SimonD

If you're so inclined, Urban Plumbers takes a decent but not too laborious look at these things. They all use the same principles. I'm not a mega fan of Magnaclean as they're plastic and the seals can cause a problem when servicing them. The replacement seal packs are expensive for some o-rings. I personally prefer the metal ones. The Spirotech with magnet you can pick up for about £70:

And some more: Upstairs rad with Opentherm doing its job: Flow temp: Return temp:

Yes, I'm finding this to be a bit of a process. Mine auto tunes the temperature range, which means that it can transform the image from what looks really cold to what looks really warm, until I then reference the temperature range, so I need to play around with the settings a bit as I can create profiles to use for specific jobs, including add the emissivity value of the materials in question - e.g copper doesn't show very well at all on the standard. As you say, windows are interesting as I get a 'hot' image of me reflected in the window, but the temperature shown in the display is the temp of the glass??? Pic added below. I'm also getting what seems like some kind of bleed around the edge of the image at certain angles and distances. Oh, alright then 😁 Random take along back wall. It's interesting how it shows the warmer line along the bottom of my ewi which is the stainless steel bottom rail, then a cooler section which is the plinth insulation and then warmer ground. Front bay ewi showing much warmer plinth where I haven't installed the plinth insulation yet, but also that to the left, the boundary wall and bushes are are much warmer: The front door. It's insulated accoya but as it's 1.2m wide, it required a steel reinforcement frame. That's clearly what's visible within the door. The dark area at the bottom is aluminium threshold and the shadowing down to the right, looks just like a pocket of cold air I assume as it's the uneated part of the house. Who knows?? We have a bridge using steel columns coming out the back of the house. These columns pass through the insulation layer. Even though they've been wrapped with eps and expanding foam within the thermal envelope I want to see if there's anything bad there. I can still add some insulation inside if there's a problem. The bridge bit is the one showing 5.7C: The thermal store and pipework (yes, pipework still to be insulated). I think I am going to add some extra insulation around the cylinder : Thermal selfie in window showing my body heat but also showing the glazing temp:

You have now hit on the ultimate authority 😁

Well, my architect designed this beam to be essentially sat in a stud wall that was the thermal envelope ! I changed the design, moving the wall outside so the beam's now fully inside the thermal envelope.

Yes, it is isn't it. Reviewing the small print it says @ 50% RH. Will have to see how it goes with us and keep some records of temps.

So, I've been playing around with my new thermal imaging camera around my house, and randomly pointing it at parts of the house. I'll do it properly over the next few days when I have some more time. But there were some interesting findings. From the outside my thermal envelope looks good, no obvious thermal bridges but I can actually just see the ewi anchors even though they're thermally broken. However, when I pointed towards my yet to be insulated plinths, it was warmer than the ewi, not by much but it was noticable. I then went inside and noticed that the junction between the suspended timber floor and wall was colder on the brick side. Bear in mind I only have 3 small rads heating the downstairs, but the exterior walls measured above 18C as did the main floor. At the junction the temp drops to 14.2-14.5C at its coldest. This is retrofit so these wall and foundations all existed before and I do have insulation extending below the floor at the walls by 150-250mm below the joist where there is the room above the over-site. Looking up information on this, Passivehaus International mentions that the problem is where the temperature falls below 12.6C as this is when mould could form. I'm obviously above this and when I actually have full heating, there will be improvement. What's the view here? Should I hang my head in shame about this, or is this acceptable on a retrofit? And can anyone shed further light on what is typically deemed to be a problematic cold bridge?

