tanneja

I plan to create scenes using the HC3 that will be switch driven so have lots of reactive switches, but also have aspirations to have the lighting then linked to HA routines to make it more automated.

At this stage I am basically certain to go down the fibaro Zwave route for any kind of smart lighting in the house. We have new rewire throughout with deepest switch back boxes available, and I managed to get a Fibaro HC3 for cheap, and a couple of demo modules just to see for size (and have frightened my electrician with how many might need to go in each switch box). I feel like I have been reading for weeks but can't get my head around what modules I will need for each circuit. Generally speaking there are 3 types of lighting circuit in the house: - multiple LED GU10s on the same circuit (from 2 - 12 spots) - length of spotless LED strip (from lengths of 2m - 10m) - length of RGBWW LED strip (from lengths of 2m - 10m) Some of these circuit variants are 1 way switches, most are 2 way switched, and one is 3 way. I would want all the GU10 and spotless circuits to be dimmable, and want all the usual scene programming. What I can't get to grips with as I don't understand circuit diagrams, is which of the fibaro modules will I need for each circuit type (both due to the type of light being used, and the number of switches it has to operate. My gut is telling me you only need 1 module per circuit and that it can live behind either of the switches in the circuit, at our choice essentially, which would be helpful as means can spread the back modules between switches to make space easier to deal with. I also feel like I need the fibaro dimmer 2 for the Gu10s, and obviously the RGBW 2 module for the colour change strips. If those are both sensible, it is then what to do with the spotless strips, i have read using the dimmer2 and also using the rgbw2 modules. Can anyone offer any advice? Is the situation more complex or perhaps (hopefully) simpler than I think it is? I don't want to melt modules or have flickering dimmed lights! Sincere thanks!

Sorry to hear that @joth, that is great info on the deadlock for the garage access as that is on my to do list, you have saved us there. For a front door it just looked to difficult with Moralt in the end so went with a Camel glass liquid metal door, don't think it is passive standard but has good insulation and security credentials to the layman.

Thanks @PeterW. I could ask the builders to multitool out the bottom and top 2" of PB and then have a bonding coat infill, then skim over the lot, and then have blowerproof behind services penetrations. I will need to ask him to remind me what the ceiling make up is, unsure, due to it being a garage whether there is an airtightness layer / vcl in the vaulted ceiling. If not, don't know what to do about that. You can seemingly get a blowerproof spray guy out for large areas, this room is 6x6m with high vault. Best it is expensive.

Out of interest how do you know that? Do you sit outside and watch it? I would be paranoid it was misbehaving when I has my back turned.

Hi @Conor, where in the vent circuit would there be airtightness valve in operation when the hood is turned off? I can't see it written but would it be safe to assume the external fan has a type of one way valve that is relatively airtight when not in operation?

Thanks @tonyshouse @Nickfromwales, I feel my question remains as it to so late to undo the dot and dab. Is there any reasonably effective approach I can employ at this late stage?

@PeterW thank you, yes that does seem like common sense, just I have seen youtube videos of users applying sealant before offering metal ducting together, I suppose it is down to personal preference and weighing up sealing for better performance vs. ease of disassembly.

Am looking at our options for sealing the pre-insulation wrapped metal spiral ducting going from our MVHR to external. Do people rely on the gaskets in the couplers for their air tightness, or do you silicone the joint, or tape the joint? If taping, presumably I would need to tape the joins from the inside as taping over the insulation jacket won't be very airtight, which wouldn't be possible at all joins. Maybe everyone just uses the gaskets to make future access simpler?

A bit of a resurrection here. Airtightness throughout the house has seemed to go well, plan a test once the spots go in upstairs and able to hood over them, but VLC and parge throughout. One element of the build that I am uncertain about is the attached garage (has a garage door, a back door to garden and access door to the house). It was build up to it's current stage before we thought seriously about air tightness. It will likely be used as a home gym and storage area, unlikely to have a car. I appreciate regs say it can't be an airtight space, so this is more hypothetical. Just thinking ahead to if it becomes habitable. We are likely to have the garage door just be a fixed, cellotex backed sheet of ply for the foreseeable future due to costs, but at least can make it air tight. The back door is airtight, and the window / skylight airtight detailing has been done to the best of our ability. The issue is the room construction is double skin (rock wool filled) breeze blocks, ceiling is vaulted rafters with regs thickness cellotex intra and under the timber structure, but no air tight layer, all of which which have already been dot and dabbed / screwed PB as appropriate, but not yet skimmed. . What hope can I have of making this room relatively airtight at this late stage? Is whole room blowerproof prior to skim a good idea? Unsure if the skim will take to the blowerproof well enough if used over all the floor and ceiling. I could just blowerproof the PB joins? Ask for thicker than usual skim? Obviously also need to look at all the PB penetrations (sockets etc) and make sure they have appropriate putty / silicone treatment. Obvious solution is to forget about any of these and focus on a good airtight insulated door between house and garage, but exploring all our options. Any guidance would be much appreciated.

Thank you for the recommendation Mike. Does your hood continue to perform well for you? Am drawn to this one, has relatively high noise compared to other models but also has a monster extraction max rate, so assume will be quiet if not pumped to the max. Does that feel like a reasonable deduction:? https://www.myappliances.co.uk/Designair-ART28355-60cm-Striscia-Angled-Glass-Cooker-Hood Presumably the carbon filter they provide does a good job of filtering the cooking air? Ours would be used in recirculation, so keen for the exhaust air to be as clear as possible, and not discolour the ceiling.

