PeterW

If it’s a holiday let on a farm then it will be ancilliary to the main property. It is unlikely to get full PP to split off as a residential property and if you are planning on doing that then I would only offer subject to planning being granted as a separate dwelling.

They are not as good as you may think and you get a very standard product that you need to spend a lot of time on to get to a decent price. They produce a big spreadsheet with an estimate of time based on the materials / SPoNs estimate. It is just that though, an estimate and needs a lot of work to become a scope of work. It won’t show you stage payments or schedule of works.

Apparently it has a 3m inlet hose .. and 3m hoses so this is going through a window I reckon ..!

I’ve just found the 125mm external filter boxes will take a 2007 Ford Transit pollen filter ..! So I plan to give them a try, especially as they are £2.35 in EuroCarParts this weekend with the discount. Anyone else needs them, they are 200x214x30 and activated charcoal filled.

Are you measuring lids or invert levels ..?? How deep is the existing manhole ..? Is the existing manhole the connection to the main sewer ..?

I would dump the contents and then refill through the drain off with a hose. Then run it round and add the chemicals at that point.

Thats an estimating service, doubt you will get a decent QS for that. TBH if it’s a pretty standard build I would keep the QS on and get them to keep track of cost of work delivered and then pay on that basis. Also good to keep them onside to cover off and agree with the builder/contractors the pricing of any additional work or changes required.

Odd that the LLh is at zero. Did the plumber check the expansion vessel in the boiler ..? Or is it a separate one ..??

Yep they don’t have to honour the tariff and will transfer you to the nearest comparable tariff under OfGem rules. It is also why they are not allowed to charge an exit fee, nor are they allowed to block any transfer to a different supplier.

Grinder on your nuts sounds the answer to me .... ?

I’ll counter those, and provide a bit of insight .. 1. this poor design isn’t just for ASHP it is heating systems in general. I see modern new build houses with 3 en-suites and 200 litre hot water tanks, and small system boilers that are “eco” installs who wonder why they run out of hot water every day. The same houses have slightly smaller rads than 15 years ago, but not by much, and they have not been sized correctly. The rad calculations under BS EN 442 and the sizing calculators are woeful - have a look here at a calculator from the UKs largest supplier. Note the “standard delta T” is 50c, so unless this is altered for a heat pump and properly understood then you have issues from the outset. 2. it isn’t difficult, it just takes time. And time is money. People don’t want to pay for proper design for M&E, and I see this regularly. To run a whole set of correct sizing calculations for heat loss for UFH for an average 160sqm house will take about 4-5 hours assuming the client has the plans in CAD format. From that, the design can be done but it probably in all takes up to a day to get the remainder done. That’s £3-400 of fees, and is usually pre-sale and I would say 90% of customers expect this for free. The UFH suppliers do this for “free” but they don’t actually use anything more than standard values for walls etc and it is very broad brush. I’ve seen designs from two suppliers get it wrong by a factor of 40%, and when challenged they say it’s only a guide ..... only a guide for something you’re going to bury in 5 tonnes of concrete and cover for ever ..?!! The second point is about guarantees, and that is something that is nigh impossible to achieve to 100% accuracy. MCS used to say sized to to 99.5% from memory, but that’s based on historic data. How can you predict weather patterns 4 or 5 years ahead ..? The issue there is you oversize and then consequently over price and the client invariably goes for the cheapest option... it’s always an amusing conversation with a client who tells you they “think the quote is too expensive as Fred Smith is £1000 cheaper” yet you’ve got a raft of calculations and Fred has an envelope with some scribbles on it .. Oh and just because you asked for a quote, but didn’t want to pay for it doesn’t mean the calculations belong to you, you haven’t bought that ..!! 3. Heat loss design is probably one of the easiest calculations to do as it is methodical and requires little more than a set of plans, a ruler and a spreadsheet. Once you know the heat loss of the building, calculating the input is relatively simple (ie size of boiler / ASHP etc) as it has to be larger than your worst losses. Then the UFH or rad design comes next, again if you download LoopCAD yourself, you can do this in a weekend. I would hazard a guess than anyone who can use a spreadsheet can get to a good approximation of a design over a few evenings and well within the 30 day trial period of the software. It comes back to the questions of time and cost. 4. I’d argue there isn’t a dire shortage of designers, I would say there is a shortage of clients prepared to pay for it. Most M&E designers I know don’t work on domestic clients as they neither understand what they are getting for the money, or want to pay the fees. I’m always amazed at the fees people are prepared to pay architects for a house that looks good, but when built it performs like a bag of spanners. Unless you go down the PHPP route, very few even clients consider heat loss or overheating in a normal build, and a lot of questions on this forum are about that very issue and yet surprisingly people expect the answers from here for free .... and yet they are prepared to spend £’000 on something such as windows but won’t spend £’00 on ensuring they have hot water or a warm house ..?? On your point on RHI addressing the issue, that is completely incorrect. It has made it worse, as don’t forget, the worse the losses, the more the customer gets paid .. and no-one is going to “buy” a system that has no return on investment when it is supposed to be an incentive scheme to change. The calculations done are worst case, and usually by “surveyors” who have previously sold cheap double glazing or worse, and they are “checked” by someone certified who doesn’t validate the numbers. My own house was surveyed for solar, and despite the “surveyor” being told the attic had 400mm of insulation, the survey came back with 250mm .. and a note saying it was pointless putting any more down as it didn’t make the numbers any better !! RHI cannot alter a poorly designed heating system, it just changes the heating mechanism to one that has a lower delta T and you are back to square 1. ASHPs aren’t expensive when you consider what they do, and they aren’t complex either. @joe90, @ProDave and a few others have self installed and they are pretty much plug and play. Mine is a 9kW Mitsubishi based unit that has a power supply and a 24v call for heat. That’s it. The control box I built for it allowed me to set it to run at 50/75% load but tbh it sorts itself out and heats a 300 litre UVC and 80sqm of UFH, and does that fine. A lot of the newer units are self learning and they will use sensors in the outside units to maximise the system performance based on having a floor temperature and a DHW temperature and they will work without any external input other than a simple time clock. The issues arise when the systems are undersized, or when a customer wants to “run the heating” with the same programme as they had with a gas/oil boiler. Go back to the beginning, and when you realise a different delta T means a longer time to heat up, then you have an issue. The systems I’ve designed are maximised to use off peak electricity so for me it is about how the ASHP interacts with the fabric - if I was to chuck a 9kW ASHP on trad sized rads into the current build, operating twice a day during the day then it would both fail to heat the building and also cost 40-50% more to run. The difference it was designed as a system, not as a standalone heat provider, and that is where the problems start. If you don’t start with a design on paper at the same time as your plans, then you will be forever playing catch up and the rest of the design will be a compromise.

