ProDave

So I put the balcony project to bed for the winter, while I pondered what to do about deck material, handrail, banister etc. I had pondered what to do about the floor (deck) material and in the end decided on standard decking planks. They have been ordered from Jewsons, delivery in a week. Since our local branch closed last year, we have to order from the Inverness branch, and tomorrows wagon trip up this way was full so next Friday was the soonest they could deliver. I could go and collect but I don't want to. No rush. Since the failure of the decking pant experiment, these will be left plain wood colour, contrasting with the frame, and will get painted with a coat or 2 of "clear decking sealant" (lets see if that works) Now I would like the area under the deck to be reasonably water tight. Not water tight like a roof of a building, but to minimise rainwater getting onto the deck frame, and we would like to use the space under the balcony for winter storage of garden furniture, to keep the worst of the rain off it. That is why I was pondering alternative solid boards to use. The current idea is standard deck planks, but run a bead of clear waterproof sealant along the joining edge to seal the gap between adjacent planks. It will never be totally watertight, but can anyone suggest why not? I discussed before we will be using "yacht rigging wire" as the banister. I bought the one I previously linked to from Amazon. It looks okay, and is easy to crimp the ends on with a hydraulic crimping tool so should make a neat job. You can tell the nicer weather is enticing me to get "back to work on the house"

And if you don't have a smart meter, i assume the deemed export remains?

How old is the system? did you see HOW he bled the UFH pipes? (tip is usually involves the use of a hose pipe) If a new install it is clearly not right so keep pestering him.

You should be sorted then. Re the cabling, the outside unit will need power and several control signals. 2.5mm 3 core flex in conduit will do for the power, for the control, I would buy a length of something like 1mm YY control cable 8 cores or so, 10 if you can find it.

Talk to us here about that. The Grant is fairly simple to wire in it's basic configuration, the one I fitted, bought as a complete package came with Grant's own wiring centre and a volumiser and the pre plumbed tank. Here is a picture of inside The tall thin white box is the volumiser and the frey box just to the left of the UFH manifolds is the Grant wiring centre. You may find the 6kW ASHP is a little under sized if your heat loss calculations say 5kW. If the heat loss if 5kW on the coldest day, then your heat pump will have to run pretty much 24/7 but it will have to spend some time heating DHW. Just be prepared to have a back up heater, even if just a plug in convector heater if a few days of th year it struggles.

I have said many times before all you need once you have bought the kit, is a plumber and an electrician that are both able to read the instruction manual. I have done a few now and estimate 2 days per trade to install. But a lot of trades, particularly it seems plumbers don't want to do this. I suspect they maybe afraid if liability if it does not work? I have take on such jobs on the understanding someone else designed it, I am there just to connect it, and if the performance is not up to customer expectations then it is not my problem. This forum and the famous Jeremy's heat loss calculation spreadsheet will help you design and size a system. One thing I did as a sanity check when the build was just an insulated but otherwise bare shell, I ran a simple electric convector heater of known power 24/7 for a few days and plotted internal and external temperature. From that it was easy to calculate the actual heat loss from the building and confirm it matched the theoretical heat loss from the spreadsheet. That gave me the confidence to carry on and install the ASHP.

Which house is yours? the side of the wall painted white or the side of the wall plain brick? Is is a retaining wall, i.e. different soil levels each side, first picture suggests it might be second picture not.

I am not sure that would even give enough heat transfer from the ASHP? Why not just fit a proper new heat pump cylinder and go unvented. It will be a revalation if you have always had a vented cylinder before.

The only boarding I had to hire help for. The rest of the entire house with standard 12.5mm was doable with just me, SWMBO and 2 dead men.

In the event I need a new EPC in 10 years, I would give the new assessor EVERY single page of the full SAP calculations so there is no doubt he has the full information.

