Alan Ambrose

Ah thanks. Reporting back, there are a few other manufacturers but none seem to have an energy rating better than 'C'. They're all about 2m long by 0.55m diameter for 300L.

Sorry for asking so many questions recently. I'm a bit height challenged 😄. More importantly, the little attic I plan to put the DHW tank is too (1.6m at the inside ridge). Any reason why I shouldn't use a horizontal tank e.g. : Tempest horizontal indirect hot water storage cylinder ? 1.75m long x 0.65m high for 300L.

>>> Can you give me an example of a “really good plan” ? My main concern is lateral hydrostatic loads, and how to prevent them. Suggest you get an SE to do a quick check/calc. Main variables are the max ground water level, tank geometry, pipe invert levels. If you vow never to empty the tank in winter when the ground water is high and your tank doesn’t need to be buried too deep for invert levels purposes (thus having a buoyant void below the ground water level) then a smallish amount of stone / concrete will work fine. Archimedes principal - you can do the calcs yourself if you are confident. Then there’s a bit of understanding about how the dirt / stone / concrete loads down the tank. That’s it. The loads are in the multiple tons though so best not to guess. A couple of people here, me included, used stakes and concrete below the tank to provide holding down load too. I’ve found that 300mm perf twinwall down to the bottom level of the tank and next to it and sitting in shingle will hold a submersible pump and that works well for temporary dewatering. Alos allows you to easily monitor the ground water level.

Well good point - I had a vague thought that it would be good to keep the extract pipes clear of dust.

Resurrecting this old thread - has anyone seen plaster-in vents with filters?

@Russell griffiths - do you actually change the colour much and/or do you have it on a schedule?

@Nick Laslett thanks for finding those for me. My take away from reading through them is: ... sometimes BC guys will accept 100% AAVs, but sometimes they want one real vent and, in that case, sometimes they want that vent at the far end of the run.

>>> But I haven't seen a single mention of this being done anywhere It's a more unusual requirement and a lot of real sparks won't have thought about it and the regs probably don't cover it well. But, see e.g. https://foxesscommunity.com/viewtopic.php?t=139 Earth Neutral Bond : https://www.facebook.com/groups/571819024654208/posts/1072959771206795/

Apart from @Thorfun, I can't see any mentions of CCT LED strips on 't 'ub - i.e. the ones that you can change the colour temperature of from warm to cool white. Any thoughts or experience?

Oh I see now: That's meant to be a little house, so it doesn't mean the flow is in the direction of the arrow (no, sirree) it means the flow is into the house. The flow is actually the opposite direction in the pipe. That's clear then 😁.

Looks to me like the arrows on 1 and 3 are the wrong way round, no? And what is it with their multiple brand/product names - is this not confusing enough already?

Yeah, we thought we would try and be a bit more modern than traditional braces. You're IP14 from memory? Want to join us at our next meet?

>>> Unless this statement affects that? My understanding is that you must use a TT earth (ground rod) and RCDs (you're probably going to have those anyway) on a temporary supply while building and the DNO (or your sparks) will connect up the PME earth when you've finished your build (maybe your kiosk will stay). This is to address the risk of a PEN fault. 110V or 220V equipment as you prefer - most tool use will be battery anyway. I'll leave you to find the original regs, but e.g. see here: Temporary supply TT earthing Here's what my DNO (UKPN) says: Document Library - Connections quotation (ukpowernetworks.co.uk)

>>> Why not just go 4/5G? I could do, but the fibre ducts & router kiosk are ready to go - at least, until OR decided they would refuse to go any further. So, if I could get a 3rd party to encourage them a bit...

@Beau / @BotusBuild I'm still trying to get a proper net connection - fibre access still seems like the Wild West. For your connections where you got a provider to deal with Openreach rather than deal direct - were these new connections for a new plot or some re-arrangement of an existing service (e.g. adsl or fttc to proper fibre)?

@Nick Laslett I thought that BC required one 'proper' SVP vent, no?

>>> a ground spike You should have one anyway while you're building and in some instances (car chargers etc) afterwards too. My DNO put a label on their feed to that effect and refused to connect up their own earth. >>> Is that to stop any chance of voltage leaking back down the grid when there is a fault? No, it's so you have an earth/neutral bond in both cases and never two bonds. It's not totally clear to me why two bonds would be a problem, but it's just possible that would risk some extra leakage current. >>> AC coupled will provide whole house with power. I guess it's possible to only power some circuits if you like - and that strikes me that's a useful option e.g. power to the whole house except the really heavy users: HP, car charger, oven etc.

>>> Heatmiser Neo Hub It's v. helpful for remote access. Also, fiddling with any schedules / settings etc is far easier on an app than on the stats themselves. I can set everything to 'holiday mode (off except for frost) in the app in 2 secs, which saves some power and £ - pretty much nobody can be bothered to do this by fiddling with every stat.

>>> turning trees into flooring and doors! Yeah, that would slow you down. You have your own sawmill?

The frame was by Carpenter Oak - I was really impressed. As we did the floor brackets ourselves and laid them out and levelled them exactly, the whole frame went up in 2 days and was super-straight.

>>> Not sure I have a read a single thread on here where anyone says Heatmiser are good I've two set-ups that have been working well for years. These are wired. There is the odd software bug, the bug/feature request 'forum' is a bit 1984, I found the relays are a bit cheap and downrated and the physical design is a bit flimsy in parts. But I'm pretty critical of any product. It does allow us to have a schedule on each room, to set rooms to schedule or standby, a holiday setting (all off except frost protection), remote access etc. I even have a stat in my shed running a blow heater that I can set going in winter sometime before I do some work😁. And Heatmiser don't upgrade the xxxxing software every 5 minutes.

>>> Isn't that just a skylight. Ooooh - what's the philosophical difference between a skylight and a sun tunnel, nice? Not much as there are round skylights. Some sun tunnels just direct light, you can't see out. Circular skylights are usually bigger. I guess the big thing is that skylights nearly always have their aperture parallel to the roof. I'm looking for a vertical tube to put above my showers so that I can see the sky 😁 ... preferably with ends that are parallel to the roof and the internal ceiling.

I would like to be able to see a patch of the sky...

>>> grandchildren Shhh, don't tell them - otherwise your LPA might add them to the protected species list.