It looks like those are pretty standard eurocone connectors on the existing UFH pipes. Are they actuators or just flow controllers on the existing manifold. ..? I would be inclined to just change the manifold for a new one, add a six or seven port manifold and add one or two more circuits for the extension. Looking at the way that is piped, I’m assuming it’s the ASHP pump that is circulating the hot water directly...?

Why ...? What is it you are concerned about ..? Warranty inspections are an extra layer over and above ordinary BCO inspections so using the same inspector means you only get one inspection rather than having to have two.

OK but is this only happening when both DHW and UFH are calling for heat .. and is there any bypass on the UHF manifold ..? If it is hitting the hot side of the mixer and being blended down then it is not surprising the flow is less. Also try turning up the flow rate on the UFH and turning down the flow rate from the boiler and see what happens.

Yeh they are called hammer fix sometimes for a reason ...

where are you based ..?? Company I use does both inspections and they are very thorough - pages of report with photos at every stage along with any remediation required. There are very few Accredited Inspection companies these days and you will have a fairly limited choice outside of Local Authority BCO (who only offer the LABC warranty) and if it’s anything non standard you are building then expect lots of questions.

It doesn’t ... head of the fixing ends up on the outside of what you are installing - the “plug” fits in the timber but doesn’t go all the way through.

Have you factored in the OSB both sides to contain the insulation plus the machinery to blow it in, and that it needs to be roughly 2.5 times the thickness of PIR for the same insulation values..? When you factor all this in, it will be borderline that you can complete it for less than the cost of PIR. It is also much more labour intensive and you will need to detail that cold roof very carefully.

Yes it’s what is called planning ....... but seriously, detail doesn’t happen by accident, it is planned from the outset. I’ve just done a conversion with a niche built into a very thick internal wall, that was for a specific sculpture and it has been sized to fit it exactly. But that went in when the blockwork was being done and it was all factored in to work with that one item. Same with light positions etc, you have to plan them when the roof/floor is going in, and then it works when you come to install a they are in the correct places. I use marked up plans with everything on them down to the last socket as otherwise you’re struggling to ensure you have everything in the right place. Plan plan plan ..!!

Right ..!! Tbh I hadn’t even clocked that

Is that pump definitely getting power ..?? Can you whip the lid off the grey box and check it with a meter..?

You can check on a lot of the older pumps if it’s running by removing the cover in the middle of the motor. Got a photo ..?

Not quite true that is it..?? You’ve got the heating installed, it’s just resolving the air gaps between the ends of the pipes and the heat source !!

Yes there are. Usually 3 phase but they can easily cope with big old houses. Most boilers though are sized for the DHW supply (combi) or rapid recharge of a cylinder hence why you see boilers of 21KW or more in small houses. This is one example - 25kW and that’s pretty standard to have twin fans etc. http://www.earthsaveproducts.co.uk/product/classic-air-source-heat-pump-25kws-phase-3/ Thats what happens when governments give free money away and you get the bandwagon jumpers who then go bust 18 months later. Mark Insulation was a big example of this - started in cavity wall, went into renewables then when the money stopped flowing in 2015 they went pop...

Under contract law (and you still have a contract as someone has paid for this on your behalf) the installer is at fault and it is up to them to put it right. They are the ones who designed, sized and specced it, Vaillant just provide the kit. It is like buying a new car from a dealership and them telling you that any issues you need to go to Ford / Vauxhall / VW to fix it... You wouldn't, you would go to the garage, even if it was under warranty. Email the installers, and also state you do not believe it is fit for purpose, and ask for a copy of the sizing calculations.