MrMagic

No issue for me personally - they are quiet but not silent. I like the kind of 'white noise' it gives off, helps me sleep. The only thing we had to do is choose fan speed 1 rather than 'auto' - we found if we left it to auto the fan would spool up whenever it was heating, using the fixed fan speed solved this.

Yes I use A2A units in the bedrooms - originally fitted as A/C but I used them for heating over the past winter, works fine. Few items to consider - 1) It's a different kind of heat - not everyone likes warm air being blown on them so consider the position (or use the vane/flap adjustment) to direct the airflow in to the middle of the room 2) During the winter you may notice the defrost cycle - some units are smart and close down the internal unit whilst the external unit is defrosting to avoid blowing cold air about, but not all 3) Aircon remotes/programmers suck - it's like going back to programming a VCR sometimes. I found the wired wall mounted controllers seem to fare better in the wife acceptance factor department ...otherwise they 'just work'. Cheaper overall than an air2water heat pump. I'd highly recommend getting them fitted properly by an Fgasser - it's worth the money. I also have a no-name "easy fit" unit which worked fine for a year or two but has repeatedly broken down since Vs my 'proper' Mitsubishi units which are purring along fine. Strictly speaking that Telefunken unit above should be fitted by an FGas registered bod as it involves vac'ing down the lines and working with refrigerant.

Bit of a random question - does anyone build lean tos these days? I always remember it being something my nan or aunties house had - typically with polycarbonate sheet roofs and usually housing the tumble dryer Could/would/should you build one today? 🤔

I'm assuming, perhaps incorrectly, that the dMVHR is balanced? It's got a heat exchanger and an inlet/outlet pipe in pipe (a bit like a combi boiler flue). Certainly it's 'extracting' from slots on the side and inputting via a grill

Thanks for the feedback, reminded me to go read part F to see what I should be doing - note this is an existing small garden office/shed. Part F actually makes it quite clear - Since this garden office/shed is a single room, you could argue it should follow the above and have a minimum fresh air delivery rate of 13l/s - currently I'm only putting in 6l/s with my dMVHR - which kind of explains why CO2 is rising so much. No combustion appliances or anything like that here and the graph tracks exactly when I start/finish work.... perhaps less gassing on Zoom will help too? For reference its 17m3 so if we take the lower 0.3 ACPH - (17*0.3)/0.2778 = 18.35 l/sec of air. So whichever way we cut it, I'm at least 7l/s of air 'short'. (assuming it's a perfectly sealed box) Thanks @JohnMo and @SteamyTea ! Edit: I've got a https://www.vent-axia.com/range/lo-carbon-tempraselv fitted - looking at that it's 6 or 9l/s in trickle and 15l/sec in boost - so running in boost all day should be enough to clear the air.. will give it a whirl.

Home office rather than commercial. I can tell I'm not getting enough air through here so need to up the ante... I've got a dHRV already but wanted to do the calcs to see if I'm shifting enough air through here. If not then it'd be up to a larger MVHR... only a cheapy one tho. Edit: Both your link and the ventaxia link settle on 5 ACPH for general domestic so need to make sure I'm at least achieving that

Thanks @SteamyTea! Just what I needed. Yes this is for an office so going by https://www.vent-axia.com/sites/default/files/Ventilation Design Guidelines 2.pdf we're looking at 6 - 10 ACPH. (basic) CO2 monitoring is also showing 1000ppm+ throughout the day. I think we have to be careful to not conflate air leakage with air changes - not my area of expertise (as you can guess) - but an airtight building with low 'uncontrolled' leakage will still need a decent amount of 'controlled' ACPH. Seal it up tight.. ventilate right etc.

Howdy folks - I'll be upfront and admit I'm being lazy, but does anyone have a simple ventilation rate calculator? i.e. if my volume is ...m3 and ACH is 6 to 8 then the required ventilation rate would be ... litres per second or hour

I took a very brief look at this a while back and as I understand it - it was to do with simply connecting more houses to the sewer network. The process was something like you had to look at how many 'credits' your local sewage plant had left and, if there wasn't enough you had to buy mitigation credits from a nearby scheme such as wetland restoration. All seemed overly complex and a bit shady, sounds like 'carbon credits' again. I agree theres issues, but this seems an overly complex way of going about it. How about stop dumping sewage in rivers and the sea first?

Thanks @BenP - devil in the detail as usual! I guess it was more for @hotnuts21 where the makeup shows VCL on the inside and OSB on the outside... as you say, I guess it must be breathable?

@hotnuts21 @BenP Quick question on your wall makeup - how is this breathable with the OSB on the outside? i.e. if the core stud got wet how would that breathe out? Steico make-up here has no OSB layer - https://www.mikewye.co.uk/STEICO-timber-frame-clad/ (seen the same for pavatex)

Howdy folks - Can't seem to find an answer on this one - for a tilt and turn window are there still front drainage holes and do you need cills? or is this a purely uPVC thing? A lot of the aluminium cill profiles seem to butt up to the front face of the window rather than run underneath it - how does that become weather tight? If anyone has a cross section / explanation / photos that would be very very appreciated!! MM.

