Tom

Hi all, I'm finally getting our EPC done and have been told that as it stands we wont need an air permeability test, this is what the chap has written to me: "As it stands, without an air test, the property has an EPC of 99A and a DER of 1.20kgCO2/yr/m2. With an air test target of 10 the property would have an EPC of 104A and a DER of -2.15kgCO2/yr/m2, with a target of 5.0 (which is around the target the MVHR system would need in order to perform efficiently) the EPC would be 108A and a DER of -5.21kgCO2/yr/m2." I'd quite like to do without and avoid the cost, but I'd also quite like to know exactly what we've managed to achieve. Are there any other implications of not getting the test done though?

Thanks all. Seems like 10mm pretty standard for the external intake. I'll just have to change the MVHR filter more often, to that end have bought a 5m roll of filter wool

The C02 levels seemed to be creeping up in the bedroom for the last week, so I checked the filters on the MVHR and the inlet one was absolutely caked in crap, including lots of quite large insects. This prompted me to take a closer look at the external inlet and it seems it has a 10mm mesh covering it. Is this a bit coarse? I don't want to have to be clearing the mesh every two minutes, but then again it seems like at 10mm it lets pretty much everything through...

I supported our static on these: https://mystatic.co.uk/static-caravan-axle-stand-medium?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=18389908304&gbraid=0AAAAAC5hZe7h_azbtkOUPbU3MmfJvLwm1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI7I_f6a-1kAMVV5WDBx0SDBkeEAQYBCABEgJMhPD_BwE each placed on a concrete paving slab. Took about 30 minutes and zero movement in 4 years. Trying to level the thing by using spacers and wedges just sounds like an absolute PITA.

...oh and awesome first post BTW. Really hit the mark!

Electrical resistance heating is near as damnit 100% - a tiny amount will be lost to noise. Even the heat generated in circuitry or friction in bearings is still heat at the end of the day - and will heat the room. I don't understand what you mean by "the heat that you want" - heat is heat! You miss the point re 300% efficiency - this is for heat pumps, as made clear in the posts. Very different to resistant heating.

Apologies if I'm late to the game here, but do your walls have a DPM? Have you considered the risk of rising damp in the walls?

We've tried to live with the FP double drawer dishwasher and just can't get on with it - so much so that we're going to replace it. Space is limited in each of the drawers, so you can't fit things in that might have in a traditional dishwasher, and the fact that there is only one direction of spray (from the rotating bar at the bottom of each drawer) means you have to be careful with placement of dirty things and some places it just doesn't wash. Also, the inside is plastic and can get very dirty.

I covered our newly poured/powerfloated floor with 9mm OSB and the concrete guy nearly had a fit when I told him - he told me to take them up straight away and put woven dustsheets under the boards or the concrete would get "tattooed" by the sheet edges. Anyway, they were like that for over a year until polishing and no lines visible.

Stop dicking around with lasers and get a Ziplevel! https://www.groundscare-products.co.uk/ziplevel.html

For the rooflights I did yes, as there was nothing too fancy involved. For our valley gutter I got a pro in as it needed welding in expansion joints etc I quite enjoyed working with the lead tbh, seemed very forgiving.

So needy! Here's the leadwork after I'd finished bashing it around, and my set-up: had to keep the adjacent corrugations pressed down while hammering, to stop it all popping back up, whack-a-mole style. Fun times.

We used the Roofmaker rooflights in our corrugated roof - much preferred them over the Velux/Fakro, but much more expensive. I used lead rather than self-adhesive flashing which was a bit of a pain as it needed lots of shaping to follow the corrugations but the end result looks good.

Ah sorry, yes, cycling - gotcha. We have no buffer but a lot of pipework and thick concrete and screed to suck heat (and lose heat I guess) - so generally cycles tend to be long. We do have a low loss header if that affects things?

Thanks @JohnMo, we're 100% UFH so all good. I'll track down the model number this evening and look it up. What do you mean by "long compressor cycles" - and how would I know?

Hi All - we had our Ecodan ASHP installed last year and only really used it in anger from December when we moved in to the house. It's been unused since March/April. I asked the installers recently how we could switch it to cooling, as it would be nice to have the option to cool in the bedrooms (over the heatwaves this summer temps have gone up to ~25deg), but after trying to brush me off with "the unit is not set up to do that" they have finally come back with this: "The pipework wouldn't have been insulated sufficiently to deal with cooling. Therefore, the buildup of condensation may cause further issues. To mitigate this, we would need to add a heat exchanger/cooling exchanger directly after the primary pipework, which would mean adapting the primary pipe work. " Does that make sense? Surely it's got to be simpler than that? If there might be an issue with condensation then a few of the pipes might need to be lagged perhaps (which, tbh, they should be anyway to reduce heat loss when heating) - but a heat exchanger? Any advice gratefully received!

Welcome @Willus. We're in south Devon and just about completed our Nudura build. If you still have chickens on site be warned as the little bastards love to peck at the EPS! Presume you have gone down the Part Q to full planning route too?

Hi all, finally got started on my stairs and have cut the first stringer. I've supported the top of the first stringer on a ledger with a bird beak cut in the stringer. Does this look right? Worried it's taken too much meat out of the stringer. Thanks all.

roger that, CT1 it is 👍

I used one like this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09PNLVHP3/ref=sspa_dk_detail_3?pd_rd_i=B09PNLVHP3&pd_rd_w=A9PBE&content-id=amzn1.sym.9a64fe05-cdee-4d53-a27b-f3614d726545&pf_rd_p=9a64fe05-cdee-4d53-a27b-f3614d726545&pf_rd_r=3EBMY20F0XGQ0YFN5J7D&pd_rd_wg=D09Q1&pd_rd_r=67cd59af-6a3b-43d3-9e59-cf89b99b13de&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWxfdGhlbWF0aWM&th=1 Worked very well for our nudura build

Hi all - one of the many jobs that are on my long list to complete is to fill/seal the gap between our polished concrete floor and sliding door frame. Not least as in the last few weeks we've had several swarms of flying ants coming through. What would be the best thing to use here? The width of the gap is about 10mm - though does vary a little. I was thinking of CTI, but there might be a little movement in the floor as it has UFH so then I thought compriband. Any view on what would be best? Thanks Tom

All dowsing techniques seem to follow what I describe - an item (be it hazel twig, coat hangar etc) held in balance or under tension, this inherently unstable setup allows the item to move, apparently involuntarily, by the ideomotor effect. I did, decades ago, and you can certainly convince yourself it works - but then you apply some rational thought, and much as it would be nice to think of mystical powers, ley lines, joss sticks etc, all logical reasoning and evidence points to the mundane.

Come on then Ian, I'll split the $1m with you

I think the issue is what we are taking as the meaning of "work". If you mean it can occasionally find a pipe etc - OK then maybe it can. But this is because the bent wire is under tension, the bent rods are finely balanced etc - and hence respond to imperceptible changes in hand position, and it is the user who is subconsciously responding to environmental clues. This is possibly why dowsing has repeatedly been shown to fail under more rigorous testing - these environmental/topographical etc clues aren't there. If you mean "work" as some channel for some hidden energy or powers of the paranormal - then no, that's just bollocks!

The late, great James Randi, erstwhile debunker of the paranormal offered a $1 million dollar prize to anyone who could prove ANY psychic/telekinesis/dowsing etc works - unsurprisingly it remained unclaimed.