Carrerahill

Just to be clear, you’re looking to add an oven and hob circuit, and possibly a proper dedicated kitchen ring as well. If it were me, I would install either a 2.5mm² ring final circuit or a 4mm² radial for the kitchen, depending on exactly what I was intending to supply. This would typically be protected on a 32A RCBO or MCB on an RCD split board. For the oven, at around 2.3kW it only draws roughly 10A, so in theory a 16A supply on 2.5mm² radial would be sufficient, but personally I would install a 20A supply on 4mm² radial to give some headroom for future changes or upgrades. That way you are not limiting yourself later on if the appliance specification changes. I would then run the 20A feed into a fused connection unit, fit a 13A fuse, and then run out to the oven on flex. My usual approach is to remove the factory plug and hardwire the appliance via an isolator, even though I appreciate this can technically affect the warranty, as I prefer to control the quality of the flex and terminations myself. I generally do not like heavy loads running for long periods through standard 13A sockets, particularly where socket quality is questionable, because cheaper sockets can degrade and overheat at sustained loads around 2kW or more. I also do not like the idea of sockets being hidden behind appliances for years on end, so I always prefer them to be accessible in adjacent cupboards where possible, ideally unswitched sockets with a separate above-counter isolator depending on the setup. For lower power appliances I often use MK unswitched sockets at low level controlled via MK grid switches, which keeps things tidy and accessible while maintaining good isolation control. For the hob, assuming a full load of around 25A, I would normally install a 32A or 40A supply, and in most cases I would lean towards 40A using 6mm² cable if available, as that gives better long-term headroom. That said, a 32A circuit on 4mm² is still perfectly acceptable depending on the installation constraints. I would run the hob circuit into a double pole isolator of suitable rating, and I generally prefer to size up, so I would usually specify at least a 40A isolator, often 50A, using brands like MK, Schneider or Hager. All isolators should be installed in accessible positions rather than hidden behind appliances, so in practice I would normally mount metal-clad fused connection units inside adjacent cupboards in a location where they can always be reached easily, even after the kitchen is fully fitted.

I also live in Scotland, so I’m intrigued to learn when we collectively decided electricity was complimentary. It was a joke—but even in reality, there’s a difference between hospitality and quietly footing someone else’s ongoing costs. And I actually agree with you—constantly asking “what’s in it for me?” isn’t a great mentality. But that’s not what this is. I’m usually the one giving up time, tools, and know-how to help people out—fixing things, sorting problems, no questions asked. That is being a nice human. The flip side of that is not taking that generosity for granted, or framing basic boundaries as selfishness. Being decent goes both ways.

TECE do look very good from a quick Google, but are overpriced for what they are I think - also don't appear readily available.

Looks like I can get one for £80 - if they really are the one to go for... I can do that.

Be a bloody cheek charging at my expense!

They are required regardless of EVC now as part of BS7671 in all new installations and boards - which is why almost all consumer units now come loaded with one.

I am looking for some recommendations for a concealed cistern, I already have the bathroom suite but decided I was not spending £150 on the cistern they had in the showroom. I was on a commercial site inspection a few weeks ago and had a look at the cisterns going in behind the wall panels - they were Ideal Standard Concela 3 - looked decent, well made, good commercial option - I also took the IPS off the wall at work and had a look and we have Viva Sanitary Skylo which I can order through Amazon or B&Q for about £33. I see other options like Nuie etc, Flomasta. Don't get me wrong, I am a brand guy, I like good brands, Bosch, Miele, Samsung etc. I buy OEM car parts, quality professional grade tools, MK sockets, Schneider consumer units, Prysmian cable - I am that guy, but when it comes to something like a concealed cistern, I do question just why I should give some of these top brands 3-4 times more for something. I know there are issue with cheap ones delivering poor flush volumes and slow refill, but the Viva one above at work is spot on - does the job, good flush and fast refill and seems OK - £33! Can anyone give me some real-life, hands on experience with some of the other cheaper makes - I need to order something soon.

Have you fitted them yet? If not, spray them - I laid them all out in my garage, and gave them a coat of 2k Satin Epoxy in about 10 minutes per application. I have a compressor and HVLP guns, but you could beg or borrow one, or get a cheap setup. If installed... you might be out of luck!

It tends to be what they are good at or know. My BCO was very into cavity wall vents - didn't seem to care about anything else, even though I more than complied I had to buy a bag of retro-fit round vents, cut the back off them, and stick about 20 to my build - photograph them, then pull them all off again to get completion all because he claimed the vent bricks at the bottom would be sleeved into the solum, they were not, I installed them, and they were sleeved through the inner leaf, but as traditionally always was, open fully to the cavity too. I would stick something on the wall that technically complies. I even know of someone with a dead EVC - must be plenty of them about...

This reminds me of a major house builder who, in the early days of renewables installed PV panels on their new builds, they didn't however actually connect to anything, but when considered in conjunction with the regs, it complied!

Risk is still there, when doing a lightning protection system risk assessment, you review 500m either side of a buried LV cable - further away from the sub-station the bigger the risk as the collection area grows, 1000m x 1m for every meter your cable travels, so 1000m² per m travelled, a ground strike within 500m either way will probably affect the cable, worse if they are old metal cables as the strike can send a surge flying up the earth nicely too.

