Andeh

Hi all, I am looking at Waste Water heat recovery systems for our showers. One has a standard 25mm shower tray, which will have the subfloor built up by approx 200mm to accommodate it. The second will be a wet room area, ideally with a preformed tray, which again will be built up by approx 200mm to accommodate it. Can anyone recommend any low profile waste water heat recovery systems which could be compatible with this space? Due to the nature of it being a bungalow built on block & beam flooring, we are limited with space! Many thanks,

Thanks very much all, yeah windows poor but in stuck with them now. They are very slim aluminium and always knew they'd be a compromise, was just hoping for closer to 1.3 which I was told they were... Just omitting the (expletive deleted)ing frames when confirmed it with me. I'll ask SAP if waste water would help, if not ill leave it. Can't add more PV as existing is tied into a good tariff and can't be changed. Hoping for much better then 5 air tightness wise... Anyone estimate what SAP improvement going from 5 to say 3? Thanks again all

Thanks Peter - some of our walls are 4.5m tall to ceiling so that would be tricky. I have gone over every inch of wall & roof interface (and will do for the windows) filling to ensure all sealed up tightly, same with every hole passing through the block work sealing the inside & outside. Its something I continue to monitor & adjust. Thanks for all the feedback though

Thanks Seren & in answer to the question...that's basically what we did. The difference in build before & after was going to be substantial enough that anyone would have spotted it with a cursory check, and the nature of the length of build meant it was going to be a long standing payment we'd need to make on very tight budgets (ie 2 x council taxes for 18 months...). As new Build, the council has plenty of paperwork to spot a revaluation need. We bit the bullet, declared it empty immediately & got a slight refund back dating it to when a fuse box was removed as we moved out. As the build is taking longer, it continues to have been the sensible decision to have made.

Thanks very much all....that's good to know. I have been very hot sealing up every gap I can think of, and will do so again after windows go in. Having a bungalow with warm roof & a builder who is used to seeing me up the scaffolding with expanding foam in one hand & silicone in another has made it a bit easier (I know neither are fool proof, but I am thorough to a fault with them both - inside & out). We could ask about secondary glazing, the reality is we will have blinds & curtains in every window tightly fitted, so the actual impact cost wise will be minor...its more the SAP & ''points mean prizes!!'' focusI have Ill speak to build about Waste Water heat recovery.... the drainage is all in, but shower trays not installed/poured, so ill have to check with them on how we make it work. If anyone is able to share their experiences of what ait tightness did to their SAP / EPC (before & after) report I'd be grateful??!! - thanks in advance

Due to a cock up on my part, our windows are 1.6u NOT the 1.3u the window company has been telling me for several weeks. They were quoting glazing-only figure, and I took it as whole window figure. I've only found this out 2 days prior to delivery so nothing I can do now sadly - to say I am gutted is an understatement. To make matters worse, this drops us from an A SAP down to 'only' 91 SAP - a B. We have 3.99kW of Solar going in (already on site), roof, walls, floor are already built. We already have Solar diverter going in for hot water, have got good MVHR & ASHP (actuals used in SAP).... and i'm out of ideas on anything else we could get in to find that extra 1 SAP point - reasonably priced or so. We are 'as design of 5' air tightness, which I have been fastidious at trying to reduce, so i'm hoping that might help....but hoping for any other ideas people might have?

Good question.... No, we declared it as demolished for reasons I can't remember if I'm honest! I'll have a think without my gin & tonic and come back to you!!

Yep!

Just to correct my above point; the U value I quoted above was for the glass alone...due to the Ali frame it is more likely to be 1.5; Frame AND glass. Im pretty pissed off over this, as I didn't bother upgrading/seeking alternatives as asking the U Value of the windows & being told 1.3 meant I chalked it up as an easy win and never gave it a second though, had I known 1.5 I'd have sought better performance in one form or another, I do feel the Window supplier was misleading in quoting a half-truth!!!

Just to come back to this, the U value I quoted above was for the glass alone...due to the Ali frame it is more likely to be 1.5; Frame AND glass. Im pretty pissed off over this, as I didn't bother upgrading/seeking alternatives as asking the U Value of the windows & being told 1.3 meant I chalked it up as an easy win and never gave it a second though, had I known 1.5 I'd have sought better performance in one form or another, I do feel the Window supplier was misleading in quoting a half-truth!!!

Not really....just compared thermal transmittance of Kingspan at something like 0.024w v Recticels 0.022w, and the fact that one got U of 16 and one a U of 14 via SAP.

Also worth saying, mature trees are pretty rare in domestic gardens, they are a real feature / add value! I'd avoid removal.

We had foundations about 2m deep 13m ish from a mature willow. Had to install heave protection as well. Found no real rootage to speak of in the trench.

160mm recticel achieves 0.11...might be a fair compromise? It's 10% higher performing then Kingspan equivalent.

We found recticel slightly cheaper, but 10% better performing then Kingspan.

Question for everyone, most ASHP enable a decent degree of modulation esp with digital inverters (if marketing is to be believed) ... Surely this help protects to a degree of over sizing?

Surely no matter the size of the pipe into the house, flow restrictions exist which bring it down... Boiler, heating tank, valves, taps etc?

Sorry Gill we didn't, we stipulated 1.3 u aluminium when we started the process last year, and ended up with smart after Builder struggled with 7 suppliers to actually quote and progress within a reasonable time frame. It's a fixed price build, so not aware of the actual price itself. We have a sample which looks, feels and comes across as very robust... But I'm a layman end of the day... If you can hang on a few weeks I'll hopefully have some installed and can provide pics if you wish!

We are waiting on delivery of smart alithern early November (I hope). U value of 1.2 to 1.3 depending on who I ask. Wanted the slimmest frames I could get... Within reason. Also probably a bit of snob factor after several years in new builds with cheap crappy UPVC. I do love aluminium.

Sorry to hear that, we demolished our existing 1970s Bungalow before we had planning received (though we had planning to refurbish it), as we felt there was a strong chance bat survey could be required (we were very sure we ddn't have any, but Grade 2 listed properties near our & their trees did have them...as you could see them at night) We got a bit of a 'stern' response when they looked at our application and suggested bats & tree survey required, only to inform them we demolished already - as we didn't need permission to demolish. A risk, but a low one we felt, spent a few weeks expecting a fine to come through...but it never materialised Cant help suggest how to proceed with you, but if you don't need permission to do certain aspects of work...why wait for it? (my LAYMANS / IANAL view)

Has anyone ever installed them, ideally a switch next to the lightswiotch that enables one press up & down control, seemless & blended in with the light switch it is next to. i see lots that are rechargeable that have a handheld remote, but I like (and designed for...) mains powered versions! Thanks

We are using sika trocal as an alternative, it was significantly cheaper then the metal equivalent.

The plastic pipes should feel luke warm, are they? Get an IR thermometer for £15 and see the actual temp of the pipes.

Our aluminium is 1.3 which I'm OK with, would prefer better but it is what it is now.

Afraid it is poor form, though we had two that worked fine for several years.. Not sure I'd risk it. At least have a mini access hatch over to inspect them...