scottishjohn

--ok ballcock valve yes you not going to get at soil pipe connections though if you spring a leak

silly question maybe --but how do you get to do any maintainence on the concealed toilet if you cannot get to all plumbing connections after you have tiled.

what temp are you charging the floor at ,cos that will make a difference on reaction time . I wouldn,t go as thin as 50mm ,but also would not have it in 300mm slab

just cover the pipe with soil/sand ,old carpet anything --even a small amount will make a difference and keeping the snow of it cos the ground below will be trying to heat it up

so you are really saying you have too much glass area in house and you got to shut out the nice sunshine ? there is no perfect solution --but for sure in summer the solar gain will be many times what it is on the good autumn and winter days .,and veranda will cure the summer problem and maybe if you think the autumn sun is such a problem you should not have as many floor to ceiling windows.maybe bottom part should by wall you never going to get what you are trying to do without a full HVAC system and as you do everything to stop energy usage then that is not going to be a solution. there is no solution if you want a view out of the window that goes from floor to ceiling , having too much solar gain is the price you pay

I read all the above maybe worth comparing isotex /durisol against block construction ,as you would be hard plastering them on inside as well and you can hang anything anywhere on them

getting silly when the price for cladding is as expensive as ICF wall system per sqm

as far as overheating i will take my advice by looking at what they do in hot countries and what they use in super passiv or zero energy houses . a veranda is what is used to solve this problem, on the south side at least ,really hot countries all round so you can move to find the coolest bit to sit and sip your mint julep so again it comes back getting it designed in before building anything for best solution even the waltons had a veranda !! I,ve always been of the impression that the real reason for external roller shutters is to keep the bad guys out ,

yes but really is an afterthought way of doing it -If you have nothing to start with then this must be a better way ,and the neutraliser would not address the solar problem . where the oil burner goes could be solar pv element,if you are that way inclined

If you have not got thermal store yet ,then from my experience runningmultiple input +output coils ,there is no ready made thermal store that is ideal . reason is simple a tall tank is not easily fitted in most houses as a retro fit and stratification of heat in tank and keeping the internal flow of the tank very low ,just vertical if possible is the key to getting best solution the best ready made solution i have seen is the SOLVIS MAX --german -no uk agent old video of how it works you could change oil or gas input for anything if you wanted . my thoughts are to get similar made but taller ,as this unit is only 500litres

reading what you say and agreeing with most of it my thoughts are not to have a very thick slab that I heat for the very reason you say . maybe 150mm slab ,then insulation then thick screed and ufh pipes At this time my house has ufh in the wooden floor and it can change temp with one hour , there is no thermal mass to speak of ,other than the tiled surface so this is why it is in my mind to maybe have a relatively thin heated slab --100mm say so it is easy to keep target floor/room temp and also bump it up quickly if needed I have been in too many ufh concrete floored houses where it takes so long for temp in house to change , if it suddenly gets warmer outside and you cannot raise ambient temp that quick with very thick floor slab the climate here can be summer one day and winter the next add to that the free heat you get to the floor from passiv solar its hard to get it right all the time its usual compromise situation again

PLC, yes that rings a bell now was hoping for something a bit less pc based --will have a look on the net anyway I am a ludite and by look of them I would need a load of relays to actually work things . I was hoping someone had made a different unit 20 years on from last time i looked at this I,ll give it some more thought didn,t really want to have a take programming course to do this. my hard drive is already pretty full and running out of RAM at my age . LOL maybe cascaded thermal stores and back to analog thermostats +relays would be simpler for me thanks for reply

I fitted one of the fancy velux insulated blinds to one in bathroom --major difference first thing in the morning Is a big velux though big as they make I think --so it is a big heat loss source

