Gone West

We bought a Genvex Combi 185LS direct from Denmark in 2017 so we didn't have any real problems with delivery and we reclaimed the 25% VAT successfully. One problem with buying large items like this from abroad is that it may be difficult to get warranty problems sorted out. We were told it would have to be returned to Denmark for repair.

Well done, my guess is that the biggest factor is the low house temperature followed by DHW heating. With low temperature radiators you are using the ASHP at near it's most efficient. I'm glad it's working out well for you.

It somehow chemically affected the surface of the sandstone making it shiney and smooth.

As a point of interest we had honed sandstone paving pathways at our last house which weren't slippery when wet. We found out the hard way that sandstone is badly affected by salt (NaCl), when I put some salt on some weeds growing near the edge of the sandstone. It isn't therefore a good idea to put salt on icy sandstone paving.

At our last house we used to heat our 185 litre DHW tank to 45C with an EASHP. Our mixer showers and our bath thermostatic valve worked fine. Only two adults in the house and we never ran out of hot water.

No, not yet. I don't know if PHPP would be a good model to use for and old solid walled stone building. I have done some basic heat loss calculations and at the moment I've calculated the heat loss as 17414kW with a 24C temperature difference and I should be able to reduce that to around 11237kW with some straightforward improvements.

When I was playing around with PHPP, using 2010 Version IIRC, my house was 13kWh/m2a at 20C and 15kWh/m2a at 21C. I also found the results varied a lot depending on the climate data used. I plugged in several different sets but all I can find now is the data I created using Meteonorm for my area, when I was in East Kent, which I finally used. I also created an average for SE England from Met. Office data which gave results of 11kWh/m2a. I decided to be cautious and settled for the 13kWh/m2a.

+1

You may not think they are exotic but I think they are smart and suit the style of the property well.

AIUI as from 1st April 2022 the 60% rule no longer applies.

It didn't seem clear to me whether that was when purchased or only when installed by a company.

That looks good. If you don't mind me asking what size is it and what make. I'm looking for something similar.

Yeah, electricians and plumbers are generally drama queens 😄.

This might be the case, if you have cavity walls. I have the same recommendation on my EPC and all my walls are solid. EPCs based on RdSAP are generally crap.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/deals/homebuilding-renovating/#53584

IIRC the GPO cover the Post and Telephone services.

I can only remember back to the 1950s when IIRC there were the:- Electricity Board Gas Board Water Board GPO Egg Marketing Board Milk Marketing Board British Railways Board

We had a deep bore soakaway drilled that went down 47m through various layers of material that were water bearing until it hit chalk and even that was water bearing. Needless to say we had to think of an alternative but on the positive side we had a borehole that produced plenty of water that we used for watering the garden.

They are plain compressed glass fibre hoods, not intumescent fire hoods, that I used for all my downlighters. I used them to keep the insulation away from the lights. I bought them from TLC many years ago but they don't seem to sell them any longer. They were about 250 to 300mm diameter IIRC.

Might have been this stuff. https://www.everbuild.co.uk/products/landscaping/jointing-compound/sika-fastfix-all-weather/

We had an AEG combi microwave at our last house and we've ordered another one for our current house. https://www.aeg.co.uk/kitchen/cooking/compact-built-in-range/built-in-microwaves/kmk761000m/

I taped a plastic bag over all mine.

We paid £1300 for our Build Zone Warranty twelve years ago so £1500 doesn't sound bad.

We went to the Planning Committee after our application was refused twice, as we had Parish Council support and support from our District Councillor. I spoke for the three minutes allowed pointing out their errors and the Planning Department was overruled unanimously. The Head of Planning was furious and we were elated. We weren't asked any questions.

The only comment I can make about this is that I used a silicone based treatment on a solid brick walled Victorian cottage back in the nineties. I thought it was breatheable but I may be wrong about that. It worked well with water beading off and I lived there for another twelve years without any problems.