Dan F

I started out wanting to do everything CCT, but then when I i) saw the limited availability (and cost) of CCT downlights ii) read a bit more about the theory, I decided it made sense to stick to 3000K for direct/task lighting and CCT for indirect lighting. I then simplified this to 3000k for downlights/uplights and CCT for just LED's. However, I also wanted to ensure that I had high enough power LED's so that these could be the sole light source for low-light evening/night moods if required so chose 33W tape (only 16.5W once driver is programmed for linear output) and most rooms have full length of one wall. There was an issue with the tape I sourced and it doesn't fully dim correctly, but overall really happy with combination of downlights plus CCT LED's and overall flexibility.

@Alan Ambrose I installed tunable white LED's in all rooms 2200-6500K all controlled via Loxone. I have moods etc and use the different temperatures with these, but they also adjust with the time of day on automatic moods. I used EldoLED DT8 Tunable white DALI drivers and meanwell power supplies. Anything else you need to know?

Actually a lot of manufactuers have really good public information including mitsubishi/lg/panasonic. Sometimes it's in a seperate "databook". The Vailant marketing documentation and manual was always very confusing as it wasn't clear what the values represented. This fustrated me so much that i spend hours going to every european vaillant website looking for the actual data until I hit on the now infamous "czech tables" which I shared with Mick and online before Vaillant could take them down. I since found the english version, but I know Mick likes to keep referring to them as the Czeh table given it gives them a bit more mystique 😉 These tables however, don't seem to include defrost apparently (even though they quote a standad that says they should), so you need to be careful using these for sizing. Various issues where installers have installed 7kW units based on ~6-6.5kW heat-loss, and then ASHP can't deliver enough heat when temp is around 0C and moderate->high humidity. This seems to impact 7kW bit more than others.

Enthaphy exchanger also doesn't need a pre-heater to protect the heat exchanger against frost (at least not in UK temperatures). Ours was supplied with one anyway though

Does your trace heating still work in power cut? You'd want it off all the time, but only on if power cut of ASHP failure. How do you trigger the trace heating when power/ashp fails, and what powers the trace heating when you have no mains?

The risk is only in the case of power-cuts in below freezing. With power the ASHP itself keeps things from freezing. I don't disagree with you, but manufacturers clearly can't recommend that instalations don't either either anti-freeze valves or glycol.

Mine for reference, same model, hits 4C minimum. I don't have it set that low, but because it cycles the flow temp drops beyond target temp before compressor turns off. My install has the Caleffi valves.

Mine works fine with cooling and anti-freeze valves. What anti-freeze valves are they? Have they been switched out? They should only open at 3C +/- 1C. What temperature does your flow temp drop to during cooling?

We used a designer. Yes, there were fees involved, but not very high vs other professional, and was money well-spent I think. Depends what you want to do though, only makes sense to invest in a designer if you want something more than standard and are happy to pay for the fittings. We also used Loxone. Went with DALi for all fittings, so have full control over mood creation with no limitations based on how circuit were run. Not a must I know, but satisifies my desire for programmable flexibiliy, and have used in on a couple of occasions to: - seperate downloads into different zones (center downlights vs wall-washers) - disable downlights near TV in tv-viewing mood, while leaving those above table on.

That is a solid choice for indoors if you not deperate to get on the wifi 7 bandwagon. Outside the U6 Mesh is a significantly better option in terms of wifi standard and coverage, but it depends on your requirements. If you just needs a basic AP wifi-5 AP without too much coverage UK-Ultra would work.

What information specifically? I have a 7kW which is quite a bit oversized. Yes it cycles, but having adjusted the integral settings I have minimized this. Also, 7kW heats DHW faster than 5kW would. Cycling is to be expected and not something you should try to avoid at all costs, that said you clearly don't want to significantly oversize and you want to ensure you have enough system volume to minimize frequency of cycles.

This is nonsense. All the aroTherm+ models modulate down. 10/12kW models don't modulate down as much as 7kW though, and 7kW doesn't modulate down as much as 5kW can. There isn't a single value for miniumum kW output as this depends on flow/external temperature, but you can find this info in the data tables. You don't need an additional circulation pump(s) unless you have hydraulic seperation (buffer, HEX etc.). There is a preference to avoid hydraulic seperation in most install currently as an "open loop" approach is simpler, cheaper and generally gives best efficiency also. That said, there are cases where a buffer may make sense, this depends on how many circuits you have, what they are used for etc.

Carpet cleaner might have worked, but it would need to be one with fairly strong water jets to list the fines out of the tarmac pores before sucking them up, rather than just brushes which wouldn't reach the fines. In the end we had our window cleaner have a go at it with a pressure washer and gutter vacumn (two guys, one on each). Took a while, and didn't give a perfect result, but I think we probably got 80% back to as new cleaniness/permeability. Enough to lay resin without being concerned about pooling anyway. That said, we did go for a thicker 30mm resin system on a plastic grid, vs. the intial plan which ws 18mm bonded directly to the tarmac, to mitigate risk further.

Control cable is often used to connect a CT clamp of some kind and allow the EV charger to do load management. Some EV chargers also have ethernet connection. Don't think load management is required, but depending on your main fuse size and expected load may be a good idea to have in place. This can be a seperate cable, as @Alan Ambrose said, doesn't have to be special all-on-one EV cable. 25mm2? Is this 50m+? Seems overkill otherwise..

We had 70mm open-graded tarmac laid on our drive just before we moved in 3 year ago. Since then, we've completed landscaping works and one of the few remaining things to complete things is to lay some resin. The result needs to be permeable and shouldn't pool. Permability after it was installed was great, with only a very small amount of surface water for a short period of time if there was heavy rain non-stop for a week. However, duing landscaping work, getting MOT and topsoil on the drive was pretty much unavoidable, and while it is still somewhat permeable we do have significant pooling in a number of areas. I haven't wanted to rush into getting resin put down as we don't want to proceed with resin only to find that the resin doesn't drain. The resin supplier has suggested a few things to mitigate this: - Drill holes in the tarmac, especially in areas we see pooling currently. - Use 10mm vs 6mm aggregate to increase permeability of resin. - Use 35mm resin on a grid, rather han 18mm directly on the tarmac as orginally planned (so resin layer can hold more water and water can distribute within resin layer). There are all great suggestions, and probably ones that we should follow, however I'd feel more confident if we could restore the permeability of the tarmac first. Pressure washing just move the fines around and doesn't improve things, so we need a different approach. According to Tarmac: However, the only versions of this that I have found online as large road-sweeper machine and charge £1000's day rate. Given drive is only 120m2 or so this does't make sense, yet I can't find anything smaller/cheaper or any self-hire options. I may well be looking in the wrong places though. I've wondered about hiring a higher power/capacity wet vaccum and then trying to do this myself and have also seen a product call "rotaryvac" [1] which I thought about trying to hire somewhere, but thought I'd see if anyone here has any experience of advice before I start experimenting..? [1] https://equip2clean.co.uk/products/kiam-rotaryvac-21-rotary-floor-cleaning-tool-with-fluid-recovery-vacuum-system