SimonD

You're going through a really tough time at the moment, aren't you? If what's playing on my mind is something that I can do, either immediately or the following day, I either get up and do it, or resolve in my mind to do it the very next day. There's been more than a few times my wife gets up in the morning and remarks on that I was up particularly early. And if I haven't slept properly at night, I will fairly often take time out in the afternoon to have a nap - naps are just absolutely brilliant for recovery. If it is just too much stuff whizzing around in my mind, I never try to fight it by tossing and turning in bed. I get up, go read a book, watch a film, do something that completely takes my mind away. Usually, after a while, I find myself falling asleep, even if it is on the sofa. One of the key things is not to worry about, or get yourself wound up about the not sleeping as that just makes things worse.

There's a lot more to it than that. As I understand it at the moment, the pump is a modulating pump which is just there to boost head where necessary, which is becoming less common with the current crop of pumps, but there are still heat pumps that require external circulators. The issue with the radiators is that if you use standard balancing approaches, they're only correct at certain flow/pressure situations, and other than pressure independent flow regulating valves, there aren't any other tools that are a reliable way to balance the flow through radiators for all operating conditons. Most of the industry still uses standard lockshields and some are now starting to use the flow regulating valves, just like the UFH ones. The Adia unit has its own valves and room stats that feedback information to the system to understand the local climate situation at each radiator and it can also adjust flow temps and flow rates etc. to those based on this information. Nothing else on the market can do this. However, the flow temps are still global ones. What's also handy is the ability to control the system according to tou tariffs which I know customers really struggle with. But I do agree with you that having a box that includes everything, where you need it or not, may be unecessary. My thinking is that its position is really for retrofits with primarily radiator circuits and at the moment there are limited heatpumps it can work with - I have one project I'm completing the design for right now with a troublesome heating area fed by inadequate pipe sizes but the customer is adamant they don't want any disruptive work, so pipes have to stay the same. My worry about all these things is that it is a startup with unknown reserve capital and it largely seems like it's still in a development stage. They proudly display the venture capital firms, but having worked in the tech startup scene for about 10 years, I'm always cautious about this. This is an add-on product with currently limited compatibility with heat pump manufacturers living in the hope of an open protocol to be agreed across the industry. Looking at their team, they've clearly got a lot of very clever people on board, but other than a small number of testimonials, I can't see any real-world test evidence to back up their cost saving claims - and that always worries me. I also wonder whether some of the benefits they're selling are really as valuable as made out because they are suggesting forms of zoning, which we know in practise aren't great and don't necessarily improve efficiencies or save on running costs. For me, this is another of those 'solutions' being introduced to the market in the attempt to overcome common objections to installing heatpumps and trying to make it out like it's no different from installing a gas boiler, a bit like the new Zero disrupt scheme by Heat Geek. I'm taking the cynical view here, but I am thinking about how it might work very well for some projects, but it still doesn't and shouldn't detract from the fundamentals of good design and the long term benefit of designing and installing a system to run on good old low flow temperatures.

This is certainly a contender for how to manage it as there are already jobs where installing a volumiser, for example, might be priced but in the end it's unecessary so reduce the final invoice. The thing about single supply is that it depends on perspective. So if a customer considers all of the job as a reasonable single supply, then that is permitted at least in theory, even if there are several invoices.

I know the name, but I have never met him. For the last 18,19, or 20 years or whatever it is now, I've been firmly embedded in the Chen-style lineage of Chen Xiaowang.

