soapstar

Ok things have escalated quickly...I phone back yet again to complain - I now have an order number and Openreach are booked in for first week of January ? To top it off had a phone call to say our barrier glass will not be arriving this week as the machine which laminates glass has broken down...You cant make this stuff up - I am officially done with this year! Feel bad for starting a thread but I guess the conclusion is if you fail the first time keep trying! ?

The joys of building a house! I was told by Sky they wouldn't provide us with broadband as the connection would be less than 1mbps, even though our neighbour has fibre ? They use the exact same exchange. Apparently when our address is officially on the system we will magically be able to get broadband ?

The 'issue' is that we are awaiting our house name to be registered by the council to whom contacts royal mail etc to populate the database with our new address. I just dont understand why we cant order broadband without the address being on a virtual list - the physical house is there and ready to connect!

Hey folks, I would like to think we are not the only ones to face this situations so I would appreciate any help! Our house is 99% complete, we are now thinking of getting our broadband connection done - all BT ducts etc are in ready to pull cable etc. When trying to place an order with Sky I was told we couldn't get broadband in our area. I told them that's funny as our neighbour has Sky broadband! ? I was then told due to our address not being officially registered yet on the Openreach system we wouldn't be able to order any services? How did we manage to order our electric connection without an address but they cannot plug a phone in ?

just to confirm the outcome...I was worrying for nothing (again), I informed the DNO and there is absolutely no issue with having the heat pump, our connection was allocated more than the average house at 13kVA..

@arg thanks, this makes a lot of sense actually - so perhaps its not a case of worrying if we need to upgrade our supply, its just a case of informing the DNO of our intentions so they can plan accordingly...hopefully

Thanks @ProDave I assume this figure is in theory added to all the other power consumers in the house, with the total being under 100amps (hopefully)?! There is nothing else I can think of which will have a huge load, we do not plan on a electric car hook up at this time. Everything else is pretty standard, gas/electric cooker, 3x electric towel rails (duel fuel) and all the other standard fitting a typical 4 bed house would have. Yes from what I can gather these pumps are referred to as 'inverter driven' Our connection is supplied by a 50KVA transformer - assume this is a reasonable size? It is currently serving 2 properties, soon to be 3..

Hi Folks, Bit of a concerning questions has arisen relating to our heat pumps energy requirements. In order to be MCS certified we are required to 'prove' that the electricity supplier is aware we are installing a heat pump. Around the time of making our electric connection we did not think we would be using a heat pump at the time so never said anything. Now a few years later we ARE installing a heat pump, a Grant Aerona 17kw pump, details are here (HPID17R32 model) https://www.grantuk.com/media/3225/grant-aerona3-r32-range-data-sheet-july-2019.pdf Now from what I can gather we have a 100amp cut out fuse from the transformer - would this be sufficient? Sorry my knowledge of electrics is very limited! I can help with any other information if required! Thanks

Good guess ? Sorry I miss typed in my original post, the distance is 200m not 250m. We never assume we will have a constant 16amp load from every unit however it would be a safer option encase we ever came across this situation. We currently have a 3 phase supply to this land. I will admit I am a very limited on knowledge when it comes to electrical projects, I would agree to get an electrician to do the math however (apologies to the tradesmen on here) I just don't trust to get an honest quote, soon as they know you aren't up to scratch on the subject you will be taken for a ride 9 times out of 10, sad fact! I just want to get some facts together to help me understand the various factors to take into consideration when rating the cable. Would a 35mm 2 core cable be sufficient (even if only 50% of all 17 units will be pulling 16 amps)? You are correct @ProDave, the units will be individually earthed.

Hey Folks, A question for the sparkies out there! We are needing to get the correct rating for an electricity supply from our main meter which will feed 17 separate units which will draw 16amps each. The distance to cover is approximately 250m. The cable will be 3 core, armoured and laid underground. I have used various calculators online but cannot get a positive answer to the size of cable required - some say 30mm and other 90mm, the cost difference is massive obviously! This is a little off topic and not related to the house build but its the only place I get sensible answers! ?

