ProDave

Before you let them fob you off with that excuse, ask for a written explanation from Ecodan describing exactly what it is doing, why it is doing it and how do you configure that aspect of it's aparently essential and normal operation?

So a new build, embrace the chance to fit a LOT of insulation, properly designed, make it air tight, fit MVHR and UFH and you will have a house that needs very little heat input. Then a small ASHP will be all you need. It will be cheap to run, and no oil or gas tanks to bother about and no boiler servicing. While you are at it, fit some solar PV on your roof and your running costs go down even further.

I blame the poor way they are packed and the even poorer way builders merchant hiabs handle them.

I would just call your installer back. It would be almost impossible to diagnose remotely. Tell them they need to stay long enough to witness the phantom activation and determine what is causing it. It does sound like water is circulating somewhere all the time, go round and try and work out which pump and where is on all the time, that is another thing to point out to them

You might have heard them say it, but that does not make it true.

What make and type? They look like the ones i used. As I started to unload them from the pallets, I noticed a LOT of broken tiles (many MUCH worse than your examples). So much so that I notified the supplier and told them if I do not have enough to complete the job due to breakages, then I would expect the broken on arrival tiles to be replaced. In my case I had 6 valleys to tile, and I adopted the practice on only use already broken tiles for the valley cuts. And I was then able to complete the job. Some may say I let them off the hook by being so obliging to do that.

Absolutely. Certainly I find it sad that all new build developer houses are not being built to close to passive house standards, that is criminal. Whatever solution you come up with to a problem, it has to be achievable. Set an unrealistic goal,. which I believe is what we had before, and it will fail. Set a realistic goal and you stand a chance of achieving it. The older houses are the problem that nobody has the solution for yet. Pointless trying to put an ASHP in a Victorian semi unless you improve the building and there is no plan for that.

Remind me if this is a new build? A house you already own? old or new? In a self build new house with no mains gas I would say without a doubt UFH and ASHP. With a new build you have one chance to get the insulation right and make the heat demand low. Whatever system you fit, you will need UFH or radiators, so ignore that cost, that is constant regardless of heat source. So it literally boils down to the cost between an ASHP and an oil or LPG gas boiler. An ASHP is probably slightly more expensive but not a lot. The running costs will be about the same at the moment.

Has it been installed properly? A self builder near me had an Ecodan system installed and it did similar things. It was about a year after the install he got me to look at it, and the call for heat from the UFH manifold had not been connected to the Ecodan controller, so when the heating was "off" it was still circulating water in the short loop from the ASHP to the UFH manifold and occasionally starting up to keep that warm.

The people that make these policies seem to think it is easy and cheap to make any property up to an EPC C and the only reason it is not happening is those lazy tight landlords cannot be bothered to spend just a little time and money to do it, so we will mandate that they have to do it. The reality is a huge amount of the UK housing stock is going to be very hard and very expensive to upgrade. And with no financial help to do so, many landlords which such property are evicting the tenants and selling, while they still can. This is just a symptom of "them" not understanding the problem and not knowing how to solve it. Some people reading this and my other recent posts on the subject might think I don't care about energy efficiency and the environment. I do. But I also understand the challenges ahead and know there is no quick easy cheap solution. It seem that "they" are finally realising that as well.

Good news for tenants. There will be fewer landlords selling up as the properties are impossible or too expensive to upgrade, so less of a reduction in the rental stock.

What do you mean by "off grid"? I read that as LPG gas or oil, or even solid fuel boilers? If so there was never an intention to outlaw mains gas boilers?

Not at all "oh dear" A touch of reality. I have long said it is pointless telling us all to get an EV until the extra generation capacity is there to charge them, and preferably from green sources not just burning more fossil fuel to charge your "green" EV Same for heat pumps, we can't make them, install them and provide the power for them quick enough to all have one in such a short time. And a realisation that bringing old buildings up to modern building standards is not possible for an affordable sum. So at last, we might get a plan to go green in a proper thought out, progressive manner as fast as we can sensibly achieve without crippling the economy or pissing off the electorate. Such a realistic, achievable plan is far more likely to be taken on board and acted on by the public than some unachievable plan that stands no hope of being achieved. I am a lot more confident today that we might actually manage to go green in a sensible manner now. Well done for having the balls to make these changes.

Try these two

Any prospective buyer would be advised by their surveyor that is is not classed as a bedroom as it fails to meet building regs and it should therefore just be treated as loft storage. So don't bank on it being classed as a bedroom and increasing the value of the house. As the stairs don't have enough headroom there is little chance of you ever getting it to comply. It is what it is and I see no harm in making the best of it that you can.

You could test each core with a multimeter but that is probably just as tedious as crimping a plug on. The plugs are pence each so just crimp a plug on and use the tester you have.

What we need is a picture from inside the loft space showing the stack coming down the wall and a close up of how it finishes at the bottom in the loft.

As above. you are never going to make this comply with current building regs so don't even bother trying. Add whatever insulation you can.

Won't that need a trap? Otherwise how will the drain system pass a pressure test?

You could only get export payments if you used an MCS installer. the small amount I export the payment would necer pay back the additional cost of an MCS installer vs DIY.

We don't have any heating upstairs. Build your house properly insulated, air tight and with MVHR and upstairs heating us superfluous. Unless you like a particularly hot bedroom.

When I fitted my PV there were no grants, the FIT had only just stopped. So it was no brainer to DIY install it as cheap as possible. The only incentive then to use an MCS company was if you wanted to be paid the insulting price of 5p per kWh for anything you exported. I just self use nearly all of it.

How much does it weigh? Is it one with 3 solid pendants that hang down so if it gets knocked it couuld put a lot of force on the bracket? Picture of light fitting?

I would love to see just what they advise will get a Victorian house up to an EPC A? I think it is a safe bet your loft room has never been seen by a building inspector, and I would wager that the floor is little more than the existing ceiling joists. So if you are hoping to achieve a building regs compliant room that you can describe as a bedroom, forget it. So you have a non compliant room that is a useful but cold space. I would not spend anything like £15K on that. I would go for the cheap option of insulate over what is there and new plasterboard. A lot of the improvement will be proper detailing to ensure air tightness of the insulation and boarding. This is where being able to do that sort of work yourself wins. Insulating and re boarding is not that hard, do you feel up to ding it yourself? Whatever you do photograph it so you have a record of the added insulation so you stand a chance of getting the next EPC surveyor to take notice of the insulation you have fitted, though that in not even guaranteed.

Our set of Stairbox stairs, but using the Fusion handrails and spindles from Burdidge.