Oh, yeah. Gets me all the time. I'm so glad this thread is here to expose the shared experiences 😄 Here' my two pennies worth which is influenced by my working with people psychologically and teaching my Tai Chi classes, but also from how I'm at ease with my mistakes building (well, apart from one - see below) - I actually appreciate them because of what they represent. 1. Don't try to make it die. The first step here is to embrace the f**k up, and do it in a compassionate way. 2. look at the self-build process as a learning process not at the outcomes. I get this every week in my Tai Chi classes when students tell me they're afraid to practise at home in case they get it wrong and build bad habits. So I first ask them if they intend to build bad habits and they answer 'no.' Great start. Second is that I then explain that there is absolutely no way you can get something right first time if you've never done it before and to get it right you have to do it wrong many times, sometimes 1000s of times, if not more. I never tell my students they got it wrong, I just guide them towards improving. Learning is about getting it wrong. You need to remind yourself about this over and over. I see stuff in my house and then just ask myself if I did my best at the time and have I learned from it. If the answer is yes to both, that's a great help. It sits much nicer for me and is comforting. The only time I can't get over it is when I see some stuff from a disastrous period when I got a couple of people in to help me - paid trades - and they cocked up. I still look at those bits and wish I'd done that myself, because even if I cocked up I did it with my best intentions! But with time they're dissappearing into the unseen background The important thing here is not to be narrow in your consideration of what you learned. This isn't just about learning a technique or build method, it's about whether you learned to make better decisions, learned to ask for help when you needed it, learned to be more self-sufficient, learned to be more self-confident. It can be learning about anything related to your experience. 3. Learn to think about whether what you've done is good enough, not perfect. For me there are some Asian cultures that produce very high quality goods and appear to be perfect in many ways in what they produce. Now we all know they're not. But one thing that they all have inherent in their culture is to never seek perfection, or in some countries seek perfection fully in the knowledge you'll never achieve it. And also they purposefully leave something unfinished (a minor unfinished bit that most people won't see, but the make will!) The reasons they take this approach is because nature is never perfect and it is still unfinished, and why go against nature. Instead look at creating overall harmony. 4. Time is a great healer. Get on with what's next in life and eventually those mistakes will fall away in importance 5. If you're questioning decisions you made that turned out wrong, stop to remind yourself that you were, literally a different person with different information to hand when you made the decision. You're now someone completely different with new knowledge and experience so you have no place to be going back to give the earlier you a hard time for those decisions. Again, go back to reflecting on what you learned and what you got out of the experience. And if you've got some interest, wonder how it will support you going forwards. Maybe some of this helps...

Yes, absolutely, it could be a game changer in that context. From discussions one of the ideas behind it is that it's about taking the guesswork out of the system design so instead you put in the Adia with the heat pump to get a proper understanding of how the system works and then propose essential changes based on real world measurements. The only issue and question I've got about this approach in retrofits is the application of VAT because the VAT examption on installs is defined as single supply. Technically you could probably get away with it but I do wonder how the conversation with the HMRC might go if they questioned you.

Backups not unneeded extra systems. Back then it was about the effective management and distribution of resources that nurture the healthy function of a system - so that it's harmonious and balanced - across cycles of excess and deficiency. So water, for example requires appropriate storage as well as managed consumption to maintain consistent supplies across both individual and several seasons - what's appropriate is obviously governed by the wider context and environment. It's been refined and still remains one of the central models used to simultaneously guide both diagnosis and treatment in Chinese medicine. It's even been used over the centuries in the structure and function of government and society.

Yeah, that's about it. But from your science and engineering perspective, one of the classical models in Chinese thought from about 2500 years ago, which has been classified by complexity theory scientists amongst others, is a proto-scientific systems theory. It's got a lot in it that mirrors modern production and distribution approaches, but with one key different that we've tended to overlook/abandon - and that's the importance of redundancy.

I probably know more than most on the power of doing nothing. I've been a teacher of Tai Chi for over 10 years and my Master's research project in psychological coaching was about importing and integrating core aspects of Chinese philosophy into Western psychological models of adult learning and development. The research was applied so I had real world participants and measures of success - my superviser encouraged me to take that work to a PHD but children and other things at the time meant I didn't have the time or capacity. maybe in the future. Embedded in Chinese philosophy and Daoism (not the religion but the classical philosophy) is the concept of doing nothing of course. But this is often misunderstood because it doesn't actually mean doing nothing, it means doing as little as possible as efficiently as possibly - or in more Chinese terms, to find a path of action in a situation with the least effort. And like with all things it's a process that has to be learned and part of the learning process is doing too much until you finally have the realisation you can do much less. So very much consistent with what I said earlier. Like the Tai Chi masters I've been taught by, where of course doing nothing is a central principle, they keep reminding you that to master Tai Chi you have to 'eat bitter' - it's really tough work, despite doing nothing 😉

That's the worry and the sad reality for quite a few.

