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How can I check this? I do remember asking if he was using a different temperature for the HW heating to the UFH system and towel rads and he said it all had to be the same temperature as we have a low loss header (made by Viessman) as part of the setup and the manifolds will adjust temp for the UFH. If that's the case, I doubt i have that. But else being equal, what's the most efficient timetable?

I have a 300L unvented hot water cylinder which is heated by a system boiler. The main demand on the hot water is: kids' bathtime which is almost daily, almost always at about 545pm (capacity of bath is 123L but we probably only fill it to about 85L); my wife's shower time which is most days at about 10pm (though some days she will shower at another time) (the shower is 10L a min flow rate, so she probably uses 120L) my daily shower which is usually at 7am (I probably use about 120L) random baths, which I may take once or twice a week (probably using about 200L) Now all the numbers above are mixed water estimates, not hot water. Obviously in winter, with cold water supply being colder, hot water usage will go up. But I'm just wondering, what the suggested heating timetable should be for our 300L tank. We currently have it come on from 635am for 25 minutes, then at 5pm for 40 minutes and then at about 930pm for about 30 minutes. This generally works well, but I sometimes wonder if it would be more efficient to: have more regular, shorter bursts of heat. Like 5 minutes of heat once every two hours during the day; or turn the thermostat down from its current temperature of about 50C to 44C and run the boiler a lot more frequently, on the basis that the heat loss from 44C water will be less than from 50C water. We have an added complexity which is that we have a secondary loop going through a few hot water taps in the house and the HW cylinder. The pump is motion activated, but when people are in the house (varies day to day) it will come on for 2 minutes each time it's triggered and I've noticed it does cool the temp of the cylinder a little bit. The secondary loop is insulated, but not sufficiently so unfortunately. I try not to stress too much about that, as it is just leaking heat into the envelope of the insulated building.

Very difficult. Please don’t do this. It’s a terrible idea.

That’s a good idea. If you did that, and then only had IWI on the front wall, you would minimise the loss of floor space internally. Make the house airtight, and install MVHR as well. If you can change the floor construction on the ground floor, from a vented timber floor, to an insulated slab, that will also help.

I think it would destroy the look of the house.

So the latest is that the builder appears to have been right, in that he wanted to proceed without any SE involvement. SE has now been given a description of situation and subject to survey he thinks builder is probably right. My dad wants a certificate from the SE to confirm this so survey going ahead this weekend. He wants this for his own orange of mind, but also because he plans to sell in the future. Turns out the chimney stack and breast above has been removed by previous owners, so removing the remaining breast at ground level is fine and won’t have any structural impact (subject to survey).

Yes, it’s an odd choice of name.

Sorry, I didn’t mean to be prickly. The point I was making is that we are too far down the road with existing builder, we just want a second opinion on something from an SE. Anyway, found one more through a website called bark.com

Not relevant that I can see to my original question.

This doesn’t really address my initial question. Grateful if we could stay on topic.

My dad is removing a chimney breast which is load bearing from an end of terrace Victorian property in Cardiff. He needs a structural engineer. How would you go about finding a someone reliable, but not too expensive? All the ones that are coming up on his google searches are big companies who don't really do small residential jobs.

I agree 100%. I have experience of this as a family member has done a considerable amount of joinery for us... for free! Luckily for me, he has been really good about drawing up the design, annotated with all dimensions and checking almost everything with us. So far, everything has gone well with what he's done for us and we've been lucky that he has sometimes paused mid way through something and said "are you sure you want it built this way, wouldn't it be better if we did this" and usually we agree with him. But even with this level of deference and care and attention to detail from him, it can still always be a bit awkward mixing work/diy with friends/family. We are lucky, because he makes it so easy for us. If I were you, I wouldn't criticise your friend at all. Just blame yourself for not explaining things more clearly in your "handout", fall on your sword and suggest you can pay for him to fix it. It should be a very easy fix. All you need to do is add an additional filler pannel to the side that gives the wraparound illusion, then caulk and paint. Given he hasn't caulked and painted yet, the extra work is really minimal. Maybe two hours' work plus the materials (which you can buy cheaply).

That’s a v. good point. I think this is the final nail in the coffin for the sump plug version.

Ah okay. But maybe you can help with the following: I think the problem is likely to be at my end, as we had a power cut and the issue appears to have followed on from that. It’s odd, the unit lost all of its settings, or almost all. Airflow is now set to 50, 100, 200, 300, whereas before I think it might have been 50, 180 (I think), 200 (and something ?), 330. I only noticed this because the time and date settings were lost. Weirdly however, the unit remembered my SSID and wifi password, so not sure why it forgot the rest and why it’s not hooking up to the internet. Two questions: To make sure the airflow settings are correct, is it just a case of changing them to what is on the commissioning certificate? (I don’t have any sensors, just boost buttons in the toilets and kitchen.) Are there any other settings I need to change, or are all these just the default?

Was hoping someone with an account, like @jackor @Nickfromwales( I assume) would try and log in.

If the efficiency of the machine is good enough, then yes, there should be a saving. This i’m less sure about. You won’t get more than 0.5C or 1C cooling at most from MVHR.

Yes, I can get that far too. Then I log on, get to the next screen and there I’m told “system offline”, but not sure if that’s my end of the connection or theirs.

Just exploring this option a bit further. we have given the sump plug/oil change version significant consideration, but we are now thinking that it is not so elegant and does create a series of trip hazards for anyone silly enough to not use our steps. And looking at the postman’s route to our front door, as well as all the delivery men, it’s quite amazing how many people do not use the steps. We may end up having to give up on having a ramp for step free wheeling of the bins and bike from the bottom of our drive to the street. This means either: 1) accepting that the bins will need to go up the steps (not bothered about wheeling/lifting the bike, it’s light enough); OR 2) moving the bins to inside one of the planters (and cutting into the wall of the planter to open up an entryway for the bins) that are either side of the stairs. The downside of (2) is that the first thing one will see when approaching the house is the bins.

Anyone else not able to connect to their Brink MVHR machine through the https://www.brink-home.com/app/#/gateway-list/5481/visualization/componentRoot-5697 site.

Plus 1. Keep in mind that when the house is unoccupied you can set the MVHR to holiday mode, and it will consume even less electricity.

It wasn’t cheap!

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but absent a time travel machine, that’s not possible. Not without cutting into my expensive bits of Cornwall spread beautifully onto my ceiling anyway. I also continue to believe that ceiling lighting, can ruin most spaces. We have very little of it in our house, preferring a combination of wall lights, recessed lights and table and floor lamps. But it does require much more thought and planning to do it this way, and we clearly made a mistake in not fitting a floor socket here.

But how do I calculate that? Most of the lamps on sale don't give this info. They just say stuff like "Lamp (excluded): max 1 x LED 11W E27". What would be the standard voltage of a floor lamp with such a bulb? Wouldn't it be 230V? Aren't 3v and 12v lamps only viable with a transformer. Perhaps i should get something with a transformer, then the battery on the power pack I listed would last much longer, is that right?

What’s your address?