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We are faced with a similar positioning conundrum, though in our case driven more by aesthetics rather than noise. Wherever we choose to position our ASHP it will not be up against the house so our plan is to use Mibec pre-insulated pipe (likely their Primo Duo product). Mibec’s brochure has heat loss graphs on page 37, one of which I have copied below. Hopefully here with the requisite knowledge will likely be able to translate these into temperature losses for given flow/return/ground temperatures and distance.

I’d say to be wary of costs per square metre unless they are clear about what they include. Also, as others have mentioned so much is site and design dependent. For example, is there an existing property on your site? Are there already the right services? How much glazing is there in relation to square metre size? Etc etc.

just saw this and assumed it was suitable... “Complete with high surface area coil for Heat Pump“

I think Telford do one... https://www.telford-group.com/product/horizontal Brand Telford Lead Time 2 - 5 working days Capacity (litres) 300 Heating type Indirect Immersion 1 x 3kw Water supply Unvented Height (mm) 650 Width (mm) 1650 Depth 550 Warranty Lifetime edit - just seen the requirements to handle UFH circuit too so ?‍♂️

Sent you a PM.

Building in Wiltshire and using private inspector. Service has been great as far as I’m concerned but then I don’t have much experience to compare to. Chose private as Wiltshire planning were so incompetent that I didn’t want to risk anything like the same (I know they’re separate but I was cross at the time!). Also could use the same private inspector for our warranty - seems to have saved a lot of hassle.

Was looking mainly at taps with these, not showers. Was interested in if they were any better than standard 3 axis mixer taps. Sounds like they are to be avoided.

Thanks, that’s good insight. Also sounds like they would fall foul of the guest test by not performing with expected behaviour. I wonder why they seem so prevalent right now in my searches right now, I’ve never come across them before.

Title says it all really - I was wondering if anyone had any real world experience (good/bad/indifferent) with progressive mixer taps? These taps control all temp and flow in a single movement. They start cold, increase flow, then mix hot into full flow, then end up full flow full hot. I can’t work out whether this is intuitive and useful in practice or is confusing compared to standard 3 axis mixers. They make for a nicer looking tap in my opinion but form over function is useless!

A Dutch company called zwart hout, some other place in the uk that I forget the name of and permachar that are linked above. Ended up going with permachar as they were helpful, had the nicest looking samples for the type of char and face width we wanted. That said, we don’t have it on site yet so can’t vouch for the delivered product.

It’s strange - the stuff I’m using doesn’t look or feel like it’s sealed but it also does not rub off on your hands or clothes at all, char is about 2mm deep. I’ve seen quite a few other samples and some of them have a very soft char layer that feels very delicate and can be picked off easily and will rub off to a degree.

The deeper the char the longer it will last. Eventually it will weather back to the timber beneath, how long that takes will depend on exposure afaik. I’ve seen buildings in Japan that are around 80 - 100 years old with original shou sugi ban, some is almost back to wood colour and others still pretty black depending on location. It often seems to fade from the top of the timber to the bottom. Be aware that in Japan they use a specific timber for this, it’s a soft wood and I understand that hardwoods are less suitable. Apparently you can also prolong the life significantly with oiling every few years. We’ll be using this on our project with a very deep char, but the site is not very exposed and most of it will be under eaves etc so I expect it to last quite well. Fingers crossed!

I asked a related question here:, thread might be useful to you @ashthekid My conclusion is that for my case this should be possible given the right type of insulating pile. Google Mibec insulated pipe - that’s likely what I’ll end up using. Admittedly this will be more like 20m but if you look at the spec the heat loss doesn’t seem too bad.

You could use 3 phase track as used mainly in commercial and retail settings. You can fit luminaires from any manufacturer as it’s pretty much a universal standard plus you get the advantage of up to 3 circuits on the same track and are able to reconfigure luminaires to a different circuit by just unclippping them and flipping a switch. Can be recessed or surface mounted. Price ranges vary but definitely worth looking at.

From our experience I wouldn’t say it tastes yuk, but it’s definitely not as pleasant to drink as the water from the kitchen sink without the softener. I would leave the kitchen sink taps hard and will be doing so on our current build. I guess it depends a lot on your local area though. North west Wiltshire here.

It seems in split units this is actually the case, at least this is what it says in some Hitachi ASHP documentation: But as others have pointed out insulated pipe can be used instead which seems a lot simpler.

I guess when circumstances dictate that the outside unit needs to be placed a distance from the property. If this condition can be satisfied with a monobloc design without a significant loss of efficiency then great. That was the basic requirement outlined in the first post.

sorry @joth should’ve been clearer. Both basement slab and ground floor slab are 200mm concrete and both actually have 120mm rigid insulation board then UFH and flooring on top.

Thanks @simon45089 - I was actually watching a few of those videos yesterday but not sure I saw the one year on video. That’s a big unit installed there, seemed to be quite noisy so not surprised it was located where it was.

Very timely advice @Nickfromwales as the basement slab is going to be poured on Thursday. Will definitely look into this, thanks.

fantastic info, thanks @simon45089 I’ll be looking into this solution and seeing if it’s also valid for a split unit in which (I think) just the refrigerant is cycled between the outside and inside unit. But this now has me thinking that I could maybe just go for a monobloc unit and this pipe solution... hmmm...

Thanks for relaying you’re experiences @zoothorn sounds like this unit is definitely one to avoid. That said, as mentioned earlier. my indoor unit will be in a basement with 200mm solid concrete, 100mm insulation, UFH board, UFH and then flooring in top. I doubt noise would actually be an issue in this case with a decent unit that has been correctly installed. Interestingly both Daikin and LG do quote sound levels for their indoor units, both at 28dB. No idea whether this is what is achieved in real world usage though.

If this is the case can anyone explain why manufacturers state that their monoblock units must be placed close to the property but that their split alternatives can have the fan unit placed up to 50m (for example LG) away from the building?

Thanks @DamonHD - were both of them split ASHPs or were they monoblock units?

I would love to know! But it may be more than a few metres, in my ideal world it would be more like 20m. I know some of the LG split units say that they can be sited up to 50m from the property, but they don’t seem to tell you if there are any implications to that ? What exactly is important here in your opinion? I think in our instance we can just lay a duct if required and have it entering basement wall at a suitable location with the Internal ASHP unit and UVC etc nearby. thanks for your input!