MikeSharp01

I will give them a call on Monday.

We are subject to the vagaries of Thames Water here and we have woeful water pressure and flow. We live on a hill that has a number of springs and is know for its wells hence I am thinking of installing a bore hole. So what are the issues and the likely cost? Anybody got any experiences of doing this?

Don't the modern single block mcb+rcbo units do this, if not why do they have a neutral terminal.

Nope but I am going to - in the near future. So I can perhaps share the journey. Let's hope we can get advice. In our case we don't yet have the slates on so that I am hopeful that will simplify things.

Yes it looks like pilling blinding as there is a pilling rig there today so good spot @Mr Punter. So they drill core drill through the blinding and then put the piles in all very neat and tidy - no mud other than what comes out of the hole!

Surface was flat clay - no rebar.

the crosses might indicate that although they seem quite far apart for piles don't they? It will be interesting to see what happens next - I will report back.

Round the corner from us they ar building 3 houses on a single plot. They have scrapped out three levels - the road rises past the plot, without any trenches just flat. On Thursday I noticed they were just pouring concrete onto these three flat levels, no services- nothing, you can see from the picture below what that looks like. Are they just short circuiting the passive slab build up to do without the N layers of type 1 and the pea shingle sub-base without any peripheral drainage or what what is going on top of these ponds of concrete?

Are you happy with it - in terms of the service it delivers, air quality etc?

Yes so you pump hot water round the house with take off points at each sink, shower etc returning it to the tank. Its much more common in commercial buildings but if you have it it means the Hot water is almost instant at your tap! It is costly in energy terms and if you have it then very good insulation is needed for the pipework especially in a highly insulated house.

Two things arise in my head from this - I may have missed something as I did have some wine last night. Firstly, if it is a big problem why has it not been sorted out - stupid to ask I guess but hey. Secondly, if you do have a blower test result then surely the leakage must add to the MVHR losses and be a calculate fraction assuming the MVHR holds the pressure difference roughly constant. From this it must follow that you can reduce the MVHR setting by the pressure test ACH when you are setting up the MVHR as part of the ventilation strategy. Might this then go some way to explaining why people find that when using MVHR they can back off the flow rate and still be comfortable because all they have done is got to the regulation ACH flow rate including the fabric losses.

They think they are getting a trouble-free house with no work to do, the horror stories won't happen to them, and anyway, there is a 10 year guarantee. What they don't know is that the guarantee is mostly worthless, the horror stories happen everywhere, and the house will be poky and the same as the one next door without any character.

Closing this Thread as there is a better one here:

ooops I didn't spot that?

Got a letter from Pete t Octopus today telling me that as of 1st March our feed in tariff will drop to 12p / kWh from 15. They are offering agile export as and alternative but are there any better rates out there I wonder?