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Sorry my mistake. I think I calculated heat loss PLUS requirements to heat the cylinder at about 15kw and decided to go with a 18kw boiler. My gas engineer /installer laughed at me, and insisted it wouldn’t be enough. I think he was wrong but he’s the so called professional, so I just accepted his view.

Yea, I discovered the usefulness of this for the very first time yesterday. Once we had got the boiler working again, it powered up to 90% modulation, the highest I’ve ever seen it modulate to. I guess with the water temperature from the mains being quite cold, the house having an average temp of 17.8C and the UWC being cold, it needed quite a bit of power to heat everything up. It’s a 1920s semi that has been extended at the back on all levels. The back is therefore built to modern standards, but the rest, although covered in some 45mm of EWI and very airtight with MVHR, is ultimately solid wall construction, no cavity. Maybe the heat loss is only 15kw, but I erred on the side of caution, got to 18kw then my heating engineer practically doubled it! No short cycling thank god. But we didn’t make the most of the boiler’s capabilities unfortunately. I trusted the installer too much and didn’t commission a proper design. Had I done that, we would have got the benefit of WComp and low temperature heating. Instead we are heating water to 65C and sending that to the UFH manifolds where it is mixed down to about 35C. Silly really, but I’ve learnt my lesson now!

Just quite annoying that we came home to a cold ish house and no hot water. Turns out the fault had developed almost 36hr prior to that and even though it’s very cold outside, the house is sufficiently well insulated that it took that long for us to notice. Anyone know what I need to sign up to the boiler’s alert system? Is connected to the WiFi so might as well get that alert functionality working.

I hope you are right. I will call Veissman in the morning

Funnily enough, this has solved the issue. But I’m still concerned given the fault is something to do with a gas valve. If the gas valve is faulty I rather not run the boiler! Hmmm… what now?

We have a Veissman Vitodens 200-W system boiler. Installed new 3 years ago, only used for 2.5 years. At 35kw massively oversized, so rarely modulates above 40% (this was not intentional, I mistakenly followed my heating engineer’s advice and went much bigger than the 19kw my heat loss calcs showed). It has been serviced each year and still under warranty. But not much use the week before Christmas. Do I get it repaired by whoever I can find and then sue Veissman?!? Ffs! Here are the error messages:

You will need to drill through the floor to find a way. You really don’t want stagnant water anywhere near this system.

Not sure. Can you run a drain pipe upwards? Seems odd to me.

The boost switches have probably just been wired incorrectly. They should be retractive switches, but there are different types so maybe the wrong retractive switch was used, or the right one was used but incorrectly wired. Easy enough to fix. I would just ask them to come back and address boost issue first and then any other issues. If you want an objective reading on the sound, you can get a decibel meter from Amazon for about £12.

This is your problem. It is normal in my experience at least for the system to be audible when boosted. But you should only boost it occasionally, after a very smelly session in the toilet, or a long steamy shower. Fix the boost issue first.

Thanks @ProDave so is that sufficient to serve an oven that has a “total electricity loading” of 3000W?

This close up is in sharper focus k in case any of those font size 8 characters mean anything:

Here are two photos, one showing the whole CU and the other a close up. I’m concerned given the labelling that the sparky has wired it for a microwave and not for a combination oven:

When I look them up, all I find is “for this error you need to call an engineer”, not very helpful. What’s the difference and how do I tell? it just trips when switched on - ie at the intermediate stage before actually selecting a mode.

We have a Zanussi ZVENM7K1 combination microwave/grill/oven. It was installed 3 years ago and we’ve been using it as a microwave oven for the last 2.5 years since we moved in. The max rating for the microwave is 1000W, and we have often used it at that setting. Last night we used it in oven mode, perhaps for the first time ever (I’m not sure) and it tripped the fuse. Trying to turn it back on we get a fault FH24 and then FO17 before it trips the fuse again. Given the oven is rated at 3kw, if it is actually the case that we’ve never used it as an oven, is it possible the electrician who installed it only provided a fuse for a 1kw Microwave. I notice that both the nearby isolator switch and the fuse on the mains consumer unit are labelled “microwave” so maybe he thought it was just a microwave and not an oven as well. If it is an installation error, is it straightforward to upgrade the fuses in the CU and in the isolator switch, or is the limiting factor going to be the type of cable used between the CU and the oven (which I estimate is about 12m to 15m long)?

