Crofter

Typical day on site for me

Will have to wait till tomorrow. Thanks for all the help on this! Really appreciate it. I'm busy browsing google images and ebay to see if I can spot this component. Is there an easier way?? Short of unsoldering it to see if there's anything written on the reverse side...

There are vent holes in the casing that line up with the sensors. If the big silver one is CO2, is that tiny little black blob on legs for temperature? It is supposed to control via humidity, but the instructions do a good job of obfuscating that!

Ok looking inside the controller I find this: I'm guessing the humidistat will be the little beige box in the 2nd photo?

I'm glad I didn't pay any more for this, it's not particularly impressive kit to say the least. For the same money I could have got a unit without bypass or any automation, from a more reputable source. Anyway, a bit late for buyer's remorse. Would it be unworkable to physically 'hack' the controller and make the humidistat a remote unit? Putting one in the exhaust duct sounds like the correct way of doing it! In theory it would be be a case of identifying the humidistat inside the controller, removing it from the PCB and adding a length of cable to connect it. But maybe everything inside is going to be tiny, delicate, and unidentifiable? Perhaps more practically, if I install a relay, will the controller 'know' that the fan is now being controlled on a different supply/ circuit?

Manual for the unit (in Pidgin English) is top of the page, and the controller is the DCS-2H https://www.boulderdevelopments.com/downloads/

It's from 'Boulder Developments', model DHV-15B

Today was the big unboxing of the MVHR unit which has languished in its box in a corner for the last couple of months. Have the sparky onsite at the moment and he was keen to take a look. Having looked at what I've got, and had a quick call to the seller, I'm now left somewhat dissatisfied and unsure how to proceed. I paid a bit extra to upgrade to a fully automatic humidistat controlled unit. The problem is that the humidistat is integrated into the controller itself, and this can obviously only be in one place. The recommendation is to put it in the kitchen. But what about when someone has a shower?? The seller said that it is possible for a sparky to add a relay to create a second boost capability, but that the system is designed to only talk to the one controller, as supplied. The controller is in the supply and feeds the appropriate level of power to the unit, so in theory all I have to do is intercept that and over-ride it with a second basic manual switch (it would be nice to have something slightly fancier here, e.g. a switch that cuts out again based on humidity and/or time- but for now I will just call it a switch). How big a project would this be? In hindsight I wish I had asked a few more questions when I purchased the unit, but it's a bit late for that.

@Stones the downside is, I believe, the low specific heat capacity of air. I might have to run some numbers to see how well this would work. Hopefully it will be OK, given the small space involved, as well as the predominantly summer occupancy, good levels of insulation, and the availability of the stove as a backup/supplement. I might still go for a plinth heater anyway, given they are really cheap and would give an instant blast of heat if the house had been unoccupied for a while.

The stove is room sealed with an external intake so, unless some numpty decides to run it with the door open, there shouldn't be any loss of heat that way. I'll hide the box of matches under an instruction sheet for the stove. I don't think response time would be too bad for a foil UFH mat in direct contact with 10mm bamboo flooring. It's not the same as heating up a screed. I suppose it's the elegance of UFH that appeals- in a small house you don't have much free wall space and cluttering it up with heaters would be a shame. The plinth heater, that I think Jason mentioned first on another thread, does achieve the same thing in some ways though. It would also be great for giving the place a quick blast when guests first arrive. And a heated towel rail is really just taking up the space that an ordinary towel rail would occupy. I do think I will need some sort of programmable heating that allows you to wake up to a warm house, though. A plinth fan heater doesn't sound like the ideal method, but perhaps it could work if it had a low and quiet power setting?

Yup that is what I thought too. 6mm foam underlay to bed the UFH mats between the two hard surfaces. Foil type mat to help spread the heat more evenly. I've looked into a bonded system already but it feels like a heck of a lot of hassle and expense. I'm looking at bamboo, with the T&G costing £21-22 and the click being £27-£28 or thereabouts. Didn't think laminate was going to cut it, bamboo sounds much more resilient. SWMBO thinks we don't need anything at all... just a heated towel rail and maybe one panel or plinth heater. It's only a 40m2 space after all, and if it gets really cold there's the woodburner. But with the house being up on stilts I'm a bit worried about the floor losing too much heat.

There's a lot of trade offs with this decision. Floating floor = foam instead of adhesive, which is easier/faster/cheaper- but need to use click flooring which is c.£7/m2 more expensive. Bonded floor= wet trade, buying sufficient bedding compound to bed in UFH mats gets expensive very quickly. But you can use cheaper T&G flooring and get a more solid feeling finish. And then I wonder if I'm being OTT and I don't really need any sort of UFH at all.