It depends on the finish you want to achieve. Companies like envirograf have clear varnish and paints and uses a multi coat system. For a clear 'invisible' finish that requires no further coating, there's products like Flametect C-WD

If looking at wood wool, I'd recommend looking at Celenit as they've got coloured boards and three different textures. Useful if you're using them for decorative purposes too: https://www.celenit.com/en-UK/colors.php https://www.celenit.com/en-UK/en-uk-texture.php

Yes, look very cool, but as @jack said, the price is insane right now. Was expensive before even Brexit - here's my cost trajectory: I bought 3 pallets of interior birch ply (1525mm x 1525mm) @ 15mm thickness for flooring just before Brexit - cost was about £18/sheet. Just over a year ago in December I bought Birch plywood for making the kitchen, this time exterior grade (2440mm x 1220mm) @ 18mm thickness at £84/sheet. My wife and I then decided to build a new bit to the kitchen a few months later. Then, just before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the price went to over £240/per sheet for the same stuff (so we left this plan). It's now gone back down to £170-180/sheet and that's for BB/BB. I dread to think what S+ is going to cost. If you're into plywood, then I'd recommend you look into softwood such as Pine as you'll get it in a B grade face at a fraction of the price. Also look at some of the construction grades as they can be more rustic with knots etc. but still be a good finish. Clear Poplar ply is over £100/sheet atm for 15mm and over £120 for 18m althought the red faced construction poplar ply can be had for about £40/sheet. The problem with any timber interior finish is fire protection and you'll most probably be required by BC to treat it all and it's not particularly cheap. I like the plywood look and have a lot of it going in but don't do it for budgetary reasons, it'll be far cheaper to plasterboard and skim. I actually think it might be cheaper to do internal wood cladding! With wood wool boards you'll need minimum thickness of 25mm, especially on the ceilings and you'll also need to check batten spacing on both walls and ceilings.

Another interesting analysis on the current UK infrastructure supporting RE, its problems and proposing some solutions. https://archy.deberker.com/the-uk-is-wasting-a-lot-of-wind-power/

God no. We've now gone so far above budget I stopped counting and had to go back to work to start earning money to pay for the rest. Still got some 1st fix to do let alone the 2nd fix. It really is worse than an episode of Grand Designs except however hard I've looked I can't find that extra 500k down the back of the sofa. Spec has taken a bit of a hiding. But I'm still smiling as at least it's nice and warm and not costing much to heat....and we're not living in a caravan any more.

Can't say I needed the encouragement, but it helped, thanks.! New toy is on its way. Then I'll be able to check out the quality of my own building work for heat loss and cold bridging and either hang my head in shame as a building standards hypocrite, or just come on here and be even more cocky than normal about fabric first coz I can now prove I've dunnit. 😁 Which one's it gonna be I wonder and will all the endless hours of detailing have paid off?

Yup, I have a couple of Huepar, but the 603CG with the receiver unit and an extendable pole, so works great for landscaping too. Couldn't be happier with it. It's robust, dropped off scaffolding and out of my hands at height a couple of times. The other day I accidently kicked it out of a loft hatch and it landed on one of the ladder rungs in an unfortunate way that broke the protection cage and glass over one of the lazers, but it's still working fine with no harm to the lazer itself. The first one I bought developed a fault with the horizontal lazer. One email and a video and I received a warranty replacement within 24 hours, so the customer support is there too.

Hmmm, how does it deal with internal measurements? My favourite is a bit more low tech but effective: Advent 2 in 1 Gap Tape https://www.amazon.co.uk/Advent-Professional-AGT-5025-16ft-Measure/dp/B0021FXI5Q My next toy is probably going to be a thermal imaging camera, was thinking about this little one. Might be worth a punt https://www.amazon.co.uk/Topdon-TC001-Consumption-Temperature-Sensitivity/dp/B0BBRBMZ58/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?keywords=topdon&qid=1674846376&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1

Details are all in this thread, but as per my earlier comments about the Vogue Max, you won't find this arrangement detailed within the Logic manual either, but the Logic has an SL2.

@Radian, I'm looking at this with interest. You're not the only one to find a glitch with Vaillant modulation and anti-cycling - a discussion you may have already come across http://vaillantcyclingproblem.blogspot.com/2012/01/anti-cycling-mode-and-d2-parameter.html. There is clearly a link between the flow & return delta, but I'm interested to understand the size of your buffer and volume of ufh system. It would also be interesting to know actual room temp, plus the time points of motorised valve on/off switching for ch. How have you set up the valves? E.g. when calling for heat does your system provide heat to both ufh/hw and ch, or do you swtich between the two?

