ProDave

I let ours get very hot indeed and mix it down. Normal temperature is 48 degrees controlled by the ASHP. Immersion thermostat is set as high as it will go which seems to be just over 70 degrees. Even then, some days the tank will max out and some PV go "to waste" How do you normally heat your hot water? If by the immersion heater anyway then it is hard to self use much unless you don't have the immersion heater on at all and only let the Eddi take care of it, but you risk not enough hot water on a cloudy day. I helped a friend set up a second pre heat tank. Once the main tank is as hot as it can get, the diverter then heats the pre heat tank. That seems to work well as a way us using more on sunny days.

This time in Valencia https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-68378968 Similar cladding, similar rapid spread of fire on outside of building, loss of life etc. It appears the Spanish have not had a program of removing such cladding from buildings.

"The government said it also intends to introduce associated permitted development rights. One would allow for a property to be changed from a short-term let to a standard residential dwelling while the second would allow a property to be changed to a short-term let. " So the article says you will need PP to use a property as a short term let, then says to do so will be permitted development. This has to rank near the top of the most pointless waste of space bits of legislation ever?

Interesting. At full tilt our showers will deliver 17 litres per minute. My daughter can easily spend 15 minutes in a shower. If your 3.5 minute shower half filled the bath, then a 15 minute shower would have been 2 bath fulls. Thus the myth that a shower uses less water than a bath is completely dismissed. Even my usual 5 minute shower would be very close to a full bath full.

When we do long journeys there are 2 of us sharing the driving, stops are usually dictated by the need to empty ones bladder. Doing that and refuelling takes minutes. At the moment, people are pretending that an EV is no less convenient than an ICE car. And yes if your usual pattern of use is short journeys it probably is. But it is not there yet for more demanding usage. Perhaps it will get there? Or perhaps those who want us to change to EV's might have to start being a bit more honest and admit at some times things will be a but less convenient, sometimes perhaps even downright awkward with an EV compared to an ICE. We are a multiple car household, and I see the likelyhood that at some point our present small hybrid car will be replaced with an EV and that will do most of the miles, but retaining my big ICE lump for the tasks the EV is not suitable. Particularly with me retiring, that ICE car will probably end up not doing many miles which seems a pretty good compromise to me. I will nearer 2035 take the opportunity to upgrade it so something newer (not new) so it stands a chance of remaining in service longer. But in contrasts to switching to EV's, switching from an old leaky fossil fuel fired house to an almost passive house new build heated with a heat pump gives all the benefits without a single disadvantage that I can think of to the end user and many benefits.

I will add my summary of the whole "green" situation. If / When I buy an EV it will be my vehicle bought at my expense for my benefit. I will not be rushing to use it to support the grid infrastructure that should be paid for by the energy industry. Why would I want to reduce my cars battery life and risk it not being fully charged when I want to use it? I have not yet and am not in a hurry to buy An EV as my vehicle needs are perhaps more complicated than many, I want to move heavy loads, I want to tow things, I occasionally want to go on a long journey > 500 miles. All things EV's struggle with at the moment. If you needs are a "shopping trolley" to do mostly short journeys carrying just people and a small amount of luggage, then the present offering of EV's might meet your needs. But I am still waiting for them to meet mine. Instead I have built my own very energy efficient house heated by an ASHP. Once the generation is sorted out and all green (beyond my control but it is heading in that direction) my house will be "green" I have said before my previous house burned more Kerosene in a year than my car did petrol. So I have already done more to reduce CO2 with the new house, than I would have achieved if I had bought an EV. Cars are the low hanging fruit, because they generally last no more than 20 years so they should be upgraded easier than upgrading old buildings, but it does not mean replacing all ICE cars will do as much for reducing CO2 as making all homes carbon neutral, just that it is easier. When building a new house, the extra cost to do it right, insulate it properly, heat it with an ASHP, make it air tight and fit MVHR is small. This should have been mandatory for new builds 10 years ago. Old houses are the problem that nobody has found a solution for. But because we know that at some point they will need upgrading, I would not personally now buy a house worse than say EPC C unless it was substantially cheaper than a "good" house to reflect the high running costs and upgrade costs that are coming your way.

Hot water for guests is harder than hot water for your own house. You have no control and no idea how many times they will shower and at what time, so you need hot water available all the time. There is a good argument for electric heated showers. Then you are only heating the water they use for showering nothing more nothing less no waste. Then just heat the top half of the megaflow cylinders with the top immersion heater for basin and sink hot water. Solar PV with a diverter to help with that. I am well aware if the don't give a **** attitude of guests having previously run a b&b and found the room thermostst up at 30 degrees and the window wide open.

It won't work. So if not swap them around.

