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I would go for it (I did). But one thing missing from your list of cons is that it does create tiny amounts of pollution in your home, which are not good for human health. There is very convincing scientific research on this that you can Google. So just don’t use it too often. A couple of times a week should be fine.

They quoted me £1k more than the company I went with.

Every 3000 litres, which I guess is not once a month, but at that rate will probably regenerate once every week.

Yes, this is a “downside” of the unit I’ve gone for, but as the salesman explained, it will only regenerate once a month for about 20 minutes. Hardly an inconvenience to have to use hard water during those 20 mins, particularly if it’s at 3am. We’ve only ever had one power cut in the four years we’ve been there. Fortunately a fairly rare occurrence, but yes I suppose it would make a power cut slightly more annoying than it already was.

This was a good recommendation. Thank you @PeterW. Not sure how impartial they were, but they gave me a different take on things, and I've ended up going for a powered unit, rather than a twin tank unpowered one, saving me £300 on the Harvey or Kinetico models I was considering that offered the same high flow rates. Apparently only consumes 30p a month of electricity when it regenerates, which it does at 3am, when nobody will notice.

Thanks But re pressure loss, isn’t the concern that presumably the longer the pipe the more pressure wasted travelling along the pipe.

No idea about the water softener I'm afraid. Do report back on what improvement the TW upgrade gives you, as we're doing the same. Curious to hear how you get on.

How close are your MVHR air supply vents to your windows?

@larry did you install the external temperature sensor, which I assume is for weather compensation? Manual says: to install on a "North or north-western wall, 2 to 2.5 m above ground level; in multi storey buildings, in the upper half of the second floor ■ Not above windows, doors or vents". This is a problem for me as my building, being a semi detached, has it's northern wall attached to my neighbour! Although actually we have just extended, so the northern side of my extension is exposed, but neighbour could easily build over it.

Hi @Dan F thanks for recommending this safe-grip product. Have you installed it yet and are you happy with it? I wasn't able to find any R11 tiles I liked, so we are likely doing both wet rooms with R10 on the floor, and I think that at least for one of them (the guest shower room) we will need to make the floor more grippy.

Thanks, that will hopefully save some money on the door then. the 40db figure is what i have specified to convert the maximum sound of the 75db washing machine (on spin cycle) in the utility room to a more discreet 35dB sound on the other side of the door. Though the 32kw boiler and a tumble dryer will also make some noise, so it might be slightly more than 75dB, though those are much quieter machines but adding decibels of different appliances is beyond my sound engineering skills! When I asked Soundstop what db reduction their door dropper seal would achieve, they said "probably only 30db".

Can anybody recommend a reasonably priced internal door and doorset that is soundproofed to 40dB. It's not clear to me whether this is: just a very thick solid timber door, say 64mm or 68mm thick, with rubber seals all the way around and a drop seal like this: https://www.soundstop.co.uk/ZDRKTRET83.php; or something more sophisticated I thought the first solution would work, but when I spoke to soundstop they said that their drop seals are only rated for 30db, but I'm not clear whether that is because there is no seal around the doorframe. For context, without sound proofing, this doorway would be the weak spot in a utility room that has been soundproofed to provide a reduction of at least 40db

Just to let anyone who is interested in the Circulon pans that @AliGrecommended on this thread that there is a good black friday offer on at the moment. Most pan bundles are half price and on top of that you can get a 10% off code by signing up with your email adress. So I just paid £67.50 for two "infinite" pans with a lifetime guarantee.

Just trying to understand this. Why is that the case?

Indeed, that is the antithesis of free trade. It's like: going to Tesco and discovering that you can't buy champagne this week because of some shortage in supply from France but being told it's fine you can drink Spanish Cava or English bubbly; or being told city bikes are currently available, but we have plenty of mountain bikes. Substitutes do the same thing, but not in the same way.

