Bramco

An M+E consultant can do an analysis of what you intend to connect to see if 3 phase is necessary. Can't remember for the life of me what they call these - someone will be along before long who does know - but our M+E chappie said we would be fine with a normal single phase supply - 7kW ASHP, 4kW solar PV and standard EV chargers with all the normal ovens, lights, small appliances etc. As @newhome said though big ASHPs need 3 phase - you can see HP requirements if you look up their specs. Simon

Interesting - I thought you could still do outline even in these circumstances. If you could do outline with access, then you'd be able to force the decision on access without having to do the rest. Simon

Yes if things have changed - planning decisions are made on the basis of the current planning legislation, not on what it has been. I'd be inclined to put in an outline application with all matters reserved except access, so very little architectural technician time needed except for the location plan which would show the access. And be prepared to go to appeal, so research decisions made in the area where the access was less than 5m as well as successful appeals and also check when if at all highways legislation has changed. Simon

Agree with the no WC against the bedroom wall..... And all the suggestions would make things work a lot better and be easier to implement. However - has your architect ever lived in a house with triangular windows - I'm assuming the two to the right of the elevation are the en-suite and the bedroom. If I'm right, what on earth are you going to put up against the bathroom window? Drive round your area and look at all the mish mash of badly thought out solutions to triangular windows. Curtains don't work, blinds? Or are we just luddites as far as this is concerned.... ? Simon

Thanks. Simon

Thanks Ian. That's been done, although there might be some tweaking depending on which company we use. I'll check out Interlace - thx for the lead. Simon

Hi - help needed to find a good supplier of external venetian blinds. We've specced external venetian blinds for 3 large lift and slide doors on the front of our new build - these are south facing and although we're a long way off the road will also give us a bit more privacy. We've seen Warema which look good and there seem to be a few resellers here in the UK but if you look for any of the other continental suppliers like Hella, Alulux, Hunter Douglas etc. they don't seem to have resellers here. @Thorfun I think you said on a different thread that you had Warema - where did you source them and how are they? Has anyone else installed anything other than Warema? And would you recommend the company you used? Simon

Restarting an old thread, but does anyone have an example of what they have submitted for the fittings based approach? Simon

Yep, use old bricks where they can't be seen, so if used as a retaining wall, only use the decorative stones on the front face and the top. Saves a lot. Simon

But it looks like applications won't be open until the autumn. We were hoping to be half way through our build by then. ? Mind you, it might not be worth it. Sounds like it will be similar to the help to buy scheme. Simon

Cheers!! And commiserations about the break-in. Quite a concern for anyone doing self build if you aren't on site. Simon

Also, check out this blog -> https://tech.scargill.net/pivpn/ Simon

You can ignore any comments, even from Parish Councils unless they make 'material' objections - material objections are to do with the planning laws. Most neighbours wouldn't know a material objection if it hit them in the face and Parish Councils are not much better. If the comments are about views, loss of value in their property etc. then they have no 'material' value. If they are about things like loss of light, there are rules for this that you can check etc. But never forget that the planning officer assigned to your case can make subjective decisions, as @joe90 said - fitting in with the local vernacular could be something they pick up on. But we have permission to build a 2 storey tin shed between 2 bungalows on a lane of (ex) council houses and the officer said it was great that someone wanted to build a contemporary building - mind you, that was after we won the appeal on their first attempt at getting it right. ? Good luck Simon

@JulianB is there any chance you can upload the diagram in whatever format you drew them in rather than a pdf? I could do with plagiarising it for our set up - plagiarism being the highest form of flattery ? Thanks Simon

Looks awful - and I know it's not yours but anyone that does suffer from algae like this on render then try MMC-pro, it works a treat. Obvs make sure if you can that you get the cill design right in the first place so it doesn't happen Simon

Useful site - https://www.energy-stats.uk/ Simon

Duh! Good point!! Simon

@ProDave thanks, that's the route we were heading down. @PeterW also thanks, especially for the contact at Cylinders2Go. Not sure though why you would want such a large cylinder - there will normally only be the 2 of us and it seems wasteful (and expensive) to have the ASHP heating 4 or 500 litres in the winter when the PV won't be delivering much. We were thinking of a 250 litre tank with maybe a couple of Willis heaters in parallel for the rare times that both sons are home with their partners. Under normal circumstances you wouldn't need the Willis heaters and 250 litres should be enough for the 2 of us. Simon

And the flexi tails rot and slowly leak, causing the metal casing to rust and eventually to give way - result - a massive blow out. make sure you know where your stopcock is! Of course the rust could just be from condensation but either way it's a massive pain if it happens. Go copper!! Simon

Apologies if this has been asked before and if it's in the wrong category, but our M+E consultant is recommending a Vaillant ASHP which I'm fine with but when I look at the Vaillant UVCs, I'm concerned that they won't get the best out of the solar PV diversion. Most solar PV diverters have two outputs, so that once the first output has stopped accepting energy the second output is activated. So if you are doing what most people do, diverting to an immersion in the UVC for hot water, you'd ideally want to have 2 immersion heaters in the UVC, so 1st heat the top of the tank, then when that's hot start to heat the bottom of the tank. The Vaillant UVC has one immersion in the middle of the tank - so only the top half would benefit from the solar diversion. An alternative would be say the Gledhill StainlessLite Heat Pump cylinder but that only has a single immersion heater point which is at the bottom - theoretically better because on a good day you could heat all the tank but not on a marginal day as you'd only warm the whole tank up a bit. Anyone know of a cylinder suitable for ASHPs with 2 immersions - middle and bottom? Thanks in advance for any help. Simon

Depends where you are! Two pre-application advice request down and the nearest we got were some emails defending their initial position. Not a sign of any discussion and absolutely no time to meet us. I'm also guessing now that even if you are in an area where they do this properly, they won't meet you because of Covid, so the best you'll get would be a phone call. Simon

We used some with quite thin gauge galvanised wire. They are great in that the wire of the basket isn't very obtrusive but you do need to put in horizontal ties about half way up to stop them from bowing outwards. I made a jig with 4 screws, so I could bend wire to the right shape to make the ties. A flat topped 'n' shape with the legs bent back up to form hooks, then insert them from the back and hook the legs round a couple of horizontals. The width of the top of the 'n' needs to be just over the width of one square if you see what I mean. Also, if you look at some of the instructions, they'll have you spiralling wire around joints to keep them together - this is really hard and it's difficult to get a good join - things tend to be a bit sloppy. Where it didn't show I used cable ties - worked a treat and gave a much better join. We got ours from fine finish metals 6 or 7 years ago and there haven't been any issues with the cages. We have Scottish cobbles in them and they can tend to go green after some time. If you spray them with MMC Pro algae remover - it's sold in a blue 5 litre plastic flagon and works a treat for removing green algae. We also use it on areas of the render that tend to go green, i.e. behind plants etc. Magic stuff!! Simon

Anybody heard anything further about the scheme? Or was it one of those vacuous promises government seem to get away with without actually putting anything in place? Simon

Just out of interest who supplied the 3 immersion heater cylinder - we're looking for a 2 immersion heater indirect cylinder with the immersion heaters at the middle and towards the bottom, so excess solar PV can go in the middle until it is up to heat and then at the bottom. Simon

Agree - at 6 it won't 'see' what the boiler is doing which is all happening further up the tank. Also on the key, it's pretty clear - 9 is labelled boiler and 6 is labelled solar Simon