jack

There are a few discussions on BuildHub about how to finish off the EPS upstand (generally, not just where things pop out). Take a look at these threads (and links to other threads they contain):

I knew I'd done a sketch, but apparently I did one in quite a lot of detail! You do need to think about how you're going to neatly finish this area, as well as ensuring the EPS is protected from rodent attack.

We had to route our ASHP pipework from one side of an attached double garage (on a raft) to the other and then a couple of metres through the house (also on a raft) into the plant room. The insulation under the slab is 3 x 100 mm EPS, so I got the guys doing it to leave a pair of channels in the middle layer. I laid some cheap drainage pipe (50 mm?) in the channels and used some expanding foam to hold them in place. They then did the last layer of EPS and proceeded as normal. I used a block of offcut EPS where the duct came into the plant room to keep the concrete away from the duct when it was poured. Once the concrete cured, I broke out the EPS, leaving me with a duct entering an open chamber in the slab at the edge of the plant room. When it came time to install the heat pump, I threaded 32 28 mm Hep2O (with oxygen barrier) piping through the duct. A 90 degree elbow in the chmaber and we had our flow and return in the plant room. At the ASHP side, I used elbows to come up the side of the garage wall. This is one detail I don't think I gave enough thought to at the time. I should probably have converted to copper right as the pipe came out of the EPS, and done everything from there in copper and then stainless braided flex, but we went with plastic. I was concerned about rodents etc, but it's pretty well wrapped in insulation and nothing's ever shown any interest in it.

It's been ~7 years since we did ours, but I'm pretty sure I used an old bread knife. I found it a lot easier to keep centred in the gap between ridges.

Cut off about 60% of the length of each blade. Job done.

Not exactly. Stalled motors draw high current.

FYI, ours is 1.73 x 2.47. It has everything except the MVHR.

[Just noticed Johnmo and Prodave beat me to it on the price and ASHP COP] Also, depending on where you live, it probably doesn't stay that cold for the whole 24 hours. Admittedly we're in the southeast, but even during a very cold period it would be unusual for the temperature not to get well into single positive figures during the day during winter. Different if you live in the Highlands I guess That very cold week we had in the south east recently was the first time in the 14 years we've lived in our current town that the average temperature was below zero for several days.

I believe the term being discussed at the time was "eco" house. If I ever sell ours, my focus will be on getting our energy bills in front of potential buyers. Passivhaus doesn't mean as much to most as very low bills.

Welcome Paul.

Welcome to BuildHub Adam. The best way of getting fast feedback is to find the right sub-forum, and post a specific question there. If you have photos and/or drawings (especially sections for something like you're discussing), that will usually help a lot.

I wish. "Slowhand" might be Eric Clapton's nickname, but it's literal in my case!

No! 🤣 Mine looks like a rat's nest inside due to a couple of poor decisions at the time I put it together. I have a long term plan to improve it, but don't really have the time to dedicate to it at the moment. What I will say is that you need a good solution for terminating your incoming CAT 6 (or whatever) wiring before it enters the cabinet. 110 blocks are a decent options for non-data cables. You then patch each pair up into the cabinet with a separate twisted pair. There are a lot of pairs from the ethernet incomers that don't get used - 1 out of 4 is the most common usage ratio per incoming cable on my installation - so having somewhere neat to terminate them outside the cabinet does a lot for internal routing space.

I coordinated our Loxone installation with my electrician (my background: electronics degree several decades ago, no programming). He did all of the electrical side of things, I did the high-level design and programming. I doubt you'll have any real difficulties with the system design. Some of the more difficult questions are less technical and more where and how to make compromises. Example: what sort of lighting will you have, and how will you dim it? Loxone native (expensive, limited range, but works very well in the ecosystem), DMX, KNX, other? Downlights (mains, 24 V?), LED strip, wall lights, central lights, or some combination? The cabinet layout shouldn't be an issue for your electrician. I'd consider posting your question in the Loxone Google Groups group: https://groups.google.com/g/loxone-english

I can't remember whether the rule changed or just the interpretation of the rule, but there used to be a belief/fear that you couldn't get the RHI if cooling was enabled. ASHPs were supplied with cooling mode disabled by default, and you had to enter a code or change a setting to re-enable it. I believe (but might be wrong) that those fears proved unfounded, or perhaps the rules changed. Either way, it was always easy enough to get around. Opening a window only works when it's cooler outside than in. I tend to only use cooling mode when we have a run of very hot days, as it takes that long for the house to heat up significantly. Also, we have a lot of solar, so it doesn't cost anything to have the cooling on when we choose to use it.

