PeterW

If it's a UVC, can you not just run the immersion for an hour at E7 rate (i.e. 12p worth...) to heat the top of the tank ..? Then SWMBO can have her shower in a morning and marital harmony shall be restored ....? You could then offset that during the day and it would probably be nett zero by the time you had finished. Also so makes sense running the legionella cycle during E7 but not sure you would manage to get her down to one shower a week...

I did think about the inline heater thing but an immersion run for 1hr at peak costs 36p.... Yes, that is £136 of electricity but even if I lose half of that as losses, I would still be using a third of that to do the top up using an inline heater. Add the capital cost and the inline has a payback of 4-5 years but it's another thing to go wrong ... adding another immersion to the tank (so only topping up the top 3rd) is around £80 and my running costs drop to £40 a year - now we are at 6 - 7 years payback and if I go for a few solar panels then it's starting to become the law of diminishing returns. One well insulated airing cupboard / hot press / plant room later and I'm now starting to question the inline and all of its hassle just to save what is small change in the cost of the build.

@Wrekin1 I'm not sure where you get litres from either ...?? From the link, 150m2 of block work is 1500 blocks. In my calcs that is 4 tubs of ready mix at £192 To do the same on site mix is 36 OPC and 4 bulk sand, coming in at around £220 not including site mixing ....

I've got to say I don't bother with mortar mixed on site these days as its a faff and mixers never get cleaned properly ! Local readymix place does mortar tubs that mean I get a full day out of a 1:1 gang and the labourer is loading up etc - also a consistent mix and no piles of sand etc to get full of crud and leaves. I think when I costed it we were on a par for price. Edited to say it's about £48 per 1/3 cubic metre tub which will do 5-600 bricks or 400 blocks.

Ok so I'm now interested as I've gone for 300 litres at 68c giving me enough hot water with ASHP on E7 from 3-5am at 48c and then the immersion doing the top up from 48-68c up to 6:30am. ASHP will then kick in to do the slab from 5-6:30am but at 30c. Two questions @jack - do you have any TMVs prior to the showers or do you feed water at 80c to the shower ..? - how much do the showers use per minute ..? Now wondering if 300 litres is overkill ..!!

Try this http://source4me.co.uk/calculate_brick_block_mortar.php

Pull the loop upwards with some builders strap then let it drop down towards the roof vent

You will still need a weekly legionella cycle to 68c to ensure the UVC is kept clean - but agree 80c seems hot !

SAS one and register it on DataTag - it's £50-60 and it makes them pretty worthless

Ok - from the Australian building codes (useful for stuff like the actual strengths and spans of far eastern ply ....) then you get this : I would suggest that a normal person reading that would say you won't have an issue with 12mm ply (with 5 plies) but that would need an SE to confirm - just did the deflection calc and 12mm is the square root of naff all at normal domestic loading. If you were really worried then taking Nicks idea you could glue and screw thickening ribs down the middle of each panel / joist pair before you glued and screwed the panel to the joists.

Yes you will feel a difference of a few degrees - you're probably talking of a unit with a centre uValue of 1.2-1.4 so much worse than the wall surrounding it. You can upgrade them to argon/krypton fill with low emissivity glass but then the frame will become the weak point so really not worth it unless they are blown

Yes but we are talking about non-UK manufacture. As there is no equivalent of a CE mark for a window that is used across the EU, then if a manufacturer can show they meet a similar domestic standard to PAS24 or the like then it would be reasonable to expect that it would be acceptable in the U.K. Experience shows a lot of TUV standards are much higher than the old BS equivalents and this has caused some issues with moving to ISO standards.

I think that's the whole point - these are externally glazed so it's just a case of a blunt tool in this instance.

Random lengths are ok if you lay them random ...!! Don't be tempted to use the short ones at the ends, cut long ones and keep the "pattern" going. The plus side is randoms are easier to handle as they are smaller.

I did 25m2 of bonded bamboo in a little over 6 hours (over 2 nights) - and that was using a 80mm random length board so a pain in the %#*€ ... I reckon I could have done it in laminate in half of that time but the floor feels totally different and it's solid.

Dont ... there is one of the "educational supplies" companies that provides them as part of their range of craft products ...! not as bad as a cake sale at a local school here where the PTA treasurer wanted the money washed before counting it "as the children has sticky hands....."

What is next to you ..? Or should say what's the nearest property ..?

Is it definitely a coal flue or has someone restricted it or re-lined it for the gas fire - did you try a smoke match first ..?

Like most it depends on your location. They claim to get the best price for blocks but currently that is very location dependent - transport costs outweigh their saving normally but they are good for sanity checking your local BM pricing.

Yes but is it designed around Andrex Quilted (other brands are available) or Aldi single ply ...??

None ..... Invest in the the fabric of the building and make it far exceed the regs on insulation and air tightness and you shouldn't need heating. UFH coils in the floor can be done for less than £100 at build time and no need to add the manifold unless you need to. If you go conventional and have gas available then it's seen as the default cheapest, but @SteamyTea has some good info on direct electric heating

Just be cautious with SSD when they are doing a lot of write/rewrites as the storage capacity degrades over time. Top end ones do stuff like wear levelling but they can be double the price of the entry level stuff. Games can sometimes rely on large disk storage sectors which on SSD can promote increased degradation.

FFX are having a clear out online http://www.ffx.co.uk/tools/blackfriday/K=_F=_T=_C=_B=_CL=0_S=/1//1

It's breach of contract and misrepresentation at best, and fraud at worst ..! I would normally suggest trading standards however as it's a big ticket item I would go for a quick solicitors letter - TS have become a toothless wonder unless it's a public interest issue

Sorry ..! Sealed heating systems should have barrier pipe, DHW and cold don't need it.