Bramco

We need an student to take on a final year project to trawl through all the really good advice on the forum to come up with some good design patterns or rules of thumb for this. Given a house with x m2, y m3, z heat loss and the price of electricity, cost of a ASHP (parts and installation separately) vs resistive heating (Willis heaters) etc. then a rating for each design pattern in terms of simplicity of implementation, upfront costs against lifetime costs etc. Anyone here a lecturer at a college (sorry university these days..) with some students up for a challenge? Simon

I hesitate to ask this - but is it a virgin router? Cos they do get their MACs confused occasionally. Also what on earth possesses anyone to use fixed IP addresses - just use dynamic IP addresses and get on with the building work - you're just creating diversionary IT management work which ain't gonna get the place finished.... although reading between lines it may never be.... 😄 Simon

That's a small shower recess at the back! Nice view though. Simon

I've been in touch before about the culvert - so will check with them today. Thanks for the tip. Simon

The lane the other side of the dyke has no owner - it's an access lane for people owning land along the lane. 7 houses and a farm and on the opposite side fields. I'm taking the email from the flood authority that I mentioned above as permission. The internal drainage board don't manage the dyke, it's too small. And while we might have a 'yes' from the flood team, there's the Env Agency rules and building regs. Do we have to comply with them all, or is there one that trumps the others? Simon

I'm told the alternative would be to make the soakaway 3 times larger and use gravel - due to the voids in the crates being nearly 100% and gravel about 30%. I'm assuming you mean gravel above and below?

Hi, We have a dyke at the front of our property which used to run all the time when the gypsum mine at the end of the village was still working. Now it's dry, except for exceptional rainfall. The ground is clay with poor but permeability rates are nearly acceptable at the front of the property. Our SE has designed the drainage system as 2 massive soakaways. 26m3 each. So you can imagine the price we're being quoted by our contractors. Also, it seems ridiculous that we're contemplating burying a massive amount of plastic in the ground. It's environmentally crazy! The dyke btw now only runs when we get a biblical rainstorm overhead for a few hours. If you took the rainfall catchment area that contributes to this, then our development would be tiny. We're talking several sq kms against a normal house and patios. I contacted the flood team at the County Council and asked if 'we can simply run a pipe from a manhole at the front of the property straight into the dyke?' Their response was 'Providing there is no increase in flood risk as if problems were to arise from any additional flows, from a civil point of view you would be responsible as you made changes to the flow of water. Or the asset is not a highways asset. Yes you can connect.' It's not a highways asset btw. I should add that further downstream on the dyke, are a bungalow and 3 houses that all discharge into the dyke. The dyke eventually discharges into a brook which normally has water in it but that's a mile or so away. I think I need to convince BC that discharge to the dyke is OK but who do I have to persuade (BC or EA) to take a pragmatic view on this and what evidence do I need? Are there consultants who can help? Simon

It does beg the question though whether anyone would ever check that things hadn't been done according to the planning conditions, given they take 4 months to answer and NMA. We amended window locations and cladding layout and some other minor points like security lighting has to be agreed - 'there will be no security lighting'. We didn't mention a reasonable height increase on the highest section of the build.... 😄 and things were done in 28 days. What were you trying to amend? I guess if these were really minor things, then would they ever try to enforce the submitted plan, or simply shrug their shoulders and say, 'actually we'd have passed that if you'd submitted the plans with those changes.' Simon

er yes..... In the current house we installed a heat bank with solar thermal (long time ago, wouldn't dream of it now) and I had to draw a very simple diagram for the plumber to follow - which he did perfectly. Electric install I did myself. It's been great especially since we installed PV and a diverter. All the trades working on the extension basically looked at the heat bank as if it was a starship. Having said that, the house is now up for sale and I can see a lot of viewers building in the cost of ripping everything out and putting a 'nice big' combi in.... And they'd be missing out on free hot water for 4 or 5 months a year... Simon

@IanR Thanks Ian - we may not make it under the old scheme anyway but gaming the system sounds like a great way to avoid doing what I should be doing by building an expert system..... Your experience with Eco East Anglia sounds like you found the right installer. Simon

But if your build is highly insulated, airtight etc, then the RHI ain't going to be worth having as against the extra costs of the MCS install. But it's almost impossible to find installers who will do a non RHI install, Everyone adds on this chunk regardless - and some who behave like the old double glazing salesmen taking money from gullible people. So I guess, where I'm going is - which are the installers out there who will give a proper quote based on supply and install with no frills? Simon

I've never understood why companies ask £10-£12k for an install when the parts are about half that. What value does an 'MCS install' provide? Simon

We had a room heat loss analysis done by a consultant which checked out very well with Jeremy's spreadsheet. Similar U values to yours. Our peak hat loss is expected to be just over 5kW at -3.6C so roughly in the same ball park I guess. No experience yet as the TF is only just nearing completion. Simon

Is there an equation for working out the size of a soakaway based on the area to be included and the permeability of the soil? At what point can you realistically get BCO to agree to draining the area into the main sewer? Our plans include a HUGE soakaway that will bury loads of plastic in the ground at a v large cost. We'd love not to have to do this (or put more money in the ground, the foundations cost enough!) Simon

So we've just had tender returns and it looks like the renderers have quoted to render the whole building which will be mainly metal clad with some timber cladding and only the rest rendered...... Think they have just measured up the whole house and quoted for that. Our QS has a trade intelligence index after years of experience. To quote, she said: 'Renderers are the most stupid, plumbers not far behind, electricians show a spark of intelligence.' There must be more to the league table and I wonder what the trades think of QS's? Simon