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Crofter

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Everything posted by Crofter

  1. Crofter
    I fixed my IWI using big plastic insulation washers- £12 per hundred off Amazon. I was originally just going to use the battens to hold the insulation in place, but I've fitted a separate VCB over the insulation so the washers hold the insulation in place whilst I am getting the battens finished. Tbh on a masonry construction dot/dab would probably work, I was fixing to studs though.
  2. Crofter
    I couldn't find a front door that I liked, and ended up buying half a French door set. Cheaper, looked perfect, had far better U value. Of course you can't put a letterbox in it, or, dare I say it, a cat flap...
  3. Crofter
    This one had been turned off for about twenty minutes when I noticed the glow. There's only a single switch to it. I wonder where the induced voltage could be coming from... can I experiment with turning other things off? I was worried it was a sign of some very dodgy wiring somewhere...!
  4. Crofter
    Bit of an odd one this. Popped into the kitchen after lights out and spotted that a GU10 task light was glowing very faintly. The lamp is a SMD type. At first I thought that it must have been left on and the lamp had failed, but, no, it was switched off at the wall. 'On' works, but 'off' doesn't! It's only the very faintest glow but obviously there is something wrong. I'm not convinced that the previous owners of this house knew what they were doing. I swapped out a single socket for a double and found that the earth was connected to the back box but not the socket! And the plumbing is pretty poor too, waste pipes laid with sections that remain full of water etc. Anyway, any suggestions for what might be causing the symptoms with the light? It's a single downlighter on its own switch. Oh and I did remove the lamp just to be sure, it has stopped glowing now, so it looks like I haven't discovered a source of zero point energy after all
  5. Crofter
    It was just a bit of a throwaway thought really- keep one big AC immersion for doing the bulk of the work, and spend a couple of hundred quid on a DC solar system for the second immersion. I was assuming it would mean giving up on E7 so probably not worth it at all. Just curiosity really, prompted by the low cost of solar and the mainly summer usage of the house. Also I've been assuming that E7 comes with some drawbacks like higher peak rates, install cost of second meter, fewer tarrifs to choose from, etc. Could be completely wrong about that!
  6. Crofter
    So the answer to my original questions turns out to be 'neither'. As a further thread drift... I know the idea of the second immersion on a UVC is for use on E7, but would it make any sense whatsoever to swap it out for a DC unit and hook it up to a solar panel? Just to provide a low level of heating to counter standing losses and reduce bills. The £/w of solar is just so low these days, and the house is mostly going to be used in the summer (in answer to a previous question, yes I will keep it open all year round but I expect to be at 50% occupancy or less in the off season ).
  7. Crofter
    How far do you want to go? Builders Merchants will offer to give you a quote based off plans, so must use some sort of estimation technique. On my own build, I tried to be as accurate as possible- I built the house in Sketchup and then added up how many studs, rafters, etc etc and from that could order the timber that I needed. Very slow process even with a tiny house that I knew intimately, and inevitably some detailing deviated slightly from the initial plan as the build progressed. It's always a good idea to round up when estimating quantities! When I did my original budget estimate I noted down the first reasonable price that I could get for things, generally on line or in some cases on the phone. Then when the time came to purchase, I hunted around much harder to get better deals. This has almost completely offset any increases in materials or omissions, and has meant that the budget has stayed within a few hundred pounds of my original figure, which is quite remarkable really.
  8. Crofter
    I guess their pumps have a better reputation than their boat engines, which are known as 'Stuart non Turners'...
  9. Crofter
    Thanks for the offer but I think I'm settled on the UVC route. I didn't know Stuart Turner made pumps by the way- I'd only heard of their boat engines.
  10. Crofter
    If J wants to be my guinea pig then I'd quite happily give him a week's stay pro bono... I've certainly learned enough from his postings over the years and it would be one way to say thanks! Hmmm maybe I should be offering a discount to BuildHub members...
  11. Crofter
    Bearing capacity for the foam should be available somewhere. Incidentally, I was pondering something similar myself today. I'm going to make my hearth using cheap and cheerful slate floor tile- a single 60x60 on top, and then to build up the height I'll cut up some smaller cheaper ones and mortar them into a little U-shaped upstand. That leaves me wondering what to put in the middle, and I was actually thinking PIR would be just the job, easy to work with and it would get rid of my offcuts. This is to go above a chipboard suspended floor, so I don't want to just fill it with concrete. Fireproofing not an issue really as, like the OP, my stove can go on a 12mm hearth.
  12. Crofter
    PM'd you...
  13. Crofter
    Fingals is of course geologically different, being part of the band of columnar basalt that runs from the Giant's Causeway. I'll need to do some homework about what regulations will apply. I know a few people who rent out caravans, boats, etc via AirBnB and am crossing my fingers that I can do likewise- legally it is just a caravan, not a house. But that's another topic.
  14. Crofter
    The band of limestone is very localised. On Skye it is a small area in the south, around Torrin and Elgol. There are caves in the area which have yielded some significant archaeological finds, and where the limestone meets the sea it produces a fascinating landscape. The only cave I've personally explored is Spar Cave, which runs 80m back. You're supposed to visit at low tide but I was there at the wrong time. Was fun to shimmy round on the limestone cliff face above the sea- the handholds are great, and the thought of falling into four degree water really focuses the mind. Anyway, to get back on topic- I had a word with my local plumber and he has also suggested a UVC. So I might take a punt on the one on eBay. It does seem to be the most straightforward solution. Whilst I would like to DIY everything, I have to be realistic and admit that the summer season is approaching fast, so it makes sense to hand off discrete bits of work where possible.
