marshian

Second one fitted - lessons learnt from the first one helped. It’s snug in the corner and I couldn’t add another down pipe support but it’s OK as it is. There is a quick way to remove and check for blockages and a hard way Easy way - slide up the upper body and the lower section will lift up and out. I’ll try the method on the one I fitted last night which was a struggle to do it the hard way - slide up the upper section, twist and remove then the lower section.

Now you've gone and done it

OK makes sense - I was just trying to work out how you came to the conclusion that 17 in terms of Heating Deg Day number was equivalent to -2 OAT Range rating boilers I'm a fan of - mine is currently range rated to to min on CH The actual min is slightly higher output than manufacturers info would imply (because Min output at 50/30 is 3.2 kW and at 80/60 is 2.9 kW - as I run 34/27 as an absolute max I think the min output is closer to 4.0 kW so pretty well aligned to my house heat loss at -2.4 Deg C OAT DHWP has full fat output so RR'ing has no impact And if heating 24/7 then I agree the house has the ability to "buffer" sudden changes outside @SteamyTea will shoot me if I start talking about thermal mass so I won't but the house can give back - maybe it will lose a but of room temp but as soon as conditions outside change it's going to recover. If that became a problem I can always increase the RR value to give the boiler a bit more wiggle room Yeah I can agree with that.

Oh please don't take me the wrong way - had I been 40 years younger I'd have a 3D printer and be printing one myself - it's a great find from a "what can be done" perspective and was quite an engaging video so 100% thanks for sharing.

For anyone that wanted a link - here it is Rain Harvesting Downpipe Diverter, Round Downspout Diverter with Filter for Rain Water Catching System (DDIV601, 75 mm / 90 mm) : Amazon.co.uk: Garden The old ones I am replacing when last on sale were a similar cost - even back in 2006 when I first purchase they were just under £15 each

Very interesting - clever design work however I don’t have the time (or a 3D printer and stocks of different filaments) Like most people I want something that works out of a box that I can fit and forget that meets the criteria (no wet walls, high water recovery rates, switchable for winter /spring/summer/autumn, doesn’t block up or if it does quick and easy to clear and most importantly doesn’t stand out on a white down pipe) I’ll do an unboxing and or assembly guide as the instructions are pretty thin if people are interested to show the features of the Australian ones when I fit the next one?

I can but I can make it easier than my journey (to get them from Australia and wait for them) as now I have one I googled the part number and they come up in Amazon EU) so I’ll link to that when I’m on a PC meantime heres a better picture of the old ones I used to use - next one to replace lever horizontal shuts the flap and it harvests - lever vertical is winter setting (nothing goes to the water butt)

Back in 2006 I got utterly piddled off with std DIY shop rainwater diverters (we had a few water butts dotted round various gutter downpipes for general garden watering) Reasons why….. 1. they blocked up really fast with moss or leaf debris 2. any decent rainfall and they had limited capacity to harvest all the rainwater coming down the gutter 3. In decent rainfall they tended to soak the walls 4. Slugs loved them and made good homes in them 5. Had to remove them in winter and replace with straight pipe to stop the butts being filled and then the water freezing. I searched the internet and found what I thought would be better. UK made, switchable so a harvest position and a divert to drain position. Decent depth before the overflow was reached (maximising volume harvested in a good rain shower. below is what I found only I bought the version made in white 19 years of use and exposure to UV has meant they are past their best (Brttle and leaky) but worst news of all was the company that used to manufacture them had gone under and they were out of stock everywhere so the search was on for replacements who knew it could be so difficult…….. Seems all the usual places just stocked the std ones with all their issues Then Google took me to Australia and I found what I’m looking for I bought 3 and tonight I fitted the first one can be removed easily without stripping downpipe has recirc back to soakaway if butt is full has leaf/moss filter/ switchable for winter Claims 600 ltrs per hour with garden hose but 1200 litres per hour with 32mm pipe (so I’ve fitted 32 mm pipe version) being Oz spec 75mm diameter downpipe fittings i had to create so adsptors to suit the UK 68mm but not exactly tricky

Slight threadjack Can you share how you worked that out? Really Interested in that aspect I've always used HDD with @ 16.5 base temp - for a couple of reasons 1. once the average outside temp gets below 16.5 I am pretty much guaranteed to need CH 2. my historical data is all based around that base temp 3. the regression calculation on the HDD site all came back with 16.5 was the optimum base line for this house. With recent improvements that may well change this winter......... PS the data presentation is good I very much liked the scatter plot of energy used v HDD tempted to do similar with my 30 min data from Octopus

Oh FFS of course it should be - has @SteamyTea hijacked your log in

Also my favorite (works well unless you tolerate a house kept to temps far below accepted norms in which case all bets are off) Example - I used 8701 kWh of Gas in 2024 Of that 1758 kWh was for HW and cooking So for my space heating needs (ie the heat loss element of the energy usage) I used 6943 kWh of gas. we heat the house for effectively 8 mths of the year so 240 days a year so 0.82 kWh heat loss over the heating season but that's not representative of the true heat loss in the depths of winter. If I take Jan as my worst month from a heating perspective I used 1854 kWh of gas divide that by 30 days x 24 hrs and you get 2.6 kWh heat loss but as the average temp for Jan was just 4 Deg again it's not a true measurement of heat loss in the coldest period For that I need to go to the 8th to 12th Jan where night time temps were consistently well below freezing and day time temps only just above it giving an average of -0.7 Deg C That period I used 397 kWh in 120 hours or 3.3 kWh heat loss I'm pretty confident as a result that my Heat Loss calcs of 4.5 kWh at -2.5 Deg C are validated For Heating season 2025/6 I've improved/increased my loft insulation as well as a few ventilation related improvements and I think this will bring me at or just under the 4.0 kWh heat loss at -2.5 Deg C