Hey Folks, So we are on to making decisions regarding flooring etc, I thought we had this all wrapped up but apparently not!? Has anyone used Howdens Fast Fit Laminate before? Particularly with underfloor heating? We are thinking of installing this in our kitchen, utility and hallway - however someone told me to be wary of this laminate as it can bubble up and there may also require to be a join in the floor if the span is more than 16m2 for expansion purposes - can anyone clarify this? Would rather not have a join in the middle of the floor! Any thoughts on the comparison to the Vinyl would be appreciated - I believe this would be a more costly option?

thanks @SoldierDog Has anyone ever come across the situation where the escape window is higher than the maximum 1100mm from floor level and used steps as a method of reducing the height?

Can anyone explain to me exactly what rooms are required to have a fire escape window? I was under the impression the only rooms that require a fire escape are habitable rooms such as bedrooms - now im being told the office on the first floor needs a fire escape window, a velux wont do as its not 1100mm from the floor. The house is going to turn into a green house with all these bloody windows! ?

@Dreadnaught yes we would definitely go down the route of building a more permanent box. As like yours our door has also fallen off ? Will have to investigate further regarding who moves the fuse - but hopefully this isn’t required! Fingers crossed

@Dreadnaught Thanks, would be great to know as it would save us a lot of effort in getting the SSE squad out to move the cut-out fuse to the house!!

Thats interesting thanks. It must be an old fashioned thing to have the entire meter box on the house now! So regarding our setup does this mean then that we don't actually need SSE to extend our supply cable given the meter can be housed in the box 20 metres away? Obviously fused as you say then running the cable under the ground and into the garage? Any advice on the gauge of cable?

Just came across this thread when investigating our next steps for our electric connection. We are at this exact stage with supply terminated into a box like yours - now we need to get our supply over to the house (approx 20 metres). Perhaps I have read it wrong however do you mean to have your meter installed in this box with your consumer unit in your house? Is this allowed?

Also given the front door/back door is lockable does this mean they aren’t considered a fire escape? I would rather walk out my front door than jump out a window ?

This doesn’t seem right...I know of houses with lockable doors out to a Juliet balcony. At the end of the day it’s up to us to make sure we carry out the correct measures to ensure we are safe, like not locking a fire escape would be one!

They would not need a key to get them to turn Bedroom door leads out into the landing which is open right down the stairs, into the hallway with doors for ground floor bedrooms, living room, kitchen and the front door (although you would have to open the vestibule door)

'Lockable handles or restrictors, which can only be released by removable keys or other tools, should not be fitted to window opening sections for escape or rescue.' Hmm doesn't look good from a quick look at the building regs

Nice idea @PeterW! I feel Building Control would need quite a bit of persuading to allow this to conform, although from what I hear it depends on the day in most cases! That would solve all of issues if this was allowed, anyone used these for domestic purposes?

As time has passed we have now got our windows installed but still haven't decided on our 'escape plans' ? As per our design (drawing attached in original post) we went with tilt/turns on the 2nd/4th windows, with the 1st,3rd,5th being fixed frames. Now our dilemma is trying to figure out how to incorporate a safety barrier on the top floor - originally the barrier was going to be internal as we were going to have outward opening doors however I decided against this as i think it looks odd having doors on the top floor which will never be used (hopefully) and cant be used for ventilation etc like a normal tilt/turn. This brings up the issue of where our barrier will now go given tilt/turns obviously swing inwards opposed to outwards, meaning our barrier doesn't look like it can be on the inside as you wouldn't be able to open the window fully to escape. I really do not like external barriers however it looks like we have no choice in the matter. UNLESS! Someone is creative enough to suggest a workaround for having the barrier internally? Wild idea but could you possibly have a gate (like a toddler gate) in the bedroom to open to allow the tilt/turn to fully open? Tilting shouldn't be a problem...crazy idea I know but I am thinking out of the box here!

Are there any real life examples of the cost differences between say k-rend and a comparative traditional render (for example wet dash k-rend / traditional wet dash)? I will be getting quotes however it would be good to know if im getting taken for a ride! ?

Looking amazing! Must be such a great feeling when its all said and done (well its never done is it!) Can I ask how does it work in regards to moving in without having a completion certificate? I have heard of a temporary habitation certificate or something along those lines, is this easy to obtain?