Alan Ambrose

I’ve a bunch of these, most of which have been there for 30 years. No problems except for one within one of those shower-hose-like kitchen taps. I wonder whether some are much better quality than others? Real stainless shouldn’t rust much with standard water. Agree that relying on the rubber hose isn’t the smartest.

Thanks, that's interesting. I also just found that 21 degrees offer the open/close sensors too, but no more detail than that right now.

Yeah, I'm not convinced. I've spent not too much of my life (5 man days maybe) putting cables in routes that didn't exist before - but enough to know that it's an absolute major PITA. Europe does the duct thing often in concrete. And I've run quite a bit of stuff in conduit in my Larsen-truss style roof (actually made with Posi Joists but you get the picture). Some of those cables we will be able to replace if we need to - some of the longer runs probably won't. Too much friction. I think that either 50mm trays on their side or the equivalent with 50mm battens in our 50mm service cavity should work fine - as @-rick- suggests. If there's strategic access where the 'trays' do 90 degree corners, so much the better. As @ProDave points out - put some kind of socket / switch / sensor point (PIR or temperature/humidity maybe) at the positions you want and you can force 'safe zone' lines anywhere you like. At least you should be able to do 95% of the run without resorting to cutting plasterboard. For internal walls, maybe there's a 50mm zone in the middle of the wall somehow - that might make a good acoustic break too. Our geometry is very simple and rectangular so maybe that makes it a much easier prospect for us.

We used 3x 100 flexi ducts - one for water, one for 230V, one for data / other stuff. Most heads off to the front of the plot where all the services come in, but a few will go elsewhere. We'll see how well this works later 😉.

@dpmiller Ah interesting, these ones (below)? Did you consider the ceiling roses too? Pity there's not some kind of all encompassing standard for 230V / LED / USB C.

I found another one: BRIGi Foam 1.2 MPa @ 2% / 0.040 W/mK Comes in a lot of sizes. p.s. I figure my triple glazed double doors @ 180Kg, 2m wide exert ~0.01MPa

>>> I don't really want to have to plan where every device cable goes ... for the next 50 years...yeah, exactly. I figure I have a good chance of using a fish tape or electricians rods to run a new cable assuming the runs are fairly straight and there's access at any corners. Maybe it helps that our room layout is fairly simple & rectangular.

In our present place, built about 30 years ago - in the sitting room we have a bunch of small round pin sockets for wall lights - they're all controlled by a single switch. This kind of thing below. Is there a more modern version? Anyone doing this?

Why? To give a fighting chance of running a new cable or replacing an old one. The current model when we hide the cables and assume they will be OK for the life of the building seems to me a bit flawed 😉.

Reporting back: Rationel has these as an option, but not, it seems for tilt-and-turn e.g.

p.s. maybe this is the explanation, but does it not then leave the building industry up the creek? Inside Housing - News - UK certification body for construction products has accreditation suspended

In my search for longer lasting battens, I called the guys above, who say those are no longer available. I also called Kedel re their plastic battens: 50 x 25 Roofing Battens, Recycled Plastic Battens ... to ask whether there's any BS5534 adherence/ certification. They'll get back to me. In the process, I looked at the BBA site. Oddly, there's this weird note (below). WTF does that mean, and who are UKAS - I mistakenly thought that BBA were the authority. To add a little spice I see on the 'myBBA' search that only Marley has a current BBA cert for their battens. ?

OK lovely, thanks for all the feedback - looks like that scheme will work fine then. Like @JohnMo, I'm thinking of shoulder months / winter performance and also as @Nickfromwales mentioned UPS-style backup. In the Sigenergy line-up this seems to require the 'Gateway HomeMax' and apparently will take a connection to a max of 3 inverters. It looks like I need to do some wading through manuals. FYI I discovered these DC contactors & arc protectors recently: Fire Safety Devices ArcBox - Solar Connector Enclosure

I'm particularly looking at the Sigenergy SigenStor Energy Controller 6.0 SP 6.0kW 1-Phase... But a general question - if you're planning more panels than the inverter will handle for max DC voltage reasons - can you simply parallel them? I imagine the software has to be smart enough to do that. For instance, with strings of 11 panels each giving, say, 380 VDC max / 5.4 kWp and an inverter which will accept 550 VDC max, would I be able to run several strings with several inverters 'in parallel'?

>>> Do you mean a whole house ducted system with a main unit in the loft Yeah, that one. I'm leaning towards 180mm foam ducts atm, which sounds like it would work.

@ProDave So, I just need to put a dummy 'point, accessory or switchgear' to establish a zone / cable tray anywhere I like? 😄 I'm sure I need some temperature/humidity sensors up at 2.4m 😉

While we've still got the roof open, I would like to put in some ducts for potential ducted AC into the bedrooms. Anyone seen a good duct size calculator? Or just some simple rules of thumb?

Maybe there’s scope for the physical panel install - that’s probably 2/3rds of the work.

p.s. I was thinking re safety standards / British standards / building control etc rather than interference problems. I see a typical summary e.g. here: https://www.cablemonkey.co.uk/cmdocs/ElectricalDistance.pdf But it has so many cases, it’s really hard to follow.

>>> the electric cable tray must be within 100mm of the ceiling Ah, I was assuming some common sense on this - we’re vaulted pretty much everywhere with a slopey ceiling from about 3.5m at the eaves. I was planning on putting the trays above the doors at about 2.4m.

Just noticed these: https://www.roofingsuperstore.co.uk/product/25mm-x-50mm-nu-lightweight-plastic-batten-price-per-linear-metre.html

@joth thanks, then I'm seeing them available here: https://octopart.com/search?currency=USD&specs=0&start=0&q=PGSPDY3&s=1

OK another tech question... We have a 50mm services void. I was planning to run horizontal cable trays, mostly high-up (2.5m above the floor) and split into mains & ELV / data (either using one split tray or two separate trays). Then a few vertical drops to light switches etc, also in trays if I can. And then fill any remaining void with, say, mineral wool. Question is - how do I avoid the mains crossing the data or is that OK? Something like this: Mains ------------------------!------------------------------- Data ------------------------!---------------!---------------- ! ! ! ! Mains Socket Network Port

We ordered custom metal road signs and custom Heras covers for the gates. Not expensive. The custom Heras panels were from crowdcontrolsolutions.co.uk. The custom metal signs from road-signs.uk.com.

Bit stumped today. I have some temp/humidity sensors with ~1m cable I want to add RJ45s to and also some CAT6 cable ditto. I thought this would take 10 mins as I have some pass throughs around. Not so. Turns out the ones I have (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B088R5F3D2) accept a core diameter of 0.93 mm-1.04 mm. My sensors have wire diameter of 1.15mm (around a 26awg core), the CAT6 has 1.3mm (around a 23AWG core). Neither fit, grrr. I'm looking at https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09BVMQPKH which say "core wire diameter 1.35-1.45mm (23AWG)". Probably fine for my CAT6, maybe not for the sensors. Who knew we would be trading 0.1mm / 100 microns? Anyone have quality pass throughs they recommend?