Carrerahill

You cannot get someone to plaster a block wall? As in a bog standard, interior block wall?

+1 on this. I also did this in my kitchen on walls that would be or could be in the future, used for kitchen cabinets etc. It was brilliant when I came to fit my kitchen cabinets, set the laser up, marked the line all the way around, and as I put up cabinets I just put the next bracket on the wall and screwed it in, caring not where I landed as I knew I'd hit a stud or OSB.

Get a length of plastic trunking, cut it into pieces 20-25mm long, stick them to the PIR, cables in, lid on - rudimentary bracket. Another option, which is a bit more commercial house builder spec is to use high impact UPVC conduit glanded in. This is what is on standard notes of most electrical drawings we issue for domestic projects (commercial is a whole different ballgame with proper containment etc.): THE INSTALLATION SHALL BE UNDERTAKEN UTILISING LSF CABLES COMPLYING WITH BS 6004. THE CABLE SHALL BE CLIPPED WITHIN THE CEILING VOID & ROOF SPACE, PROTECTED WITHIN RECESSED DROPS AND ABOVE BY HIGH IMPACT PVC CONDUIT, AND BE INSTALLED WITHIN THE 'SAFE ZONES' PRESCRIBED WITHIN BS:7671. CONTAINMENT SHALL BE FIXED TO THE BUILDING FABRIC IN A NEAT & TIDY MANNER ADHERING TO THE FIXING DISTANCES AND METHODS AS PRESCRIBED WITHIN BS: 7671 AND AS PER THE MANUFACTURERS RECOMMENDATIONS. WITHIN CEILING VOIDS, PLANT ROOMS AND STORAGE SPACES THE INSTALLATIONS SHALL BE SURFACE MOUNTED. In other words, if this was a commercial house builder, we would want to see metal pattress boxes, with conduit glanded in and fixed within the wall to create a cable safe zone - it also helps for pulling cables in the future as it gives a good route up a wall. Usually sockets would be aligned nearer a stud so the conduit can be fastened to the side of a stud.

You are not allowed to vent exhausts from fans or flues within a certain distance of a boundary. I know the mechanical engineers in here always ensure vents/fans near boundaries are always located away from them if they are within x? metres. This is totally normal, not my discipline so cannot comment with hard facts, but know that it's generally not permitted.

They are doing a big attenuation system round the corner from my office under the roads, they put in the crate boxes into a membrane lined pit, then they used washed 40-50mm drainage stone (granite usually) also known as clean gravel. Type 1 has too much whin dust and other fines in it. The stuff was dumped on the road and left almost no dust marks it was clearly the right stuff. Even washed pea is not that clean and being round rather than angular creates less voids between the stone, big angular stone creates larger and more voids between the stone. To be fair, at a push, Type 1 would be fine, but it is not actually the right stuff. Clean 3" crusher run of recyclables would be good and cheaper.

You want to read a copy of BS7671 (or any reg to that matter) - you'll not really be sure what you are meant to do in some cases! Interestingly some are written very well, some very poorly. I know several authors sitting on sever of the boards for standards & regs from lightening protection to emergency lighting, and you can see why some are clear and some are not. Basically it boils down to the author(s). One chap who has penned a lot of the lighting standards is very concise and can speak and write English very concisely with no dubiety surrounding his regulatory writing, the other is very good in his field but cannot communicate. We wrongly assume these regs and standards and guides are written by some un-earthly force of experts but in actual fact most are just written by industry experts and who checks their work? More industry experts, who all understand what has been written in the first place.

You get what you pay for. The argument is that Victron, may, last at least 4 x longer than the competitors cheaper product, but will it... that is the question.

I don't see any issue, yes voltage can be high, yes it could kill you, but as long as your not being blinking daft you will be fine. Wire up all the fixed stuff from the mains connection to the DC isolator, that can all be done safely with full isolation. Then wire up your DC cables into your isolator(s) BEFORE they are connected at the other end to the panels, then with the DC isolator(s) OFF, you connect the solar string(s) - at this stage no load will be on the panels so no current shall be flowing, so no arcing or sparking and the circuit will be open so there won't even be a spark, carefully, without sticking your tongue and pinky finger into the ends of the MC4 connectors, push them together until they click. You can now fire up your system, usually AC on first, then DC side - but follow manufacturers instructions for first power up. I know my inverters are different, 1 will do nothing until it sees DC, so commissioning during the night or without PV connected is actually impossible (unless you have a string emulator), the other will fire up and just go into sleep mode. Look at it this way, how many PV installers work at night?

It is not essential or really a rule as such. Just, helpful. Depends on many factors, work out what spare you will have first, load analysis would help. Also, do you consider a small battery. Plenty of 6kW (dual 3kW) tanks exist, very common commercially. I have a friend who has a 9kW tank.

