marshian

I have the tank stat set to 60 Deg - I only heat HW for ~20 mins and it gets to ~48 to 52 in that time - as a result the Tank Stat is never satisfied (unless it's Mrs M's Bath night in which case I heat it to 60 (legionaires cycle same day) and then it's satisfied After she's run a bath it's not so when the CH ends it calls for HW for 1 min and the valve returns to rest

I'm going to have to get my head round that - thanks for posting I heat water to much less than the tank stat is set too so my std practiced is to set the HW to 1 min after the CH cycle has ended and of course the tank stat is not satisfied so it returns the valve to the rest position of HW I was thinking about changing the valve round (and wiring) so CH is rest and HW is powered then it would always be at rest when running CH but then when you are only heating water the valve would be constantly powered on because CH is never called for.

All different manufacturers (probably all made in same factory) I think we bought one from Soak, one from plumb world and one from Victoria Plumb

All three loos suffer from similar issues All are within 1 m of the main soil pipe, are direct coupled to 110mm soil pipe (ie not some flexible concertina adaptor) and have decent falls to the soil pipe (considering the short distances involved The two stage button works a cable mechanism - push the large part for partial flush and the small part for a full flush (both parts of the button go down as a result) Partial flush when fitted is approx 3 L full flush is 6 L (I have experimented with increasing the partial flush volume by adjusting the settings but I end up with the unit set to give 6L regardless of button pushing (hardly a water saving feature if you have to set it up that way) The pans are all different makes (each loo was upgraded over a few years) and each time the performance is not as good as the previous close coupled unit with syphon based flusher and a 10 L cistern Hence my thinking that it's not enough water being flushed - increase the cistern size and I can revert the flush to being a two stage again with 4L for a part flush and 8-10 L for a full flush. All the water feeds to the cisterns are gravity fed from loft tank (not mains supplied) none have flow restrictors in the inlet so they do fill up again quite quickly but I'm not seeing how often needing to flush twice is saving any water.

I've got three toilets in the house. All have the same concealed cistern arrangements with a reduced water content (6L) and a two step "water saving" flush functionality Am I alone in thinking this reduction in cistern capacity combined with "water saving part flush" doesn't save any water at all because regardless of the requirement Mrs Marshian hits the full flush button every time (because a partial flush doesn't clear all the no'1's and leaves toilet paper behind) If it's No' 2's it frequently needs a full flush twice. I'm wondering If I should fabricate some stainless steel 8 - 10 L cisterns to fit in place of the plastic 6 L max ones. I've definitely got space inside the built in units to fit larger tanks......... Or is this a bad idea and we should consider drink less and reducing the level of fibre in our diets Oh and what EU directive or building regs would I be breaking 😉

Euuuwww that's not nice either!!!!

Neither - but I do get to borrow a bit of the garage occasionally (when I need to have a sort out) as well as have use of the driveway as she no longer has a car (just a mobility scooter lives in the garage) and she likes to see a car on the drive as it looks like someone is home. Husband passed away 3 years ago from Parkinsons/dementia but up to about 5 years ago they were best neighbours you could wish for - looked after our cats and the house whenever we were away and so this sort of activity is just paying back for previous good deeds. If it's icy I salt the driveway and paths I put the wheelie bins out on the days they are collected and bring them back in Cut the front grass when it needs cutting Still a good neighbour just not as mobile these days

Sorry if I've ruined your day - but the Rat had a worse day all things considered

Neighbours gutters on the garage were constantly overflowing onto her patio - she’s 85 and needs a walker to get about - not much chance of her getting up a ladder to clear out the gutters so as it stopped raining I thought I’d get it done for her…… Whole length was full of moss/leaves and general detritus Took off the end caps and stuffed a car cleaning sponge down the downpipe and washed them all out into a couple of 35 litre builders buckets Extracted the sponge and the downpipe was blocked up as well so off that came and rodded out a 2 feet of muck but it wasn't all leaves and moss Washed it down and found what was blocking it up I’ve heard the expression “raining cats and dogs” but never heard “raining rats!!!!”

Love that - looks superb like a geological sample

I've done the same in the past (but in one room I drilled the tiles and then screwed them to the boxing (and used colour matched screw caps) and grouted the tiles normally (easy enough to get grout out) and in the other used metal plates and magnetic units to hold a complete tiled panel Both did the same and I still don't know which I like best

I used automotive Sikaflex to do the same job - the tricky thing was making sure you didn't apply too much cos it's messy - mine you had to put the glass into the seal and then the seal into the frame and then fully insert both and there was very little clearance for additional adhesive and it goes off quite quickly..... I chose to apply sikaflex to the seal and then fit the seal to the glassand squeeze out any excess (two long battens and multiple clamps) - then when the sikaflex had gone off cut away any excess and then fit glass with seal to the frame using the good old fairy lube assist. It's been done 5 years and hasn't moved at all but one thing I would say (without doing that) is don't leave the shower screen in a position where it isn't supported for long periods of time because that is very likely to be your primary cause for the glass coming out of the seal of the seal (and glass coming out of the frame)

I don't understand how an immersion can pull 2.7kw and not generate any heat - that makes no sense in my head - it's using power it's generating heat somewhere even if not in the tank.

