Gone West

It's an awful lot cheaper than Screwfix are selling it for.

That looks like Western Red Cedar and the top grade is called "No. 2 clear and better" which is what we used. Ours came without any knots and we have left it to 'silver'. To keep the look that you want will require quite a lot of maintenance.

Good luck.

Not that it makes any difference now but I would have had a supply in the dressing area instead of extract and I would have had a supply in the hall as I have here.

I don't think it is necessary to increase the ventilation level for bathroom use especially when your RH is so low. I would just leave the bathroom door open, any increase in humidity from baths or showers would be beneficial. Our system stays on level 2 all the time. As Jeremy says the system should be silent on level 2 and you should only be able to feel slight air movement next to the vent.

I was comparing skirting heating to radiators in a low energy house.

I can't see a real problem with that setup.

If I needed central heating in a low energy house I would consider skirting heating not conventional radiators.

Where are the intake and extract vents on your house? Are they on the same wall and does that point in the direction of the prevailing wind? Are you far from the sea?

@lizzie If you create a table based on the one I sent, you will be able to fill in the first four columns for your house before your technician arrives. For the first column calculate the volume of each room in cubic metres. For the second column just copy the appropriate air changes per hour rate for each room. From that for the third column you can then calculate the air flow rate per hour in cubic metres per hour. The fourth column just converts m3/h into l/s using the conversion factor of 0.277778. The last column is the calculated air flow velocity in m/s using the cross sectional area of the measuring device. Good luck .

It's also worth considering whether UFH is the best form of 'wet' heating. There's a lot more to UFH than just the pipework and it is less efficient than radiators or skirting heating. It does have it's advantages but I wouldn't say it was a no brainer.

If you have a small garden and don't like ivy, honeysuckle is a good alternative. We are also going to grow pyracantha along part of the fence, it is evergreen but spikey and the birds like it for nesting and the berries are a good food source.

For exactly that reason we decided to use a Genvex Combi 185LS in conjunction with electric towel rails in the three bathrooms. When the Genvex is in air heating mode it turns the supply fan speed up to maximum for around twenty seconds and then turns the fan down to around 70%. We can hear the fan on maximum but when it slows down it isn't audible. We have a small house, around 306m3, and the system works well for us. If the house were any larger the warm air supply wouldn't be sufficient in cold weather.

I am going to build a sparrow terrace this month and site it under the eaves on the NNE side of the house. A lot of boxes are positioned in the sun which can be a problem for young birds that only receive moisture through the food brought to them.

Do you grow house plants? They can increase humidity by transpiration.

@lizzie From what you have said I'm sure your MVHR is over ventilating. The RH in our house is always 40% to 50% and we have never used the boost button. Ask your engineer to set it up to use the PH air changes per hour for each room that are on the table I sent you. Maybe having a dog in the house adds another problem. Good luck

@recoveringacademic I like Carly Simon, but I can't see her .

No, we don't have any moss or lichen growing on the tiles. There is no evidence of any problems at all. When we bought the system one of the advertising claims was that nothing grew on the tiles. The only growth we have on the tiles is a very thin green algae type on the front edge of the tile which can be easily rubbed off and this is only where the tiles never see the sun. The tiles are porcelain and impervious.

The single storey roof is 5.3m x 3.7m. It took me three days IIRC. My roof has OSB sarking and 100mm x 50mm rafters on top with 50mm Rockwool RW6 batts between. Then the membrane and the steel battens on top. The single storey roof was designed for PVs and I am considering fitting PVs panels this year. I would use hanger bolts through the tiles into the rafters for holding the PV mounting bars.

Where the tiles butt up is supported by the channels, so I walk on the cracks.

It's more DIY than any other system I found at the time. You use less tiles because they butt up side to side and rain drains into the channel under where they touch. The clips spring into the channel and hold the two adjacent tiles. I did the small single storey on the left hand side completely myself. I battened the rest of the roof myself and had some Nu-Lok roofers tile it. They were here for less than a week, can't remember exactly how long. I didn't fancy cutting my teeth on dormers so just did the single storey.

Depends how heavy you are I have walked up ours without breaking a tile, just think where the tile is best supported. On mine it's two clips per tile.

Weight, because they only overlap in one plane. They use their 'own' PVs.

It certainly is, we did ours seven years ago. Don't believe anything they tell you about not going green. It's true moss and lichen don't grow on the tiles but any tiles permanently in the shade seem to get a green coating along the front edge.

I would take issue with the last recommendation. In the summer when the weather is hot they are unlikely to use a south facing box and more likely to use a north facing box. I have only fitted them around the perimeter of woodland, not on houses.