Indy

Haven't changes to the planning system been announced almost every year or so - with nothing really happening? I'd love to see some action in this area so people don't have to wait years to get planning (4 in our case) but am very cynical that this is more soundbites with little action to back it up.

Freedomsat (through Viasat) is another option but it’s likely to be GEO, hence slower speeds and higher latency so not really a suitable replacement for home broadband usage.

OneWeb is the only other operational LEO service that competes with Starlink, but it’s B2B rather than B2C like Starlink. The terminals needed to connect to OneWeb are also an order of magnitude more expensive (enterprise grade) so its not really a competitor in that sense.

Prefer the first one.

Probably should have been made clear in your discussions re the work, our builder made it clear that there is extra labour and some fittings needed for wall hung/concealed stuff and the end price would be higher.

Very very rare that 3 showers would be used together simultaneously. 2 is more realistic and I'd like a good flow rate on both of them (15lpm + ideally).

Ours took 11 months - give or take a few days.

Ok, so let me restate the problem statement - which is very much in the vein of how do I make sure we never run out of DHW rather than unlimited hot water. Measured the flow rate of the tap installed for the builders using a weir cup (Arctic Hayes 888000 U Flow Water Gauge for Water Flow Measurement : Amazon.co.uk: DIY & Tools) and it easily saturated the 22lpm mark - so that means we should have excellent incoming water pressure (unless there's another way to check). This is the setup of what we're going to have: 5kW Solar PV array + 10kWH of battery Gas Boiler (plus gas fire and gas hob, but that doesn't matter too much) UFH on both floors - which will be designed to run at lower temps for a future swap out to ASHP (say in 5 years or so) Assuming unvented cylinder - 400l 3 full bathrooms with showers + 1 guest WC Talking about the issue with the missus, she thinks I'm overthinking and overengineering the solution for a problem that will occur at max once a month - when we're all in a rush to get ready. Most days, the kids shower in the evening and both of us do it in the morning and even then it's staggered. ChatGPT presented us with a solution which is very much in the vein of talk to a plumber that designs a priority DHW solution. I like the idea of having something like an immersion heater in the cylinder which will allow the hot water to regenerate in 10-15m, rather than waiting an hour for the cylinder to replenish.

Are these a standalone item or something like an immersion heater in the cylinder, which kicks in if the temperature inside drops too much? Looks interesting and a space saving solution. Extra cost is manageable as it won't be getting triggered all of the time but the for 2-3 instances in a month when we do need it - could be useful to have.

Not yet but it will be 32mm - mentioned it to the builder and he agreed. He puts in the larger diameter as standard though the incoming won't change.

It's a complete new build - so there is nothing to replace. It's a new installation. In our current place - we have a Worcestor Bosch Greenstar 37CDi. Does a commendable job though the pressure is a bit lacking for my liking.

I have not lost interest, but find it really hard to argue against a group for merely mentioning that I don't want to have an ASHP. I have been following all the comments in the thread and really like the suggestion of getting an oversized boiler - especially the Navien NCB700 which seems to be able to offer 22lpm for 3 simultaneous showers. This would potentially meet our demand - we're unlikely to have 3 bathrooms in use at the same time but it's very likely that 2 showers plus the kitchen tap are being simultaneously used and this fits the bill. The only concern I would have here is the pressure when 2 showers are being used together, so will speak to my builder about putting in a small cylinder plus this combi boiler and see what he recommends. Our use case is more focussed on DHW rather than CH anyway. The property is a new build built to BR standards, triple glazed and UFH all around, so well insulated and shouldn't need too much in terms of CH.

Really like the scale of your design. A couple of tweaks I would look at if I was doing that - and it may be a personal choice: 1. Kitchen to be larger for the size of the house. The laundry/boot room eats up into that space quite significantly and I'd be tempted to merge the two and make the kitchen area larger. 2. Your living area to the left of the kitchen is accessed through a single door and is quite a large room. With the other sitting rooms you have, I'd be tempted to convert into an annexe for guests/elderly parents, or a gym/games room. The other living/sitting areas mean you don't really lose out on much space.

A lot of discussion since I last saw but I'll address some of the points. 1. Gas fire - was a compromise as I wanted a log burner and the missus wasn't on board with me faffing around finding wood, storing wood outside in the garden and then needing to top up the fire regularly. It's not meant as a heating source, purely ornamental as I like a real fire (rather than electric fire) and will be used all of 6-8 times a year. But the heart wants what it wants. 2. Gas hob vs induction - no argument here. I want gas as I like cooking on gas. Induction may be quicker, sleeker but I've never really liked it when we've stayed over in holiday cottages or at my brother's place. He plans to rip the induction hob out when he does the kitchen (inherited a high end Miele which is pretty swish, but no comparison to a gas hob). 3. ASHP vs Gas boiler - all this discussion above really underlines the point why I moved away from ASHP. You need to know an awful lot and understand flow rates, and DHW, and weather compensation, and what temp to heat at, and take the risk of legionella into account. On top of that, the rates we've been quoted for ASHP install are stupid and I'm sure I can find someone to do it at a reasonable price. But life is short, I like convenience, and the gas option comes in at a reasonable price that my builder understands and can supply. With the million other decisions I need to make, spending weeks researching and setting up the perfect ASHP system is something I can do without.

That may be but it's unlikely to change their behaviour any time soon And to be fair, even though I threw them under the bus a bit, I'm the same and can take extended showers pretty regularly so the answer is clearly that we need a solution to meet our demand/behaviour. I realise it's not the most efficient way of doing things but happy to pay a (small) premium to make the system work for me rather than the other way around.