joth

Funny enough I settled on DMX it's the cheapest option (for wired primary lighting). Dali is at least £30 per channel, plus more expensive cabling and (much) more expensive light fixtures. I never really priced up KNX or Tree lighting. Loxone proprietary mains dimmers are like £90 per channel (!!), but those S1-DR DMX dimmers I'm using are a steal at £12 per channel and easy for anyone to wire to standard (dimmable) GU10 bulbs. (The LED strip dimmer is one £1.50 per channel, but it's 5 channels for RGBWW lighting, and adding a beefy PSU for it starts to add up.) I also have the Loxone directly controlling a number of Teckin B22 bulbs over Wifi, which at £11 per fixture with RGBWW (tunable-white) is by far the best value of all, but I really don't want to rely on Wifi for my primary lighting! (Now I have that working so well, I question if I needed quite so many channels of DMX dimming...) Whatever makes you think I'm having those? Oh, OK... - Audio: putting speaker wires in, plus some speakers in key rooms now. Initially I'll use my Sonos Amp but I'm not a major fan of their ecosystem so probably move to $something_else someday. The Loxone light switches can send volume / play commands to it, and I'll slowly get better control of it with Home Assistant - CCTV: Blue Iris and a bunch of Dahua cameras on cat6 (from unifi PoE switch). Might go Synology some point, or mess around with coral.ai person detection - Motion: Integration with the alarm system PIRs, door contact sensors, etc. - Motion: 24V motion sensors in key living areas and bathrooms (these, but butchered by my not so fair soldering hand to remove the damn noisy relays. "silent" my arse) Some other integrations in the works - Internorm automated shading - MVHR boost (based on CO2 or humidity ...) - Heating boost & eco mode control (UHF, fan coil, towel rads..) - Catflap! - Garage roller door. Good spot! Everything (that needs earth) gets it through the chassis of the LXN5 cabinet. The mains terminal blocks have pickups in their DIN rail clamp, and the TDK PSU likewise does. That said, I'll probably hard wire it in anyway as it looks better doesn't it. Mine came pre-installed in the LXN5 cabinet as bought from Future Automation, but it is exactly that stuff Thanks (all!) for the positive feedback! My wife has very severe restriction on putting this anywhere visible -- I was hoping after 5 late nights helping out with wiring it all ("working the loom" as we called it -- getting the lengths in and terminating both ends much easier & faster with 2 on it) I was hoping she'd feel proud of it too and relent, but not dice (yet). We will have it in a central cupboard on the landing, but not overlooking the hallway balcony as I was hoping!

A few colleagues on Virgin Media have been quite disappointed with it in recent months of working from home. While they are on the fastest possible (download) package for their area, the fact is for our style of home working uplink and latency is just as important, as we spend half the day on video calls. While ADSL derivative products aren't great for uplink speed (that is what the A stands for after all), cable-derived products seem even worse as the whole cable network was never designed for these sorts of traffic profiles. At least, that's how I explain it whenever they stutter and drop out. I'm on plusnet with a very reliable 75Mbps and don't seem to have had a single instance of lost dropped video. (Even with 2 of us on calls at the same time). Decent multi node Unifi Wifi probably helps a lot too.

I'm about 95% done for the "benchtop" build of my Loxone LXN5 cabinet. Couple more tweaks to the doorbell transformer and bring out the connections for the DMX Relay board, before I pack it away until 2nd fix. (The plan is i'll get it put in place in 2nd fix, then the part P sparky will populate the RCBOs as he or she wishes them, and terminate the lighting circuits into the top of the board, and sign it all off. From top to bottom I have: [TDK PSU for LED strips] Low voltage LED and sensor connections | 25 ohm resistor for doorbell | Mains dimmed connections for lighting (populated with neon lamps for testing) Loxone server | Tree extension | DMX extension | RS232 extension (for texecom connect) | DI extension | DMX amplifier PCB | DMX 12x relay board (DIY case) DMX 24 ch LED strip controller | 8x 2ch DMX Mains dimmer ("upstairs LX") DMX 24 ch LED strip controller | 8x 2ch DMX Mains dimmer ("downstairs LX") Mean well HDR-150 24V psu | Doorbell chime transformer | RCBOs (for testing)

This? Hmmm

Good lord sorry all for mentioning this. The specific case I was thinking of (not so unlike our own) was a house near a busy smelly road can get all their fresh air from the furthest point from the road with MVHR, rather than have to open windows right onto that noisy smelly road. As many point out it's no where near as clear cut as that in the general case, where sometimes MVHR could be unlucky and fair much worse than an open window, but in average as @Bitpipe has eloquently described in the face of pervasive smells it's likely no difference either way, so I'll gracefully retract this specific claim if I may? ?

PS is that really a planning condition? It reads more like a clause in the deeds of sale, which is less likely to cause issues if modestly exceeded (not to suggest you should).

