Bramco

Worse they were in their own time zone - anything up to an hour out - totally unpredictable. The lovely lady in South Africa on the help desk suggested to be on the safe side setting the time in the scheduler an hour after we really wanted the heating to start. She agreed it was a pretty unworkable solution as we'd miss out on up to an hour of really cheap electricity. Smartness gone mad - it's not confined to things like thermostats either - we tried to buy a replacement iron recently but the model we have is now 'smart' so you can't actually set anything yourself in terms of steam etc. Someone should set up a new brand 'NoSmart' - 'get full control like your gran used to have'. Simon

Be careful what you wish for in replacements. We installed some in our new build but had to replace them as the smartness couldn't be outsmarted. We wanted to make sure that all our heating (it's a big insulated slab with UFH) was done in the really cheap 4 hour Octopus Go window. The thermostats we first installed seemed accurate enough but would insist on starting up to an hour early - bless them. They wanted to make sure the rooms were up to temperature at the start time we'd set. They got the boot - too intelligent for their own good and it was a function that couldn't be turned off. Another annoying thing about them was the temperature display was very bright and couldn't be turned down, so annoying in a bedroom. We've replaced them with Tado. You can at least turn off the 'early start' function on these. They are battery powered, so couldn't suffer from the problem you've encountered. They connect to the internet through a dongle which needs to be plugged into an internet switch or your router - very low power comms protocol. These seem to be functioning OK - except of course like all the thermostats we've looked at, they work in a very narrow temperature band ~0.2degs which means if you are controlling an ASHP the only way to get them to turn on and stay on, is to set up a schedule and put in target temperatures that would be hard to reach. ASHPs are very efficient if they aren't turning on and off. Simon

Facetious answer is buy a plot in a warm country... But basically, it's no use having an airtight barrier on the inside if as others have noted, you don't have an insulating envelope around the barrier. So SIPS, timber frame with insulation, there's many ways to make sure that the cold stays on the outer surface of the building. So check the U values of the walls, floors and roofs. Another point about airtightness is to make sure that the windows you specify don't have trickle vents. They can be opening, you might want that in the summer but they can't have trickle vents. We actually made a mistake in our design. Bathrooms upstairs have rooflights that we can open. The downstairs en-suite windows don't open. Wish we'd made one of them open, so that when showering the window could be opened a crack. MVHR should do this but if you think about it, the MVHR is aggregating the extract from all over the house, so that one bathroom aggregated with the rest never gets above the humidity protection threshold, in our case 75%. We'll end up fitting a wireless humidity control in the en-suite to force a boost based on that room. Simon

Check out the IKEA wardrobe systems. They do the same thing for their cabinets that are only about 400 deep. Simon

They are but using PVGIS it looks as though there's a window between about 30deg and 45deg where the annual total doesn't change much but the winter output is a lot more, the higher the angle. At the moment, there's no battery, so we'll be exporting a lot of our summer output, so I think we'll aim for the higher winter output and not worry about changing the angle in the summer. The soil survey shows made ground down to about a meter and then turning to clay - we had to go down a meter for the house foundations. Probably just more faff, and definitely expense, although on one iteration of the plan I had thought of using postcrete.

Petrol post driver could be fun...

Pods are a pretty low angle, so don't give the output. We're looking at 45deg which will give us about the same as the optimum for our location (35deg) but increases the winter output by about 20%. You can play around with the angles etc. on the EEC PVGIS website. Simon

890mm according to the diagram....... So very little, if any, movement front to back or side to side..... Simon

The structure in the kit is rated at 55km/hr - so not sure where the arbitrary 4m/s comes from? Simon

Hi, Been putting off making decisions about how to build a ground mount system for our solar PV system. There's a system 'Tm Type' which uses key clamp fittings and galvanized pipe - looks pretty simple to implement as a DIY project. One set of documentation says that the clamps and pipe are size 2 which is only 34mm OD which seems a bit small. It's not that much more expensive to use size 4 (48mm OD) which would be more sturdy. Here's a side view of the structure Has anyone built a ground mount with key clamp fittings and pipe? And if so, what size did you use? Also, if you've done a similar system, how did you drive the poles into the ground to support the structure? Thanks for any advice or thoughts on this. Simon

When we moved to the new build, I bought payg SIMs from EE and 3 ~£10 each. We were on Virgin and knew the signal was crap, so no point checking that one. Then with an old phone with each of the payg SIMs in I walked round the site and through the rooms with the Mastdata app running, so I could see what the signal looked like. As it happens EE and 3 were about the same but in different places. As we couldn't get Virgin to supply broadband and were planning on using a 4G router we opted for EE as the data throughput is better (it's more expensive of course). But the phone signal is fine and the 4G modem works well. This is in a timber frame with 2 layers of foil (inside and outside) and corrugated metal cladding and roof - so essentially a faraday cage! Simon

We're on Octopus Go, so have the ASHP on for 4 hours at the cheap rate and then a few hours late afternoon. If we used the ASHP to heat the hot water, it would be at the more expensive rate, about 32p if I remember correctly. But the cheap rate is only 7p, so we have the hot water heated on a timer at the cheap rate - that's until we install the solar PV - although that wouldn't have been much use here for most of the last 10 days, way too dull. So if you can heat your hot water via the immersion, you will free up time that the ASHP can be doing just heating, rather than switching between the heating and hot water. Simon

Last winter, for the same reason, I pumped out all of ours - 12 loops - about 100m each... I used a stand up paddle board pump with an adapter shoved down one end of each loop. Worked a treat, especially once you'd got the flow going. Getting it started on some of the longer ones was hard though. We only got soaked a couple of times!! Simon

Straightforward, except it asks who your installer is.... (so my friend tells me) Simon

We just applied. Can't remember any questions about what EV. Although my memory aint what it used to be. Ours was a new connection. Simon

Asking for a friend.... 😉 How would they know? Let's imagine that someone has 6kW PV installed and no limiting on export how would this be visible to the DNO?