Yes, that's exactly what is needed, but this is where the remote access capabilites of the systems shine nowadays - and at least if you're an installer you get the manufacturer's training (I wouldn't install a system where I hadn't had the training and get the technical backup as that saves a lot of time and effort). I can log in to check how a system is performing and then change the settings. People often don't recognise the time spent to optimise a system - it can take several months of checking in and tweaking to get it right. The problem is exactly as you put it though - 'the average' One piece of kit for helping with this, that I'm seriously looking at is Adia

So many people do! I've taught a lot of strategies on this one. The principle of this is absolutely true. From an education perspective though, and both you and I know this from our experiences teaching and educating people, is that keeping things simple is something that comes from knowledge and experience, and this knowledge and experience has to be contextual to the task at hand. The learning process is not just about the subject matter but also about taking in lots of new information and learning how to process that information in a useful and applicable way. Simplification comes from that. And that's just from the intellectual perspective. On top of this is then the physical dexterity to produce something with your hands that ends up being both functional and aesthetic. And this brings even more challenge to the game, because new physical tasks are complicated until you learn how to simplify them and make them efficient - i.e. become skillful. As a consequence, the hands on self-builder who doesn't necessarily have loads of context based knowledge and experience, will naturally go through the process of being lost in complication, lacking in necessary dexterity and come out the other with a totally different perspective. That's when they (and I include myself here) have those moments of realisation about how they overcomplicated things (and they'll think incorrectly they did it unecessarily). But having gone through the experience, whether they know it or not, they're a different person and have a new perspective. The problem is they don't have 3 houses to practise on first, which is a shame - if only I'm sorry but I have to push back on this and refine it a little. There's some very simplistic popular psychology out there that is commonly derived from sports psychology about how, from a psychological perspective you must only focus on what you can control. But unfortunately the often overlooked aspect to this is that it comes from a domain where the complexity of the domain (or environment) has been massively simplified - for example a sports arena with very specific rules. We know in psychology that whether you like it or not, you are always influenced by your environment and what is going on even from the most basic human biological developmental perspective of the brain. And we know that experience, whether we're aware of it or not continuously changes the brain. So, yes, you cannot control the weather but to a large extent you cannot manage all the effects, believe it or not it or not. What you can do, however, is find a way to navigate the situation in the best way possible way. When the weather is really bad, the last thing you can do is stop because your focus is on mitigating the effects of the bad weather. So yes, you drop tools, but your energy, effort and focus has move to keeping your construction alive with minimal damage. For example, the Autumn/Winter I was building my shell and it was still exposed to the elements, we had then the wetest winter on record with storm after storm coming in. I got hardly any building work done and instead spent up to 6 hours a day pumping water, trying to protect parts of the building with tarps that would then get torn off and literally brushing water away with a squeegee - I even went through the trauma of trenches flooding so we couldn't complete a pour but we had to make sure the trenches remained viable. If I can dig out a video I took at the time I will post it. There was no time to stop. Yeah, absolutely take care of yourself, but we should make no bones about it, self-building will test you to your limits if you haven't got loads of experience in the industry already (possibly even if you have as now you're personally invested). But this is no different from doing other things in life that in the end are worth it. I've been there with company founders as well as those leading larger companies going through scale ups and the grind for them is relentless too, for example.

This really chimes with one of the big moments of realisation I had during my build. I'd spent some much time thinking and planning the structure that I thought I had the build all nailed (pardon the pun) but when I finished that bit, my mind went blank in a total WTF way - what do I do now? The unfortunate thing I learned was that the rest of it was a lot more involved and difficult than I'd imagined.

Thanks, it's been a slog, but finally there. Now I just have a backlog of customers who were waiting on the certification, but happy to chat once things have settled down a bit and I've got some capacity back.

