Rob99

I thought it was an error with their new partner portal which went live the same time as the price increase hit. Having asked the question I was specifically told that consumers are now able to buy direct from Loxone.

I'm astonished why something as significant as this issue, and is impacting people in a very real way, hasn't been picked up by the mainstream media. Oh, silly me, they're all too wrapped up in partygate/beergate/who the f*** cares gate

You beat me to it, I've just posted similar on the Loxone Google Group. They kept this very quiet, not even Partners were officially notified. Not sure why the change but I guess in the grand scheme of things selling to the public is positive in terms of customer retention and is unlikely to make any dent in business for those partners who also do the install works.

+1 for Loxone, I have it at home and have helped others to install it. Despite what some may tell you, it's very straightforward to do as a DIY install and several members here have done it at a much lower cost than getting an installer in. I agree with much of what's been said so far and echo the view to avoid non-standard wiring like the plague as you'll regret it later. If you wire cat6 and mains back to a central location you're probably covered for most control scenarios.

Why oh why can't ALL the government agencies have a bit of joined up thinking which aligns with government policy. There is a shortage of housing so the government is trying to encorage more housing (including penalising council's who fail to consider provision) and now LPA's are rubbing their hands together as the advice being given just gives them another excuse to stop housing being built.

Just a heads up that Loxone have recently announced their prices will increase from 1 May 2022. It's not a global % increase but reviewed for each product so increases will vary. Average is around 15% with most products increasing by between 12% and 20%.

Yet another example, I'm afraid, of a headline grabbing announcement which fails to deliver when you look closer into the detail.

So, I've found a UK supplier and have now ordered a 24v version from theheatxchange

Thats a good point @Temp as I guess it's unlikely they'll have 2 different stepper motor mechanisms just for a change in AC/DC voltage.

Seems like the 24v versions are difficult and expensive to obtain (thank you Brexit!!!) so I've ordered a 230v just to check out how it works on my system.

Thanks @Temp Yes, I could use the 230v version and they are available in the UK, but I'm controlling the existing actuators through Loxone so at 24v. I didn't particularly want to try and run more mains wiring when I already have 24v in the manifold cabinet.

Looking for these 24v actuators but there seem to be very few UK suppliers and those I have found don't have any stock and no idea when they will. Anyone know where I can source these? Cheers

In addition to the above, we didn't put any pipework in the location of our freestanding fridge/freezer.

We've had a Samsung american style fridge freezer with built in water and ice dispenser for about 6 years and the only failure we had was the ice maker mechanism which was replaced under warranty in the first year. Since then no issues and it's survived being moved around several times by our heavy handed builders during our refurb a few years back. My only gripe is that the freezer compartment has shelves and not drawers which I find means you can't always pack things in sensibly. As a result, when you open the door you have to be careful you don't get a frozen chicked exiting the freezer at some speed and landing on your toes!!

Just done a quick calculation on this which works out as around £6.30 all in per day, which is similar to what I pay for a 200m2 1990's detached house. Nowhere near your £8,000 a year! Clearly your £675 to Bulb every month isn't based on actual usage so first thing I would do is talk to them as it seems like they have their figures completely wrong (assuming your usage figures are correct).

My initial thought is that your external DPM, sealed at the top edge with Bituthene, is a significant weak spot and any breach at ground level will allow moisture to track down and into the internals of the building. Your first detail seems to be the right way to do it and doesn't look to me like it is much more expensive. For things that I never want to have to deal with again I tend to go the belt and braces route as it provides peace of mind. I'm not sure what BCO's view would be of your second detail, have you spoken to them about it?

The concrete floor is less of an issue if it is just the divider between you and the heated flat below. In fact you should be effectively benefiting a little from their heating. Your issue is clearly those large uninsulated ceiling and wall areas, all your heat is just disappearing as if you had your windows open. If you don't want to move then, as @ProDave says, it should be possible to strip out and insulate properly. It won't be cheap but to be honest, properly insulated I'd expect you to easily save between £4 and £6k per year on your bills. If you've just had enough of the place bear in mind that any buyer will ask about utility costs and the uninsulated areas would also be likely picked up on any EPC or home buyers survey so you'd probably be faced with accepting a much lower offer than you think it would be worth.

