Gone West

Are you saying you have an unvented Powerflow cylinder currently installed. If so it is already a high pressure cylinder so why would you convert in to a vented low pressure system. Is the ASHP an outside HP which provides the DHW and heating or is the ASHP an interior HP that only provides hot water for the cylinder. I don't know if your 'red mini Henry hoover' is an ASHP or an expansion vessel. Do you have a photo you could post. Sorry just saw your first post about Ecodan so ignore the ASHP question.

Your blog entry has bought back memories as we fitted a Fontanot staircase about four years ago. I remember the fun? of drilling reinforced concrete. Ours was fitted onto porcelain tiles so I I drilled the tiles with a diamond bit and then the concrete with a Bosch concrete carbide head drill bit which went through the concrete and reinforcing steel in one go. We were told we had to have a central supporting pillar even though we wanted the floating stairs effect. Well done it looks a tidy job.

Mira make showers with built in pumps for low pressure systems. https://www.mirashowers.co.uk/showers/power-showers/

Most uPVC frames aren't insulated. The problem is that the cheaper uPVC frames have fewer but larger cavities in the construction which allows air movement within the cavity and hence heat will more easily be lost. The better uPVC frames have many more cavities which are a lot smaller and surrounded by thinner plastic which tends to prevent as much heat loss. Some people do insulate their own frames with low expansion foam but it's very tricky to do without causing even more problems.

So you could make the whole window out of one piece of wood and treat the area you want transparent meaning it would be stronger and better insulating.

In an old house with gas always stick with gas and the same with oil. If you want to spend a lot of time and money improving the fabric of an old building then an ASHP may be an option. I would only consider an ASHP if building a well insulated house and wouldn't ever fit a GSHP unless I lived somewhere like Northern Sweden.

Yes I have a passive slab and the insulation is by Isoquick. Ours was the first Isoquick installation in England and we had the Isoquick insulation laid for us but having seen it installed it could be done DIY as it just slots together like a jigsaw puzzle. If self leveling concrete is used it would be relatively straightforward. We did encounter some problems which are in our blog.

@zoothorn Wendy has just reminded me about the moisture trap I use in the shed and her parents use in their caravan over the winter. If you place one on the window sill behind the curtains it will absorb the condensation overnight and you can empty it out in the morning. It's a low tech solution and it certainly works so it's worth a try. https://www.screwfix.com/p/streamline-moisture-trap-1ltr/4159h https://www.screwfix.com/p/kontrol-crystals-refill-pack-2-5kg/4896h

Our windows are triple glazed and the frames are insulated which means the whole window is well insulated so doesn't show condensation. The humidity will condense on the coldest surfaces. By increasing the temperature in the room the level of condensation will reduce.

I can't see why that wouldn't be a good solution. I like the look of the tiles you can fit onto the base which I guess would give a good finish inside the shed. https://www.thegardenrange.co.uk/p/garden-base/non-slip-rubber-base-tile/

It's on Wayback. https://web.archive.org/web/20200923193339/http://www.mayfly.eu/

Looking at that picture showing the condensation around the edge of the glazing and on the wall next to the frame suggests to me that the frames are not very good quality. The only way to keep the condensation at bay is to keep the temperature up in the house and ventilate to reduce the humidity. A dehumidifier would reduce the humidity and provide some heat.

Hi, welcome to the forum and good luck with your project. There is a steel frame barn near us which has just started being converted. At the moment just a muddy site with some steel poles and an asbestos roof but judging by the details it will be worth the effort for the profit and looks. I wonder if it will really be finished by the summer. https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/88266919#/ https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=!AKXhl1BDFv7NI-Y&cid=14065BEB27289790&id=14065BEB27289790!1124&parId=14065BEB27289790!250&o=OneUp

I can't see how his idea will heat the house. With his best estimate, after several years, of 17C for the surrounding soil temperature it can only help in reducing the amount of heat required to keep the house warm. The heating requirement will be quite high as there was no underfloor insulation nor attached to the concrete. The measured temperature was 13.5 at the time. It will need a heat source like most houses IMHO.

You need a 'Full Overlay Plus' hinge in order to have a different thickness door and side panel with full coverage of the side panel edge.

Not quite sure I understand but aren't the side panels double thickness and the door doesn't have to be the same thickness, mine aren't.

I made a cupboard in the utility room with louvered doors and it took me ages to work which hinges to use from the Hafele site. I went through all the diagrams showing different overlaps etc and got there in the end. https://www.hafele.co.uk/en/product/concealed-cup-hinge-95-standard-for-up-to-28-mm-thick-doors-full-overlay-mounting-click-on-arm-tiomos/000000fc0001664100010023/#SearchParameter=&Category=pKgKAOsFlooAAAFev2d9OkCL&checkbox_fs_hinges_model=Grass+Tiomos&checkbox_fs_hinges_opening_angle=95&checkbox_fs_hinges_overlay=Full+Overlay&checkbox_fs_hinges_product=Concealed+Cup+Hinges&@P.FF.followSearch=9940&PageNumber=1&OriginalPageSize=12&PageSize=12&Position=2&OrigPos=1356&ProductListSize=3 I used these in the end. https://www.locksonline.com/Concealed-Hinges-133/Grass-TIOMOS-Clip-On-95186-hinge-full-overlay-plus-mounting-68747.html

It seems a very steep sloping garden because can't both sets of neighbours see into next doors gardens from their conservatories. Maybe it's the camera angle or something but it looks strange to me.

Spring's around the corner. We went for a walk this afternoon and saw our first flowering daffodils, plenty more in bud.

There have been several Class Q conversions around here. The farmers nearly always play the game and end up with a nearly new building. They never remove everything in one go, so I would put everything back that you possibly can as it was. This shows a conversion that ended up with a slate roof and white plastic windows, nothing like the drawings.

What's the immersion for. It could well be using a lot of electricity, have you tried turning it off.

It will overheat in the summer and be cold in the winter. If the wood burning stove is used it's not an 'Eco House', what ever that is. It would have been better if the concrete had EWI and then it could have been heated in many simple ways.

I fitted our plasterboard at an angle to increase light and foamed it in with Soudal low expansion foam.

You have to wait for the concrete to go off and then getting a good finish with power floating is weather dependent. It started to rain towards the end of ours being power floated and so we have an area which is less smooth than the rest. It would have been easier for us if we had used self leveling concrete and a bull float.

As I said earlier in the thread we had C35 power floated for our slab but now I would use self levelling concrete and not bother with power floating.