Neither oil or gas, or anything to do with them are the answers to these questions, it is just conflation. High energy prices are the result of energy policy and market structure. We're getting poorer as a consequence of neoliberalism and the only link to oil/gas and neoliberalism is that the fossil fuel companies spend billions funding the thinktanks that promoted neoliberalism. From a social and economic perspective, the UK was pretty much a social democracy from just after WWII to the mid 1970s. During that time we saw tremendous growth, redistribution of wealth and equality - we got richer. Come Thatcher and the wholesale introduction of neoliberal policies and we've basically seen the opposite ever since.

I think what you've done is that brave, put your head above the parapet, admission of human vulnerability in an arena that is still steeped in 'manly toughness' mythology. And what you've done is highlight the experience that probably most, if not all self-builders go through during their build. I come from a psychology background - I began in the engineering field and then gravitated to psychology, so I originally trained to BACP levels in counselling and eventually moved into a field called coaching psychology where I worked with a combination of high level athletes, business leaders and business founders. Now, I can say that every single one of my clients has experienced major ups and downs and a lot of their time is spent grafting in uncomfortable places. But context is everything. In both business and sport there is at least a good proportion of acceptance around psychology and mental health. The most successful ones embrace this as of primary importance for their day to day function and successes, but even in these contects, there is still a long way to go. My experience so far of the construction industry is that it hasn't even begun to accept this. When I go and see construction sites, I don't see pleasant, human environments and people just don't talk about or readily and openly acknowledge their vulnerability. Sometimes I see quite frankly highly unpleasant working environments, with lots of miserable staff - which I see as one of the reasons why we get such shit building and trade quality - it's a UK construction industry cultural context that just doesn't seem anywhere close to shifting. Last summer I spent a couple of weeks in a construction academy training centre and it was one of the most miserable places I've been to in a long time and the trainers wonder why they get such poor engagement, performance, and results from students. This cultural context to me goes a long way to explaining why the construction industry has one of the highest rates of suicide. Here's a quote from the ONS about this: " These are pretty alarming figures. There are obvious exceptions to this. I know a contractor fairly near to me who runs a small company where he treats and pays his staff well. As soon as you go on site you can tell this from the nice, smiley and friendly atmosphere. In another example, a previous client of mine who engaged me when he started up, we spent 18 months to 2 years exploring how he wanted to lead the company and what kind of culture he was looking to foster as he wanted to be very different from his experience in construction with very large construction companies. Most of his contracts are in Europe but his company has now surpassed £1 billion in annual revenue. The context of a self-builder changes things and can make them more complex, especially if you're very hands on. As a self-builder you are completely invested and I know myself that this can make you feel trapped - you can't just walk away like you can from a job because not only have you ploughed loads of money into it, it's your blood, sweat and tears too. It's personal. You're also in the construction industry, but an outsider without necessarily having all the domain knowledge to navigate your way through a different working environment. So it's realy no surprise that self-builders feel down and it's great that this is being discussed so openly here with so much support being offered. I too can offer help and to talk, if someone wants to do so. I'm based just out side of Bath Oh, and to mention a little celebration I had for myself yesterday. My company is now officially MCS certified for design and installation of air source heat pumps - but please don't crucify me for that 😉

Oh yes, and one of the reasons I avoid heat only installs like the plague. The last one I did, after being sweet talked by the owner, I filled up the system about 10am in the morning but didn't get out of there until 17.30. She was flapping saying it was supposed to be a simple install and I reminded her she hadn't touched the system in 22 years and this was why the water was black when I fushed all the rads. And some of those capped off Tees just collect a nice little air bubble and you've got a nearly unclearable air lock.

It is on here, if not for any other reason than to get @SteamyTea hot under the collar 😁. But on a tangent, I was talking to my son the other day and I was winding him up by using the term phase change where he insists it's state change. I then explained to him that during school I had 2 physics teachers. One was adamant that centrifugal force did not exist and said the only force was centripetal force and the other would repeat that centrifugal force did exist and it was fine to use the term as long as we knew what centripetal force was. Hope this doesn't now cause a 55 page discussion of the reality of force.