Circuit off both L wires out of the switch R1+R2 test. I bet that you stumped. So with circuit off, connect ONE of the brown wires to earth at the switch, go to the consumer unit and measure resistance from the (isolated) circuit L to E If you get a very low reading, then the brown you have joined to E is the feed. Then go and swap over so the other one is connected to E at the switch (and the first one floating) and see what the resistance L to E is at the consumer unit. Whichever one when connected to E gives the very low ohms reading is the feed.

The title slightly confuses me. Are you interested in self builders? i.e. where you have built a complete house from scratch? Or people that take an old, tired house and "do it up" as in retrofit ? I have done both, one renovation and two self builds, and in all cases I did most myself, just skills I have tried and failed at like plastering that I get others to do. There are some things you cannot do without bits of paper to say you are competent, like a lot of wiring, some plumbing (gas and G3) but plenty you can do.

Don't assume the one in COM is L feed. There is an equal argument for putting L feed into L1 for 1 way switching. The switch probably works by harvesting a tiny amount of power through the L-Sw connection and a tiny current passing through the "off" light. In which case it probably does not know and will probably work either way. But really, it makes me shudder anyone doing ANYTHING on electrics without something to test for live, or more important test for dead. I am old school (and some will flame me) but I have a motto "Never touch anything that my neon screwdriver has not touched first. If you really must use a volt stick instead, then make SURE every use you test your volt stick on a known live wire. The other mantra is "test your tester, test for dead, test your tester again.

Your new switch L is L in, and squigle is switched L out. P is for interconnecting multiple pushbuttons, I suspect you are not using that function so ignore it. Your challenge now is which of your 2 brown wires is the L in and which is the L out. You will need some kind of tester to determine that, multimeter or some form of voltage tester.

What do you mean your switch has "2 lives" is it part of 2 way switching? L loop through? Post a picture of your existing switch as wired. That smart switch does not need a N just L in and switched L out.

We have 300L and find that okay for familly of 3. I would not go smaller. Heat up time is slower for us with only a 5kW ASHP My observations is it is the ladies, especially if they have long hair, that spend a lot of time in a shower. It sounds like you only have one lady in your household so long showers may not be an issue.

I dislike fan heaters because of the noise and unreliability and potentially dangerous. I have seen the melted mess of plastic resulting from a fan heater fan failing and then the thermal oveload trip failing to trip. DO NOT EVER leave a fan heater unattended is my advice. That cheap convector heater linked a few posts above is probably best value for money, and similar things are available under loads of different makes. They are essentially free standing but usually come with brackets for wall mounting. The problem with most "wall mounting" panel heaters is LOT20. That's an EU directive to make things more efficient that imposes some electronic controls to control temperature, detect an "open window" etc. The result is a little control panel that almost every customer I have met just cannot understand and they hate the things. Quite why we are seemingly only selling LOT20 panel heaters in the UK after Brexit beats me. The ability to avoid all that nonsense should be a benefit but we are not taking the opportunity.

When I fixed my balcony to the wall, I had the same issue, soft EWI that i did not want to compress. So the outer hole through the EWI was larger, then a spacer inserted so the fixing clamped up against (in my case) the timber behind the EWI. Like this Final assembly, lots of sealant goo around the spacer as it was inserted, And a large penny washer over the end of the spacer tube.

On the basis that we have nice clean mains water, we didn't bother with the filter, and the hastle of keep changing it.

It would not be my style. Why do you need 2 taps on one sink? Yes I know his and hers, but sharing the same sink? Really?

Why do you think they won't drain or will stain? Do you have pictures of them assembled out of the packaging?

A LOT of the modern "LED Battens" are rubbish design, and as already mentioned awkward cable termination at one end. That's why if your existing fitting is in good condition and not too tired, fitting an LED tube can be a good option. Try hanging most of the current LED offerings on 2 lengths of jack chain for instance. You can't.

New by who? Big developer or individual builder? Has it actually been designed from the outset to have rooms in the loft? If so you might be lucky and find it is built with attic trusses. That is quite common up here to build bungalows with attic trusses to make loft conversion much easier. What other drawings are on the council website? Can you access building regs drawings that might show a lot more detail?

If you get the LED tube, if just plugs in in place of the old tube and the replacement starter in place of the old starter. No need to change the wiring. The ballast is redundant so if that is suspect you could bypass it.

Replace it for an LED tube, which comes with it's own starter. You will never go back. Flicker free instant starting and far more reliable.

You would need a more detailed plan that that. And some actual measurements of the dimensions inside the existing loft. The critical think is the staircase. A staircase, and the "landing" must have a headroom of 2 metres. Oddly enough building regs don't stipulate a headroom limit for a bedroom. So think where you could put a staircase that is both practical and meets that headroom requirement. The actual available height will probably be less than you measure in a bare loft, as you will likely need to increase the floor joists size, and insulation will reduce some of the ceiling height.

It could be it has been leaking for 40 years but the under felt has kept the water from doing any damage, but the under felt is now rotten.