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That's shocking really. As we've delved into the paperwork, it looks like building regs are fine - it was the previous vendors that were lying.

Thanks Joe and Peter. I’ve conveyed the points to our builder.

Brilliant. We’ve actually used this link as our go to. What kind of bricks did you use Joe?

After a lot of advice and second opinions, we’re going to rebuild our chimney. On that note, doing some reading, there’s evidence to suggest it’s a good idea to have two lead trays: one towards the top near the flaunching and one lower down near the ridge line. Is that overkill? We’ve been quoted for just one tray. On that note, we have a few more questions. What are the best bricks for the job? Here’s our proposed scope of work: Remove chimney and pots. Integrate a lead DPC tray code 4 or 5, step side flashing and soakers, front flash apron, back flash gutter, finishing the lead with a patination oil. Rebuild using bricks with mortar pointing finish. New flaunching (using a 3 in 1 sand and cement mix with a frost proofer added). Advice, comments and suggestions please...

wow. Seven days is nothing, given that you’re basically moving in at the time. That’s virtually no time at all.

Thanks guys. Also, do garden rooms/conservatories require planning permissions?

As you may have read, we've had some issues with the chimney on our home that I've detailed in a different post. Our roofers came and inspected the chimney today ahead of work and we've unearthed a can of worms. Without getting into specifics, we've got a house/building survey that we paid a lot of money for ahead of purchasing the property from an RICS accredited company. Their report gives a green light to many things in the house, which have now transpired to being anything but in good condition - the chimney and roof to start with - major things. On a different note, we have building reg certificates for other things in the house that we believe have not been completed to code based on the advice of specialist contractors and builders. Can anyone here suggest a starting point for us to seek recourse against the survey company as well as whoever is responsible for building reg certificates?

I was thinking of this option, but I’m wondering whether installation costs would prohibitive. I assume there would be RHI payments. Hmm.

I’ve already started a topic on this one before:

We’re thinking of going with panels in the shower (instead of tile and grout) and the sample colour options from IPSL Aquabord appeal to us. Has anyone used them before? https://www.interiorpanelsystems.co.uk

No. It’s a uk built and manufactured ASHP.

It’s a Caernarfon 18kW ASHP. The manual provided does not cover the “hidden” settings that allow you to tamper with its settings. Users don’t even have access to changing flow rates or HW temperatures. It just covers simple things like how to restart it. Not useful. If you want things changed, you have to call them and they do it remotely.

Thanks Dave. Do you know whether it’s possible to run and ASHP and water source pump through the same system? From my rudimentary understanding if things, I’m guessing not from a piping perspective.

They are regularly ‘patching’ the software which happens behind the scenes. But it’s getting annoying that I need to keep tabs on things as they’re not real “errors” as the pump just goes into standby. I do agree. Three standby “errors” in two weeks is crazy, and I may just start demanding financial compensation for the inconvenience. To this point, support has been excellent, but as you’ve all alluded what happens if they stop trading or close this division.

-20 degrees from south (SSE). With PVGIS I just kept increasing the degree incline one by one and seeing what the outcome for the November was. At 42 it peaked and declined again at 43.

I came across an interesting read this morning that spoke about using water as a heat source for homes - a la ASHPs - which is much more efficient. I was wondering how much water you need to heat your property - we have a bricked Victorian well in our courtyard which holds a fair amount of water. What the article didn’t go into is the type of pump you’d need to extract the heat. As we’ve already invested in an ASHP, is there a way of getting them to work together if the water source was viable?

Totally agree. These pumps are stupidly expensive and I will be formally escalating this matter with a complaint. It’s just not good enough.

Agreed. I need a way to override this locally. I will be formally complaining next week.

Yes. Did it multiple times, and the problem always persists when it restarts. It’s a software issue, and I think I’ve identified it occurs after legionaries sessions.

Yes, after three years they’ll charge us £100/year.

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Me too. And there are no answers forthcoming - might have to escalate the matter next week.

It's not an error we can correct ourselves. We have to call their support team which is available 24/7 and they do resolve the issues within 1-2 hours. The thing is, there's no error that we can see and it sounds like the system is working fine, it's just that it's in standby mode. Driving me crazy at the moment as it did it again last night for no reason and then it takes ages for the rooms to come to temperature.

I'm curious to know how reliable your air source heats pumps are. In the past two week, our ASHP has gone "down" three times - it's not been a mechanical fault, but a software issue. Thermostats throughout the house have been calling for heat but the ASHP would go into standby mode and the temperatures would plummet. We had to call support and they had remotely remedy this. Three times in two weeks is poor. Does this happen to your pumps?

Did a small update video on our autumn performance.