Why that choice of Sunamp model? This https://midsummerwholesale.co.uk/buy/sunamp-heat-batteries/sunamp-ehw-ipv-12 says input source is grid electricity or solar panels. (solar panels will not do a lot in mid winter) So it won't heat from the ASHP. You would be fitting an ASHP just to heat the UFH? A more conventional and cheaper system would be an ASHP heating the UFH and a hot water with an unvented cylinder (heat pump model with high capacity input coil) where you have the flexibility to heat the hot water by the heat pump or surplus PV energy. Imho you want a compelling reason to choose a sun amp, such as your 2000sq ft house really does not have a suitable cupboard to house a big hot water tank?

Just to add for those that don't know, with staggered joints between the two layers of fireline.

Do you mean you have two ASHP's?

Mine is not and probably never will be on the Postcode Address File (long story) but is on every other address database you care to mention. I insured ours before it was complete, when we only had a certificate of temporary habitation and I used this company on a recommendation from this forum for being flexible. https://gsi-insurance.com/

Most built in dishwashers sit on the floor like any other so you want the flooring to continue under them.

There is a commissioning sheet supplied with the cylinder and can also be downloaded and printed. That needs to be filled in. It asks for qualifications etc of installer amongst other things. That is what BC want.

The difference between most people and a self builder. When I gave all the as built details, including the air test result to my EPC assessor (full SAP) my instructions were, if it does not achieve an EPC A, then do not register the EPC, instead discuss with me what improvements I need to make it achieve an A before the EPC is registered. Building inspector at completion remarked this is the first house he has seen with an EPC A

In a stud wall, yes. You don't say construction method. A lot harder in a block wall. There are some constraints to do with safe zones. e.g if you want to "move" a socket and the cables for that run down from above or up from the bottom, then moving it removes the accessory that creates the safe zone, so it might be easier to leave it where it is and add the required socket to one side as an addition. New socket above should be simple. Adding a new socket to the side usually involves drilling through a stud or 2 so you will likely have to partly unscrew and spring a board forward to drill through the stud(s).

Is this another "need to keep the compressor warm" type of issue? Similar to Mitsubishi where some models have a sump heater? In this case they keep the compressor warm by continuously running it at a low level? Not all compressor types need this so yet another hidden "feature" buyers need to be aware of if they want to minimise rogue energy use.

It seems manufacturers only fit them if you ask. Our Rationel doors turned up with key locks both sides but they supplied thumb turns on request and I swapped them.

Why dozens? That perhaps provokes a discussion of where in your build is the air tight layer? Warm or cold loft? I have a total of 8 cable penetrations through the air tight layer. Not understanding the bend radius issue?

Don't over think it. Drill the smallest hole that the cable will fit through, and seal around the hole and the cable with air tightness tape.

As this is a packaged consumer product, I would have assumed when they sat "100% SOC" they have already managed the battery management internally and that might only be actually 85% of true capacity but that is all they are ever going to charge it to. and the 100% they tell you means "that is as full as it gets"? some clarification would be handy.

When the ASHP "shuts down" it should give a fault code. Post here what it says, picture of the controller if possible to show what it says. High immersion heater use from new might be poor set up. Ideally you want your hot water tank set at no more than 50 degrees, that's about the limit of good performance from an ASHP. Many of them, if you set the DHW temperature higher, they default to using the ASHP up to about 50 degrees then the immerrsion heater to get it hotter. Any competent electrician or plumber or even a competent teenager could read the manual and check through the settings to see how it was set up by installer.

I have done a few now, plumbing and wiring for my own, wiring only for a few others in conjunction with a plumber. I really don't know what installers are frightened of? From a blumbers point of view it is usually just like a system boiler and HW tank. It can be a little more complicated for the electrician as every one is different, which just means you have to read the manual and do what it says. 2 days each trade should do it normally. I suspect the issue is your standard plumber and electrician won't know how to size one. Easy on a new build house where you have had a full SAP design done giving you the heating requirement. I do agree it is time the over priced MCS cartel is shown for what it is and their near monopoly broken. The worst part is the government BUS grant is not benefitting the customer, but lining the pockets of the over priced installers. If you have a plumber and electrician willing to install it then just do it.