jimseng

I think the glass was in addition to a grill. Who knows what goes through their heads.

Thanks for the responses. I spoke to the BCO and he finally conceded I can have a vent in the bushes. (Surrounded by broken glass to deter rodents apparently). It was a struggle but he eventually referred to the regs and read this bit out loud: "Where there is no open ventilation on a drainage system or through connected drains, alternative arrangements to relieve positive pressures should be considered." Then said "oh, ok, I'll put a note in to say I have agreed it". That is another stressful issue ticked off the list.

Just to be clear, if I have a vent for the STP do I definitely not need an open vent to the house sewage system? In other words I can fit a durgo in the loft and have a vent pipe near the STP and this will cater both low pressure (durgo lets air in) and any pressure build up that would normally be dealt with by an open stack above the roof can be dealt with by a vertical vent further down in the bushes? Will the BCO accept this? (the BCO question may not be answerable, they live in a nebulous world).

Really? Is there a specific section in the regs that discusses this? (i.e. the requirements for the vent, rules etc) That would be great. So just to be clear, you are saying durgo in the loft, vent further down the line near the S.T.P?

I'm guessing that this isn't the case given my waste is a sewage treatment plant exclusive to my property. No mains anything here.

In my new build we have installed a roof vent (lead thing that sits instead of a tile) for the waste water. As an after thought we have installed Velux windows which are less that 3 metres from the vent. The vent is a couple of tile courses above the tops of the Velux. I spoke to the BCO and he originally said "don't worry about it" but then after thinking about it a bit more he said if we can move the vent up a couple of tile courses it will probably be ok but the builder says we can't move the vent up (I don't know why but I trust his statement). Some people insist we can install a Durgo in the roof space, others say there must be a vent somewhere in the system. I am trying to find out which of these is correct. If I have to replace the roof vent with a 900mm pipe sticking up then so be it, and I need to do it before the scaffolding comes down but I wonder what people's thoughts are. The roof would be somewhat spoiled by a vertical pipe. I don't really have an option to choose another place to put a vertical stack so my question is really just Durgo, 900mm of pipe or is there something else to consider? Everything seems rather vague.

I wondered about running some fibre in too, maybe just a couple of places like office to plant room but it seems a bit more complicated. I don't mean actually terminating the ends, just having it within the fabric of the building and left as a coil behind a blank plate. I doubt I would ever need it but in the future someone might appreciate it. I hope I don't regret not doing it.

Thanks. I had forgotten about the cca aspect. That's why I asked, I thought it was too cheap on ebay.

This has to be a simple one but cat6 UTP for 1/10gb ethernet and RS485. On ebay a box of 305m white is £43.85. Is this poor quality? I'm just running Ethernet around my house build, nothing specific. I know cat6 isn't really RS485 impedance but at low data rates I think I'll get away with it. trying to save money on everything but I don't want to buy cheap from ebay if it is fake/rubbish. Any thoughts?

At the risk of repeating myself, that video is of non LiFePo4 batteries! It looks scary but that sort of thermal runaway is specifically what LiFePo4 batteries were designed to avoid. I guess that's why they are starting to put them in EVs now. There are many but this is quite a fun video:

The key words there are "anecdotal" and "loose connections". Putting 32kw of energy in a small box carries a risk that if you allow it to escape quickly and uncontrolled it is probably going to say "boom". That is the same for Lead acid batteries, which also give off very nasty gas when they go wrong.

The Fogstar batteries I have just bought have this built in.

The interesting thing about much of the discussions about fires and Lithium batteries is that they never seem to refer to LiFePo4 batteries. There is the same thing going on in the marine industry where people panic at the word "Lithium" but I have yet to see an actual report of a fire being caused by a LiFePo4 installation. The famous one recently was the Northampton canal boat explosion which has been linked to the battery installation as it was an electric boat. There are pages and pages of discussions, arguments, yelling, but I can't find an actual qualified report of what caused the boat to explode, only a comment from the fire brigade who attended on the day. The same with the boat that caught fire in Torquay a couple of years ago. It had just had a battery system upgrade "therefore" it was a Lithium battery fire. My understanding about LiFePo4 vs other chemistry is that is specifically does not produce its own oxygen and other Lithium batteries do. Cheap e-bikes etc seem to be what cause terrible house fires. Maybe I'm wrong and I keep looking for credible evidence to the contrary as I have LiFePo4 on my boat and I like to be informed. Anyway. I am concluding that I should be proactive about what goes on the walls of the plant room, such as pink plasterboard, heat/smoke detectors and then re approach the BCO. Not sure what to do about the fire door though because the gap at the bottom to satisfy MVHR ventilation seems incompatible with fire mitigation.

The reason I asked this question is because this line in PAS 63100:2024 does not to agree with the building inspector's statement about 120 mins:

Tumble dryers anyone? These battery units come with fire suppression built in.