joe90

What a lovely project and a superb location (can’t find a jealous emoji ) do keep us informed, there is sooo much good advise here.

Blue (I hope they are not fussy ?). I created a tunnel out of blocks along the wall and put the trap within it.

I have just cleared the area, created a cover with blocks and put in a rat trap baited with “bounty” (only chocolate I could find in the house). I would prefer to catch it then block up the hole rather than they die in the cavity. If I don’t catch it within a week I will fill the hole anyway.

Aha, started clearing stuff around the house and found a hole where the kitchen waste pipe goes into the house which will be below ground level when we do the paths etc, a bit of mortar missing but it could well be where the buggers are getting in, I,m off to mix some mortar. ?

My meter box is in my detached garage as I did not want it in our “cottage” nice brick walls.

An example of getting information in writing/email, ask me how I know!

I did actually kill a rat here last year, I knew they were under my container so set a trap under a ridge tile, peered under it one warm sunny day and the rat was soundly asleep in the warmth next to the trap, I hit it with the tile and killed it, could not believe my eyes, a sleeping rat.

Good idea Dave, I think I will wait one more week (hope it dies), I have read their sense of smell is very good and can smell food at great distances, remove a brick and insert a trap with chocolate and poison ?

Right, got my working orders this morning (she’s not happy) she wants all the pallets and building materials moved away from the house today as she is convinced the rats are living amongst it, she may be right but they can’t get in or out of the house !!!!

That’s the rub, there are NO gaps in the outer or inner skin, the warm roof is sealed to the outer and inner skins, as I said before I broke into the outer brickwork to add electric to the conservatory and guess it got in then. Just looked at a rodent control company on tinternet and it said a rat can live up to a month with no food. I suppose we just wait but er indoors wants it caught, I explained we can only do that by knocking down walls ?

Oh dear, it’s still alive, kept the wife awake last night, she is convinced it’s a rat. I will be scouring the loft today in case it has got up there, but there is no food up there either. I am really stumped.

Ours is also about 8 mtrs from our house. I have mounted our MVHR on suspended mounts from the roof so as to not transmit noise. With our Vortex the pump housing was fixed to the lid and acted like a drum, I moved it onto a concrete pad next to the unit, lined the box with acoustic foam and also under the pump. It still can be heard in the garden (a very quiet rural location) I intend to build a brick box around the pump like Jeremy did as I understand “mass” is great for sound insulation but that is a job fir next summer. we would not want the chickens kept awake would we? ?

@Nickfromwales said, @joe90 how warm is the place on just the one 3kW immersion? I take it you have to run it for a good while to get up to temp, eg no on / off-ability to speak of? i have set the immersion to a fairly low temp, 45’?. Yes a whole day to get the house to temp, TRV on the manifold not very accurate (yet to fit the accurate one Jeremy recommended and I bought), water in the manifold at 25’ and house up to 21’ ?, er indoors happy but i know the running cost will fall greatly once the ASHP is up and running (DHW also on immersions currently).

Mineral wool insulation (also called rock or slag wool insulation? Made from rock, blast furnace slag, and other raw materials which are melted and spun into fibers to resemble the texture of wool. Mineral wool comes in batts, rolls or loose-fill forms. i can’t see how anything can survive on this!

No, but as I said before there is no way into the cavity so whatever it is can’t get out, it’s just taking a long time to die !!!?

Our conservatory which we have just had built had a roof glass panel that had a scratch inside the double glazing so it was replaced. Other people might not notice it but you will, every time you look at it.

Ours were built in, this allowed the joists to be a little over length and overlap each other but enabled them to be “tight” into the hangers on the outside walls.

I am fortunate that @Nickfromwales suggested I put an immersion heater in my buffer tank so I am running my UFH from that, and it works very well but more costly than running an ASHP at the moment. Hope that @ProDave can mend your board, I might get him to look at mine as a spare or sell it on (to someone that cocked it up like I did?).

Well I was so pleased with my two builders (bricky, plasterer general builder) I gave them £100 each, both have become friends of ours and we could not have asked for better. Our budget did not overrun (mainly thanks to them) even though I was ill during the build and could not do all that I wanted to do, well worth the money.

Got back from a week away and still heard noises last night, I recon they brought a picnic or are eating each other!!!, I guess they cannot last much longer (I hope). I am going to search my (warm) loft this afternoon in case they gnawed their way into it. Still no food value up there anyway.

@Gav_P company is Smith-Holland, Email = sales@smith-Europe.eu. Www.smith-Europe.eu. I paid €135.62 (mind, I have not received it yet, but am confident). As Jeremy says Carrier are a worldwide major manufacturer of these things and I would prefer theirs to a Chinese copy. Will update you when it arrive.

@Gav_P I am still waiting for my new board (2 to 3 weeks delivery) and the company seemed pucka, I can let you have the details of the supplier if you wish, or wait to see if mine arrives?.

Definitely helped with mine.

Hi @mnt , yes and no, the noise is a lot less but still annoying at times as it’s very quiet here. I plan to build a brick “house” for the pump housing but I have a thousand and one jobs to complete first. (90% finished, only 90% to go!) Others have said “mass” I.e. concrete/brick is best for sound absorption so I will try that. Mine is only about 15 meters from my house so a ,lot closer than yours.

According to the command unit I can only set one water temp (unless DHW is separate but it’s not clear). I am trying very hard to stop the ASHP from going into defrost mode (although I still recon it can be set to heat till it’s “about” to defrost then stop, but that’s a different story). The tank stat (using the break contact not the make contact) switches the immersion on (via a relay) only when the temp is up to 40’ and the immersion itself turns it off at say 50’. If the tank is say 30’ then the ASHP will heat till 40’ is reached then the tank stat will switch on the immersion.(I hope ?).