What I didn't think to say is that the ceiling in the room is back to joists at the moment, which presumably will be an issue for doing walls first, as what will I fix the top channel to? I can attach to the joists where the wall runs perpendicular to the joists, but not the walls that are parallel to them, unless we add more noggins

Hi all, Have read many threads and downloaded the whitebooks for GypFrame and Casoline MF, so have the schemes for the walls and ceiling that I am prepared to do to get the DB insulation I desire. What I can't seem to find anywhere is advice as to which to do first...do you do the walls from floor to ceiling, then drop the casoline system ceiling within these walls, or do the casoline first then marry the walls from floor up to the new ceiling? I am tempted by the former thinking it might lead to more stable walls which will take more force at times than the ceiling which is left alone. Is either approach likely to be any better for sound insulation? Thinking about it, it is the noise permeating through the neighbour party wall that I am most keen to address, so it is probably the former, but would welcome any advice. Warm regards

@Nickfromwales thanks that is so helpful. What kind of quotes are you getting for supply (and install) of 4/5 multisplit unit? Will the routes to the room be out of sight and fairly easy to get access to? What is the typical diameter of the internal pipework for the multisplit units? I presume there are separate flow and return required for each internal unit back to the external unit?

Thanks Peter, indeed we have rads upstairs, and our combi is 2 years old so plenty of life left.

I am saying I am open to either approach. Probably the latter is the one that makes sense. I don't like the idea of the UFH being totally reliant on the ASHP in case a severe winter where it may struggle (that might not be a realistic concern), but to the layman it seems 99% of the time having the under floor heat and cooling fully managed by the ASHP appears to be best, with upstairs rads and hot water via the combi. But these are just my very high level guesses, reassurance as to the best system would be very reassuring. And if there were benefit to sympathetic pipework at this stage, we aren't too late to incorporate.

Thank you Peter, I guess that is one for flow and one for return. Are those diverter valves smart, based on a thermostat demand?

Our current setup is a combi boiler (existing before our renovation and relatively new) for our heating and HW demands. It is connected to the wet UFH for the ground floor. These temperatures have me concerned that our house will need active cooling. I have an idea for where to place an ASHP for managing the climate of the upstairs bedrooms, using a 3 or 4 way split unit located on the flat roof. For the downstairs, there are minimal routes for services. The downstairs seems relatively cool anyway, but was considering slab cooling (polished concrete floor finish throughout) via a second ASHP (instead of air con wall units where wall space is at a premium). While I hope I don't need any active cooling, in case we do, my builder and plumber have asked what valves would be needed to connect the ASHP to the UFH for cooling purposes, whether to build that into the pipework being put in place at the moment. It likely makes sense to worry about it if the situation ever happens, but checking in case. If I ended up needing that cooling from the slab, would it mean having the ASHP govern all my UFH and UFC, leaving the combi for the upstairs rads and hot water? Or would it make sense for the combi boiler to still manage the UFH, with cool provided by the ASHP on some kind of intelligent valve?

Have you applied to have the EWI cost part covered by the Green Home Grant scheme? Unsure if still running.

Has anyone found the retailer which they believe is doing the best Millboard deal at the moment? I would need a horrific amount to do 35m of fencing (likely using decking boards mounted vertically 900mm to get 4x plank out of one 3.6m length), also clad a double garage door, maybe box the soil pipe, actual decking out the back....

@Adsibob We seem to have identical aesthetics to what you describe. Would you mind sharing what you went for in terms of cistern and paired flush plate in the end? I have assumed at this point that Geberit and Grohe would be better performing cisterns thinking that is what their companies are best known for, but that is likely just a market bias. I would also like a quiet toilet / cistern combination, and one with high velocity to really clear the bowl. Never appreciated how many choices there would be, and how many unknowns...I thought the toilets would be easy after so many house decisions.

We like Red Robin. Yet to plant ourselves but plan for a mature clear stem tree variant for the back garden to hide a neighbour, then have them as hedges around the perimeter of the front. I have seen examples where the foliage is satisfying dense, and others where it looks bare. My guess is that it is dependant on your pruning frequency and technique in the younger years of the hedge, ensuring it has sufficient growth at low level. I might invest in a gardener once every few months who knows the optimal cut strategy to get a dense hedge. Really like the combination green and red new growth and relatively small leaves compared to standard laurel, also red robin looks less waxy to my eye. Has a bit of a japanese vibe to my eye.

We already have a regular circular soil pipe in place, I assume I will have to settle for painting it same colour as the soffit / facia or render, either way it will be on show, and on one of the principal elevations of the house. I was wondering if I could have a box section layered over the top with identical access areas as the rod points. Probably all a bit too hard now the house is rendered with EWI also making the ask of attachments a bit more involved. Is there anything fairly simple that can be done?

@Moonshine or others, what is best practice with the backboxes in the GypLyner universal setup? I intend to double board, are holes cut for the back boxes, placing next to the metal studs so to affix the back boxes to the framework (assuming one would be foolish to have a back box floating somewhere in the plasterboard), silicone around the cutout perimeter with the back boxes to reduce air penetrations, and perhaps putty inside / on the reverse of the back boxes so they don't allow airborne sound through themselves?

@Adsibob, can I ask what bowl you went with in the end?