puntloos

Modern houses have a shocking amount of drains, manholes, valves and gubbins that are all strewn about the property. I have one very prominent manhole that is sadly fairly annoyingly positioned in my upcoming garden. It's the access to the pipes, pumps and similar devices that lead to the underground water tank. Does anyone have suggestions on how to hide these? Assuming for a moment it will have to be 'hidden' in plants, how would you do it? - Fake grass could work but isn't super nice. - Real grass needs soil, so won't work unless I raise the entire grass at least 100mm which is a pretty serious lift - A plant bed with a shrub that grows wide might work? - Could create a slight "hill" style feature? #1 - not a problem I think, probably paving #2 - annoying, but can be sunk fairly deep, I think grass can grow over it. (and in case of access we'll need to dig it up) #3 - probably a garden feature (plant beds) there anyway #4 - This is the problem. Needs to be accessible "fairly regularly" There will (likely) be a shed in the far corner - the white toilet roughly - so I imagine we could create a slightly awkward path (tiles) to there and put the manhole in the path. Open for suggestions

Sounds great for the bleaching sessions every week. (boys are nasty)

Anyone? I sense that carpets are nicer but harder to maintain in a good state (impromptu impressionistic painting sessions..) - do kids hate amtico?

currently 6 (also updated in main post thx)

Designing room for our currently 6yo kid. Question is which floor type, or combination of floor types, is best for him? The two options 1/ Amtico - (83 GBP per sqm for Spacia, inc install, inc VAT, inc underlay) - Indestructible, almost - Looks modern, solid - Super easy to clean 2/ Carpet - (59.50 GBP per sqm for good quality, inc install, vat, underlay) - Best foot feel (and we don't wear shoes in our house) - Harder to clear - Dies quicker especially if rolling a desk chair over it all the time Because we have a large room for him, we are considering doing carpet in his sleeping section (top) and amtico in his play/work section with desk, desk chair(rollers!) opinions? Do kids even like carpet? Other than price any hidden/unknown upsides downsides?

So I'm comparing a few local stores carrying woodpecker and tedd todd engineered wood, to an online-only store. Like-for-like (same general color, wood type, and grade) the online store is about 57% less expensive. The only small difference I think I am noticing is that the online store wood seems to have one small imperfection on the surface, it wasn't a splinter I think but maybe some small 'strip' of plasticy coating or glue on top. Is there any real reason other than 'supporting your local business' to pick ted toddetc over the online store? And if there actually are some imperfections in the wood as delivered, am I correct you can just gently sand it down or something- wouldn't be surprised if the builder would do this anyway regardless?

Ha, so which of the big hitters to avoid? My current shortlist is Mitsubishi (seems to have the lowest noise, highest cop of the 'common' brands) and Viessmann, somewhat the 'BMW' of the brands, that just upgraded their R32 line. Ha, yes my reasoning is the same, prevent rather than regret. I debated centralising but figured local cooling with a standard A2A would be more responsive, plus it would allow, theoretically, to get heat from one area and into another (or vice versa). Either way, my current plan, like yours, is to have the A2W system do 'most of the work' in my passivhaus, potentially even a little cooling, but have 4 FCU (or AHUs? Is that the same thing?) to do localised temperature management. Most passivhauses work fine, but specific small rooms (in particular bedroom, in summer, with 2 humans in there..) need extra work. Therefore my preferred option is one A2W (mitsu ecodan) and one A2A with 4 FCUs (mitsu split) Option B might be a lot cheaper and is probably capable enough, which is a single A2W (mitsu, or perhaps viessmann) that does both UFH as well as DHW and cooling with FCU. I just don't quite understand the detail, but I think I know it will struggle heating and cooling at the same time and you have to do some clever switching of modes..

Have you compared this to the usual suspects e.g. mitsubishi, daikin? I suppose the main question I have is that part where you're already powering AHUs with your stiebel, not sure why you're creating a separate air conditioner incl outside unit for just one room? I can certainly see the point of having water AHU or coolant AHUs but not sure why you're doing both. Good ethos, that's what I was/am aiming at too, but was indeed thinking of running all my AHUs off the split device.

