Andehh

How easy are these frogstar type units to install? Is this default job for an electrician, or does it need someone who has specialist knowledge? I'm very tech literate (but entirely new to home energy) , so would research the right combination of inverter to suit my needs... But could my normal sparky install it in a few hours?

Thank you for all that, now that you say it... It makes perfect sense... If a cable can carry electricity in one direction... Spooky that it can do it in reverse!! 🤔😂

Could I locate batteries and inverter in nearby garage (cable length of around 8m) then utilise the existing armoured cable that runs between garage and fuse box (originally there for a 7kw car charger)? Existing 3kw solar and inverter is tied to a very old and lucrative FIT, so happy to leave that seperate . 😎

I presume you then need to buy a seperate inverter, which is wired into the fuse box?

Expanding foam every gap you see where air could get in, but shouldn't enter. Any small gaps use silicone sealant.

Our builder went through the villages main power cable 1 week into our build, several houses on emergancy gennies, half the village without power all day, and about 4 days of 24 hour work to resolve. Architects assured us builder was responsible, and had insurance for this... And when I gently confronted him on the day, he crossly assured me his wife wasn't getting a new car this year... Thank fully he managed to prove the cable wasn't laid to the drawings, and we never heard about it again. Its a shitty situation, but if there is a doubt check before you dig is common sense... And a professional will know there are ways of checking. However.... Disputing and falling out over (say...) £5k bill on a £150k build will come back to bite you one way or another....but if it's £5k off a £15k bill..... So you need to judge the situation pragmatically

Also interested to know! I want the battery in the external garage, but the fuse box and solar inverter is in the utility room. I have 2 x armoured cables, and 2 x Cat6a, running between the two, originally for car chargers, can these be used to connect the battery to the house? I have no comms cables installed, is this an issue? Thanks

Fingers crossed! Let us k ow how you get on

We have a very large recirculation, probably 100m? We're a bungalow with high ceilings, and fairly spread out layout. I thinks it's a 22mm circulation loop outbound, 15mm inbound, with very thick Armaflex pipe insulation wrapped all around it. 30 to 40mm thick maybe? I wanted high flow as much as possible. The circulation is on for about 14 hours of the day, but is timed to come on in the cheap night tariff when DHW comes on, so the whole loop warms up during cheap period. It drops a 49 degree 300L cylinder 3 degrees from DHW being turned off around 5.45 am, and me walking past it now 90 mins later. Some natural cylinder loss as well. I'd say that's totally worth it for what is otherwise a near 1 minute wait at the kitchen tap for hot water. Two core bathrooms on the circulation loop is within 10 inches if the tap.. Instant... The kitchen/other bathrooms is annoying as it's in the ceiling above it, so takes around 5 seconds (!) to get to the tap, I shoulda got them to loop it into the cupboard. Can't win them all!!

Well done OP, thanks for the update!

Fire doors have a reassuring heft and sound deadening benefit as well... Not always a bad thing to have that in a high quality home!!

Go to screwfix, ask for 4 cans of expanding foam, and an expanding foam gun. Screw the can onto the gun, and pull the trigger in your garden to get an idea of the flow and how it expands etc. It's horribly sticky stuff, so don't get too carried away. All holes, gaps, areas you feel air could be coming in... Squirt deep into it and slowly pull the nozzle out. It will expand out, but it is very easy to cut back with an old stake knife 24 hours later. It's messy stuff!! YouTube videos will give you a good idea of what you want to achieve. That will resolve air movement. Or... Ask the builder to do this, it's a 15minute job. ________________________ Before you panic about the quality of install, how old is the rest of the house? Whilst the extension is highly unlikely to meet the HIGH expected standards of Build hub (we're all home building nerds!!!), modern building regs for an extension are better then a house a few decades old... So all needs to be viewed proportionally.

The shoulder months are also problematic for us (!) we are in a well Insulated house (miles off passive though... 2.7 airtight, 0.11 floor, 0.22 walls, p. 14 roof). We also have a huge amount of glass & very high ceilings of 3.2 to 4.2m, and regularly during shoulder months the house isn't cool enough to trigger the heating (21 - 22 degrees) , but the tiles feel cold under foot and you can actually feel quite chilly... Maybe due to the large glass? As a result we actually need to force the heating to come in (set thermostats to 24 degrees) for a couple of hours to warm the tiles up. We are also heavily zoned, which works well for us, as we have a very complicated design, so can fine tune the boost to rooms that need it, and leave the bedrooms etc

I find MVHR moves so little air the cooling impact of full boost on a cool summer night after a hot day, for an hour or two......nuffin!! So I'd be nervous at relying on it for heating, based on no real knowledge other then my own experiences. 100% UFH pipes in, pipes from manifold at where you 'could' do an ASHP, and put wiring in for it. Leave all capped off. So easy to do now, impossible in future!

EON Next Drive, Very cheap 8p from midnight to 6am,then slightly above average for the rest of the day. I miss tomato energy still

Using a multi cutter to channel out plasterboard, and went straight through a plastic water feed. Got a face full of water and a huge scramble dumping the sink cupboard across the floor getting to the stop cock! Then a frantic drive to screwfix to buy everything to resolve before the wife came home.

Keep us updated please, I have one I need to adjust but am too scared to fiddle in case I make it worse!!

Your very last picture, I would masking tape it off and then apply a very thick black bead along the bottom.

I know how it feels OP, I laboured over every bit of insulating detail for our place until our 2.4 x 7m sliding doors were installed (I was abroad with work). They removed insulation from cavity and back filled with solid concrete and sat the flush doors on them (from what I can tell). The installers refused any other installation method or approach due to our big, heavy and expensive the doors were, but it has left me a massive cold bridge which can be felt 1 foot into the room. Not sure id have accepted the risk of forcing them to do it differently, but I'm pretty sure mitigations could have been found for some if it (between them and builder). As the doors are nigh on fully flush inside and outside, nothing I can do about it. You can't win them all. (edit: also be wary of knock on implications, fix one problem may create others, and adding flex or tweaking installed doors may create other issues)

I think they do, you lose flow rate I think! I'm not an expert, but you can't beat seperate hot and cold taps on their own, but then have the faffage of adjusting temperature. Fwiw the aqualiser customer support is outstanding.

Just as a care point, from a total layepersons point of view those slates look neat, lined up and normal. You'd need to explain and evidence what's wrong with them.

We opted for big sliders, as 85%of the time it's all closed up, so maximum glass views. Lot less to go wrong as well!

Time for a new roofer, or start resolving yourself I’m afraid. Part of self building is knowing you get good trades, and (expletive deleted)ing shit hole bastard crooked ones (delete as required). We got lucky in having so many good ones... But I would piss on the electrician if he was on fire.

It's a strong look for sure... Based on zero experience at all, have you looked at external roller blinds, and squaring off the windows at the top?

MIL had a boiler pack up on her, 10 year old boiler. Blocked heat exchanger, likely caused by British gas not doing a power flush when they replaced it She paid £3000 for a new boiler and full power flush, from a local chap, last week... Must be an easy 25+ rads in her house. Prob £500-800 I'd guess for the flush? Made a massive difference to the heating of the property.