ProDave

So do you have a fire alarm system as in what you normally see in commercial buildings, with each sensor linked to a central control panel? If so why? Or do you like most people have a number of individual mains powered interlinked smoke heat and CO detectors? If you paid for a professional company to install a fire alarm system, and what they have installed does not meet building regulations re the number and position of sensors then get them to correct that failing. It all hinges on what building regulations actually say. I am not up to speed on the English version, but in Scotland you would need a smoke alarm in the hall, and a heat alarm in the kitchen, and another smoke alarm in the living room. BC did not ask for any certificates for the smoke alarms, they just had a walk around and checked for their presence where required (we also have some others in places not actually required)

The blockwork is damp because it's unfinished and soaking up rain I assume? What finish will that have render or something else? I suspect all the problems will go away once the finishing coat is applied to the blockwork.

I think the answer to this is a buffer tank. The plumbers will be along to explain I am sure.

Your image does not work, it takes me to a page to sign up to gmail.

That would surprise me. In Scotland, anything less than a 3 and you must fit mvhr, so I would expect all mass built houses to score 3.1 and hence not need mvhr.

Yes I am glad I only did my DIY one at the start so I only had to pay for one official test to get the as built SAP and BC completion. BC asked for an air test certificate, but never actually asked for a final as built SAP.

I have to say it looks fine to me but I am an old stick in the mud.

As above no reason you can't use an ASHP for heating only. But an electric water heater will cost more to run and even that will need a small unit containing a tank, often fitted under a kitchen sink unit. That will be fine for filling a sink of washing up water or a basin of water in the bathroom, but don't expect to fill a bath from it. If you have no bath and are happy with an electric shower that will probably work. But also as hinted above there are aother things you need to check before swapping from a combi to an ASHP, like what is the actual heating load, how well insulated is the property, how is the heat delivered i.e. radiators or UFH etc. Failure to design it properly will likely result in disappointing results. What is the reason for making the change?

I set up a DIY blower door after the frame was built and air tight membrane fitted. That enabled me to look for leaks and get an idea of how good it was. My official test needed for building control was not done until right at the end.

Even if the boiler needs to be on a vented system fed by a header tank, that does not stop you having an unvented hot water tank. The boiler circuit just heats the input coil and is not hydraulically connected to the water inside the unvented tank. And it will connect to UFH as well. There might be other reasons for not choosing it.

Zog Energy gone today. How many are left?

Octopus are good for that, you have much more control of your account and payments than most.

So you find a trap that fits the sink, and then if the outlet diameter of the trap differs to the waste pipe you want to join to, you use the appropriate reducer, not one of those rubber things.

A TRAP screws onto that fitting. Have you tried finding a trap that fits? You can't just join that to the 40mm waste pipe.

What are the ratings of the panels? For best self use the panels need to be on the phase you are using most. What is the reason for having 3 phase? My choice would be the 14 panels on A which is probably in the region of 4kWp, on a single phase dual MPPT inverter on your "main" phase that has most of the house loads and an EV charger. Then 8 panels on C which is likely to only be 2kWp on phase 2 with a second EV charger on that phase. Probably not a lot on phase 3.

The ideal must surely be when the rooms are at the temperature you want them to be? I would get a telling off if I tried saying "sorry it's a bit cold dear, I am trying to save energy" If you can't get to the target temperature you will need to increase the flow temperature. And we are only on day 1 of winter.

That is the issue. I am sure most of us love wildlife. I love the burn and the wildlife it brings. We put out bird feeders in the winter and love seeing the range of small and not so small birds in the garden. I love seeing the bats flying about at dusk (no bat survey required and no action taken to protect them, but by some miracle. without any "help" they are here in abundance). And I am sure most of us would not knowingly do anything to harm wildlife (well except if I knew a way to persuade the moles to stay in the field and not come under our garden) But I am also sure that this plot, which had been untouched for nearly 30 years and was turning to scrub, would have been better for wildlife if we had not come and built a house on it, and laid most of it to something we occasionally refer to (optimistically) as a "lawn" And THAT is the problem. Just how do you prove you have increased the biodiversity of the land by building a house on it. Now if I had dosed the whole lot with multiple applications of Glyphosate so it was a barren wasteland before I submitted planning, then I could demonstrate an increase in biodiversity. Sadly that is what is going to happen. A well intentioned but impossible law intended to help wildlife will have the opposite effect. Which brings us to the debate, do we build ANY houses on bare land? If you take this law to it's conclusion, the only place building would be allowed is on brown field contaminated, previously used land with all the decontamination costs it has, but at least you would improve the biodiversity. Sites like ours would just be left for nature. So now nature is more important than homes for humans. Can of worms well and truly opened.

The people that dream up these rules have no idea of the real world and that is the only way most developments will be able to happen. Why can't they set a realistic target like "do all you can to minimise reduction in biodiversity"

Interesting read. So developers will have to prove BNG, Biodiversity Net Gain. That seems a contrary thing to me. You will have to prove that taking a bare piece of land that might have been left to nature for years (like our plot was) and "prove" that by clearing the plot and building a house on it, is going to increase it's biodiversity. That seems a pretty contradictory thing. How can putting a house on a site increase biodiversity? Logically it does the opposite. I can see developers now taking the stance of trashing a potential development site so virtually eliminate all wildlife from it, so they can claim by building some houses and leaving a bit of wild space they will increase the biodiversity. As for plots like ours? I see it being very difficult if not impossible to prove that building a house on our site could possibly ever increase the biodiversity of what was there, unless I had first trashed what was there to make it a sterile wasteland.

Thanks. I hadn't realised until I looked again that MCB and RCD are outside, forming the job of an isolator as well. It is highly likely water has got in somehow. Lets hope that was all it was.

Perhaps someone else in the Bristol area might comment if BC want to see a drain pressure test done? All I know is Highland council WILL want to see that, so you want to be sure your drains don't have any leaks before you cover them with plasterboard.

The sparky needs the check everything, bit by bit. Start with the isolator switch and supply cable, i.e. with the supply disconnected inside the ASHP does that IR test okay? It could be water in the isolator switch for instance. Then he needs to check individual components inside the ASHP like valves, pumps, fans, compressor, sensors etc. Test each by disconnecting them from the control boar and IR test to earth. Check everything inside like control boards for any sign of them being wet in any way. Right now is not the best time, a lot easier in daylight.

All this leaking / dripping pipework worries me. Does your BC insist on a drain pressure test? They do up here and I would be surprised if yours passed that. Time to find out NOW if they do, and ensure it all passes. You don't want to be finding out at completion time they need that test, and it fails, and it's all boxed in.

That is the RCD it has tripped, so an earth leakage fault not an over current fault. You really need an insulation tester to find that, not a multi meter, and pray it is not the compressor that is the faulty item.

In Scotland BC will issue a certificate of temporary habitation. I assume something similar exists in other places? VAT refund can wait until completion if you want, or you can do it with a certificate of temporary habitation.