dpmiller

we went with a similar mix- 140 of Frametherm 35, VC Foil Ultra, 40mm PIR, service void. As all the insulation arrived today, I've just sat with the calculator and totted up a guestimate of it's value and it's somewhere around the 6k mark.

Well today brings a milestone. Firstly the arrival of a large truckload of various insulation types heralds the approach of internal warmth. and blockwork is complete. Having chimneys really plants the house, to me. the eagle-eyed amongst you will no doubt note the stack of PV waiting to go up, and the small patch of tile I've put on for a look-see. Finally. I climbed up to see the guys' handiwork on the chimneys and was truly touched to see this:

Orlit houses locally too...

That's a Polypipe manifold with 15mm pushfits and some kind of reducer pushed in (10 or 12mm JG?) I presume you've used 16mm pipe? I'm not sure, but i don't think the Polypipe connector comes off leaving a Eurocone. I could be wrong tho, it's worth a try.

Conversely... The TF companies are generally happy to do one-offs. All that we approached were. The economy of scale is in the purchase of timber and the utilisation of the manufacturing line. Todays automated lines are driven by a cad file, the operator is just placing occasional parts and inspecting. Our kit cost included all insulation, airtightness materials, and PB, as well as cranage and erection. Payments are phased, and (eg) ours were 30% deposit, 10% on completion of manufacture but before delivery, 45% on erection, and the final 15% will be on completion of the insulation works. Our kit manufacturer is local (~ 50mi) and both they and the erection subcontractor skilled locals.

Electric *and* water UFH? Interesting thought. And one that I'm likely going to spend some time on today, now... My current plan is for two manifolds- a 12-way for all the downstairs underfloor as well as a loop for the upstairs bathrooms, and a 7-way run at a higher temp for towel rails as well as provisioning for rads in the upstairs beds. I'm thinking that as I'm heating a thermal store in the summer for DHW anyway, the small amount of heat needing to be tapped off it for towel rails and 1x60m loop for the two bathrooms won't be a killer. But a straight electric option for both is worthy of consideration. (oh, no mains gas, but ASHP, PV and a boilerstove)

I've had positive outcomes dealing with both PSW Trade and Heating-Instal. You'll find them both on Ebay and elsewhere and they are very competitive. I've also chanced buying some pipe from one of the Chinese shopfronts on Ebay, it arrived quickly and is (most likely) the same product everyone else is flogging anyway...

Not fussed on that personally. In the last pic it looks like rough-sawn timber from a pallet, with a thick layer of gloss applied...

Bumping this for further opinion. I haven't seen it yet, but do any of these have the option of remote boost control? Simple boost button in kitchen/ hallway/ whatever, rather than having to go to plant room/ hotpress and negotiate menus?

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.