Welcome! I'd say you're nowhere near violating that clause. Your extension is 10m2 and the hut is just under 30m2 so 40 total. You can build another extension that size and still not hit half of the 120m2 garden area. Tip: Google makes these unit conversions very easy, example this shows you've covered about 30% of the garden: https://www.google.com/search?client=ms-android-google&sxsrf=ALeKk030rwV4RXRSoUyBu-CGcxkf2r0amw%3A1595660493844&ei=zdgbX9SGM9aO1fAPgpWbgAo&q=(10+foot+10+inches+X+9+foot+4+inch+%2B+20+feet+X+15+foot+7+inches)%2F(10m+x+12m)+in+percent&oq=(10+foot+10+inches+X+9+foot+4+inch+%2B+20+feet+X+15+foot+7+inches)%2F(10m+x+12m)+in+percent& Or each building in m2: https://www.google.com/search?q=10+foot+10+inches+X+9+foot+4+inch&client=ms-android-google&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8 https://www.google.com/search?q=20+feet+X+15+foot+7+inches&client=ms-android-google&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8

Not to mention opening windows let's in smells, noise, drafts; causes doors to rattle and slam; can forget to open them in less used rooms leading damp; can forget to close them when going out or the weather changes; is bloomin freezing to do in the winter. You can tell I'm a ventilation fan boy and we don't even have MVHR yet ? (but yesterday we did agree the delivery date for 3 weeks time, so getting close now)

Well no, MVHR filters incoming air so can actually be cleaner air than opening the window. There's many ancedental reports on here of owners needing to do much less dusting after getting MVHR. That means less dust particles floating about in the air you breathe

Just to add to what others said, you roofer seems to have done a good job with the Roof Inspection report, I really don't think you'll get much more value (for the additional cost) in having further surveys done vs getting your roofer to give a full cost to re-roof (ask to include any likely "surprise" extra costs that builders may normally be tempted to leave off an initial quote....) and run with that

The MV remains on but the RH is turned off in summer: You Still need to Mechanically Ventilate the house year around as you still need to breathe. But no need to Recover Heat in summer as there's plenty of that. This is what MVHR "automatic bypass" mode is for.

What are you doing at the wall-roof junction? Will you have an insulated pitched roof too? We are doing this (insulating the roof to create a warm loft), but didn't want to have deep fascias and skinny soffits, as have extended the height of the rafters (to make a deeper roof section to insulation between), cut off the original rafters at the junction with where the EWI will go but extended the new rafter extensions over to create a new roofline with deeper soffits. This probably doesn't fit into the brief for "reducing the cost" mind you.

So this is begging for a cost effective combined MVHR + external heatpump + heat exchanger, not because it's an efficient system design but because it will really turn this conversation around into an active sales pitch: "Aircon in every room!" (except it's not really A/C, it's better than that, but trying to explain that sends you back down the "whhaaasat?" path again). A different tact: In my childhood (in the 80s) the must-have was upgrading older house to "central heating". Perhaps MVHR should rebrand as "central air".

How about laminate doors? https://www.doors4uk.co.uk/white-laminate-doors (ignore the bit about sliding door, the images and price calculator at the bottom of the page cover hinge doors too)

The standard is as you say: one radiator somewhere central without trv and has a room stat. The alternative is using smart TRVs on each rad that includes the connection back to "call for heat" when they are open. Honeywell evohome, tado, hive,, etc. These have benefits of being able to centrally (and remotely) setup which rooms are warm when, but of course at a cost of complexity. What system are you using for the ufh room stats?

I gave it a go, but really didn't get far - every time I try and import an image it hangs (beach-ball of doom on my Mac) I played around with lucidchart.com yesterday and got quite far quite quickly. It's a bit annoying to connect the wires (pipes) to small components like valves, and the routing all goes a bit mental if you move things around too much, but for a free online app it's very usable. (Still very much WIP, but gives the idea)

Just to clarify, by "here" I mean in the specific planning authority where the OP is going to be placing their planning application (we live in the same town), and which is widely regarded as one of the most expensive and least efficient to deal with. (Our own application (a simple renovatin/extension) was delayed 5 weeks because as the end they realized they'd incorrectly reissued the original plans to the local parish council when we made a minor amendment early on. I spoke to the parish council and they said they don't even look at minor amendment after approving the original plans, so I was at least able to gee up the district council a bit when I shared this intel with them...)

One thing I'd mention is with a basement this is actually a 3-4 story house, replacing a 2 story one, on a larger footprint. So long as you follow all the rules the planners can't object, but it's likely to get some attention from neighbours and in particular any disgruntled folks in the area that had their own similar scale project rejected. If any of these manage to get it called in for debate, and the conservative (with both small and big c) councilors start crawling over it, then that's when it can get more stressful. Afaict their pet hates are McMansions, and apartment conversions with insufficient parking spaces. The other thing from experience is it's virtually impossible to get any feedback from the planners here. They say it will take 8 weeks, you hear nothing for 9 and then it's summarily dismissed for not having an unnecessary bat survey or something. If you make any minor amendments while it's in process they'll accept them, but reset the 8 week timer. The option to negotiate with the planners seems nonexistent, other than by reapplying Question for the floor: can you submit multiple concurrent applications and see which stick? It's obviously expensive, but probably not more so than dealing with all the rejection back and forth.

