jack

We have high ceilings downstairs so the mounting height was okay for us. Ours is behind a full-height removable panel at the back of a drying cupboard in our utility room: I assume the 25 deg C ambient temp is to do with Legionella. We have several showers a day, so unless the house is left unoccupied for a long period, I'm not really concerned about this particular requirement (even if we go on hols, the temp in enclosed spaced will quickly approach the low-20s ambient of the rest of the house anyway). Our plant room would have been a better place for the unit, as it's just on the other side of the drying cupboard, but the plumber was very reticent to install it there given it was likely to be well above 25 deg C for long periods of time. It's been quite a while, so I'm not sure. I believe it was around £600, but that's a complete guess. Powerpipe (the main competitor to the one I used) has pricing on its website

I believe it was this one.

Just typing this as you posted actually Nick. We have one. Long payback, yes, but I reckon 90+% of the hot water use in our house is showers. Baths are extremely rare - maybe once a month at the moment. We have 4-6 showers a day, 2-3 of which are kids old enough to shower themselves but not old enough to get out of the shower without a lot of cajoling. Even taking a conservative estimate of efficiency, we save a lot of hot water with WWHR (reducing energy consumption is good, surely? ). Equally importantly, we get a lot more out of our tank. We have a 250L UVC. With our particular water usage patterns, I suspect it's like having a 350+L tank. As for just taking shorter, cooler showers, no thanks. A decent shower is one of the few luxuries I allow myself. I already keep them pretty short and I shower at whatever temperature is comfortable. We don't have high flow showers. One thing I don't have is comparative performance numbers, because the unit was installed before the house was occupied. I do know we've never run out of hot water in over a year. Can't say whether that would be true if we didn't have the unit.

I've been looking at this recently. I was originally thinking along the lines you discuss, but I'm concerned about complexity etc. Ideally you could provide an original number for each order, but that's a bit of a pain, and I don't doubt that a lot of delivery people will ignore it. Another approach I'm considering is buying something like this or this and building it into a cupboard

Screwfix all the way with me. The staff aren't that helpful, but they have an absolutely no quibble returns policy, and I can check online to see prices and stock before I leave (and even buy it). We had one about 20 mins drive away, which was a bit of a pain during the build, but not so bad as long as you planned ahead and tried to make each trip worthwhile. Painful when you got out of the car at home and realised you'd forgotten to buy the most important thing on the list! We did use Travis and Jewsons for stuff Screwfix didn't sell. In the end, we found the people at Travis (in our area, at least) a lot more helpful. Once they got to know my wife by name, the haggling over price became faster, but she still had to ask them every. single. time. whether that was the best they could do.

I'm sure he can't wait!

My wife hasn't yet, but she'll find a way! Thank god I'm perfect

Wow, that's some view. House is looking good too!

Story of my life.

Our cats ended up going to another home. I got sick of being woken up every single night to let them in/out, since I'm the only one in the house who can be roused from sleep by noise. I don't miss them at all, and I'm sure the surrounding wildlife is pleased they're gone too.

The problem is that the zeitgeist - and more importantly the legislation - isn't interested in your beliefs about common sense. If you properly fulfil your obligations, then some numpty doing something stupid when your back's turned is far less likely to result in you being sued, or worse.

What the...? And I feel guilty for letting ours play for a couple of hours on the weekend!

Exactly this. We have a camping stove and spare bottle in the garage. Worst case we need to cook on that once or twice, not the end of the world.

Come on gents, it's the festive season. Let's all talk nice.

Agreed, but to be fair, you guys are a small minority within a small community that has self-selected itself on the basis of an interest in self-build that goes far beyond that of the ordinary person having a house built or renovated. I know a handful of people who've done large refurbs (double house size sort of thing) and built from scratch, and every one of them looked at me blankly when I asked what sort of insulation they are using (I didn't even bother asking about U values or airtightness). I was unhappy with our first architect. Not incompetent, but we didn't like what she was designing us, and the way she positioned the house on our block would never in a million years have passed planning. I'm hugely positive about the architect we replaced her with. He had great ideas, was technically excellent (with the possible exception of some of his weathering details) and really helped us think about how to approach house design. We would never have come up with the layout he suggested, but it works really well in practice. There are, of course, things I'd change in hindsight, but they aren't his fault. Design is an organic process, with lots of compromises, some of which aren't apparent until you're living in the space. Friends of ours had a highly awarded architect design them a house. It's a hugely contemporary glass thing to sit on a country plot. They've just had it costed, and the cheapest he's been able to find so far is over twice the budget he gave the architect. To be fair, I do think they (the friends) were ridiculously optimistic on price and indeed may have contributed to the higher costs based on their insistence on luxury spec throughout. It's also a difficult house to build, and I know lots of builders simply refused to quote. Other friends of ours used an architect to convert their bungalow into a two story house and are wildly happy with what he did. So what does this tell you about architects? Very little, I suspect. Like any professional qualification, it's just confirmation that at some stage you ticked all the boxes to get it. How good a practitioner you subsequently become depends on your talents, experience, motivation and a bit of luck. You should expect competence, and for most people that's sufficient (see first paragraph above!) If I found an error, I'd point it out to the architect and have them fix it. As you say, the "correction" isn't my responsibility.

Yep, spring-loaded clips I believe. Just be careful!

Good luck.

Stick to your guns on this one, would be my answer. A year after moving in I can still see every compromise and imperfection in our house. I wish I'd stood up and demanded better in some cases.

I think they do keep an occasional eye on the forum, as they know they get discussed a fair bit. Suspect they don't get involved because they don't want to be seen to be touting their wares.

I was sure that we had 1 metre specified too, but looking at the drawings, all I can see is a perimeter land drain 600mm out. Maybe assume the worst (1m) and ask him to be ready to quote differently if you can get away with less once you've spoken with MBC? Also, have you tried Hilliard Tanner (MBC's consultant engineer) directly? I found him very approachable and helpful when we had a couple of issues along the way. His details are here: http://www.tsd.ie/aboutus.html Maybe he hasn't knocked off for Christmas yet!

" The tariff for new ASHPs will be increased from the current level of 7.51p/kWh to 10.02p/kWh. ... To deliver the benefits of this change as soon as possible, the tariff increases will be applicable to those participants who make an application on or after the date on which this document is published, though the increased tariff will only apply from the date on which the regulations which make these changes come into force."

Yes, although presumably this effect will become less efficient as the external temperature rises (which is fine - it's when it's really cold outside that you want to be recovering as much heat as you can anyway).

Agree completely. I was always surprised by suggestions that a "slab" temperature could be controlled to within a fraction of a degree C.

Sounds about right. I wouldn't get too concerned about insulation - if the sensor is held in decent contact with the pipe (+ thermal gel), even a small amount of insulation will be more than sufficient I suspect. Doesn't sound like overkill at all. I have exactly those sensors (or perhaps the other type that's nearly as ubiquitous) wired into my home automation system: one in each of two positions in the slab, another two at different heights in the UVC, and two used behind switch covers upstairs and downstairs as air temperature sensors. I've stolen one of the UVC ones now and then to temporarily attach it to the UFH manifold. I need another couple to do slab temperature control, but it isn't a priority at the moment. That's the best reason to do anything like this. I just wish I had the time!