  15. Crofter
    Well that's given me a lot to think about- thanks all! Just a quick note just now (heading out in a minute to catch the last of the daylight..) - power cuts: we've been here about four years and had two power cuts in that time that I can remember. One was 37hrs which was quite exceptional, the other about 4hrs. So we may be in the sticks but it's hardly something I would worry about. Plus they occur during low season anyway. If it were to happen whilst guests were staying, I do have a genny in the shed and there is a woodburner in the cottage. It would be easy enough to provide a camping stove for emergency cooking. - not going for an LPG hob, it's got to be either ceramic or induction, primarily for cleaning purposes. - the cottage will sleep two, and that's it. I've had advice from letting agents and was dissuaded from aiming for the family or group markets. It's simply too small, at 43m2, to realistically squeeze anybody else in. At most I might consider having a travel cot available but that would be the limit. A note on water quality- down in the south of Skye there is actually an area of hard water, due to the limestone. Our own water is good, no trace of colour, and no problems with scale or sediment.
  16. Crofter
    That's a really interesting idea- fit a header tank as a buffer to take the chill off the incoming water prior to electric heating. I'm also warm roof construction so it could be feasible, but I don't know if I've got enough head.
  17. Crofter
    Fixing the current house shower is on the to do list... after the new house is done! So, IHW or electric shower may lead to disappointment and bad Tripadvisor reviews, especially in colder weather. Got it. A normal vented cylinder is doable, and obviously cheaper to buy and install (DIY?). It's a bungalow, but the highest I could put a header tank is about 4m above FFL, or a couple of metres above the shower head. Not convinced that's enough without having to put a pump in? I've got my eye on a UVC on eBay that looks perfect, but of course DIY install then goes out the window- how much might I be looking at for this? Edit to add- great water pressure here, I don't have a figure but it catches people unaware and visitors end up with wet trousers when they wash their hands...
  18. Crofter
    I resemble that remark!
  19. Crofter
    All food for thought... I guess a single tank would actually be the easiest/cheapest system- so big brownie points for that.
  20. Crofter
    Thank for that Jeremy. In my own house I actually lust after a basic electric shower, because the gravity fed mixer we have is utterly pathetic. I installed it in exactly the same way as the one I put in our previous house, except this one has slightly more head and a cleaner pipe run- but the unit itself is some unbranded junk, and the previous one was a Mira. Even having ripped out the NRVs built into the unit (naughty I know, but it's fed from a header tank so cannot contaminate the mains) it is awful, with a very poor flow. So I have become quite accustomed to miserly showers and forget that some people accept nothing less than a Niagara scale deluge. The tarrif to which you refer is 'Total Heating, Total Control' and gives access to cheap rate electricity 24/7 for space heating and DHW- but I don't think you can get it for new builds any more. It would lend itself to IHW rather than stored systems. Don't UVCs need some sort of annual check? Especially if installed in commercial premises? The priority has to be getting the house up and running ASAP- if I miss this summer season, that sort of blows any other cost considerations out of the water (regardless of how it's heated...)
  21. Crofter
    Planning my first fix plumbing and wiring and so it's decision time for my DHW. As a small building used for holiday lets I will not have a boiler or the need for any bulk hot water storage. I also don't want to be paying for standing losses on a house that might go empty for weeks at a time. So the options are: a) Electric shower + two individual under-sink IHW units, one in the kitchen and one in the bathroom b) Electric shower + multipoint IHW unit feeding both the basin and sink. I could site this near the CU which would be about mid way between the two outlets. c) Multipoint IHW feeding the shower, basin, and sink. The last option is very tempting as it would in some ways be the simplest, and possibly the cheapest. Also prevents the possibility of overloading the power supply. But you would want the IHW to produce higher temps, for dish washing, than you'd need for a shower- and I am right in thinking that it's quite inefficient to have to dilute hotter water back down again? If it was my own house I would live with the shower temp water, and top it up with a kettle if I needed to soak some dishes... but it's not my house, and everything needs to be idiot proof I know that @JSHarris has had success with his IWH, albeit in a quite different application.
  22. Crofter
    Yeah three plus hours from your side of the Sneck. A bit of a slog. Boat is in the water but sails, boom, canvas all stripped off. The sailing here is rather nice though!
  23. Crofter
    Wish somebody had told that to the people I used to work for, who had converted a music studio and used sheets of Celotex to block up the windows.
  24. Crofter
    Ah yes that rings some bells from when I did my loft conversion. I that instance, I laboured for a sparkie and did all the running around in small spaces whilst he did the clever bits- seemed to be a good compromise as we got it done in a day and it cost me less than £200. In the new house, most of the wiring will be running in a non insulated service void, but there will be a small amount in the partitions- which don't even exist yet so I tend to forget about them. I'm planning to board out the whole perimeter and warm ceiling and then build the partitions after that.
  25. Crofter
    I know you said you're not considering using rigid board insulation of any kind between the studs, but just in case you find you need to, it's not so bad to get a good result if you leave a gap all round and foam it in place. Or if you're really clever you can insulate as you build, laying down stud, board, stud, board, pressing everything together nice and tight. On my own build I did glasswool between the studs and then rigid Kingspan on the inside of the frame. Partly down to detailing of my build and also I believe this follows the principle of each layer becoming more vapour permeable as you go from inside to outside.
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