G and J

Or decide what you want and bang in a pre app advice thingy?

I wasn’t either but a few hours reading on here and googling and I’m sold on the idea. We are building them in so they will be almost invisible (apart from a couple of grills). They connect to the flow and return of your wet UFH and they have a controller and, optionally a drain which I will be doing. The drain is for condensate if you run em cooler than the dew point, but we’re hoping we can run one zone UFH plus fancoils at a cool enough temperature to help cool the place but not enough to cause loads of condensation. So I think they’ll sit there with their guts at the same temp as the UFH and when more heat or cold is needed in that bedroom then the fan kicks in. That must mean a stat and controller just for them.

Hmmmm, the American military deliberately introduce positional errors into GPS, and clever stuff can go wrong in clever ways that are way beyond me, so I think I’ll stick to me hosepipe, but I’m glad it worked for you. But what were the pins for?

I imagine oil stabilises more quickly, and is maybe more visible in the plastic tube. Me being a cheapskate, I bought a 3m length of clear plastic tube the right diameter for hozelock fittings and I use it on the end of a long garden hose. Works a treat.

I was really keen on having one, but the more I looked into it the less attractive it looked. MVHR simply doesn’t move enough air for it to help that much. Instead we are going to be gently cooling our screed downstairs and we are having a Fancoil mainly for cooling in the main bedroom and probably piping and cabling for a Fancoil in each of the other bedrooms.

I like my water level. It’s cheap and reliable. @Alan Ambrose is this a general question or are you soon to be setting out some footings?

Our 1930s bungalow simply couldn’t take any more weight on its walls or scant foundations, so keeping some of the ground floor would have been difficult and expensive. I wonder if that’s the case for the OP.

So if a tundish must be used then drain that to a standard u bend or similar that is also used by something else to ensure the trap never runs dry. My water softener will be in the garage outside my airtight envelope so through wall o/f looking good. My UVC (upstairs) tundish and fancoil drain however will drain to a trap (downstairs) which is also used by the kitchen sink.

FUBAR I suspect lol. Back to cyber lighting, I think I can conclude that I can add this stuff later, especially if I wire loop-at-switch. Given the massive retrofit market there must be compared to new build that conclusion is entirely credible. No extra wiring is needed, and the stuff isn’t desperately expensive so the exclusion from VAT reclaim won’t matter, and may even be negated by reducing prices as the market matures. Plus I am capable of diversion and I’ll need to focus on the build.

I am sooooo gonna regret asking this, but what does WAF stand for?

So cat something cable to every light switch backbox from a thumping great Ethernet switch you mean?

That’s such a kind offer, thank you. I’ll do some more reading in my spare time (yep, when laying awake) and pick one system to play with and start prototyping.

I’d be tempted to imagine/doodle/draw whatever the house I’d build if the whole thing wasn’t there. A buildable plan mind, not a flight of fancy. Then determine how close you can get to that with each option. That process may well make the decision easy for you. All of the options will be feasible physically, where they may differ is price and planning acceptability.

I guess my head is full of the notion of using cheap rate periods to charge a big screed in a house that has a very constant pleasant temperature, (until I light the woodburner lol). The idea that for months on end we never have to think about the heating settings is very attractive. Couple that with exporting spare lecky and thus having good running costs and for me that’s worth using my mental crampons to ascend the slippery learning curve.

I thought it was a flat £7.5k. Or did I dream that?

[ALERT - THEORY BASED RESPONSE SO NO DIRECT EXPERIENCE AVAILABLE - CORRELATE WITH ANSWERS FROM GROWN UPS!] I’ve been researching flat roofs for ours. My understanding is that you are creating a wet pocket, and that will rot your roof timber. If it’s a temporary measure to reduce how damp it gets over Christmas before stripping the roof maybe it’s a good idea, but I’m not sure. I wonder if your roof would be better left so moisture can evaporate into the building, as I wouldn’t think it would get out via the GRP at all. Better in this sense means taking longer to rot. If you throw a few bodies at it will it really take that long to remove and replace? If not why not forget the plasterboard inside, etc. and cover the joists with baubles and tinsel then give your renewed roof a happy new year?

Top dude! We’ll done, thank you.

So how can one wire one of these relays so the manual switch and the relay work side by side? Say for example a simple, single switch/pendant light.

And having said all that I spoke yesterday with a BCO and when I mentioned a slightly thicker screed for improved UFH/house temp performance he expressed the opinion that it wouldn't help. He has a 65mm screed and that's fine - "you won't notice any difference". (His airtightness is circa 3, so that may be a factor). Maybe this is another thread....

Forgive the crap drawing, but simply place the beams a brick lower, and use more stuff (be it insulation or screed) above it to make up the thickness. It may mean digging out more too, so beware of that as an unexpected extra cost. An insulated bnb is different in that the concrete blocks are replaced with polystyrene which gets more insulation into the same thickness, so the insulation sheet above the beams can be thinner for the same u value.

Forgive my ignorance. Am I correct in saying that I can add one of these devices into a standard wall light switch, continue to use said light switch manually, and in addition turn that light on and off using hone assistant?

I believe the overflow should be visible, i.e. through a wall to outside or maybe to a tunndish thence a waterless trap. If it’s overflowing you will want to know. Others might be different but our softener has a reservoir just sitting there. When regenerating that water mixes with supply water. We don’t drink softened water but the idea that my washing or washing up water is partly stuff that’s sits with a direct connection to drains/sewers isn’t nice.

Anyway, back to our posts about our errant neighbours. I really have calmed down now and hopefully got a bit more perspective. Yesterday I (G) felt like the bath spider. You know, the one that keeps falling back down however hard I try at climbing, all the time knowing instinctively that any time soon the shower will be turned on and I’ll be washed down the stinky rapids to oblivion. Every thing I tried to progress didn’t and I had some other non building worries on repeat too. So I was tired and emotional (but technically sober however unhinged) and had a rant. Will try not to let that happen again. I've carefully had a good look at the screw foundations of next doors illegal building (nice, balanced language there) and they are more than a metre from our boundaries. And looking at what they appear to be doing I see no actual danger to life or limb. OK I think the screw foundations will sink and the building is likely to eventually become unusable but that’s not a safety issue. So I stand back and think about our build which requires us to sell our house. And that sale is probably more likely if next door aren’t in a bitchy battle with our council. Yes I think it’s wrong and stupid of them to flout planning law and building regs but I need to focus on getting the house sold so we can build at our new location. But thank you for listening folks. My rant did help me get some sleep.

I suspect that that’s kinda like one of the neighbours next door to our new house assume/believe we will be in demolition and building. We’re trying hard at being planned, prepared, tidy, thoughtful, considerate and very effective. Time will tell.

🤔 we have a 6ft hedge, soon to be taller.....building circa 13ft....so hoping for a LOT of Spring growth😉