Make sense, I'm really on the fence on going two outdoor devices (A2W(monobloc) and A2A(split air con) or just stick with one big A2W, but the flexibility of having really separate systems that don't have to switch modes, the more agile control for calling heat/cold by the FCU feels like a bonus but the extra space and potentially cost might push me the other way since the pros and cons are complex and there's no obviously clear winner for me.. Stiebel seems like an interesting brand.. but at some point the benefits of a slightly better COP don't seem to make it into real world savings sufficient (over device lifetime) to make a huge difference..

Why using different brands for different things? Isn't there one "best" (for your purposes, of course) brand?

Do you have any pictures on how these look? I will likely have a "pelmet style" (coffered ceiling) lighting setup in these rooms and I'm wondering if I can integrate linear air strips in there.. how would that be designed?

I always thought you needed the same brand FCUs as ASHP since the 2 can talk to each other (calling heat when needed etc). Am I wrong? Are un-linked FCUs just cooling with whatever coolant (at whatever temp) is available?

OK so a spot vent is 1980, a line vent is 2010, so with a square vent I'm good until 2040? But yes, I guess the pinch point is the thing that makes noise, usually the pipe itself, the fact that you have a huge wide mouth attached to it might make less of a difference.

Yes absolutely, that's what I was trying to say. So there's no issue with a draught to the outside. My concern is if the AC comes from one smallish (10cm?) hole in a room, will the airflow be so high that the cold air is noticeable? And separately you have a A2W (monobloc style, perhaps?) device for UFH and DHW? A little off-topic but I'd love to understand the brands and configuration you chose. I'm currently debating if I should go all water-based (for FCUs as well as UFH) or if I should do two units (one "AC" one "warm water" device)

So, in a Passivhaus, the draughts from outside are not a thing, but what about air conditioning? If I have a ceiling vent, is there some way to prevent the air to be very cold near the exit of that vent? Draughts? I'm thinking maybe linear diffusers are better?

Great to hear the info Vicky, why is a limescale replacement once a year a problem? Of course less hassle is better but I guess once a year isn't huge? Given that my house is a passivhaus I imagine I don't really need a heated seat (toilet room wouldn't be cold in winter). Other than the filter and potentially the seat, the aqua lava was fine, in your experience?

I did wonder about at least allowing for a humidifier but in my experience adding water to pretty much any equation tends to make nature take over (rust, scale and/or funghi)..

Many american houses are built with 'forced air' but somehow they always feel somewhat strange. Air is too dry, feels like there's always either a hot burst or a cold draught. Also air doesn't heat block too well. I'm still tempted to do both, but it seems that a water based device might be able to do it all, as long as you also use FCUs But my main question remains - should I use a classic (R32) device or stick with water? Putting it differently assuming for a moment @RichardL's approach and only really do air heating or cooling, should the coolers be driven by water, or R32? And why/why not?

I guess given the question from the builder the particular type we went for doesnt have this?

They are huge though, 5m wide is a lot, but if you can really see them bend it sounds like in my case, with 2.5m wide max window, I should be okay with say 25mm gap or something..

Great questions, I think in this case the blinds do have a track so I don't think they need a lot of space, but I'll inquire.

My builder just asked me this one - where should blinds end. Should they rest on the sill? Or kept up a little? It feels a bit iffy to rest on the sill but I have no true idea on pro/con

I think we have to somewhat untangle the "coolant" used and the medium you're cooling. If you're sending out cooled air, that's fast but 'temporary' (as many of us know, the moment you turn on an AC unit the room heats up again in 15 mins) The coolant - either actual refrigerant, or water, has efficiency benefits I'm frankly not completely clear on how impactful they are. It's easier to shield, so running water outside isn't great. Coolants can contain more heat energy per volume, and certainly have less loss pumping it around. My current front runner is actually https://shop.systemair.com/en-GB/syshp--mini--split--odu--12--q/p611468 since it uses R32 coolant outside, and might be able to use a mix of water for UFH and coolant for FCU.

Ah yes absolutely, I thought you were comparing water-based vs R32 FCUs but yes, both much faster than UFH

Not sure why it has a quicker response? I assume this was not a high-insulation place? Yes at the end of the day I'm trying to decide - A2A powering FCUs + A2W doing UFH/DHW - A2W powering FCUs, UFH, DHW End of the day I think the big question for me is: - Comfort - how quick can the system react - thinking of situation of hot day, open doors. - Equipment, internal an external boxes (2 ASHP units or one big one)