Thorfun

i was told by Graf UK sales that the max distance between tank and pump is 20m. i did consider running the pump in the plant room but i would've exceeded that distance so i have my pump in the outdoor box next to the tank. it's so far from the house that i don't hear it. i have heard it a few times as i've come back with the dog after a walk but it wasn't excessively loud for me. horror stories? not as such but my pump failed after about 1yr of use but it was sitting around unused for a couple of years before that. Graf UK were very helpful and had to go back to Germany to request a replacement as it was "out of warranty" by a short period of time despite only being in use for just over a year due to the delay in installing and commissioning it. it took so long for Germany to respond due to holidays and i guess more important things that the UK support just replaced it for free for me in the end. so i can't grumble at that! i'm hoping that my original pump was just an anomaly and the new pump lasts longer than a year!

give the tech support department a call?

My DeWalt ones are fine for me. They came from Screwfix so easily returned if you don’t like them.

just be careful disregarding the Loxone RGBW spots as i found it very hard to find non-loxone RGBW spots much cheaper and so i actually used the Loxone ones for them in one room. so don't discount ALL loxone stuff. 😉 not sure on the answer to this one although i guess the obvious answer is using the tree bus. in the one room where i have the RGBW spots from Loxone controlling them was a simple 1.5mm T&E radial for power and a single Cat6a cable. using Whitewing for that would've meant using up more "space" in the cab or using drivers closer to the spots? maybe another benefit is the simplicity of the tree bus and the hardware just works. i'm not saying that DMX controlled controllers are a pain but there's a few extra hoops to go through setting up the channel numbers etc. Mike from Whitewing is very responsive to questions and i've got nothing but good things to say about the customer support and you can see earlier in this thread where i was trying to figure out how the RGBW led dimmer would work and a few back and forths with Mike and i got all the information i wanted. i've not had to speak to Loxone so i can't comment on their customer support. i fully understand the anxiety of diverging from the Loxone equipment as there's the voice in the back of your head saying "What if". but i've been very happy with Whitewing equipment and just wish he'd done relays when i was purchasing as i'd have definitely used them.

i do have to say though that the Loxone stuff looks really nice in the cabinet lined up. but it was a high price to pay to satisfy my OCD. 🤣

i have a Whitewing mains dimmer (https://www.whitewing.co.uk/acdim.html) and 24v RGBW dimmer (https://www.whitewing.co.uk/rgbdim48.html) and think they're both great. and sooooo much cheaper even when factoring in the DMX extension. and if you swapped out some or all of your Loxone relays for Whitewing ones (https://www.whitewing.co.uk/dmxrelay.html) you'd save a small fortune! i see now he does a small 4 channel LED driver for £18+VAT each! https://www.whitewing.co.uk/tinydmx.html . should be able to replace those expensive Loxone ones (https://shop.loxone.com/enuk/product/100325-rgbw-24v-compact-dimmer-tree) at £78+VAT each! i have more lighting to do in the basement and i think i've found my new LED drivers.

i need 2 x 2.6m (ish) 5 bar gates for a back driveway. there seem to be loads online. any one got any supplier recommendations or are they all pretty much the same thing?

he also does DMX relays now as well. if i need more relays i think i'm definitely going to use Whitewing over buying new Loxone relays.

i drew mine out on a spreadsheet (in this thread somewhere i think!) also, that's a lot of Loxone dimmers and relays which are expensive. have you had a look at Whitewing? you'd need a DMX extension though. plus the Loxone tree LED strips are expensive compared to others in my opinion. i used a Whitewing device and normal led strips. but i do understand keeping it all under one roof so feel free to ignore me!

Just make sure you only need the 5! I wish I’d gone for the 6 now as things take more space than you think. Plus I’m rubbish at planning stuff. 🤦‍♂️

why do you need internal drainage/waterproofing system? we had an external membrane and waterproof concrete. we'd rather keep the water out that deal with it on the inside. @Pocster used the internal system so might have more insight in to what is being proposed for you. with regards to UFH i don't think we've ever really used it in the basement as it's a pretty constant temperature down there most of the time. i would've attached it to the rebar in the slab though if i'd had more time but the second layer of rebar was put on and i couldn't thread the pipes through it and there wasn't enough cover over it to allow us to attach the ufh pipes to the top of the rebar. so we just put it in the screed.

aren't they just flexible hoses? definitely don't look insulated already so i would suggest that insulation should be added to them. but i am no expert! maybe @Nickfromwales can chime in?

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Well that’s a decision only you can make! They are quality but if you can find a compliant cheaper alternative then you can add that to the mix.

Fair enough! You’ve obviously thought about it a lot.

I don’t understand your the point of them. You have to run a Cat6 cable to the socket to power the nano di which presumably comes from the cabinet as its tree controlled so how does that save on cabling? i’m not sure i see the point of them! But then i might be missing something too. Also cable is cheap at first fix stage so i ran some to anywhere i already had a sensor or might need one and just left them near the cabinet for future use. plus there are alternatives to the wiedmuller blocks purchased from Loxone. I did lots of price research on different blocks and think I added the spreadsheet to this thread somewhere!

i can confirm that using the Roo extension in VSCode and giving 'git' command execute permissions using Claude Sonnet 4.0 that it can automatically git commit and git push when asked to do so. i think that you need to give Claude (or whatever AI) shell access so it can run commands for you in the shell.

That’s where using an IDE is beneficial then as the AI will change the local files with code so it’s all saved locally. but it’s a bit cheaty for me as I get free access to AI through work so if I had to pay I probably wouldn’t use it as much!

so i can commit and push within VSCode and the Roo extension can use the LLM to run git commands (i've had it do it in the past to check the git logs to compare versions of code) so i don't see why i couldn't get AI to run the git commands for me. i can't try it at work as we have to raise change requests but next time i'm working on a personal project i'll see if it works. a quick "can you commit the changes and push to the repo?" should do it.

or do as we're doing and have a mixture of both! part of the "garden" will be laid to lawn as i like nice stripes and a lush green lawn but other parts will be wildflowers to attract the wildlife and give us a lovely meadow-type thing to look at. best of both worlds. 😉

i don't use AI to run `git push`! even i can just about manage that. 🤣

i don't use file links. I integrate with VSCode and i can then commit to a git repo and pull it to wherever i want.

damn that's a lot! we paid £260 +Vat for 20T of top-soil (grade B). grade A was more expensive but it was just grade B mixed with manure which we didn't think we needed for a lawn, especially as we put manure in the subsoil. i suggest phoning around. we got ours from a local muck-away company who processed their own top-soil through a machine that screeded to 8mm.

we thought about approaching local stables to get "free" manure but then when we considered the cost to get it loaded and transported probably wouldn't have been much less than just buying it and getting it delivered! think 20T of manure cost us about £200.

I find you have to rein it in quite often though with big projects as it gets blinkered and fixing one issue leads to another and another when it was the initial fix that was wrong. it’s definitely not yet at the point where non-technical people can write software I think as you have to proof read a lot of it! I have started asking it to write me something to paste in to starting a new context as the best way to get it up to speed!