jack

Are you saying that if a loop on the sunny side gets warm, its valve will close, so the heat won't be distributed (and, even worse, the temp in that zone will continue to rise because the fluid can't get out of the loop?) I guess that's potentially an issue if you have per-loop/zone control. With a smart enough controller (ie, not your usual thermostat), you could actually control the valve on the hot zone to open wider in this situation, so that the heat is shared/dumped more quickly with/to the other zones. You could also potentially do some clever things like averaging across zones to see whether you actually need more heat or just need time for the hot zone to blend with the rest. I must say though, if you have enough insulation under your floor, single zone control is a lot easier!

Not if you only have a single "zone", as many of us running a passive slab have. That said, it wouldn't much more difficult to track the temperature of the return on each loop as it comes up out of the floor. I've had good success just using some plastic wrap to hold a one-wire sensor against a copper pipe. How much slower will multi-layer UFH pipe be to react? Given the time constants involved, I suspect it'll be fast enough.

Welcome Jane. Sounds like an interesting project.

Nice one. We were surprised to get something similar when we convinced the council not to charge us council tax on a non-existent property. In our case, my wife got a reduced rate initially, but then while looking for something else several months later I noticed that we were actually eligible for zero rating. A couple of phone calls and a letter, and we got a refund (might have been a credit, actually) for several months of half-rate council tax. A rare result! Better than we managed with our broadband. Shortly before moving back in, we realised that my wife accidentally didn't manage to terminate our broadband. Since there hadn't been a physical line in place for over a year, I requested a refund or credit now that we were about to reconnect. "Nope", they said. "We can see there's no line and that you haven't actually connected to the service for over a year, but we were providing the service ready for you to do so at your convenience". I pointed out that we were moving in shortly and whether I would continue with them would depend on their answer. The guy checked with his manager, the answer was no, so we cancelled it immediately and will never, ever use them as an internet provider again. Superb long-term thinking on their part. Still in negotiations with our water supplier about paying for surface water drainage. We've pointed out that we no longer discharge into the drains, so should no longer be paying them to take surface water. They're now asking for proof, so the next thing is to show them our drainage plans and proof that the house was demolished last year. We'll see how it goes!

We have a 250L UVC with 5kW ASHP. Seems to work fine. As discussed elsewhere, we boost the top part with the immersion every morning but probably don't need to. We've never run out of water in a year living here, although admittedly our water pressure is a bit low at the moment (temporary restrictor fitted by plumber to make absolutely sure we pass water calcs). We have two young kids who tend to take longish showers unless you continually hound them out of it. My wife and I both shower at least once a day, and what with sport, gym, etc, I'd say we average 5-6 showers a day between us, of anything between 4 and 10 mins each. We do have shower waste water recovery, and I'm convinced that helps a lot. One thing you could consider is plumbing in the basics for a second cylinder and seeing how you get on with just the one. If you make the room now and put the main pipework in place, it won't cost much, and you'll avoid outlaying for something you may never use. My inlaws have 2 x 250L in their 5 bed house with just the two of them(!) They basically turn one off unless they have quite a few guests. Personally I think they could do with just one by leaving the immersion running constantly on the odd weekend when they have guests. You might consider something similar as well, especially if your peak needs are going to only be occasional (might depend on how often you actually use the baths) . Bear in mind that although the occasional immersion usage seems wasteful, you have half the standing losses with a single tank. To be fair to her, she hasn't seen the restrictor you're going to hide in the plumbing to said shower!

That still leaves the problem of getting them to actually use it when you aren't watching! We built a nice, easy to install frame that I put in place each morning to protect the main door when I arrived on site. Worked a treat, until one afternoon when I was off somewhere, and someone decided that it would be easier to remove the frame to get a big bit of heavy machinery through the door rather than spend a few minutes breaking the machine down so it would fit through with the frame in place. Bingo - nice big gouge in the powder coating on the door frame. I suppose I should be thankful they didn't deny it when I saw it on the way back in.

This is probably the best place to start: http://forum.buildhub.org.uk/ipb/forum/66-roofs-general/

Welcome to buildhub Jazzy!

This agrees with our experience. In our house, downstairs (where the UFH is) is always warmer than upstairs, despite us having double-height areas and a massive space for the stairs (which themselves are open tread).

One thing to consider is some sort of enclosure for deliveries. I haven't had a chance to look more closely yet, but I'm thinking of building a bin enclosure (a more stylish version of this) near the pedestrian gate at the end of our drive and incorporating something like this at one side. Remains to be seen whether it can be done without looking shite.

I got a lump in my throat reading that.

Ah, interesting, thanks.

Pleased I got a 5 year warranty deal on the AEG dryer I bought last year then!

It really doesn't take much, does it? We all understand that stuff happens. It's how suppliers (and tradespeople, etc) respond that determines the impact of that stuff.

Agree with all that. Although our house is very modern, it's not particular challenging from a design or construction perspective. I'd have loved to do something challenging on both counts, but there's no way we'd have gotten away with it in our area (and that's before discussing costs and delays).

I never said otherwise. If you want to discuss historical exchange rates and what rates you happened to get several months ago, have at it, but I personally feel that information is of pretty limited use to people looking for bathroom suppliers today. My main focus was avoiding off-topic political discussions from derailing a useful thread.

Sounds good to me, assuming you usually have the same person delivering your post. Maybe a discreet sign somewhere near the front door? I guess you could add that if you find you're having problems with mail deliveries.

It was very useful for us. Our first architect designed something that we subsequently learned would never in a million years have been allowed by our local planning department. The local guy we subsequently engaged was extremely familiar with the local department's foibles. He ended up getting us planning permission first go for a very, very modern house in an extremely conservative (both kinds) suburban neighbourhood. There isn't a house within a mile of us that looks like it's been built less than 60 years ago, so I think this was a pretty good result. I'll add that it wasn't just that he was local: he was also a better architect, in my opinion, and also better at the planning side of things generally. Agreed on Jamie's comment about access, too. While ours wasn't engaged after planning, he only lived a few blocks away, so occasionally dropped in just to say hi and see how things were going.

Please all, let's not take this useful thread any further off topic. The markets and exchange rates are what they are, and there's nothing to be gained from rehashing the hows and whys of Brexit. Thanks

Amen to that. I thought I was going made recently when I tried to buy an extension reel. The one that was in the catalogue just didn't come up in any word-based searches, and I could only get to it by using the part number. Crazy.

According to the guy who runs this youtube channel (which I highly recommend recommend more generally, especially for those not easily offended by swearage), Milwaukee's quality has been falling for several years following its acquisition by Techtronic in Hong Kong. +1 on that. They really don't make it easy to compare, as newer models seem to have almost the same features as the old ones, and there doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason in the numbering scheme. Their range is too big, imo.

The merchants. They pay a percentage (in the case of Amex, a relatively high percentage, I believe) of the purchase price to the card provider (eg, the bank), which I believe is split between the provider and Amex/Mastercard/Visa etc).

Makita for me, all the way. As to what to go for, I've gone with the cheapest brushless model, usually at ffx tools or similar. I buy bare tools (no battery or case). I've had good results with a 4Ah non-Makita battery from eBay. In the general "drilling" area, I have an impact driver (amazing bit of kit if you've never owned one) and a one of the larger cordless drills. Between the two of them they've handled all of the jobs I've had to do onsite, including light masonry drilling. I've always had cheap tools in the past, but now that I've had quality I could never go back.

Pleased you've kept it to only 3. Many more than that might be considered excessive!

... that you know of!