These extracts from the wiring regs might help to explain..........

I think the difficulty with any "new" network set up is that there is a huge range of products available, with new ones being launched every month. You just have to decide what it is you need as a minimum and then look around for what meets your needs, bearing in mind that someone will launch "the next big thing" as soon as you've bought all your kit!! In the early days of PC's, with technology advancing incredibly quickly, you often saw in PC publications (little internet in those days!) the advice given to the question "when should I buy a PC?" was "in 6 months time". You can't usually guess what's coming round the corner so have to go with what's available and does what you need today.

I'd echo everything @Dan F has said. Until about a year ago I had a mish mash of wifi routers and access points, linked through a Virgin Media Superhub, in an attempt to get decent coverage through the house and share the "theoretical" 350Mb broadband connection. Having endured the whining and compaining about poor wifi from the rest of the family during the first lockdown I did some research and replaced it all with a Ubiquiti Dream Machine Pro and 2 Wifi 6 Lite AP's and only using the Superhub as a wired internet gateway and not a wifi router. Whilst the hardware is very good at the "prosumer" level the controller software is a little quirky and there's a bit of a learning curve to set it up correctly. Fortunately there are some decent YouTube videos out there and some very good and helpful online forums and discussion groups on Reddit etc. so I never found it a problem. Have to say, once set up and configured (several VLAN's etc) it's been faultless, running 24/7 since install. I have one AP in the loft and one in the hallway cupboard. I get complete wifi coverage and a consistent 350Mb connection. What it has highlighted is how absolutely rubbish my Virgin modem box was with drop outs and slow speeds, even on a 350Mb connection. One tip I picked up from the discussion groups is that if your Ubiquiti set up is working without issues then don't update the firmware or controller software unless its a security update or you need the additional features of the new version. I think the latest version of the Dream Machine Pro now has built in POE ports so you wont need a seperate POE switch to run the AP's and a few other POE devices too if you have them. Bottom line - I would definitely recommend the Ubiquiti kit for a home network setup.

This is what we did with our neighbours. We had a chat, went through the paperwork and they signed agreement. Cost - zip ?

Sounds sensible @Thorfun When you connect up the loops you can fill each one individually by closing off all the other valves except that loop. I found this much easier to make sure all the air was out of each loop and to pressure test each one seperately. Have fun.

in that case I think these are the ones I'll use. it would be great if you could find some ufh pipe and see if they fit. No luck on the UFH pipe I'm afraid ☹️ Looked everywhere I can think of but don't seem to have kept any (very unusual for me!!) possibly as I only had small offcuts and couldn't see any use for them. Found loads of spare bits of the JG 15mm pipe but that's no help.

Some less expensive options.......... https://plumbing-gear.com/5-x-hepworth-hep2o-16mm-tees-hep20-plastic-pushfit-push-fit-tee-underfloor-762-p.asp https://theunderfloorheatingsite.co.uk/shop/water-under-floor-heating/accessories/couplings/pack-of-6-16mm-x-16mm-elbow-double-coupling-pex-al-pex-brass-compression-fitting/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAgP6PBhDmARIsAPWMq6l8SF7z1lNmqctzvq5c20vrEDCbmUguM0fQy1oov6w8hp1jv42Kj9saAr9eEALw_wcB https://www.screwfix.com/p/jg-speedfit-plastic-push-fit-equal-90-elbows-15mm-10-pack/57953 These say 15mm but the JG website specifies them as 16mm I'll try and find a spare bit of my UFH Pex pipe and see if it fits in the JG fitting.

@Hilldes the way the 110 block works is that you insert the 4 pairs of each cat6 cable into one section of the 110 block, one core into each section and push it down with an IDC tool. You then take the small seperate blocks and push these down onto the 110 blocks over the first set of cables. You then connect the bottom layer of cat6 cores from the connections on the top of the seperate blocks to wherever they need to go. There is a useful video here which shows what I mean about inserting the small blocks on top of the 110 frames.