jack

Thus? http://www.directindustry.com/prod/l-echelle-europeenne/product-143598-1600667.html

From memory, the guys that did ours said it's best to let it go off for a few days after power floating, but no more, before polishing. There's a balance - you want it hard enough to take a polish, but not so hard that polishing takes forever.

Bit of a long story, but the slab concrete didn't set right (combination of unexpected squalls followed by freezing weather in the following two days). MBC suggested raising the entire house by a stud width (38mm) and then flowing in a screed. In the end, we decided to go with concrete. We'd allowed for 25mm floor coverings, and that plus the 38mm gave us just enough to squeeze in ~65mm of concrete which was then power-floated to within an inch of its life and then polished and sealed. 65mm is less than the recommended minimum of 75mm and we do have a couple of cracks. Still worth it. I'll post some photos later.

We have polished concrete on top of an MBC slab. Let me know if you want some photos.

We're in the south east of England so not quite the same climate as you, but our experience so far has been excellent. We have an insulated slab with UFH and MBC twin stud walls. 290m2 over two floors, no heating upstairs. We have 8.5kW of PV and an immersion diverter for our 250L UVC, and as far as I know our 5kW ASHP literally hasn't turned on for several weeks this summer. We had people, including our plumber, express a lot of concern over our choice of a 5kW Panasonic Aquarea unit for a house the size of ours. The general argument was that it would be flat out for several hours heating the tank to 55 degrees from cold, and that the house would go cold over this period. During the one admittedly mild winter we've so far been through, that wasn't the experience at all. Bearing in mind that it takes most of a day for the slab temp to drop any meaningful amount, we had the ASHP set to come on from 4 to 6am, to heat the tank to 55 degrees. At 6, the ASHP would turn off and the top quarter of the tank would then be heated to 85 degrees using the upper immersion. The slab temp stayed rock solid during this period. To be honest, I set this up as a temporary measure when we moved in, but it's worked so well that I haven't bothered changing it yet. We never ran out of hot water over winter and as far as I can tell there wasn't a lot of defrosting going on (based on temp of water returning to the ASHP, which we logged). I haven't paid much attention to our bills but my wife says they're much lower than when we were running an 87m2 oil-heated bungalow on the same site (and that's without counting FiTs). I do wonder how things will go when we have a cold wet winter but so far it's all good. We also haven't yet had call to turn on the cooling function on the ASHP despite a long run of hot weather recently. We do have quite a lot of useful shade from trees along with carefully positioned overhangs, so clearly that helps. If you have any specific questions, let me know and I'll do my best to answer them.

Looks like a good mix of sizes there. Should bed down nicely (and it will need to looking at that slope! )

Our PV was commissioned in July last year - several months before our as-built EPC was prepared - and we had no problem when we applied for the FiT late last year. You're right that the rule changed in May, but it looks like the only difference was to prevent same-day applications (underlined bits are the only change): "Solar PV applications submitted before 10 May need to provide an EPC which was issued on or before (and not after) the commissioning date of the system. Solar PV applications submitted on or after 10 May need to provide an EPC which was issued before (and not on or after) the commissioning date of the system." Based on the "before 10 May" criterion, we shouldn't have been able to get the FiT! Perhaps the rule was different late last year when we applied? Be interesting to see what your PV provider has to say. P.S. I deleted my previous post because it wasn't relevant. I assumed you meant you got a lower rate due to a drop in FiTs, rather than due to the "lower" designation due to EPC date relative to PV commissioning.

When you say "put through to", do you mean they transferred you or suggested you call them? I'm finding this whole sequence of events a little puzzling if I'm honest. As Peter says, a link to the decision notice (or a redacted version of it if you're shy - let us know if you need a hand with that) would be very useful.

Yep, low tech heat recovery!

Inserted where though? If just a comment by them to the planners during the consultation period, then as others have said, it's irrelevant unless the planners have made it a condition of planning.

Where are the paragraphs you refer to? Are they just in English Heritage's submissions during the planning process as a statutory consultee? If so, they can sit and spin unless the planning permission you received includes such limitations. I'd stop communicating with English Heritage until you have this sorted out.

There exist products that extract heat from foul water but they all have the problem of dealing with biofilms and blockages more generally. Also, the heat is so low grade on average that you'd need something like a heat pump to get much out of it. All possible, but I think payback time might be an issue given the capital and maintenance costs.

I also looked at it as something that could easily last 20 years while helping us use a little less energy every day. The focus definitely wasn't payback!

They're only connected to showers. Depending on the model, you can connect a couple of showers to one. We have one connected to our two main showers (ensuite and kids' bathroom). In our case, my wife and I tend to shower one after the other, and so do our kids. That's the best way to use these units, as it takes time for them to start working. As much as the energy saving, which I know is modest, I was interested in maximising the effective amount of hot water we got out of our 250L tank. I can't say what contribution this unit has made, but we've never run out of water in the 8 months we've lived here, even with multiple showers each a day sometimes (very active family!)

I'd considered that, but what (if anything) is likely to be said if you have a new house with an actual air tightness test?

There are ways around it. Energy consumption is estimated, so within reason there's nothing to stop you estimating your U-values in a favorable direction!

Are you near the sea? I believe that some ASHPs may not cope well with a lot of salt water. ASHPs, in general, work well with UFH because it only requires relatively low temperatures, especially in a well-insulated house. They can be less suited to - or at least less efficient for - DHW production.

The big issue with the RHI is that it rewards consumption. Even if you're using the ASHP to preheat your DHW, a well insulated house uses relatively little energy, meaning that the potential RHI benefit may not make up for the ridiculously inflated charges that RHI-registered installers demand. My electrician managed most of the electrical side of our 5kW Panasonic Aquarea installation, but I did everything else starting from a less technically experienced position than you. Assuming you can acquire the installation manual for whatever you intend to buy (ie, if you're thinking of one of the second hand units in this thread), I think you'll be fine. Plenty of people on here who've done it and can chip in if you get stuck.

Look into one-wire sensors. They're cheap and you can run several of them off one cable. You do need a way of reading the values - we have a one-wire module in our home automation system.

Don't Fakro do made to measure? Give their UK tech people a call - I found them very helpful

Not sure what Jeremy used. I bought two of these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00FDEX6A4 To be honest, given how long they last and how fast they charge, I could have gotten away with just buying one. I know this is true because one of them went "missing" from the site at some point, and it took me months to notice!

Since buying a brushless Makita impact driver early on in the build, I now won't buy any other brand. I always buy the cheapest brushless version of whatever tool I need and am consistently blown away by their quality and performance. I don't use Makita's batteries though. You can get off-brand batteries for less than half the price that seem to perform perfectly well.

Maybe try again to be sure?

Another thing to do is look at planning submissions in your area going back at least a handful of years. It'll give you an idea about who's managed to get what approved. You might also get some clues about how nearby neighbours have responded to other planning submissions. We learned that our immediate neighbours had had a rotten time with several of the other neighbours, but carefully prodding around for information we discovered that they more or less brought it on themselves.

We wanted a 32mm pipe given that the point where the pipe enters our house is about 75m from the mains. We were told that the standard was 25mm and that if we wanted more we'd need to justify it. Oh, and we'd need to pay for a new water main connection, including paying for a road crossing!