind. I wonder if part of it is location. We are high on a ridge and very exposed, we have lots of wind (that was a plus for me when buying the plot). Could the windy location have a drying effect on the air generally and the sheltered location of my external humdity monitor might not be giving me a true rh reading. A girl could be driven mad by all this, arts was my thing never any sciences, I once got banned from the physics lab for nearly setting the place on fire....not much change in my understanding of these things between then and now LOL Jeremy Harris I know you will despair of me!

I will report back on Tuesday...anyone have anything to add to my crib sheet from Jeremy's post please do.

Sorry meant to add my previous neighbours used Crosswater and were very impressed with them.

I’ve had Grohe basin taps in the past, don’t recall any special convertors though, plumber just fitted them.. I would always buy a decent tap, its something that gets lots of use...like a door handle....if the thing starts dripping a year in its a pain. A good one should last, I think false economy to buy cheap.