Thorfun

here's a couple of diagrams for you. the entire plot has the layer of sandstone and you can see that everything is flowing north to south downhill. in the first image I've added where we've cut through the sandstone so along the 15m length of the north side of the basement there would be water coming out of the sandstone and down to the land drain and who's to say that along both sides of the house (8m in length) water isn't coming out through the sandstone there as well as it's probably a path of least resistance. so, my theory is, that all of the groundwater north of us is flowing through the sandstone and ends up coming out around our basement and in to the sump. during periods of heavy rain that could be quite a bit of water! I know the pump(s) are working as I can see the water going out to the manhole and in to the RWH tank. so the only conclusion I can come to is that the pipe isn't wide enough to cope. although, it IS coping at the moment as the sump hasn't overflowed. but this whole thing is about mitigating the risk of the sump overflowing and so I'm leaning towards belt and braces and just putting the 50mm pipe in place and then forgetting about it (apart from yearly checks to make sure it's all working!). Also, if I do put the 3rd pump in connected to the 32mm pipe then I can do some magic where if the sump gets to the point of the high water alarm going off then I could automate supplying power to the 3rd 'summer' pump to aid in the removal of the water as I'd have a 50mm pipe AND a 32mm pipe which can only help.

if the TF company wish to specify an airtightness target then I would suggest you negotiate a maximum result of 2ACH and no minimum. for them to state a range between 1.5 - 3 means that they probably won't try very hard to get to the 1.5 level but if you specify a max of 2ACH then they have to achieve that and, in doing so, will probably end up at a much lower than 2ACH level. there is a spreadsheet on here that @Jeremy Harris created that will allow you to see the potential benefit of reducing your airtightness and also increasing U-values. as @Iceverge says, airtightness has a massive effect on energy usage and insulation has diminishing returns.

I'm also surprised the 32mm isn't coping in periods of heavy rain but I can think of no other reason. when I've been out and the sump is filling up I've checked in the manhole that the 32mm outputs to and the water is coming out at a fair whack so I think the pump is pumping and seems man enough. we have a layer of sandstone about 2m down from ground level on our plot and I believe that it's the main route of groundwater for the area with all the ground water tracking through the sandstone and heading south. since we've cut through that sandstone all the water is dropping down and being collected by our land drain around the basement. the basement is 15m x 8m so it's quite a big area. I'll try and get a video of the water coming out from the land drain during the next period of heavy rain so you can see. the only conclusion I can come to is that the 32mm pipe is the bottleneck. and, tbh, I'd rather not be sitting and worrying about it! if I can fit a 50mm pipe now then I know it'll cope. I can also get the Zoeller pumps as they're 2" outlets and I will be very safe in the knowledge that I've done my very best to mitigate the risk of the sump overflowing.

I've been (obviously as I'm really paranoid now!) monitoring our sump during the recent periods of heavy rain and there's been a couple of times I've noticed that the sump has started to fill up with one time it being about 100mm from the top of the sump (and our sump is about 1500mm deep!). so something isn't working correctly with the current setup. when it's not raining or not raining hard then it's all working perfectly but in heavy rain the amount of water coming out of the land drain in to the sump is quite a lot! so I'm thinking that maybe the 32mm pipe isn't big enough to cope. even though it eventually catches up as the rain eases I'm worried that if we have a prolonged period of heavy rain then the sump will overflow. As such, I've decided to run a separate 50mm pipe and try and hide it somewhere. this has led to a few questions! 1. we currently have a 225mm step down from the basement sliders to the courtyard. if I were to run a 50mm pipe across the courtyard and cover it in concrete that will reduce the 175mm. and then with paving slabs it'll be 150mm. is a 150mm step down within building regulations? 2. iirc we have somewhere around 25mm cover over the rebar in the courtyard slab so I could, in theory, channel out some of the concrete to lower the 50mm pipe into the slab a bit. what would the minimum amount of cover I could leave be? 3. what would the best pipe be for the 50mm pipe? it will need to be buried underground. I also think that, in the winter, there's too much water to run the sump output to the RWH tank. the RWH tank is just overflowing. I know we're not using the house at the moment but even with using RWH for toilets and washing machine the amount of rain will fill the tank without the need to put the sump water to it. But, in the summer, it would be great to have the sump water diverted to the RWH tank so in periods of no rain we would still have water in the tank. so I was thinking about keeping the 32mm outlet pipe attached to a 3rd pump and in the summer switch over to that pump and disconnect the 'winter' pumps so in the summer we get sump water in RWH tank but in the winter we use the 50mm pipes and output to the ditch next to the property. any comments on that? I guess the 'summer' pump could also act as an emergency pump in the winter if ever required as well.

afternoon all and a happy new year to everyone. I have a quick question please. I'm looking to add a drain valve of some kind to the end of my water manifolds (hot and cold) so I can drain them down if ever necessary. what would you recommend to connect to this 3/4" male connector to allow this to happen?

