Bramco

FWIW - we had no problem with RK Doors - very good, in terms of getting the spec right etc. - can't remember the payment details but everything was delivered on time as promised. Also v pleased with the door.

1.6 bar? 😉 be very interested in how you get on - think one of the kits will be next summers project.

Our reason for ground mounting was aesthetics and the angle of the roof, not fire risk - and we have plenty of room 🙂

Majority of fires ... often due to improper installation or faulty components. What they haven't analyzed is what the cause of the fires were that were attributed to faulty connectors. So, as with anything - make sure you do things properly and double check that the connections are good.

They probably would wouldn't they - as the actress said to the bishop. The main thing I found was that it was important to make sure the pins/sockets were properly clicked into the plastic housing. It's surprisingly easy to not quite get one home and then when you join the two halves of the joint, one bit pushes the other side back out which means there isn't proper connection. But that may not be the case with expensive 'branded' connectors. I wonder how many fires there have been? And how were they attributed to the connectors and who checked that if the fires were caused by the connectors, which brand of crimp tool was used. Or could they have been caused by not clicking the crimped part into the housing properly?

I bought a generic one from eBay. 30 connectors and worked fine. Would almost certainly work for many many more. MC4 connectors are all standard. A £350 tool has to be something a professional would buy to install fields full of panels. Imho all you need is a cheap one from eBay, or Amazon.

Interesting spreadsheet but I think you need the flow and temperature to work out the kW generated against the mains current and voltage as the input. There are kits to do this -> https://docs.openenergymonitor.org/applications/heatpump.html They also have a public website where you can publish your data - useful to see the CoPs being achieved in the real world. https://heatpumpmonitor.org/

Must look into the engineers menu.. Thanks for pointing this out.

@dpmiller Thanks for posting this - it makes some things a lot clearer in terms of the settings. Wish I'd seen it before I built a little control box to switch from heating to cooling, as it looks as though this can be set up to change automatically based on the outside temperature. There are two pages though that beg for more explanation - the antifreeze function and the defrost function. On the antifreeze function - it's not clear how this is activated, or is it always on? And if it's always on, does this mean that no glycol is needed? And on the defrost function, it's not clear how any settings can be changed. Anybody any more detailed explanation?

The officers report was satisfied by the condition in the planning document. It caused the LPA to write the condition. The condition asks for a surface water strategy not a plan. So don't submit a plan. A strategy that would probably satisfy the planners is to state that given it is a replacement dwelling, surface water will be dealt with in the same manner as for the previous dwelling. If you do this, you need a) know how it was dealt with before and b) know, or can show that the replacement dwelling with any paved areas is similar in m2 to the old dwelling. So how has surface water been dealt with in the past? And what's the difference in surface area? Also, is there a water course nearby? We are in a flood zone with a dry (99% of the time) water course at the front of the plot. We were looking at a massive expense in excavation, crates etc. for a soakaway. We approached the County Council flood team to get their help with this. One thing we pointed out was that the site drained into the water course in the past before there was a dwelling, so while with the dwelling there would be a faster release into the water course, the amounts would be the same. we did some calculations on this. We also played the environmental card - it would be scandalous to bury so much plastic etc. etc. They agreed and all they wanted was a plan for the discharge point and then they came and inspected the work when it was completed. So the cost in the end was a concrete extension to the side of our culvert a bit of pipe and a special discharge valve. We also had a condition to submit a plan for emergency lighting (re disturbance of wildlife I think). We satisfied this by stating that we didn't intend to install any emergency lighting. 😄

In the bedrooms the supply valves are high on the walls. In the bathrooms, the extract valves are again high on the walls. In the main kitchen/dining/living, they are on the vaulted ceiling. So 2 supply at the living end on one face of the ceiling. 2 extract at the kitchen end, one on each face.

We have a very similar layout - but the island is only 950 wide by just under 3m which gives room at the back of the cupboards to put the bar stools under. There's also an overhang at one end for a couple of stools. So a row of 2x600 units with drawers, then an 800 unit with the downdraft induction hob and one 400 at the end. Personally I'd keep the dishwasher with the sink on the end wall. We have 2x600 full height units, one with two ovens, then 4 600 base units with top units and then a full height with the fridge freezer. Can't remember the full cost but I DIY'ed it and all the units and appliances came from IKEA except for the hot water tap. Don't think it cost us anywhere near £7k all in. +1 for that. Make to sure measure any sofas to make sure you can extend to a robot vacuum. I could send photos of ours if you are interested.

Pocket doors are a great solution for where you have them. We have them between our bedrooms and dressing rooms - they aren't that noisy. You soon learn to open them quietly.

So are you really going with a stainless grid next to black window frames and those dark pavers? It might be cheap but get yourself an acco with black drain and black cover panels....