anybody know a of controller that can work with lots of inputs to control multiple heat sources .so you can decide at what temp a particular device kicks in and then at what temp t changes over to another source . I tried to find one years ago when I had solar and thermal store which was also connected to gas boiler -problem was to let solar have priority when it could make heat,even small amounts to get most hours of usage in a day and not just have boiler take over as soon as temp got too low would need to be able to work on clock settings as well . example early morning --you have showers and ufh is on --tank gets partially depleted ,but you know by 8 or 9 am there will be enough solar to fill it up again and gas won,t need to come on at all ,so you only need gas to come on if temp drops below min ufh temp and once solar is above min that kicks in and turns gas off. I made a simple analog system with min and max thermostats but not as good as it could have been with "what if program "for want of a better word It relied basically on the thermal separation in my very tall thermal store which had 3 coils,solar in and ufh out and dhw out at top and also a heat input to parent volume if needed for gas intervention If such a controller is made then maybe i would have 4th for ASHP or gas coil instead of stirring up parent volume . only thing i could find at the time was very expensive h/vac process controller for a large building ,which ran off a computer . or maybe i just have to build and even taller tank to get better separtion still

insects --yes unthere the midges will be like b52,s.lol

then you just have to suck up the running costs of aircon- how many days a year do you think that will be where you are?

update to this. ISOTEX are now going to make a UKspec block,which will have 120mm concrete core ,which they say will be fine for up to 3 storey building ,with some rebar ,over the 140mm of italian spec -which will save 15%ish in concrete costs -so all the paperwork is being reworked to reflect that . and the main man confirmed to me when he rang back yesterday that the uk spec will say up to 2m height in one pour and no need for any serious type support system,just brace the corners with plywood sheeting to be super sure --that will be a big saving --£2-300 a week for bracing hire +delivery and return transport costs to their base . he also says that delivery of blocks from order will be 1week I will wait to see all this writing in due course

you can always open the windows,wont, be that many days when its problem --or is that too low tech for some. or do what most australians do, have overhangs on big windows +a simple wall mounted air con in bedroom

If you have not got mains pressure --what chance the fire brigade when they come .!! lol

will this be a turnkey project? or you self build research ICF-- just google ICF building systems If heading close to passiv --then ICF type is easier lots of choices from polystyle ICf to woodcrete blocks +panels you will attain good air tightness easier with ICF +also gives you the thermal mass . you can do it with block work -- as well--investigate before making decisions my suggestion would be to get the design .then you can get prices from different suppliers for cost of main shell +roof internals will be basically same with any house build there are no wrong ways .but some may suit you better

sure you need a pump --system? i was suggested to use mains water pressure +thermo capsules on sprinkler heads . different in high rise maybe --then you need tank then only room on fire gets wet and no electronics of any sort

If you go for small thermal store dumping solar is easy use an old house rad or a loop of pipe in water or ground and divert when needed . having had solar for 20 years my way will be just a big tank ,or multiple cascade tanks -so I never get to postion like before where i had 180c+ melting foam insulation of copper pipes and thermal store boiling .LOL. basic rule would be 20-30tubes to a 300litre tank should ok where you are solar is simple if you have enough storage ,you can even get a small pv panel to run the circ pump independently no over heating --but not much storage for later 6 or 7 tubes will never overheat normal thermal store and probably not worth the effort. all plumbing must be copper --no plastic anywhere,cos if senor goes loopy as mine did you will melt the pipes. If you going to do it and you don,t have a solar controller I have a new one un-used kingspan sc400 cost £130 £60 +carriage I wll be using something more complicated to control all heat inputs or maybe using ashp controller as fitted to my ecodan in current house

now i think about it Ihave an odd length of brown in the compound outside and over the years, its been there for 10 at least it has faded in colour . but just went and jumped on it and it didn,t break even though its -2c I think your first thought on movement underground and breaking bond is a good enough reason not use solvent bonded piping --

If i were going off grid ,then I would have solar thermal in the mix to heat your water and save pv for things that must use electric . a bright day in winter will still give you 50c on panels to charge up your thermal store , I used a thermal store with 3 coils --solar in ,mid tank UFH out ,top dhw -which was then blended with cold to only send water to taps at 50c. main volume of tank was heated if required by lpg ,but that could be Pv or anything . downside to my system was not large enough thermal store --so could not use all solar avialable alot of the time . will not make that mistake again I was discounting it on new build but now no FIT from pv and ASHP maybe not much ,due to house energy rating -,its back on my list . but got to wait for heat load of new house to go nay further with tank size computations.. build a concrete one surrounded in pretty stone in middle of house --any energy that leeks will heat house anyway

that will explain why they are so much more expensive --adative for UV protection in that case always use black grids and connections at surface level then --not the brown one?