Ed Davies

Bye all.

Let me rephrase that for you: “a ring final (also widely but incorrectly called a ring main)”, though why we don't just call them “rings” or “ring circuits”, as we do with radials, escapes me; a house will likely only contain final circuits and maybe the odd sub-main. PS: a “lighting ring” is almost never a ring. It's usually a branching radial.

What are you talking about? I.e., which judge and what was the decree?

Oops, missed that in your original post, hence my “assuming no battery” remark.

5.7 MW? ITYM 5700W. Slightly less trivially, 1.37 kWh/day? That's an impressively small amount even with a decent size PV array assuming no battery, particularly with a 10 kW shower in the house. Are you sure that's right?

Talking about thick slabs is a bit tangential (sorry for the distraction) but mildly illuminating. Yes, the real control to make a wall thermostat work is that you don't heat the slab too hot. Fine with ASHP, perhaps, but might well be more awkward with, say, a non-modulating boiler (e.g. an oil boiler) unless you add a buffer tank as well or have a control system somewhat like @TerryE's where you count how many joules you're putting into the slab. Which brings us back to the @SteamyTea vs @Nickfromwales discussion: why might it be better to put higher-temperature water into a thin slab for controllability? I think we need to know more about the control system which @Nickfromwales has in mind if we're going to get anywhere. I'm having a hard time imagining one which would work better with hotter water rather than water just a few degrees over the desired slab temperature.

Agreed. The mechanical thermostat in my living room holds the temperature there to within about 0.25 °C. That's not the problem. With a thick slab, though, won't there be a possibility that too much heat will be dumped into the slab before the thermostat begins to see a rise in temperature resulting in an overshoot? Whether that's actually a problem in practice is a separate question but not one answered by your quoted experience.

Doesn't ring true to me, either. I'd think all floors, other things being equal, would need to take the same amount of heat long term but a low-heat-capacity one would benefit more from having lower-temperature water for more time. If he can present a plausible reason why that might not be so we can at least have a sensible discussion. That make sense as far as it goes. It doesn't follow that a basic mechanical room thermostat would work so well with a thick slab, though.

What would non-specific heat be? Or do you mean sensible heat? “Specific” in contexts like “specific heat capacity” means “per unit”, which can be taken to mean per unit mass unless otherwise, err, specified.

???? tank?

Equipment which is both IP67 and ELV (SELV, even) might not be allowed in either zone 0 or zone 1 depending on other conditions. E.g., an IP67 SELV light designed for outdoor use operating off 80 V DC or 30 V AC would not be allowed in zone 1 unless the manufacturer's instructions specifically said it was suitable for such use. All a bit irrelevant as the OP said they wanted to use a non-IP-rated light, anyway.

Discussion for the 17th edition but I don't believe anything relevant has changed for the 18th: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYhUPjyAUas He's tediously repetitive but, in my limited experience, pretty solid and does go into why some of the wrong diagrams on the Internet exist.

At least they're on the correct feet. Other way round would annoy. Port and starboard. Select the white text if that makes no sense.

Ah, right, I was assuming incorporated in the structure. Doing it again I'd have longer lengths, but thinner. E.g, instead of making up the purlins out of 3 metre or so long lengths of 145x245 C24 (or was it C16? I forget without looking - I do remember the posts were specced as C16 but I actually used C24 as that was what was available) I'd have used 3 off 6 or 7 metre lengths of 45x245 or whatever lengths of LVL staggered and bolted together. The ring beam for the floor has 13 metre lengths like that which I could move fairly easily with a bit of forethought.

Hinging is sort of what I did. Still, specifically designing a hinge to be used once then sit unhinged for decades seems a bit odd.

I like EPS for that sort of thing but mabe some thought needs to be given to EPS with respect to spread of fire depending on the proximity of other buildings, boundaries, etc. Obviously it's used in standard EWI but that's not with timber cladding over it.

The flanges on my brackets are aligned east/west, parallel to the ridge line, and I think [¹] they contribute significantly to the east/west racking strength of the house so you couldn't turn them through 90°. When the posts and beams were up but before I started on the roof the structure was quite stiff east/west but swayed a bit north/south. [¹] Structural engineer specified this but we didn't, unfortunately, have a lot of discussion about it.

Indeed, but this spin speed discussion is about pure washers.

Occasionally dry on a line outdoors but mostly on a drying rack in the kitchen with a dehumidifier running. Clothes are generally dry enough that I can safely finish them off on radiators in other rooms in a few hours: e.g., washing on at breakfast then first batch to radiators early evening. First lot away and second lot on radiators just before I go to bed.

I hadn't seen that irishvernacular site. At a quick glance I mostly like it except for the brackets at the foot of the posts (image 6: Foundations - pouring) as they leave the bottom of the post flat on the ground with a bracket up the side which could trap water. Mine sit on steel brackets with a flange going up the inside of the post. Like so. They were a pain to do and, in retrospect, I'd have drilled through the wood and steel in one operation then put cold galv spray on the steel before finally bolting them up but they do reasonably a good job of keeping the posts' feet dry. Simpson Strong-Tie do brackets like that off the shelf though they're a bit smaller than mine, probably intended for garden rooms and the like. The irishvernacular bod says to put the brackets in while the concrete's still wet as “drilling fixings into set concrete is a real pain”. Actually, even with a moderate SDS drill it's not that much of a problem except that it's often difficult to get the hole exactly where you want it as lumps of aggregate will move the tip until the hole is established. The chap who did mine made a pretty good job of setting the brackets out but still some are 10 to 15 mm off the nominal position so in one or two places the spacing between the posts is 30mm off nominal. This made spacing the I-beam studs between the posts on the west gable to support the edges of the OSB sheets properly a bit of a puzzle. Doing it again, I'd follow the “standard” Segal method [²] of putting the post-and-beam structure up with the beams between the posts cut to the right length and fitted in place so all the dimensions are right then wack things as need to fully square it up before drilling the bolt holes. [¹] I got a contractor in to do the concrete foundation blocks. I got them to fit the brackets precisely because I though drilling the concrete would be a pain. [²] As described in, e.g., Out of the Woods: Ecological Designs for Timber Frame Housing by Pat Borer and Cindy Harris.

Because of gunk piling up in the corrugations?

Watch a few YouTube videos about it first. It's got its own way of working which will be very frustrating if you just try to use it assuming it works like other GUI programs.

Worked well for me on the bathroom ceiling in my old house though it did need a lot splodging on, leave to soak, splodge a bit more and eventually it came off. I doubted it was old enough to be the asbestos stuff but wasn't completely sure so was pleased that it came off in soggy lumps with very little dust. Goggles and mask, though.

Hi Wookey, welcome.

Would a DIN rail time switch like this be appropriate to make that neat?