I agree - I've done the heat engineer heat loss calculation - as long as can set aside a bit of time to measure wall dimensions and window apertures, have a good knowledge of the fabric of your house (Floors, Walls, Ceilings and Windows) it can give very accurate assessment of overall house heat loss at -2 The only thing I think it overstates is the ACH element - some of the default values for ACH is frankly unrepresentative of even 80's housing stock that has had elements of the building upgraded

Good lord!!! My average over last 12 mths is 22.1 (For both CH and DHW) Summer is 3.5 kWh per day (just DHW) Heating Seasons it's between 17 & 50 but that hides the impact of a really cold spell Peak daily for 2022 was 90.9 Peak daily for 2023 was 85.1 Peak Daily for 2024 is 81.6 So I think I can say even my peak usage is improving

LLH = Low Loss Header CCT = Close Coupled T's

My only advice is to avoid this type of low height wastes https://www.hartplumbingspares.co.uk/product/slimline-90-hi-flow-shower-waste-extra-low-profile/ They aren't very good the "reed" type valve restricts flow - they are most definitely not hi flow!!!!

You need to think very carefully about the water level in the pipes in an open vented system Those tanks that feed the CH system and HW system have a level of water in them - the same level of water will be in the expansion pipes (they will be at equilibrum with the tank levels So draw a line from the tank level to the pipes and insulate to just above that point If un-insulated then they will contribute to heat loss from HW tank or the CH circuit - it might be small but heat rises as a general rule so heat will be lost. I moved my CW tank and CH header tank 3m away from the loft hatch because I always caught my back on the support frame and it gave me a more usable loft space - However this meant I had to extend all the pipework by the same 3m (as a result I have quite long runs in the cold loft space) I insulated all the pipes with thick wall pipe insulation OD for both 15mm and 22mm is around 62mm which means my pipe lagger mitre box can be set up to work well with either size insulation Happy to be corrected on this by more knowledgeable contributors

Agreed - lower the flow temp the lower the DT at the boiler Heat Geek reckon a good guide to expected DT is flow temp x .7 to get your return temp Obviously the temps below are guides for boilers supplying rads but UFH flow temps can be a lot lower and the return much closer to flow and DT much narrower Flow Temp Return Temp Diff 80 56.0 24.0 75 52.5 22.5 70 49.0 21.0 65 45.5 19.5 60 42.0 18.0 55 38.5 16.5 50 35.0 15.0 45 31.5 13.5 40 28.0 12.0

Wiser have a similar system called ECO mode - it learns your heating pattern and then uses the weather based on your location to bring the heating on to reach your target temp at the time you need it - used it for a week and it absolutely chewed thro the gas for no real benefit I don't need the house at temp when I get up - I need it to be warming up - ie not fecking chilly just some heat added from the overnight off I need the bath room up to 19 for a shower at 8am not 6am - I don't go near it till then So in summary I probably needed to complete change the target temps and times to make it work for me and I couldn't be arsed I've not tried it since Other opinions may well be different

Flow temps I vary depending on outside temps low to mid 50's normally (never more than 60 so far this year - that cold snap we had) return temps High 20's to Mid 30's (very dependant on flow temps but I get just under 20 deg delta at the boiler once the circuit is up to temp) The boiler has a 10 kW min and due to internal programming gives a 18kW hit for 8-10 secs on restart which is a pain - I have to have an extended POR and ACT settings to give the circuit time to cool as much as possible or it overshoots way to easily and it still cycles a fair bit this means mean water temps in the rads are low 30's this time of year I know I could go ASHP but it's being replaced for a Viessmann 100 W heat only in the summer Boiler is range rated to between 12 and 16kW (acts as my other manual weather comp assisting flow temp changes because we heat intermittantly so I need a reasonably responsive system and a quick warm up) I could try to heat the house to 20 deg all day but the shape of it means those rooms with 3 external walls are my biggest contributions to my heat loss and we don't use 2 of them My 3.9 to 4.1 kW / HDD I'm OK with when it's Autumn or Spring (or a mild day in winter) I can be anywhere from 5 to 9 kW per HDD - that's where I know WC would help because my manual weather comp is never as accurate as a well managed curve (I tend to have temps I know work for autumn winter and spring so miss out on the finer deg changes that weather comp would provide) Annual usage (last 12 mths) 8,147 kW as at 31st Jan

Just for comparison and I'm not knocking your costs v comfort I'd love to be able to heat my house to that level. Early 80's 4 bed detached with a stupid shape (think T shaped where several rooms have 3 external walls it's 113 m2 total with 2 floors (~55m2 each floor) Gas for CH (rads only no underfloor) al HW and we cook on a gas hob most of the time. Heat loss calcs say 4.5 kW at -2 Heating on 0630 to 0815 and 1545 to 2200 weekdays - 0900 to 2200 weekends - rooms not used are set to 18 rooms used are set to 19 - 21 depending on use (Bathrooms higher than living room). Cavity wall insulation, 25 year old SUDG but we did recently replace both sets of french doors for more thermally efficient ones - 100 mm of loft insulation and a 14 year old Glow Worm Flexicom 24HX that has a min kW of 10kW Gas for Dec was £3.23 per day & Jan was £3.05 per day (includes SC and VAT) I'm around 3.9 to 4.1 kW/HDD (with a base line for HDD at 16.5)

I looked at the pictures and went YIKES!!!! But the installation is really neat and tidy even if it looks horribly complicated and possibly highly zoned? I assume Gas is not an option??? Why is a heat pump only 10 years? We have AC units where I work that are 20 plus years old and still work great!! If they fail the have to be replaced because wrong gas but while they work (and don't leak) they are fine - I don't understand why a heat pump would have a shorter life.......

I think that is the perfect answer Our house faces North - back of the house faces south - even in winter we get a little solar gain in the back rooms never ever seen solar gain on the front rooms but get a fair bit in the summer evenings

Cut off with a disk cutter - That's what I had to do in the void underneath my suspended floor - the clay pipe was cracked (probably from when the house was built - was never going to be found till I went under the floor to insulate the pipes and between the joists) 40 years of a small leak wasn't a nice area to work in although suprisingly not smelly!!!