jack

Our ASHP is on the far side of our attached garage. The pipework runs through the centre layer of the insulation under our slab. The total distance from ASHP to cylinder is around 8-9 metres. It works perfectly fine, although I'm sure that's at least partly because it's so well insulated. Our ASHP is rated to 55 deg C, and the tank reaches that temperature every morning without fail even in the middle of winter. Ours is a monobloc (single exterior unit outputs hot water). A split system (or bi-bloc) has the fan and refrigerant unit outside, and outputs hot refrigerant to an internal unit that heats water. Split systems tend to be more expensive and require installation by a refrigeration engineer due to the use of refrigerant connections.

I could watch skilled trades working all day. Beats actually doing anything myself! You can see why plasterers either have amazing shoulders or serious shoulder problems. My shoulders are aching just watching him do three minutes on the ceiling.

They somehow did worse than that. The shower in this bathroom takes 3 seconds to start warming up. The basin takes over 40 seconds. The downstairs plant room with UVC is just to the right of right hand wall: I assume the shower pipework goes straight up inside the wall, whereas the basin suffers from a much longer route. It's possible the longer route was required to get around, eg, drainage and MVHR runs. I'm just not sure. We should definitely have had HRC to our kitchen (~12m run from UVC) and downstairs toilet (~8m run).

Ours is on the far side of our (attached) garage and I've literally never heard it. When it's ticking away at low speed providing UFH heating during winter, you can feel the cold breeze from the fan as you walk by, but that's about it. Admittedly, it only does water heating between 4 and 6 am, so I suppose it could be making a huge racket at that time. We certainly can't hear anything in our bedroom, and its the closest room to the ASHP. We have 8.5kW of PV, but during winter, there are many days when it hardly generates any energy at all. It's much better in the shoulder months - spring can provide some useable energy at a time when the ASHP might sometimes be on.

Yes, they do work better in summer, but they're still useful for hot water during that time (assuming you aren't using PV and diverter - our ASHP basically turns off for several months a year during summer). And while it's true they work better at a time when you need them less, that it a misleading way of putting it. The question is, do they still work, in a cost-effective way, when you need them most. Assuming a well-insulated house and a properly designed and scaled ASHP heating system, the answer is an emphatic "yes". As others have said, the much higher capital and maintenance costs for GSHPs make them generally uncompetitive against ASHPs, assuming you're not prevented from using an ASHP due to, eg, planning restrictions.

That should be all you need, really.

Ah, sorry, it's a joke based on the long planning history of this house. Joe's local council were insisting on 1.5 storey based on a mythical "local vernacular" requirement. He took it to appeal and won.

This would have been better as a 1.5 storey cottage. Much more in keeping with the local vernacular.

First he'll need to plant the hazel seeds, manufacture the necessary tools , dig up some limestone, build a crusher, build a kiln, etc. We may be some time.

You could make one, surely?

This thread is so fun.

Bear in mind that those of us with 200mm centres have our pipes buried under at least 40mm of concrete. That will tend to provide more even heat than the same spacing under ~20mm, which is all you'll have above yours with 16mm pipe at the bottom of 35mm screed.

I may be misremembering, but aren't there DNO limitations on how far the supply is allowed to be from the house without further protection (3m rings a bell)? Putting the temporary supply on the boundary doesn't sound like it'll achieve that (depending, of course, on how far the house is from the boundary). I have no idea what cost/complexity implications are associated with this.

Ours used to jump several feet from a standing start, with very little scrabbling. The mesh might discourage them, but I personally wouldn't rely on it.

Most dogs won't jump fences unless they're very low. Most cats, unless old or fat, will easily get over 6+ foot fences.

Correct use of past tense. Actually, my wife hates hanging about once she's awake, even on weekends, so she bounds out of bed in the morning. I tend to take a more leisurely approach...

Is your temporary supply going to become your permanent one when the house is finished? If so, you should spec for that.

Our kitchen is at the back of the house, because our building area was long and narrow. Study and lounge are to the right (south) as you move into the hall, and snug, toilet, utility and plant room are to the left (north). We have friends who built a house with the kitchen at the front of the house, and that works really well (at least partly because their house is shallow and wide, so the kitchen is still close to the back garden. We did consider an upside down house due to the steep rise to the back of our plot, and schlepping up to the kitchen was one reason we didn't do that in the end. You have to work with the constraints you have, for sure.

My mate knows people who were affected by their holiday homes being vandalised and even set on fire by Welsh nationalists. It was a big thing in the 80s and mid 90s apparently: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meibion_Glyndŵr

Keep a dated diary in a properly bound notepad, summarising any interactions you have with her/them. Ideally you'd get someone unconnected with you to date and sign each entry on the date you make it. That way, if threats were to become serious, you have a contemporaneous record written so it'll be more than just your word against theirs. Other than that, I don't have any real advice. Since trying to talk to them clearly isn't getting you anywhere, perhaps it's better to just crack on, do what you need to do and accept that there may be consequences. The alternative is to wait until they sell and hope the new neighbour is more rational, but as you say, there's no guarantee they'll manage to get shot of it. BTW, are you English (or more importantly, not Welsh?) Friends of ours have had a family holiday home in north Wales for decades and they're still only barely tolerated by many of the locals. Crazy attitude given that tourism is all the area has left. If you aren't Welsh, you may be getting some of that vibe.

Will take a listen, thanks.

The other possibility is to plan the new house in a position that leaves you the option to split in the future, if it isn't something you want to do now.

Absolutely. It's a shame the original reactor designs were built with nuclear weapons materials in mind, or we might have gone the thorium route instead. Cheaper, safer and more plentiful than uranium-based. The other big issue with nuclear is the time it takes to design, approve and build the reactors (plus no-one wants a new one near them). Same with fusion. If we'd spent the amount of money on battery based grid storage that's gone into fusion research in the last 30 years, we'd be halfway to solving the energy problem. Fusion at scale is going to be too late imo. There's been work on small (ie, neighbourhood) scale thorium reactors, although I haven't really followed what's been happening over the last handful of years.

Baby steps, but we'll get there eventually.

Nice garden - I can definitely see why you wouldn't want to build on it. Anyway, welcome (again!) to the forum.