Dan F

You'll only need a small ASHP so shouldn't cost a huge amount, you can also use it to cool the house in the summer. Would be a shame to not use UFH given its installed. Panel heaters will never give you such a good even heat and temperature will more localized and osocilate a lot more. It may not make sense to pay for a MCS/RHI install though, as payback will be low.

Have you already ordered windows? Much simpler and less risky to have window manufactuers supply windows with sensors pre-installed. We have two sensors pre-installed in each window (one for tilt and one for turn). Sliders also have two sensors, one which tells you when it's locked (for security) and one that tells you when it's open/closed (to disable blinds). Some are simple reed contacts, but most are "Maco" sensors which work with the window mechanism. See: https://www.maco.eu/en-GB/Products/Windows/TRONIC-sensors/Wired-sensors The price of adding these sensors was nothing, compared to the overall window order.

aroTHERM plus is monobloc. We are also almost certainly using the 7kW unit too.

Temp sensor on hot water pipe to bath?

OK, so 4 seperate loops to each of the 4 basins and back? This makes sense, just trying to justify (to myself) if/why this approach is better than: i) A single 10/15mm loop picking up all remote basins. ii) A satellite manifold(s) on the same side of the house as the remote basins. These are my thoughts, interested to know if there are any other pros/cons though: - A satalite manifold serving whole bathroom(s) would likely require 22mm+ which means more heat losses without any obvious advantages. - A loop picking up 3-4 remote basins wouldn't give you centralized independant isolation. 15mm may be needed instead of 10mm. You'll be keeping more water warm during recirculation, but not much more if all in 10mm (vs 15mm) The other challenge though is if there is enough space in the plant room. If we go with everything radial, we'd have: - 15 hot - 3 hot recirculation - 18 cold - 4 cold unsoftened

Did you work this out, what approach are you taking in the end? Currently looking at this myself: - Want to avoid a standard loop if possible, as we'd potentially need to start at 28mm to ensure enough flow for mutiple bathrooms + kitchen. - The bathrooms aren't quite close enough to use "home run" approach for everything. (although 10mm to these basins would improve things) Plumber had suggested using satellite manifold for each of 3 bathrooms with HRC for each. Reading the posts here though, I'm realising that most of these outlets are quite close to the plant room and it will probably be simpler just to have direct 10/15mm pipe runs. (also no need to find somewhere to hide manifold in bathroom either) The question then is what to do about the outlets (basins at least) on the other side of the house. I tihnk the options are: 1) Use "home run" for everything, and run dedicated HRC's for the 2 remote basins in question. (as seems to have been discussed above) 2) Mixed approach: - Everything close to plant room is piped direct to a manifold next to UVC (no HRC) - A satalite manifold(s) with HRC supplies all outlets in the 2 bathrooms on the other side of the house. (22mm) The second option seems to be most logical as a satiallte manifold would mean a single HRC back from manifold and not need for return connection under sinks (some of which are wall-mounted).

Well, to be fair, it's her document (or part G spreadsheet) that has to go to building control, that's the only reason she wants it to comply. What we install is a different matter and i doubt anyone will ever check. Taps are non-issue, it's the showers where head restrictors dont seem to feasible, but we're telling her we don't want to install the "ecojoy" 9l/min variant.

Agree, part G not major issue. But the bathroom designer is insisting on specifying products that comply. This means her specifying either low flow rate showers or restrictors. @Nickfromwales I get your point, but not sure how/where you would you put a accesible restrictor inline with shower head like one i linked to. This is why i was assuming restriction at (or next to) manifold.

Taps are all 5.7l/min which should be fine. Just need a way to restrict showers, but not sure how restricting at the head would work if installing these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B075QMDFB8 I might need to put a restrictor inline from manifold to shower to comply, but ensure they are accesible should I ever need to remove them (for maintainence of course)...

What I want to do is to comply with Part G water usage regulations without necesarily having to buy from a limited range of showers that have flow restrictors incorporated. The thought that a plumber could instead restrict the flow at (or close to) a satalite manifold instead.

Yeah, but want them accessible should I need to "maintain" them in the future, which is why I want them to be either part of manifold or next to manifold and not behind tiling in bathroom. Any options that would allow this?

