Crofter

The only moderately persuasive argument I've yet heard in favour of copper is that it's rodent-proof. Everything else points to plastic. I think there are still plenty of old boys out there who learnt to plumb the 'proper' way who regard plastic as a cop-out.

Back on this one again... My sparky is wanting to wrap everything up soon so can't put this off any longer. This is a sort of "does this exist" question: - for the towel rail, what I would ideally like is a one-gang timer switch that I can set to sync with the E7, but the controls for which are then locked down behind a blanking plate. Thinking a simple mechanical timer hidden behind a 1G blank. Something like this: although I'm not sure if that unit is designed for you to screw a blanking plate over the top. What would be even better would be if a timed boost facility could be added, for the user to operate. The DHW should be much easier- just a timer for the main immersion, and one of those one-big-button boost controls for the top immersion. Hopefully nobody will want to tamper with the E7 timer if I give them a big button to press. Edit to add: here's a thought. Buy an unfilled towel rail, fit it with *two* immersions, one for boost and one for the timer. Other than looking a bit gallus with the two flex coming out of it, is there anything wrong with this idea? I presume each immersion has its own thermostat anyway so it wouldn't actually matter if they both came on at the same time.

Can't say for sure, sorry. Loads of different people will do trusses for you (even some BMs) but I bet many of them end up being contracted out to the same factory. Whether you pay a markup or not again is something I don't know.

Aha! After some more searching, it turns out that what us TF people need are CLS lining kits. I don't know how I missed this before.

I should confess, a mate of mine does small hydro schemes for a living, so I have a passing interest in it. We cooked a tray of tatties on his dumpload one evening.

Are you going to need two independent turbines, or do you think you can make it work with just one, with multiple jets?

That looks like the immersion that's sticking out. Mine are 60mm proud of the tank, so you might be OK. Close though!

Quite a few options locally for timber frame. Your trusses will likely come from a specialist anyway so I wouldn't let than influence the decision. Why not have a look at some builds in progress? Give MacQueens and ScotFrame a call, just for starters.

Just following this because we'll be fitting an electric shower to our own house (and giving the tennants a lovely thermostatic mixer fed by a UVC!). In our case it makes sense as our tarrif gives us 24/7 access to cheap electricity but only if used for heating or DHW. Heating on demand therefore makes the most sense for us, and as our gravity fed current shower is an utter POS it will actually be a slight improvement in performance, as well as saving us a fortune. If we had oil or gas I would be looking at upgrading the whole DHW system instead, probably via a UVC.

Do you know if this is something that you're likely to know about straight away, or could it only start dripping months or years down the line?

Having searched what feels like the entire internet, I have concluded that nobody makes lining kits to suit a timber frame partition. Which is madness. The sizes are obviously designed around brick and block. So, given that anything I buy would need ripped down on the table saw anyway, is there really much to be gained in buying a kit? The alternative would be to just buy some dressed-all-round softwood and make them up myself. The big advantage here is that there is a wider range of widths available, including the 120mm that I need for most of the linings, and crucially I can cherry-pick the timber myself at the BM and buy straight bits. I've only got three doorways to do so it doesn't seem like too much extra work. Having just re-read the start of the thread, this is the same conclusion that @ProDave seemed to be veering towards as well.

p24 Of course if there is a problem doing this in actuality, I don't want to go storing up trouble...

@Nickfromwales Oh, you've got me worried now! I'm sure I did a bunch of research on this and concluded that there was no problem. Fortunately all I've done so far on the new house is temporary. I'm not sure I understand the problem- can the plastic creep slightly over time? Obviously I've been using the stainless inserts supplied by Hepworth. Haven't had a single drip anywhere by the way, and it's been at mains pressure since July. Maybe I *do* get lucky sometimes...

I'm using compression fittings on Hep2o pipe. And I wouldn't use PTFE on compression fittings. It's for sealing a thread, e.g. where a valve screws into a rad. In compression fittings the seal is at the olive, best not to mess with that by adding anything, IMHO. (I may be wrong about this, I'm sure Nick will correct me- just going by what has worked for me).

Any more fans of MDF linings? I'm leaning towards it as the best option- better paint finish, no warping, but will need plenty of packing. One problem I can see is that it will be a little trickier to cut out the notches for hinges. I suppose the 'bodge-it' approach would be to use a multitool and then fill the inevitable gashes. But MDF must be quite easy to fill and make good. Alternative would be a router, or maybe a very very very sharp chisel?

Not quite understanding you. Yes, it would be sub 300w and the idea would be that it would provide a low background input for the DHW cylinder. Top up from the mains as required to reach full temperature. The output would be too variable to rely on for anything else. What would you do with it?

How about a bath with a door in the side?

It likely won't get very hot at all. On my stove, I can put my hand on the *single wall* flue if I reach up above head height (closer to the stove it's much hotter obviously). The reason for all of these safety considerations is that if you have a chimney fire, you can get 1200degC instead of the c.200degC that you get in normal operation. If you are only considering normal operational temperatures, you could get away with a heck of a lot. Is that the Burley by the way? The flue temperature is exceptionally low on these (because of the high efficiency). As to the original question- I don't think there's anything wrong with glass wool touching the outside of the twin wall... try setting some on fire and see what happens... I think I did leave a slight gap though when I did mine.

I'd like to do a micro hydro scheme linked to my DHW. The output I have is highly variable but there's a certain satisfaction in knowing some good can come of all this rain we've had recently...

@JSHarris Have you had any black streaks from the galv nails? From my research I concluded that it was best to use stainless. I used a coil nailer and was lucky to source 70mm nails off eBay at a very good price- I actually had to pay more for the 45mm ones that I needed elsewhere. A friend of mine had an extension clad in larch using galv nails, and almost every one has left a little black mark about an inch long. Possibly where the zinc was chipped off the nail head by the firing pin.

Seems a bit of a shame to be using cherry, beech, and ash to plank the outside of a shed! Wouldn't these boards have more value to a carpenter, cabinet maker, etc? Ash in particular is a great wood for many things but durability outdoors is not its strength. Larch or Douglas would be much lower value and intrinsically more durable.

Coo, glad I asked now- was thinking of a simple on/off as don't most people just turn it all the way up anyway? No harm I guess in allowing people to use less water if they want! If you've been fitting unbranded eBay valves without issue, then that's good enough for me. And they're cheap enough to have a spare on hand.

Thanks- that does make a heck of a lot of sense- alas the style decision dictates remote concealed valve. This seems the best price for a known brand:http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bristan-Gummers-Sirrus-Concealed-Thermostatic-Mini-Mixer-Lever-Shower-Valve-/132187948442?epid=2255305956&hash=item1ec704059a:g:510AAOSwCQZZMA5A

Welcome to the forum! The planners aren't bothered about how you build something, only what it looks like and what it's used for. Would the change in build type affect the outward appearance in any way? Personally I would say that for a small project like that timber frame may well make a lot of sense, but then I'm a timber frame sort of guy. What's tempting you down the ICF+SIPs route?

Shower tray all bedded down and draining nicely. Need to get a mixer valve asap... Concealed single lever would be prefered. @Nickfromwales how would you rate Bristan? I know (Hans)Grohe are maybe the ones to go for but I'm a bit concerned that they seem to sell the valve and trim separately and knowing me I'd probably end up with a mismatch.