Thorfun

Probably coz there’s no cables at the moment! 😂

so I've gone against the advice and have installed them in the basement. After speaking to the suppliers who've stated they have never had a battery catch fire and have also said that I can fit a DC breaker (80V/125A) which will reduce the risk of cable fire I am confident that they're safe in the basement. there's probably more chance of our washing machine causing a fire!** so, today I fitted the Squirrel Pod and the 2 x 3.2kWh batteries and it looks very nice and neat with plenty of space below for more batteries should the need arise. now just waiting on the Solar PV inverter to be installed and commissioned next week and then I can get the electrician back in to wire the batteries up and can start making use of our free energy! ** I have no data to back that statement up

we've all been there. my point was a +1 for building a retaining wall and filling in to create a shallower drive as my friend's drive would be very steep without the retaining wall and steps down to the front door.

yeah, just a bit of a logistical nightmare. will think upon it some more and decide on one of the 3 options I have.

my neighbour is a plumber so I plan to speak to him soon on the subject. tbh, I'm not fussed about BCO sign off but I do want it to be safe!

but does that conform to G3 regulations?

there is a potential place but it's in a cupboard off the garage (but within the insulated envelope of the building). but it's in a far corner so definitely not central whereas the plant room is central to the house just one floor down. so would actually be longer runs in the only cupboard that could accommodate it on the ground floor.

so it's approx 20m with 2 x bends and a hole through a 250mm reinforced concrete wall. I'm definitely leaning towards the pump solution even though it's the most costly. 😞

yeah, I know, it's still a hard one to swallow. think I'll go out and do some digger work to help take my mind of this problem for now.

nope. didn't talk to each other. lesson learnt and I've moved on! will try and remember it all if there's ever a next time! I don't think I can go the only potential route in less than 16m. but I'll go and have a proper measure up. it sounds like the pump route might be the only way if I want to put the UVC in the basement.

ok. thanks. will look into the pipe run (although I think getting it outside the basement courtyard walls to the granular backfill might be troublesome with 3m of backfill above where the hole will go) and do some financial calculations and then make a choice.

had a Civil engineering company design the drainage and whenever I asked about internal waste their stock answer was 'that's an internal plumbing issue'. I also had an M&E company design my heating/solar/MVHR systems but never once did they mention a waste pipe for the UVC. they said I didn't need one for the MVHR due to the enthalpy unit but didn't mention requiring one for the UVC that they designed to go in to the plant room in the basement. that's what's got me so grumpy, I paid for professionals to help and design and still it got missed!

thanks. I wonder with the cost of the copper pipe and labour how close to the £800 for the pump it'd get?

I know someone who lives in a London house that is quite a way below road level. they have a shallow sloping drive and then retaining wall and steps down to the front door. it seems to work well.

hmmm.....this might be possible although there is no wall studding just yet but I could plan it in. any idea what size waste pipe we'd need? and what sort of fall? then I'd need to figure a potential route and also would need to drill through the basement courtyard wall from inside and figure out a route to get the waste pipe to the outside of the courtyard wall.

yeah, we have a sunken courtyard with patio doors but it's a long way from the plant room to those doors/courtyard to get a fall and we've already laid the UFH and screed so can't start digging into that to run a pipe. like I said, with hindsight I'd have planned for this before the basement was built had my architect ever mentioned the need for drainage from the plant room.

we have 2 forms of waterproofing, an external membrane and waterproof concrete. plus the land drain at the base of the basement externally will help I guess.

already have the UVC a Mitsubishi pre-plumed 300l cylinder. the heat source is an ASHP (Mitsubishi Ecodan 8.5kW). I presume you're talking about SunAmps when you refer to thermal stores? I think the financial cost of trying to sell the UVC second hand and moving to Sunamp would be greater than buying one of those units @TonyT linked above. although, I guess the yearly service savings might help.

our MVHR doesn't need a condensate drain as it's got an enthalpy jobby. I will do more reading on the sump and pump but from what little I've done so far it seems that the temperature of the water could be the issue.

ps. sorry, I didn't mean to sound ungrateful! thank you for the link and it has given me something to research. I was just shocked at the cost of that solution as I thought it'd be a simple and cheap thing.

I have a land drain around the basement but that's now 3.5m below ground level and buried under tons of backfill.

£768 +VAT!! 🤯 there's gotta be a cheaper way. for that cost I'll find a place on the ground floor for the UVC. I'm sure I can find a cupboard somewhere.

hello, looking at plumbing stuff at the moment and from reading on here it seems that a UVC requires and outlet for the overflow and they run into the waste pipes somewhere. our problem is that our plant room is in the basement and the only soil pipes are running at basement ceiling level which is about 3m above the floor level. if I really do need a way for the UVC overflow to go to soil pipe I'm a bit stuff from what I can see. or is it possible to run the overflow into a sump chamber of sorts and then pump it up to the soil pipe? we were also thinking of water softener but that also needs an outlet from the reading I've done so that has now been put to one side unless I can find a place for it on the ground floor. but, maybe I can also run the outlet from that to a sump in the plant room and pump it out and kill 2 birds with one stone? but the UVC is the most pressing question as if I can't pump it then I need to find a place for it on the ground floor. 😞 if I had my time again I'd run a 110mm pipe from the plant room to our courtyard sump which collect water from the land drain around the basement. but no professional I had on board ever mentioned that I'd need an overflow from the plant room. it's a bit late for all that now though so I need to find a solution.

actually, only £128 when setting the country to UK. that's a great find and definitely something to consider. thanks @joth

But $300!! Great info though, thanks.