Try a different supplier? We went for the triple glazed ones from Roof maker. Great thing about them is they don't have that ridiculous bump along the top edge that Velux have. When we bought, prices were similar. Simon

You need worry.... When we lived in Holland, our plumber had to don a wetsuit to do some connections under the floor for a new kitchen. A few feet of crawl space with quite a lot of water. He said it was far worse further to the west of us - for example in Leiden, where they sometimes had to use blow up boats to get around under the floors...... Simon

Well that note to self didn't work did it! We moved in on top of the slab a couple of months ago! @deancatherine09 We ended up just digging to the depth the TF Co specified and now have a mighty bund down one side of the plot. The whole process with the TF Co. stalled for what seemed like a few months while their SEs didn't seem to be able to give us a straight answer. Somehow it seemed as though they normally would make the decision as the foundations were being dug, i.e. based on what the actual site conditions were. To cut a long story short though, we had to dig down about 1m and lay down 500mm of compacted hardcore onto which the TF Co put their 150mm of hardcore, the sand blinding layer and then the EPS basin for the slab. Weirdly, they didn't put the drains in until the sand layer was down, so everything was dug out along the line of each drain and then re-laid. We'd have thought that they would have put the drains in place and then done the 150mm and the sand blinding layer after that. If it is the same TF company (I've DM'ed you about who we used), they will also have specified land drains - ours went in some time after - when our groundworkers were doing the rest of the drains (rainwater and foul). I guess they could go in as you are doing the 500mm of compacted hardcore that you will be responsible for. Off topic, I would insist that the team erecting the frame are not a subcontracted company - ours were and they created a lot of problems. If we'd known that the erection would be subcontracted out, we'd have employed a project manager to make sure that the work was done to spec. Although having said that, even though there were some mighty hassles, we're very pleased with the end result. Simon

Funnily enough after all the idiocy of the pre-planning on the full application, when we did submit, the 'real' officer came out to see the site and said it's actually great to have something more contemporary (we have a 2 storey block clad in black corrugated metal, the roofs are all black corrugated metal. And there's a one storey block and garage clad in larch and render.) Mind you, it's a bit marmite in the village - traditionalists are 'eugh!' the majority though are 'brilliant! - when's Kevin coming?' Simon PS Good luck with the application, sounds like you've done your homework by reading up on what the planners envelope of acceptable is.

Nope - by the time it got to that part we were on top of things. All and any minor tears, tiny holes all taped up and the proper MBC guys did the final taping up around windows doors etc. Plus we've got a fantastic guy from the main contractor on site who is a perfectionist. Simon

Our architect said that pre-planning gives them a chance to have their say - but pre-planning enquiries like all planning like all planning applications depend on the authority and also the officer. Both our pre-planning applications (outline and full) were both a waste of time. The one on the full application caused us major grief by asking us to make one part of the plan shorter front to back which made the layout we wanted impossible - I think if we'd just put the application in, it might have gone through. The outline reply was a joke - we ended up going to appeal and won hands down. We used MBC - at the time we were getting quotes, most of the companies we approached were comparable price wise. The great thing about MBC is that they take responsibility for the insulated slab as well as the frame. In our opinion, they were taking on too many contracts when they took ours which resulted in the using contractors for the actual erection - our mob were cowboys. They sacked the company off soon after our build. So I'd ask for a clause in the contract that the erectors are MBC employees - that way you're more likely to get the Irish team who know what they are doing. There's lots of issues with our build under the skin that we know about but now we're living here it's a great house. Airtightness result was 0.7, so just above the PassivHaus standard and that was with the standard TF, not the double skinned PH system they do. I understood btw that any double skinned TF is inherently difficult to get square with flat walls - if the timbers in the frame twist warp, the skin which is osb can't really fight against this, so the standard system is probably more stable in that respect. Would I use MBC again - probably yes BUT I'd employ a project manager for the erection with experience of TF builds and have them on-site full time for the 5 or 6 weeks it takes to finish the build. Just to make sure everything is done to plan - it would have saved us a lot of effort rectifying issues caused by the subcontractor that did the erection. Simon

It's just a small wetroom - what's the issue! Simon

Phoned today because we are in the same situation and they wouldn't entertain quoting until the house is signed off. So back to extending the site insurance. Simon

Exactly. Our plumber ordered a 300l tank from Newark with 2 immersions and an ashp sized coil. The PV diverter goes to the upper immersion until it is satisfied and then to the bottom immersion. So ridiculous amounts of hot water in summer when you need a cool shower BUT in winter an optimum solution giving half a tank on a duller day and 3/4 on a sunny day. ASHP folks are so pushed, they can simply take the mugs money and not bother learning about real eco houses. Simon