Just dredging this one back up. Is this UFH basically the same as this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Electric-Under-Laminate-Wood-Foil-Underfloor-Heating-Mat-Kit-All-Sizes-Listing-/322292379413?var=&hash=item4b0a1f6f15:m:mrxqcqAeNSNOXV-w111lHIw And am I right in thinking that for a floating floor I would need to add a layer of 6mm foam underlay? I'm quite tempted to go down this route as it looks much quicker and easier than a bonded floor with the UFH embedded in adhesive. Not to mention cheaper too.

Thanks, that's reassuring. My MVHR is a bit oversized for the house so I had been toying with ventilating the loft space, however it's extra complication and prevents the system from doing such a good job of ventilating the main space, I presume. A followup question: If you had the choice, would you make the loft space well sealed up, or encourage free ventilation from the habitable areas?

Hopefully this is a simple question to answer. When you have an uninhabited attic space that is within the heated and vapour lined envelope of the building, should it be served by the MVHR system? My concern is that without some form of ventilation, warm humid air will collect up near the ridge. If I were to fit an extract at ridge height, would I also need to fit a supply somewhere to ensure cross-flow? The access to this space will be by a simple DIY ceiling hatch so will not be particularly airtight.

I've had three different guns, each costing about £7 from eBay. Managed to quickly wreck the first two but the third one is a different design and seems more robust, and has now done several months duty. I usually give the end a quick blast of solvent when I'm done. Has anybody else noticed that Screwfix will deliver normal expanding foam, but not low expansion? Presumably a different solvent or something? It's annoying because my nearest source for low expansion is three hours drive away.

We don't have the luxury of a Lidl- there are a total of three supermarkets within an hour of here, and they are all CoOps, selling the same stuff. Although SMWBO has just told me that they do stock Nespresso capsule clones- which might just swing things.

SWMBO recently picked up a secondhand Nespresso for under £20- so it's not exactly going to blow the bank. But providing a sufficient supply of capsules to last a week is going to add up quickly. I'm not an enormous fan of them myself... yet more composite waste going to landfill... and now 'can you make me a cuppa' doesn't mean kettle/jar/spoon, it means check water hopper, empty smelly old capsules, empty smellier drip tray, wait for machine to warm up, press button, realise you forgot to put a capsule in, start again. The joys.

Doesn't the meter have to be within 3m of the CU? I'm already too far ahead to practicably change the position of the CU, which is on the 'uphill' side of the house. I think I might just stick with the original plan and have the meter put inside, beside the CU.

Not a half bad idea! I thought they would be plastic and any attempt to paint one would end up looking scruffy in no time.

I've been planning on having the meter inside the house, but stumbled across some guidance from the DNO the other day which suggested that they may be reluctant to do this. I can see how it would be useful to have it outside, to avoid relying on estimated readings. My only real concern about having the meter outside is that it would mean placing an ugly white box just beside the front door, which would look awful in my nice larch cladding! There is 75mm of batten space within the wall so I guess that's insufficient to hide a cabinet and cover it over with a little larch door. Next best bet would be a powder coated cabinet in a RAL colour to match the doors, windows, and roof (dark blue/grey). I've not found anybody selling such a thing, though. Anybody got a source for a coloured cabinet? And anybody got experience/advice on putting the meter inside the property? Thanks

How long can it take to build a timber partition wall? One that is only 16ft long, in a straight line, no curves, no fancy materials. This one has taken me well over a week, which has become a little frustrating. The reason is partly due to the complex shape, and partly due to my design having changed significantly just before I started the wall. Having switched to a more open plan layout, the wall now has multiple different ceiling heights all tying into it which led to a lot of head scratching. I ended up knocking up a detailed model on Google Sketchup, whh was time well spent as before that I just couldn't visualise how to go about it. With two doorways, a partial and a fully vaulted ceiling, the resulting edifice has 15 sides, and plenty of angles. Great to finally see the back of it. Fortunately I have had a little help with this one. By contrast, the next partition, a simple rectangle with one door in it, took me a morning.

Coffee drinking is just one of these things that happens to other people. I know lots about it- worked for a couple of years in a cafe so I know my lattes from my espressos- just can't stand the taste of the stuff. I'm afraid I'm a tea jenny all the way. I'll defer any coffee related decisions to SWMBO...

I was thinking of going with Bosch rather than their own brand. Thanks for the advice!

Thanks Ferd, that could be a good call about Howdens. I'd kind of forgotten that they would do appliances, just thought of them as kitchen unit and joinery suppliers. It might be worth my while getting a quote for all the appliances together and see what they can do for me. And maybe get a tradey mate to do the same and see if theirs is any lower