Not quite. Curves for radiators and ufh are different - the output factor of each is calculated as to the power of 1.3 for rads and 1 or 1.1 for ufh, so neither are linear and so heat pump curves aren't either. With the curves, you'll general have a default curve and then you adjust this with a heating curve shift. Usually, a heat pump manufacturer will supply a heat curve chart which provides you with the initial basis of your settings - this can be in the manual or just on screen on the main controller. Against this curve, all you need to do is draw from the x and y axes,which tell you the outside air temperature (usually on x-axis) and flow temperature (usually on y-axis), until you meet the curve that matches your heating system design flow temperature and corresponding design outdoor air temperature. Fire the system up and wait at least 24 hours, or if the house is cold and has lots of thermal mass, it could take weeks for the house to thermally balance out. Then you can look at how the system behaves as outdoor temperature fluctuates which will then tell you what adjustments you need to make to the curve and shifts.

That's a good call on both counts. My recommendation is also to have a serious look at the tools out there available - as well as rigs you can knock up with spare timber - that can make your life easier to move and fit materials. One of the things I've noticed is that the trades and builders generally are really bad at thinking things through like this and will scoff at stuff that makes life easier - as a consequence we unconsciously follow those practices. Building on your own takes a very different mentality than a testosterone filled building site with lots of labour available or those who are willing to harm their bodies (I once got laughed at by a builder for putting on some chain saw trousers when I was about to chop down 3 trees). One very small example is atool I bought several years ago was this: https://grabo.com/ It turns lifting plywood, plasterboard, windows, paving slabs, you name it, into a one person job and means you can hold a sheet up to a wall single handedly with putting in a screw with the other. When I first started using it I got giggles from staff in the builders merchants about how I'd just got the vibrator out. Then that turned into how they wished the company would buy a few in for them. I had no idea how much I'd end up using it.

I'm not sure it's agreed that we should extract what we've got. Analogous to the OP, I can't help think about another complex situation we're dealing with in the UK - the NHS - one of the lines of which goes: - Service isn't working - Result = call for more beds/capacity in hospitals - Provide beds/capacity - Find beds filled because patients can't be discharged effectively enough due to internal processes and external capacity (so patients get blamed as bedblockers) - Result is full circle to call for more beds/capacity in the hospital This is the cycle oft shouted from the rooftops from patient groups as well as politicians and the media. The other view, which is mostly ignored from the above is, but very well understood (i.e. they know what needs to change and how to do it but are prevented by those holding the views above): - Model and understand the effects of admitting patients into hospital (including costs) - analyse the data - realise that it is far cheaper, much more effective, and better for patients if they don't have to go into hospital in the first place - costs can actually be reduced to as little as a 10th of the cost of inpatient service - result - a realisation that we have to fundamentally rethink and change how we provide health services, which demands a total mental shift away from what we've been doing for almost 80 years. - therefore resistance, because change is hard and may need additional upfront investment - and what follows is 'oh this is too hard it isn't working immediately. Wards are being closed and we don't have enough beds, so to solve the problem we need more beds' The similarities here are that we know what we need to do, we know how to do it and what is required, we have all the technology in place to do it, but instead we turn back to what we already know, despite all its downsides. Better the devil you know?

That is very good indeed. What internal temperature and what is the floor area, may I ask?

38C is fine with radiators as long as they're sized correctly. My system with all rads ran at 36C at -6 with the whole house nice and toasty. There are really two issues you need to consider and measure. First is the temperatures of all your upstairs radiators and compare this to your ASHP and UFH flow temps. If it's significantly lower, you then know it's a flow issue to the rad circuit and you can tackle this in several ways. If all your rads are about the same temp as your ASHP flow temp, then you know it's more likely an issue with radiator sizing. No need to spend any money right now, just do some simple investigations first.

All you need to do is close the isolation valves on the left hand side of the manifold, connect a drain hose to the return on the right hand side and then connect a supply hose connected to a tap to the flow side on the right hand side. Obviously close all the actuators on circuits that are working. That's what those connectors are for on the right hand side of the manifold.

On your inlet manifold you have you automatic air vent and underneath that you can connect a hose pipe to flush through from there. No need to disconnect your primary flow/return pipes.