I have no doubt that you are right about this @Nickfromwales, but unfortunately I don't understand it anywhere near enough to supervise my plumber and check he is doing things properly. In particular, I'm not sure I understand how a radial + manifold system would work together with a secondary loop. Or are you saying that these are mutually exclusive options? Ultimately, All the hot water outlets are in very close proximity to the UVC in that one shower and basin is literally within 1m from it, the master ensuite where the large bath is, is almost directly under the UVC, the family bathroom where a medium bath, shower and basin are are next to that master ensuite. The only outlets that are slightly further away are the guest WC basin on the ground floor and the kitchen tap. For this kind of layout (and it's a tall house(Ground, first and second), rather than a wide one): how many manifolds would there be? where would the manifolds be? would there also be a secondary loop and if so which outlets would it serve? Thanks so much

Thanks @ProDave. To clarify, desk won't be against the wall. I rather have it away from a wall, as I think that makes the desk more the centre of the room, and given it's my study/man cave, I feel i can get away with that sort of space inefficiency. It also keeps the walls free for bookcases. Interesting idea about having the desk under the skylight. What's your thinking behind that?

Yes, this is precisely why I’m asking. Electrician is fitting the first fix for the floor sockets tomorrow. To avoid running a lead across the top of my floor and avoid that trip hazard, I need to fix the position of the desk (to within 60cm or so) now.

Thanks. I remember watching a video about manifolds (which was also american) a couple of years ago when I first started on this journey and thinking at the time it was a bit of a gimmick, where the main selling feature was that you could isolate any outlet you wanted. But we are plumbing everything from new, I'm hoping it's done properly so that that won't be necessary. I'm sure there are other benefits that I'm missing, but glad I went with secondary loop over a manifold. Not sure what @Dan F thinks is their benefit in this situation?

You obviously are not a leisurely bather that stays in the bath so long you need to top it up. I am. After 30-40 minutes I add 5L or so of hot water. The rental I'm in at the moment makes this virtually impossible because the pipes aren't lagged so even just 20 min later in winter the hot water bathfiller has gone cold again. So there I am in my luke warm bath and I have to add quite a bit of cold before i get hot again. Will pipe lagging avoid this issue? I agree no need to put the showers on the HRC.

This is the way the architect set up my study after I told him that I didn’t want my desk up against the wall, or facing the window, and that I needed a sofa bed so that I could sit on it when I want a break from the desk, and so that we could use the room as a guest room on the odd weekend. He has sort of done what I asked, but it just doesn’t look right to me. An immediate change I would make is put the chair on the other side of the desk as that way I’m diagonally facing the doorway, which is apparently a good thing in Feng Shui. In more practical terms, being able to easily face the door, without me actually facing it directly, but being able to turn my head 30 or 45 degrees towards the door is helpful. That way I can greet/see/talk to visitors at the door from my desk and if I’m on a work call i can see anyone who comes in and make face contact with them to indicate I’m on a call - helpful for when my kids come in. But I’m still not sure about the desk effectively touching a bookcase that is under the window sill. I think being that close to the window will cause glare on my screen in the afternoon (that window faces South-West-West) and it just doesn’t feel right. Do I just move the desk towards the centre of the room a couple of feet away from the window (as well as moving the chair so that it is on the other side of the desk)? Or is there a better option?

Thanks. SWMBO has just pointed out that there is a cupboard in the landing where we can mount one of these, and as for the other I will just have to not lose it.

I believe the integra switch is like this: https://www.sterlingbuild.co.uk/product/velux-kli-311-wall-switch-for-integra-roof-windows?gclid=Cj0KCQiA-eeMBhCpARIsAAZfxZBCTQcafAHcplN7MKgvfwbKAcx0-wtHnosm0oRqnsh_3HxJzcTs_moaAnpdEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds as for the light switches, I wanted to get Corston, but even with my architect’s 20% discount, I don’t think I can afford them, so just something standard witha matt black or metallic finish like this: https://www.se.com/uk/en/product-range/60837-ultimate/?parent-subcategory-id=5620

I have two Velux integra. They each come with a remote control. I don’t like the idea of these being remote controlled, because we will lose the remotes. I also don’t want to just stick it on the wall, because the wall space is tight and they will clash with the nice light switch plates we are getting. Is it possible to add a module to my light switch plate, converting, say , a one gang to a two gang rocker in one case and turning a three gang to a four gang in the other case, and then wire up that module to control the Velux? How would I go about doing this? Is it basic DIY, or do I need an electrician? (My electrics DIY extend to changing a light switch, but not much further beyond that.)