25mm² XLPE SWA

You could take the 10mm² into a junction box, use high quality connectors, then continue on 6mm² onto the EV charger. If you need to feed a socket, you could, take another cable out the connection blocks and into the fused connection unit, do it within 3m, then you can use a smaller cable cross section here so you can get it into your FCU (under BS7671 434.2.1) and drop it into a fused connection unit, de-rate to 13A and feed your socket from that. There are other ways too, including a small din-rail module and some MCB's locally, but it depends on your situation, space etc. What run is your 10mm² cable and what size MCB is protecting it? I'd be making sure it is a 40A for the 6mm² cable.

Welcome, not far from you.

Don't ask us, read the fee proposal, ours states: "This document is for the exclusive use of XXX and should not be used in whole or in part by any third parties without the express written permission of XXX" In other words, this fee is private, between you and I. I would need to really sit down with one of the 7k quotes and the 15k quote and understand to what stage are they designing, is there a site stage, have they allowed meetings, Teams and Site, what is included, what is excluded, does the 15k include EPC's, statutory application costs, with Mr 15K do variations and hold your hand, will Mr. 7K bill you another 10K in variations and fees? Does Mr 15K perhaps include M&E consultancy, other consultants?

I tried to do something like this last year when I did our PV install, in the end I pretty much just found the highest output panels from good manufacturers I wanted to use and within a price range that kept the £/W ratio reasonable and made a little table - I came up with about 6 panels I actually wanted to use. There were, at the time, some panels about 575W but being new to the market, means costs were £££/W and they were bigger, much bigger, which meant I could actually fit less peak power on my roof as the sizes were awkward to tie in around the Velux's. What I learned as well, was that you can plan and plan and plan, but when it comes to it, you more or less have an area you can utilise, stick with decent power density and you will more or less get the same same power be it using 10 500W panels or 11 450W panels but the 450W panels are probably a bit smaller and might suit your roof better. If you have a huge area, lots of space, no obstructions then just get as many high power density panels onto your roof as you can.

My thoughts are: 1. Replace the window above with a smaller one and brick up to new sill height. or 2. Redesign the roof so the insulation is within the depth of the steel and board out just above steels for roof deck. Even at that, flashing detail won't be 100% but can work because you can use the sill in your favour to get a good seal to the flashing. You are meant to have 150mm upstand then dressed into brick, but in fairness, I have 75mm flashing upstand which I dressed in under windowsills. Who made this mistake?

We have this, just bought the bits and installed it, roofer helped with the PV panel bit, although I actually installed the rails and panels, I wired it all, installed it all, commissioned it all. I didn't need or want the system MCS certified and as I was 100% self consuming I was not interested in any pay in. I just fired off a G98 to the DNO, I think. A friend who happens to be an electrician came and helped as he wanted to learn how to do it (I had already done PV on the shed and garage) - so I taught him how to do it all, from how to design the system to crimp up MC4 connectors etc. and he wrote up a minor works certificate. Brilliant isn't it! (facepalm!).

If it is just inverters specifically, the I have Solax & Solis inverters, both working away without any connection to the outside world.

Why do you need to replace it, what part of it has failed? I only ask as I repaired a drive shaft/gear spline/key on one of these not long ago, it was pulsing the oil pressure and it turned out to be the gear slipping on the drive shaft.

Simply, it is not ideal. The issue you have is your ASHP will pull from say L1, however your PV will generate on L1/L2/L3 - any benefit of self consumption of L2/L3 generated power will be lost where house load is low as you will push that to grid, i.e. export getting pathetic SEG payment rather than benefit of use which, financially, far outweighs SEG payment. Also, phase balancing is all very well in theory, in that your electrician may load L2 and L3 with more house load than L1, in practise if your house loads are low, all electric loads more or less off and ASHP going full pelt you now have a nice imbalance, not really your issue, more the DNO/local transformer, but not ideal - can cause neutral issues.

Run a dedicated towel rail circuit to the pair of them and put them on a timer, immersion heater timers work well, or something a little more fancy, and just set a schedule, that is the simplest. Or you might want to split the circuit, i.e. if one is in a infrequently used bathroom you might not want it on at all unless you have guests? In which cause schedule the main bathroom towel rail to suit your typical daily schedule and put the guest bathroom on a simple on/off switch which can be switched on while they visit etc. I've also seen them linked to PIR sensors in the bedroom/hallway - the idea being that if people are about then the chances are they will use the bathroom at some point, that then automatically adjusts for when you are away for the weekend etc.

I assume he has water, just not a large enough supply to support a fire hydrant so he needs upstream network reinforcements, at his cost!

No idea, almost certainly not (something my mechanical colleagues would deal with) but that is the rate we used to calc the tank size, in other words we based the tank on having an infill rate so low it didn't really count and it makes the tank essentially a standalone water source for suppression. The structural engineer wasn't too pleased we added 21 tons to the structure!

5692m² The tank size was calculated based on a minimal infill water of 0.7l/s (nothing), that tank also includes the un-useable volume.