This isn't really a research paper and in my view it's unfortunately flawed both in its assumptions and conclusions. I've critiqued this paper on one of the other forums and suggested how dissapointing it is to see such a poor quality publication from an organisation that really should know better. It clearly needs to do its research properly, particularly around natural ventilation strategies. It reads more like an industry sponsored paper trying to sell additional tech.... What it actually needs to do is differentiate between building fabric design as well as geographic local and local climate in order to come to more a more reliable conclusion. I do think MVHR has its place, but I think it's important to position ventilation in terms of whole house design and function, which it rarely is. If you've got a house/building that has been built for high levels of airtightness but uses non-moisture buffering materials as part of its fabric, then MVHR is most likely the only option due to the ventilation requirements such a design requires. This is because the greatest burden of mechanical ventilation is down to the removal of moisture as opposed to air quality. On the other hand, if the fabric of the building is designed to be fully moisture buffering, hygroscopic, and vapour permeable, this can reduce peak internal relative humidity by as much as 25% which massively reduces ventilation requirements and therefore properly designed natural ventilation strategies are both effective and energy efficient. As you said earlier though, the op has multiple issues fundamentally caused by the fabric and lack of ventilation all which lends itself to some kind of MVHR , although with the single room options, I'd be concerned that they don't provide sufficient flow and movement through the whole house. I'll await the incoming now....😁

Yes, Opentherm does work and I'm sure that the Drayton wiser system will work providing it's installed correctly

I think that, as @SteamyTea has pointed out, the radiators effectiveness at heating a room is more down to convective currents that radiation. A wooden shelf above a radiator may not hamper that at all. In Sweden, it's a very common design element in houses where the window sill is extended (or cantilevered) out over the top of the radiators installed under windows. Provides some useful space, usually for house plants. Some of these are slotted which can be a nice effect.

This is the kind of argument that comes from the nuclear gaslighting sector, with very little understanding of the reality of nuclear, especially both the current and future waste problem. Here's an amusing video looking at the US situation alone- Otherwise perhaps this, which interestingly deals with the similar false argument that solar is somehow worse from a recycling perspective than nuclear: https://www.scientistswarning.org/2020/06/04/nuclear-power-a-risk-analysis/

Still isn't. Nuclear costing only includes 60 years of dealing with the waste, so yet another energy technology that will leave a horrible and expensive mess for many, many future generations, all for the sake of us not facing up to the real problem of how much energy we consume compared to what is actually sustainable.

I'd argue that this doesn't demonstrate that it's what people want, merely that it's the only choice they've got. Price is a another question but looking at the profits of the large developers, the margins are good and people are only paying that price due to restricted supply. I don't think it's in developers' interests to look at future needs, rather to bank the money they can now and look forward to another sale tomorrow.

The Vogue MIs don't cover the ins and outs of using SL1 & SL2. All you need for SL2 is a switched live from your wiring centre & programmer to the boiler SL2 IN when the cylinder calls for heat so it can be as dumb as it needs to be. The bit that does the modulation is the room stat which is what gets connected to the opentherm on the boiler. SL1 is then just bridged between L & IN at the boiler so there's no switched live to SL IN on the boiler from the programmer/room stat as this is managed through opentherm. If you were to upgrade to the T6R you wouldn't get any particular benefit from this perspective because as soon as you wire it up to opentherm the heating switched live connections are automatically disabled on the receiver (this permits the installation of the receiver for dumb on/off ch control using switched live, or load compensation through opentherm - the disabling of the switched live when opentherm is connected ensures you can't double connect to the boiler and confuse things).

Interesting publication about the effects of retrofit insulation, which, as ever, points towards a mix of interventions as well as behaviour. https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/insulation-only-provides-short-term-reduction-in-household-gas-consumption-study-of-uk-housing