I like all the Victron stuff. Very good kit.

This stuff of various sizes and colours as needed, domestically 50mm throughout would be fine, just keep reasonable radiuses on it, if they cannot be done, go up to 100mm for power. https://skyplastics.co.uk/ducting/twinwall-duct-coils.html

Spray it matt black.

Get the contractor in and set them to work, how are the neighbours going to stop it? I would just crack on and tell the contractor if they are given any grief just tell them to be friendly, discuss the concerns but keep going. If the access is shared and you have a right to dig through it, then go for it. Out of a matter of interest what would they do is a utility came and dug it up to service their line/cable? They cannot really stop anyone. Is the surveyor due to go on holiday?

Just get your contractor to get on with it. Your neighbours sound like they are getting too involved... retired? Just make sure the reinstatement works are second to none and no one will moan, oh and you don't hit the gas main. But stay out of it. By the way, if there was a gas leak, the utility would be out and dig it up without plans or anything, they just fix it and reinstate, don't give your neighbours a say unless they are making some very reasonable requests or your going to screw up a nice path or something. If you hit a phone cable, assuming copper, a handful of silicone filled 3M crimp joints and a waterproof enclosure and its fixed. I once cut a BT line during a build, crimped in a temp line for the build and then rerouted it through the new build and re-terminated it. No one ever knew and no one ever would now.

If the material it is removing is wood, then it kicks out a lot of shavings and not much dust to be honest, if the blades are nice and sharp and he takes a reasonable pass each time it should create stuff more like pet bedding shavings rather than a dust. With extract on the fine stuff should be caught. If MDF, whole different ballgame as that stuff comes away like a dust storm. Even MDF doors usually have a wooden edge though.

Wire two PIR's onto it, or get a long range unit from CP electronics, or microwave, etc. there are options. You could even use 2 Shellys, PIR near you, which triggers the input terminals on the shelly to turn on for x time and then use the remote shelly relay to switch on, wire that in after the local PIR switched live, and if that PIR triggers too, it will bring on the light. That is how multi-PIR circuits work, basically they all just switch live onto a commoned switch live and the light(s) will stay on until the last PIR switches off. They Shelly option would also give you an option to WiFi switch your flood on.

The last 3 posts are all technically correct, but many don't bother. All MCS approved inverters have anti islanding, in other words if the grid goes down they cannot continue to feed onto the LV network and potentially kill someone working on a line. Yes they want to keep tabs, but under 16A they don't care, if the argument is so they can keep tabs, then we would need to submit a cooking schedule so they could work out when we are all importing 16A. They know we have PV generation, they know to expect a slight reduction in energy demand on a sunny day where PV is prevalent, but we are talking 16A or less here. You can always install it and just fill out the form, many MCS accredited installers have not been sending in the forms for <16A systems and it has become fairly well known that there are systems on the grid not registered. If you do want to, install it all, the submit a G98 and put it in as self install - the ENA form doesn't mention MCS accredited.

No.

I agree with that, I only did it because it was still fixed to the brick columns and I simply bulldozed the garage into our pit! In fairness there was not a lot and it is so far down I actually don't think it will get a chance to rot as I backed filled it with clay first and mushed it down with water before I chucked in the rubble for a soakaway. It will be like that Egyptian Pharaoh's boat they found that was still intact because it was buried so deep it was essentially preserved!

No, put rubble, bricks, sand, stone etc. in it, site scrapings, whatever, build it up, job done. My back garden had a huge hole dug about 12' deep and 10' wide/long and we put most of our old garage in it, timber, brick, render, then all the site scrapings and nonsense. Each layer was tamped in with the excavator and run over and hosed too at various points to help compact it all, 4 years on there has maybe 1-2" max drop in the lawn at that point which I build up with sharp sand and top soil. My attitude is just don't put any plastics or glass or painted things etc. in it as my feeling is it will breakdown and enter the groundwater over time.

But inert crap, rubble and stuff! Not stuff that will contaminate the soil.

It is expensive, but lung diseases hurt more. Also look up the Sundstrom ones. I think you can also get good deals on the 3M masks on eBay. I have that 3M mask like that and a full face 3M mask which I got on ebay for about £50 - they were £120 elsewhere.

It should be backfilled yes.

+2

Sums it up really. During our renovations I carefully sealed up our 60's house, I say carefully because you must ensure ventilation remains to stop Interstitial condensation. By the time I did the extension and pretty much finished it I had created a reasonable level of air-tightness in the living space, the net result was able to be proven through the use of the cooker hood fan to create a negative pressure in the kitchen and then see what sort of airflow there was through the ground floor. I went around and found all the air leaks coming in past rad pipes and things, made note, then filled them all with the relevant sealant. Very very easy house to warm.