Bramco

So if you were about to install this system again with 20:20 hindsight, you'd leave out the TRV and simply route the lower rail connection to the buffer tank return? Would this be advisable for anyone starting an installation, or is the problem you're seeing only due to the length of the pipes to the buffer tank? Simon

How? I'm genuinely curious - how does the positioning of the isolators impact ease of maintenance? Simon

Great idea - why make a wall wart that you have to plug your table lamp into when you could just have a smart plug. Surely there's some on the market. Simon

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. I contacted the IDB with some info from the SE that had done the original drainage plan with gazillions of m3 of crates. He'd come back to us with a revised plan with a water brake and a pipe through a headwall into the dyke. He'd estimated the flow from the newly impermeable area on the site would be about 5l/s/h. The IDB said that the maximum flow they are OK with is 1.4l/s/h which is the greenfield flow rate. I'd worked out that on our 0.4 hectare plot, the increase due to the newly impermeable area would push the overall flow about 6% over this. When I asked if this was OK, they came back saying they were OK with it and as we were about 1.5km from a managed watercourse, they couldn't imagine how they might charge us for the excess. Weirdly, the IDB boundary runs along the eastern edge of our land, which means that the dyke in front of our land is not within their area but the house just down the dyke is. when I questioned why they'd put in a comment on our planning application, they said they tried to comment on most applications, even if they were out of their area - which strikes me as an utterly ridiculous waste of time. Anyway, back now to the SE for re-revised plans and to the LLFA asking for formal permission to put in a head wall in. Simon

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

We started about 2 months ago and I'd forgotten they'd said they would put us on the urgent list after my 2nd call. And we'd about given up and had decided to use a 4G/5G router instead. So it was a surprise last week when I was given a date for a surveyor to visit. Well before the date, on a wet morning he called, he lives locally and could pop round. After a bit of discussion he agreed that if we would put the duct in, they would connect from the bottom of the pole outside the property. It's a private lane with a grass verge where the pole is. He asked me to pace out how long the duct would be and to let him know how many corners there would be and he'd get the ducting etc. delivered. They would call before delivery. Of course they didn't, but all the gubbins arrived yesterday. Think I'll ebay it if we go the 4G/5G router although it can't be worth anything given they hand it out willy nilly. Simon

Express in Leeds and Roofmaker in Leicester. Lots of reasons for selecting them rather than any other suppliers. For example we hate the bump at the top of Velux rooflights..... Our build will be roofed and clad in black corrugated metal - so not sure that weight is an issue for us. Also because our sliders are quite wide, MBC have designed steels above all of the openings and we have a guaranteed 2mm deflection on these openings. Sounds like a good plan, I'll talk to the window installers when they start to see if we need to do something similar. Simon

You need them in as soon as possible after the TF erection is completed. Any delay can delay your airtightness test because the build needs to be wind and watertight before that. We ordered from the plans - although having said that, they were the plans from the architect. MBC designed the frame based on the structural openings in the architect's plans and these were what we signed off on. They are then contractually obliged to build to the signed off spec. If they don't, they have to fix it. What this means is that you have to juggle the lead times of the windows people with the information you are getting from MBC about their start date on site and likely completion date. For us the windows had 10 week lead time, so they were ordered as soon as we had the dates from MBC. Unfortunately like some others on here, we received an email from MBC about 10 days before the build start date that unfortunately they had had an issue with wood deliveries and they couldn't start until 4 weeks after the original date. That's when the fun started. The rooflight company wanted a stupid amount of money for storing the rooflights after the agreed delivery date, so we could only delay them by a week. The plan was that MBC would start on the garage and it would be up and completed by the end of the 1st week of the build. Unfortunately the steels didn't arrive, so there was nowhere to store the rooflights safely - we have found a safe spot now. The garage is likely to be the last thing completed... With the windows, it depends on the supplier and whether they are doing the install. If they are doing the install as well - which is our case - then if there is no slack in their overall installation program, then you may find you are at the back of the queue again with a long delay. We were fortunate in that they could delay us by a month. MBC should finish the build this Friday (yee haaaa) and the windows will be delivered and installed on Monday week, so 10 days after MBC finish. To give you some reassurance, I went over all the structural openings with the architect last weekend checking the measurements. They are all within a few mm of the spec and don't forget that the window manufacturers all allow for some tolerance of up to 10mm, these things aren't a friction fit. Simon

A lot of 'intelligent' thermostats are unsuitable unless you've got the right type of system. The Nest thermostat was designed for the US market and I'd be surprised if the intelligence works with our systems. But then, our heating regs make you put a central thermostat AND trvs on radiators. So the radiators will slowly turn themselves down as the room gets up to temperature - but if the room where the central thermostat is gets too hot (sunny day) they might open up to accept more heat but it won't be forthcoming because the central one has turned the system off. Madness. Simon

Kevin hi, Just re-reading this thread and realised that you are also cladding your build in corrugated steel - can I ask who is doing this for you? We've found a couple of companies but are still looking around. Simon

We will - the question was more about sizing. How do you work out what size is the right size? Simon