Why do manufacturers offer cooling mode if it shouldn't be used? As long as you take care to avoid condensation issues, there's no good reason to avoid cooling mode. I've run mine to cool our slab during summer for several years without issue. Is ECS hot water production and is a "PIV module" a radiator type module that you blow air across for cooling? Depending on how your valves are set up, you might get a slug of hot or cold water escaping into the wrong circuit as it changes mode, but that's unlikely to make any practical difference. The main thing with cooling is condensation risk. If you're using a radiator-type attachment to cool air, you'll generate quite a bit of condensation. You'll therefore need to be sure that the cooler has a drain for capturing condensation, and you need to be able to plumb in somewhere for the captured condensation to go

Welcome Gareth, sounds like you live an interesting life! The NSBRC used to get mentioned a bit, although my feeling is that references to it are down a bit over the years. To be fair, with over 10,000 members (admittedly most don't post) I'm sure there's a lot of posting going on that I might have seen when we were a lot smaller, so perhaps things haven't changed the way I feel they have. I'm sure you're aware of the forum's non-commercial posting rules, but I don't think you'll have any issues posting about the NSBRC as long as you keep things factual and don't try to sell anything. If you ever have any questions or concerns on this point, feel free to drop a moderator a private message (see list of staff here: https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/staff, although do try to pick a mod that you've seen online recently - we have a little shield showing at the top right of our avatar). Anyway, welcome again.

Even in a small property, I'd price it up before falling too deeply in love with this option. High quality plywood is insanely expensive. Personally, I can't stand the look of OSB. Someone was recently talking about cement board as a lining material. I think that could be an interesting option.

They work on the same principle as a regenerator in a Stirling engine. Warmer air going through in one direction gives some of its heat to a thermal material, then the airflow is reversed and colder incoming air picks up heat from the thermal material, then the cyle is reversed again (etc).

It's left on, but on a sunny day, the immersion diverter tends to keep the tank so warm that the ASHP won't come on, even overnight. If we're using a lot of hot water for some reason, or it's cloudy, the ASHP will come on to heat the tank. Also, if it's warm and sunny (especially for more than a day or two in a row), we generally run the ASHP in cooling mode during the day to keep the heat down.

It wasn't on this thread, it was on a couple of others. I assume his bland "contribution" here was to make people think he wasn't a spammer. The fact his email address included the same domain name as the website he was spamming was a bit of a clue!

The response you quoted tagged the spammer and arose solely as a result of his contribution. If it makes you more comfortable to read "[removed quoted material from spammer]" as "[removed quoted material arising from spammer's contribution]", feel free to do so.

Definitely give the scrabbler a go at that price. The grinder cost me several hundred quid in hire + wear, and that was with a discount due to my family having connections into the building hire trade. That was to do around 50 m2, although as I said, the concrete was old and hard. Treat yourself to a decent respirator too, if you don't already have one. Concrete dust is bloody evil.

I assume you can't just build up with adhesive, because the concern is more the loose crud on top than a little bit of unevenness. If all you want to get is to get rid of the loose stuff on the top, I'd have thought a scrabbler would be the way to go. I used a concrete grinder to grind the concrete floor in our garage (we had spalling for various reasons - very cold weather overnight, possibly a bit too much water in the site-mix that was used), and would caution against it. To remove only a few mm, I had to go over it repeatedly, and it cost a fortune in worn diamond pads. Admittedly I was working with concrete that had cured for several years - if your slab is days rather than years old, it'll likely be easier on pads. But the main thing here is that you aren't trying for a smooth surface, you're looking to break up a thin friable layer. Scrabbling is much better suited to that task than grinding. I wouldn't worry about grooves being left by the scrabbler. If anything, they'll provide some tooth for the adhesive.

There's no hard and fast rule - HMRC basically does what they want, and in general that involves rejecting things unless there's a clear case to the contrary. Personally, I suspect there's no way you'll win an argument that you've installed a grand's worth of speakers to hear a doorbell.