Remodelled Gutter and Fascia (House side) Pergola Drainage would have been nice to have one length at the same angle but the pipe would have to run behind the 350 Litre water butt and I wouldn’t be able to harvest the rain water

Had to remove the fascia on the garage and re do that - wasn't happy with the previous job (not done by me I hasten to add) and it hadn't held up well The length of fascia sloped from old part of the garage to new part and it looked bloody odd and the gutter supports were all over the place - add to this the Gutter was above the slope at one end and below the other and tiles overhung 50% of the gutter width Library Picture from a few yeas back Refitted the gutters with better fall, neater support bracket spacing and I can now clean the gutters out without losing skin off the back of my hands Water drainage on the house side is done now - Not the prettiest set up but I had to work round the Y I needed to introduce as well as the rain water harvesting in the down pipe and the tank. I tested it with a 10 litre watering can and it coped absolutely fine , no leaks or drips. Just got to replace the fascia on the original part of the garage that no longer meets the adjusted main fascia with the gutters refitted (it's too short). No new pics cos it was dark by the time I finished I'll add them in tomorrow

The plumber (IME) is right vertical rads do not deliver the same level of energy as convector rads surface area is far less than an equivalent convector rad and it’s the combination of flow temp and surface area that transfers the energy to the room. My main point is this is difference is exaggerated at lower flow temps (30 to 45 Deg C) so use manufactures outputs with caution when matching vertical rads to room heat loss when running lower flow temps If running higher flow temps (50 - 60 deg) the difference is much less and you can size based on manufacturers rating with a lot more confidence

Absolutely what I found - need a higher temp to recover than what is needed to maintain the house at the desired temp

Wowzers that's a lot of progress made.............. Excellent

I get that hence the 😉

to be honest at one stage I considered it 😉 however I’m a bit long in the tooth for a career change and I’m 5 years away from retirement 🙂 but I wouldn’t mind setting myself up for a post retirement “heating optimiser” I don’t want to get involved in installs but I bet there are a lot of systems out there being run way more inefficiently than they are capable of being run…. Might make a nice beer money sideline

Or get familiar with what you need to ask the installer to set up - I would have loved a heat geek accredited installer last year but not one locally that would do a viessmann boiler the way I wanted it done - so I used the only Viessmann installer in 50 mile radius and told him exactly how I wanted the system set up X-plan DHWP and I initially got an S plan!!! (eventually we got there and I think he learnt a few things on the way)

Old boiler was 10kW min effectively 45 deg C was the min practical flow temp and christ that boiler cycled a lot in anything other than mid winter. I upsized only some of the rads initially - big mistake - do all or none unless you want rooms to cold (original rads) and rooms to hot (upsized)

Well bar a little bit of trimming work it’s done Louvres shut Louvres open suns gone and it’s cloudy so light isn’t the best for photos need to re-instate gutters and fascia and sort out the drainage but quite happy how it turned out - It was never going to be a quick job and limboing round a post parked smack in the middle of the garage side door would have been awful

I was advised with my house set up I was ASHP ready but I really wasn’t confident enough to dive in the deep end without knowing I could run low and slow at ASHP flow temps - so I went for another gas boiler (one that could modulate down to a low level 3.2 kWh and down sized from 24kW to 16kW as another stepping stone towards ASHP) Very confident now that in 10 15 years or so I can switch over when the boiler reaches the end of it’s life)

having journeyed from scheduled high flow temp 65 + heating (barely any condensing savings except in warm up phase) to scheduled heating flow temp 45 to 55 max where the boiler was always condensing (although not to max eff) and then finally to low temp heating 23.5/7 ditching all schedules with a weather compensated flow temp between 25 to 35 max there is no way I would go back to scheduled heating. The cost difference is insignificant compared to the huge benefit in comfort factors. House never overheats, everything in it is a nice temp (it’s the little things like I don’t miss coming into a house where air temp is fine in all rooms and sitting on a cold leather sofa) It really was a total game changer.

I have trickle vents in a few SUDG windows added post 1995 which was when the original SUDG widows were fitted - I bloody hate them for two reasons 1. Useless from a noise suppression perspective (I live near a busy road the main bedroom when the house was extended was fitted with a TV as the window had to be replaced) 2. I already have a ventilation strategy (I have a PIV in the hall and extract fans in both bathrooms and kitchen) all the windows with TV's are closed anyway and I have no condensation issues at any time in the year If I was to replace the all the windows again a PIV is not enough under the current regs to avoid TV's - MVHR is but I don't want or need to fit that because the PIV does what I need. There is a clause which enables you to replace windows without TV's and that is provided only a certain percentage of window are replaced (less than 30% from memory) So I'd do all the windows in 3 bite sized chunks each time stipulating with the supplier that under the current legislation/regs I do not want TV's to be fitted to the windows on each occasion Any supplier refusing to do this wouldn't get the work and I'm pretty damn sure very few window suppliers would want to turn down the work as a result of my work around.

That doesn't even reach MOT std.............................. (and that's normally bloody terrible!!!!)