Yeah, I will probably just paint it. For behind a door, so these shelves are not that visible. But I will know it’s not quite right… that is a BIG problem. Seeing the psychotherapist tomorrow. Will discuss it with her.

Subject to one point of detail, that’s perfect! point of detail: “Please note due to the nature of this product we offer local delivery or click & collect only.” Unfortunately I don’t live anywhere near South Manchester.

It's because they are treating it as a custom colour, even though they used to supply it as standard. It's a discontinued colour.

I need an extra couple of shelves for some non-standard sized units that we bought from DIY Kitchens. They are playing silly b*ggers over the price they want to charge for supplying three extra "custom" sized shelves. Obviously for a company with their resources they could make up the shelves easily, but silly is the mood of the day there at the moment. Can anyone recommend an alternative supplier that will be reasonable about posting us three shelves cut to size. They aren't that big and the colour doesn't need to match exactly.

My search for a new amplifier (my first in fact) has come down to: 1) Leak 230; or 2) Cambridge Audio CXA81 Mk2 I will be using it to play my Technics 1500C turntable and a CD Transport (not yet acquired but I like the look of the Leak CDT); and eventually a vintage tuner. I have acquired a pair of Linton Wharfdale 3XP stereo speakers for just £60; I know they aren’t high end but seemed like a good speaker to get started with. Reviews mention bass can be a bit lacking with those speakers, so I want to use a sub. I have a powered Tannoy which is about 15 years old from a 5.1 system I no longer use. I can either use that, or purchase a passive sub if that is better. My question is: The CXA81Mk2 has an dedicated subwoofer out, whereas the Leak does not. I understand that this means that to use a sub with the Leak 230, I will need to wire the sub to the Leak’s pre-outs. My question is: is that a disadvantage in any way against the CXA81Mk2 given my intended use?

Nope! Presumably this is another balls-up by the BCO. They really should check for stuff like this. My outside tap is fed by a pipe which is laid under the patio and then it comes up on the side at ground level and rises to almost 70cm above ground level where it is attached to the fence. I am encouraged by @Nickfromwales comment: @OnoffI did purchase one of those a year or so ago, but came to the conclusion it was pretty pointless. Surely all that insulation jacket will do is delay the freezing by a day or two? If we have sub-zero temps for 3 or 4 days, it won't do anything. I would just need the pump to drive air into the inlet that is inside my house, so no sucking. Have found the drill pump you mention here on Amazon) but not entirely sure how i would adapt that to work in my case, as I don't really have a hose to connect to, just a little inlet. I guess the hose can can go onto the inlet, but not in a secure way and so I expect it will just disconnect as i have no way to secure the attachment to the inlet.

My garden tap is made of metal (brass I believe) but serviced by an external buteline pipe. Last winter my builder showed me how to empty that pipe for winter: it has it's own stopcock inside the house - so first step is to close that then open the external tap then there is an inlet valve inside the house just next to the stopcock. My builder attached a short hose to it and using his own lungs and mouth blew through it until he went a light shade of purple - this succeeded in purging the water from the pipe. I have tried step 3 on my own and failed very quickly. I just don't have the blow. One option is to purchase a cheap pump that can do this for me. Any recommendations? Other option is to skip step3 and rely just on 1 and 2 and the fact that buteline state on their website that their pipes are frostproof. But the same website post also says "Lagging of pipes is recommended when installing the system in places exposed to continuous freezing temperatures" so I'm confused by how confident they are in this claim. Thoughts? And quickly please... we are due to go sub-zero later this week!

Up 27% in last 7 years according to this: https://www.nimblefins.co.uk/average-water-bill

The company that supplied our water softening system, East Midlands Water, also supplied us a water filter for our drinking water (which of course isn’t softened). Photo of the unit below: They called me today to try and sell me a replacement on the basis that it is coming up to the end of its recommended 3 year life. (We bought it three years ago, though didn’t start using it until we moved in 2.5 years ago, so I probably still have a few months life in it.) It is bacterioststic, using both silver and activated carbon. But costs a whopping £179. The water tastes good, but is this reasonable? What do other people use?

Wow that is very kind. I’ve managed to sort it now, but thank you.