I should’ve looked at these as I have a Huepar laser level and love that too.

I've got one of these. https://www.screwfix.com/p/bosch-glm-40-laser-rangefinder/1480x love it. wish I'd bought one sooner.

never learnt C. did a bit of Objective-C before Apple moved to Swift. and have done some Python and Perl.

I've not managed to sit down and learn 3D modelling just yet! I get all my stuff to print from Thingiverse. I've been lucky so far in that I've found models for what I've needed but no doubt the time will come when I can't find what I want and I'll have to model my own. without wanting to de-rail this thread.....any tips on learning 3D modelling?

only thing I can think of is being wary of the amount of ducting available to move it. I doubt there's any spare to pull it further so you'd have to move it along the length of the ducting.

i bought from rainwaterharvesting.co.uk and dealt with Rob there. Very good customer servicing and to deal with. i liked their Rain Director hardware that supported a 'holiday mode' which would flush the header tank and replace with mains water and stuff like that. our tank is in the ground as is currently full and overflowing as it's not been connected up to the house as yet. i can recommend them as a company to deal with and the product looks good but as it's not functional yet i can't advise on the longevity or functionality of it. hope this helps.

i was told i wouldn't need heating in my basement but i installed UFH loops throughout just in case. total materials weren't much more than £500 and we fitted it ourselves so no labour costs. for that sort of cost it's a no-brainer to install even if you never use it in my opinion.

I know people have said that they've used Cat7 for the thicker wire but it seems that Cat7 cable is 23AWG the same as Cat6a. so why choose Cat7 over Cat6a?

definitely recommend buying from German site Latzel

what thickness trirated? I presume that as it's a short distance within the cabinet voltage drop isn't an issue. but if I'm jumpering mains voltage lighting then I presume I'd need 1.5mm trirated/jumper cable? is a rule of thumb that the jumper cable should be the same thickness as the source cable?

all valid points! our Sonos system is starting to play up. skipping songs half way through, some speakers not connecting to the mesh etc. so we've kind of given up on it.

I guess that if you go for the Loxone Audio Server setup over Sonos you get added functionality for free. i.e. with presence sensors around the house you get a built in alarm system that can be blasted out through the Audio Server. And, for us with out sump/basement/flooding potential, the ability to produce an audible alarm/alert/message from a high water alert is invaluable. then there's the "it's dinner time"/"we're leaving in 5 minutes" etc messages broadcasted throughout the house to the occupants who spend all day in their bedrooms, aka teenagers. I'm not sure if you can get Loxone to play those sort of events through Sonos. also, for me, Sonos really pi$$ed me off when they came out with the whole 'we're not supporting older speakers any more so you have to upgrade if you want to get updates' business model. basically sticking 2 fingers up at those who have already purchased speakers and have been customers for many years.

don't worry. he told me you're on the naughty list.

£7 in the first 24hrs according to the Melcloud app and it's running 24/7. 20kWh input and approx 100kWh output. so first day was a COP of 5 which I'm very happy with. and last time I went to check the basement was up to 15.6°C so it's getting to the point where a commercial dehumidifier would start to make sense. but, for now, we have a couple of smaller dehumidifiers that are doing a job.

didn't know whether to laugh or cry at that one!

Thank you. Very useful information.

Merry Christmas and good luck next year. If we’re lucky we might be in our new place for next Christmas. And by lucky I mean winning the lottery tonight! 😂

hi all. now I've got my flooded basement under control and it's heating up and drying out I'm back thinking about this subject again. I have calculated my Cat6a requirements so that's all sorted. I've decided to use the Whitewing RGB dimmer. I've calculated my voltage drop for the longest run and I'm good with 1.5mm cable. so, for my RGBW strips I was going to run the attached data sheet Dali 5-core 1.5mm cable. DALI Lighting Cable 05Z1Z1-F Class Cca s1b d2 a1.pdf this ticks my boxes for CPR rating for LSOH/LSZH cable that I'm using throughout. it's more expensive that Eca rated cable but I'm trying to stick to my guns with the ratings for as much of my cable as possible. So, my question is, this cable is perfect for the RGBW led strips, right? I believe that @joth said in another thread that he used the Dali 5-core cable for his LED strips which is what led me to research it. One more question as well, I was planning on using Cat6a for my one-wire runs around the house as well. I know it's really overkill but I think the U/FTP Cat6a would allow better screening than a UTP Cat5e and, tbh, it's not too much more expensive. what did others use for their one-wire controls? And, finally, what cable did people use to 'jumper' within the Loxone cabinet?

Our groundworkers used a block cutter to cut our EPS200/300 under our slab.

I’ve done that before as well. It is a very good reminder for me to do it again! Thank you.