Not in pipes/manifold are sized correctly surely. Assume that muitlple satellite manifolds plumbed direct is still better than a loop? (e.g. for using two showers at the same time)

Does this approach make any sense? - 4-port manifold in plant room (one port for each bathroom/kitchen) - 3-port manifold in each bathroom for WC/basin/shower. Seems it would use less pipe than using a single central manifold for all outlets, and still give you the isolation benefits. For any bathrooms not close to the plant room, you can then implement a return loop from satellite manifold couldn't you? If you want wanted to limit flow rates (to comply with building regs), without buying special 9l/min showers, where would the best place be to do this if using satellite manifolds?

Are there any options available that do allow satellite manifolds to adjust flow rates?

Think we used shingle around and over a land drain that was installed at the base of EPS, then just backfilled with spoils from formation dig. If the shingle stability an issue if it's 400mm down?

Any idea if there are any requirements regarding how high the panel has to be off the floor (particuarly when there is mains/RCBO's on the bottom rail) for building regs? Or does @Rob99 know? While we still plan to use DALI, if I use central RGBW extensions for lots of LED strips and central relays for blinds/UFH too then the cabinet fills up very quickly. While everything would probably just about fit in a LXN5 cabinet there would be no room for expansion, let alone to give an audioserver a go. Looks like either need to: - Potentially get a larger cabinet - Use two cabinets; one for lighting/relays and another one for low-voltage and audio. - Move to the more distbributed approach I considered initially. i) Use nano tree relays around the house for blind control. ii) use RGBW tree compact or DALI RGBW drivers around the house.

I think you'll find that: - The GHG (which they just introduced) can be used until March 2022. - The RHI scheme (which has been around for a while), was going to end on March 2021 but has now been extended 1yr to March 2022.

My understanding was that it closes, for domestic, 31 March 2022

We'll have: - 3-phase supply to garage, - 12kW 3-phase PV inverter in garage (16kW array) - Duct through slab that takes 1 of the phase to a consumer unit in plant room (inside thermal envelope) that serves the house. (garage distribution board will also serve garden, and front gate etc.)

Alco look good, but we need a "Grade A" system as once we include garage the ground floor is >200m2. Who have people use for Grade A fire alarm?

Those are good price. Before we switched to a warm loft, our architect had specified this one: - https://www.premierloftladders.co.uk/product-range/wooden-loft-ladders/designo-loft-ladder/ This one worth looking at? https://www.roofgiant.com/ladders-accessories/fakro-lwt-280-loft-ladder/

@Thorfun I've got @joth's unused DALI extension and have been playing with Loxone+DALI as well as tunable white functioanaltiy ? Thoughts so far: - As Joth said we've also seen that most mid-range light fittings than a designer would specify have a DALI driver option for small difference in price. - DALI is easier to wire (230v + control line) than using centralized dimmers. - Each fitting is a seperate DALI address so you run out of addresses very quickly. This is an issue because the Loxone DALI extension only supports 48 addresses and costs £430. One way you can get round this is if you have a group of 8 fittings they you know you are never going to want to operate indpeendant you can get a "DALI expander" device which will broadcast one DALI address to n light fittings. (I'm yet to do the maths on how much you save though) - Tunable white fittings are really interesting, but they are impossible to use with Loxone in any easy/practical way unless they come with a single DT8 driver. The ones I've been loaned come with two DT6 drivers which means you use twice as many DALI addresses, and you have no way of controlling color temperature easily in Loxone because from Loxone's perspective they are two different fittings, one 2700k and one 5700K. - Not looked into or decided what approach to take with RGBW stips yet. Could use loxone RGBW tree extensions, or could use DALI DT8 RGBW drivers.

What would you do in winter? Run a generator? wind turbine?

It is, but it's <1kg in a sealed unit. Lot have people have 5-10Kg bottles of propane round the back of their house for gas BBQ. They can only do 75C from 0-20°C yes, but the second part of that statement isn't correct as they can do 65C between -10 and 32 °C outside temperature. All ASHP's have limits (thats one advantage of GSHP in more extreme climates). For comparison the Ecodan R32 can only do 60C when 0-25°C outside. Agree on this, there is less technical information available and they seem to focus more on marketing materials.

Got some Knauf Gifafoor off ebay in the end. £15/m2 vs approx £30-35/m2 for the cellecta screedboard. Slightly thicker too at 25+10mm.