I went through an experimentation phase with DALI drivers and LEDs, but my experience was: a) all the parts are 5-10x using a simple dumb mains dimming (even though the solution is technically simpler and more elegant, the market volumes of mains dimming keep it super cheap) b) I got burnt a couple times by ordering things I thought would work well together but didn't, just because there's so many params you need to line up (constant current vs voltage, what the max voltage will be if contant current, how many LEDs you can put on one string, and that's even more starting on tunable white colour temperature and driver inter-compatibility ) c) the overall system was more complex (more wires to each fixture, more levels of indirection to program it - partly my own fault for going via KNX to DALI) once it was working, the smoothness and graduations of the dimming is undeniably nicer than you'll get with any mains-dimmed LED I still have a month or so until 1st fix, and I'm 99.999% set on DMX driven triac dimmers now. If in your shoes, at this point I'd consider putting in 5-core DALI cable and running that radially to each light fixing (daisy-chaining any that are "obviously" only going to be used on one circuit). This way you can use central main dimmers, DALI, 10V analog dimmers, wireless dimmer drivers (various protocols), or at a push DMX to the fixtures (YMMV*). You have from now until 2nd fix to decide among those options, or, use a mix, or vary from one to another over time as standards come in and out of vogue. Do you have a central wiring closet for it? *- for perfect future proofing you'd send DALI 5 core + CAT6 to each fixture, then you can use DMX, KNX or Loxone Tree (Rako?) etc. wired control buses too.

I always assumed this was more for the benefit of the pump rather than the ASHP: it gets to spend its working life pumping away at room temperature rather than at the heating supply temperature, but I don't have any evidence that's necessary or helpful or even relevant.

Fwiw I just put down a deposit on 8.5kw Ecodan with OSO 300L Geocoil tank for just over £8.5k+VAT installed, Inc all the intermediate pipework, ufh hookup, external groundworks (concrete base), and the usual MCS additions like room by room heatloss calcs, EPC, and industry body guarantee. This is in the expensive SE England, I'd hope other areas can beat this price. Caveat: nothing actually installed yet! So can't make a positive confirmed recommendation (yet)

My understanding from a friend that's a civil servant in the BEIS is this is pretty much exactly the aim of the scheme. There won't be mass-adoption of heat-pumps unless there's critical mass of installers nationally, and the public need to have confidence in their ability to design the systems, install them and support them. And not enough installers are investing in the training needed to do this without this incentive. RHI is clever economics that worked for PV and they're now applying here to, as while it is government funded, they're getting Joe Public to provide the upfront capital, effectively a loan, to provide installation bonuses to the MCS installer, that the government then pays off over 7 years

LOL to be clear, we tendered the work, signed a contract, and they've been working onsite since January (with a 3 month lockdown pause) so I think they've already very much got the deal. We're already over paying, with 20% VAT on the EWI just because of going through a main contractor; had we contracted this separately we'd be looking at just 5% VAT ... and now the £5k bung too doubles the potential savings. It would be tempting to think about, except I'm now busier than ever without thinking of taking this on (itself due to Covid cuts at my place of work). [I probably deserve to have my forum membership revoked for admitting any of this. Not very "self" build, am I... ]

Well we have 50% off meals out for August, so that's helpful! + VAT reduce to 5% on prepared meals , hotel accommodation, and theme parks + £5k voucher for insulation & energy saving measures (redeemable only via registered installers, so doubt I'll get this as we already tendered the work) + stamp duty removed for houses under £500k until March next year + various job creation schemes for under 24 year olds.

They distribute via a long of different plumbing merchants so recommend going there, and likely get discount off list price: " There are many in your area HBS Heating & Bathroom Supplies, Tucker French, Beggs & Partners, James Hargreaves are all independent plumbing & heating merchants, alternatively PlumbCity, Plumbase, City Plumbing Supplies, Wolseley or Graham Plumbers Merchants who are all national plumbing & heating merchant chains to name just a few." In the end it makes much more sense for me to purchase it via the guy installing the ASHP too, as that way I'll pay 5% VAT rather than 20%. Happily I'd already gone through all the details with OSO sales office, so when my ASHP guy contacted them directly they already knew the project and what I wanted so put him straight onto a preferred merchant who they knew would do a good prices and arrange delivery direct to site. All done via sales.uk@oso-hotwater.co.uk, super helpful folks. I'll of course withhold final judgement until its installed and working, but so far I'm quietly optimistic this will be spot on for us.