dpmiller

We bought a site with full permission retained on "footings" and even using a PC to make a full re-app for change of design we came off lightly as no specialists or surveys were required. Structural was done by the TF company and the Council BCO green-lights our further decisions.

I dealt with Plugin Solar and I think they might be reselling product from Midsummer. It's certainly the same stuff.

The float valves would need their restrictors changed surely?

certainly do. The more the merrier if you ask me.

Busy today, even if it was cold and grey. Better half was gainfully employed getting the protective film off the windows while I trimmed back the fascia and rafter ends behind the chimneys, flushed all the batten ends off at the verges and added felt trays over the eaves in readiness for tiling. Now enjoying a mini keg of Sharp's Doom Bar (£6 @ tescos with a short expiry)... Yum.

Just to complete this, the kit arrived from Plugin Solar at the start of the week. We ended up with 12 black Sapphire 270W panels, full GSE kit to suit our particular groupin 2/8/2 all landscape- including top flashings. Inverters are Hoymiles micros, two duals and two quads, all with individual panel MPPT.

just think of it as a supercharged 2-stroke and it's all good.

the loop doesn't "get" any cold. The loop/ loops just circulate, the blending valve opens to let sips of hot in and this pushes the cold out, back into your return pipe...

blending valve?

Things always seem different this side of the pond. Sure, our house was a pretty standard footprint, but my advice was to let the BCO be happy with the works "on the ground". Admittedly we did dig four test pits on the site pre-purchase so maybe that's the de-risking, but also I know that our neighbours went from scraping off topsoil to find stone at one end of their founds, to going down 16' and the BCO telling them to give up at that point and fill it all in with concrete... Now things are a bit different here because we ONLY have Council BCOs, but they do seem to know their own patch. We did a standard blockwork dig- down to firm ground and then pour 12"+ to level, add mesh where the BCO queried the base of the dig. Not terribly excessive and no expense in consultants.

why not use a standard detail for the footings and let the BCO agree to it?

my frame squad had one. The only hangers used were to trim round the roof windows but the PPN came out of the van for it...

for stapling what exactly? A hammer tacker is a very handy bit of kit for the various external membranes.

if there is no need for one currently why would you have to?

Absolutely, Declan. No chance of putting a man-basket on for sure... I've got a copy of the load curve for mine (it's at the back of the manual) so I'm well aware of what she's capable of and testing confirms that if it's too much, it just aint getting off the ground. If that means we're only raising one sill at a time to the top lift, so be it. Still easier than doing it by hand/ cheaper than hiring in a telehandler for the day/ faster than waiting for the tame farmer to arrive with his.

I'd counter that by saying two-speed tracking makes things a lot more rapid and that even on a small-ish machine like mine, pallet forks are a godsend. We had a delivery yesterday of solar panels, and they came upright on a pallet, 6 leaned against 6 and the digger was able to reach right into the side door of the van and ease the pallet out even with only an inch or two of clearance to the door frame above. Quick and easy-ish.

How are the current ones fitted- are they IN the cavity?

Visited the guys up at BPC today to collect a couple of bits of duct that we were in a rush for. Great bunch of fellas, nice to meet them and see round the shop. Heading home after that and the phone rang- delivery from Plugin Solar. Wow, that was pretty fast to get a couple of pallet loads over safely. Panels and tray all look super and thankfully the digger was able to fork them out of the side of the Sprinter they arrived in.

so from the meter board in is more than the DNOs 3m limit and it'll need a type S 100mA on it to protect the cable. No reason then not to bring the cable into a small CU in/ for the garage and then out of it again into the house, I'd think. But let's wait for @ProDave to give his trusted view.

where's the meter?

Dreams are sold as a kinda "boiler replacement" unit so likely just the one temperature.

Other than the chimneys, the blockwork is DONE! Goodies are trickling in- UFH manifolds are here, and a lovely Compact RCBO CU from SBS arrived thismorning. I've chased NIE for a requote on the electric connection and it'll be here imminently. Anybody got a spare 15m of 25mm split concentric kicking around for my submain? No word on a timescale for the insulation squad to descend- the apparent shortage of glass- and mineral- fibre insulation currently is holding things up. Ah well, it'll give us a chance to get some tiles on.

Ta. Yes, I'm well pleased with it. Colour, glazing etc was a joint decision with SWMBO, and the door itself is a bog-standard Apeer composite unit. Even tho the rest of the house has anthracite frames on the outside, I reckoned on the white frame for this as the porch is going to have Z-stone on it and I thought the grey stone and black door needed something to break it up.

Windows and doors are complete, finally. And very pretty they are too, another piece in the puzzle. Tiles etc arrived on Monday and the Solar kit should be here at the start of the week so then it'll be time to practice the batten-walking.

Nope, same jet. Just a slight adjustment of the air pressure. (Confusing to most people, it's a venturi jet like a spraygun and you increase the airflow to increase fuel. Yes, more air makes it richer.)