@SBMS What software did you use to knock that up? Looks fantastic - I like the concept of a merged island/seating.. just a shame the example image is from the 1970s 🤣

We have a set of 'veka' based uPVC sashes, love them, tilt inward for easy cleaning as well. For me it's the detailing that seems to make or break uPVC sashes, you can get some really naff looking ones but if done right with 'run through horns' etc, it's very hard to tell them apart

My A2A units stop the fan for the initial part of the defrost so I wouldn’t worry too much about that as long as it starts back up afterwards! But I concur with the above, they’ve been defrosting much more the past week or so, very damp/foggy here

I've got the NEST smoke alarms, style over substance to be honest. They also keep randomly going off in the middle of the night which frightens the life out of our little ones. I was in the US a few years back and got a ping on my phone that the smoke alarm was going off.. what can you really do about it? Luckily was a false alarm. Given the choice to install again - I'd go with a standard wired/linked system. No smarts needed there for your average house. MM.

Have a look through big clives videos on YT - I’m sure he has one of two on how to improve the waterproofing on cheapo garden solar items

May also be worth checking out the latest Vaillant arotherm+ HPs, they are getting positive reviews in the marketplace (from what I've seen) - https://www.vaillant.co.uk/for-installers/products/renewable-systems/arotherm-plus/ R290 / propane so slightly less bad than R32

Unfortunatly the only way to get something concrete is to submit a full planning app or apply for a certificate of lawful development... you can however, get an 'informal' opinion usually by doing a "Do I need planning permission?" submission to your local council. Just google your council name and DINPP or something similar - you still need to submit a plan, but it can be a sketch rather than a full set of scaled drawings.

Thats certainly what I've done in the past... same as your LV distribution up the top, have a set at the bottom perhaps for the mains distribution. Splitting hairs here really, two conductors in an RCBO isn't the end of the world, no more tho! Talk to your sparky as well, they will have an opinion even if thier demarc is going to be the main isolator.

Work of art there! Whats the proper name for the cable management 'finger strip' type stuff? Been looking for that for a while but not sure what to google! My only comment would be 'earths'/CPCs!.. although most of that kit is low voltage, looks like the TDK transformer in the top has an earth terminal. I guess you'll probably want another large set of connectors to common up all the earths on your lighting feeds out, not sure that metal block in the bottom would take them all. Normally only one conductor per RCBO/MCB unless it's a ring final circuit... but thats more a nice to have.

@mfmcdonagh So far so good, fit and forget. Just sits there doing it's thing.

Love a good Hockings. Wifes family is from the area and we're usually down in Braddick Land (WWHO) a few times a year, was at the Appledore carnival last year. Small world eh? Ask 100 people a question and you will get 100 different answers - my one to throw in to the ring would be why spend many thousands on an ASHP when you could sperate DHW and CH. Use 3 or 4 air2air heat pumps (air con units) internally to cover your bedrooms and downstairs areas and go with either a vented or unvented DHW cylinder (or even better a Sunamp). Far more control and flexibility Vs big old radiators + cooling in summer.

Thats a bit of a shame about Loxone as it's willingness to sell direct to public kept me interested in it. You do need to have a bit of a think about what you are truly trying to achieve - - home automation? or I just want the light to come on in the bathroom when I walk in ? = £15 PIR - full piped music to every room with wall controls? or just a multiroom audio system? (Alexa, Google Home, Sonos) - heating control to each radiator? or just a simple thermostat from the phone? (Honeywell Evohome, Nest, Tado) ....as I'm sure you've found there are 100s of options now for various parts to the HA environment but very few systems actually manage to pull it all together cleanly. What I did in mine was go for open ecosystems (i.e. APIs, backed by longevity, open standards etc) and ended up with 'Home Assistant' running on a Raspberry Pi as 'the brain'. For lights - fitted Z-wave throughout, dimmers, relays etc but would probably take a serious look at sonoff / Shelly / ESP based solutions. I still like ZWave but the comms between the units can sometimes be a bit slow whereas the sonoff devices I have don't miss a beat. For sound - At the moment Google Homes, have had Alexa, Sonos in the past... would probably take another look at Sonos now there are some cheaper IKEA/Sonos speaker options For Environmental - Fitted Honeywell Evohome, again, never skips a beat but would certainly investigate other options as it's costly. Wiring - did exactly the same as your thinking, wired all switches and lights back to a central location so I can chop and change the brain as needed. Confused the hell out of the local sparky but makes reconfiguring things easy peasy. Put plenty of cat5e in (or cat6) in, still put a shotgun coax in to each TV point, wire it all to a central point. So far my only regret is not putting more cat5 in to the house, theres a few rooms where I've had to cable round a bit to reach a socket. What happens if the brain dies? (Can I replace the proprietary system? Is the open source project still around? do they still make the hardware?) What happens if I move house? (Can I convert to 'dumb'?) Who would maintain the house/system going forward? etc (Simply fit and forget or required regular patching/software updates?) HTH. MM.

As soon as I posted that I thought, Sky-Q, doh! Not a Sly household here, just simple freesat. At the very least tho, you have the cable in the wall and can switch out the equipment on each end.