ProDave

I really really really can't see anyone taking a blind bit of notice when repairing their mower, or anybody ever checking what you have have done to your mower. This is aimed at cars and not modifying them, and the NRMM was a one sentence catch all to try and widen the scope.

For years, it irritated me that I simply could not remember which way to turn the worm wheel on an adjustable spanner to tighten it. I have at least 4 adjustable spanners. It was not until one day I put 2 of them down side by side that I noticed one had a left hand thread worm and the other a right hand thread worm. No wonder I could never remember which way tightens it, because it depends on which one I had picked up.

Indeed, and I hope my previous reply was not taken the wrong way. I was surprised that we are able to self use almost all of our PV generation without any storage and without an EV. you won't know for sure your individual usage until you try. i do wish the DNO's would not be stuck in their ways and make it almost impossible for people like us to have more than the default 3.68kWp solar pv for fear we might export too much and overload their network. If / when we do get an EV i would like more PV but the cost of any more with all the hoops to jump through would be prohibitive.

I think this shows that solar PV is not that useful for an EV. Even on a really good summers day you are unlikely to get more than 20kWh in a day, and even assuming nothing else in the house uses any of it, that will only get you about 80 miles of free motoring. By the time the house loads have taken their share, it will be even less. I seem to be self using about 2/3 of my PV generation on house loads, with the remaining 1/3 going into the hot water tank. That is not a great deal really that is "spare" for EV charging. so yes it will help, and having another place to send your PV power is useful, don't for one minute think you are going to get lots of free motoring.

I have a similar hole cutter, except mine came with a big clear plastic dust collector that is fixed to it (dust collector remains stationary while cutter rotates. The dust collector has a rubber "seal" around it's edge and when that is pressed against a ceiling has the effect of keeping the whole thing still, and I have never had a problem with the pilot wandering. Screwy's still sell it, though i don't recall mine being anything like that expensive https://www.screwfix.com/p/erbauer-adjustable-holesaw-with-cowl-29cm-9-piece-set/2571v

You won't want to hear this, but rip out the Celotex, fill between the rafters with mineral wool (Frametherm 35 is good for this, stiff enough to stay in place while you board over it) then re use your PIR so sheet over the bottom of the rafters so you really will have lots of insulation and better soundproofing.

I suspect 2001 building regs demanded the fire doors on a 3 storey house. The reason next door, untouched since new, does not need them is building regs are not retrospective so unless some conversion work is carried out that needs building regs approval, it can keep it's old non fire rated doors. The reason the doors are sagging is poor fitting or poor frames, no reason a fire door should sag. and you can get some very nice fire doors that you would not even know was a fire door unless you unscrew the hinges and try lifting it, then you discover it is much heavier than an identical looking normal door.

There are lots of discussions about stoves on here, it really is a Marmite subject. I think the key to a successful stove in a low energy house is to position the stove so it heats the whole house. In out case that is double doors from the family room to the stairwell and another pair of double doors to the living room and with all those doors open the stove heats the whole house, including upstairs. All the stories of the room overheating quickly seem to be where a stove is positioned so it only heats one room and no way for the heat to disperse to other parts of the house, and then you quickly overheat that one room.

Ebay is also a good place to search for stuff https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111202587094?hash=item19e430d1d6:g:Ne8AAOSw0UdXtWVJ Not saying that is the best or cheapest, but it is "food grade" which seems a good idea if it's going anywhere near your water tank.

Which helps to explain why Calor have a shortage of gas cylinders.......

.... Install them in conduit and do something to keep the roof ends out of the weather until needed. Use proper high voltage DC rated cable e.g. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/203648797875?hash=item2f6a6a0cb3:g:v6wAAOSwgydhZfAJ That's a random link to show you what you want, not a recommendation to buy from that particular source.

This will kill the idea: "Suitable for summer use eg May-Sept – requires an air temp of +10c and above to operate" At that price it will be VERY basic, and by the looks of things no option to reverse cycle and therefore no defrost function hence when the air is too cold it might ice up with no means to defrost. It also requires a huge water flow through large hoses, not compatible with a heat exchanger in your plenum box.

Found in a new build just after the plumber had been

Balancing is all about trying to get it so all the rooms heat up at about the same rate. That might mean some rooms need more flow through the radiators than others. By all means turn up the thermostats for a trial, and see if they all get hot. BUT on the day they come have the heating turned off. They will then be able to turn it on and see what warms up quickly etc. The very last thing they want is to arrive in a house that's all cosy and up to required temperature and all the thermostats have turned off.

I read the title and expected a thread about a dodgy install and would it fall off the building. I'll get my coat.

Probably but BC here only seem to make exceptions in extreme cases. e.g. a neighbour was allowed to install a treatment plant about 3 metres away from a watercourse.

In what way is a battery alarm "more discrete"? I would wire for mains ones throughout and stick to one decent make e.g. Aico. Nothing wrong with fitting more than BR's requires, e.g. I fitted one on the utility room. Tumble dryers have a nasty habit of catching fire and I would like to know if there is a problem long before the flames start licking at the door. Kitchens generally want a heat alarm not a smoke alarm and if there is an open flame appliance, Aico make a handy combined heat and CO alarm in one unit.

Because that would mean burying an A2A HP inside your Electricair box, and I doubt you will find one single unit with enough output, and the pipework from that to the outside unit is regrigerant gas piping.

The only "benefit" of 3 phase, if that is what you need above a certain power level. So find out what size you need and that dictates single or 3 phase.

When it's a carpet. We bought 2 carpets to DIY fit to the 2 main bedrooms. Both rooms are a little under 4 metres by 5 metres. Brilliant. 4 metre wide rolls of carpet cut to the length we need. All fine on the first room, a rectangle room with 1 doorway. Come to our bedroom, the entrance doorway, the en-suite doorway, the doorway out to (eventually) a balcony and the doorway to the plant room /workshop. This last doorway was opposite the entrance doorway and I had measured 4000mm would do it, but it would be tight. So roll out the carpet, jiggle it into position so there is just enough for the carpet to reach the mid point of where the entrance door closes so the carpet joiner strip will sit under the door. Go to the plant room door, which is recessed into the door frame as it opens into the plant room, and the carpet ends about 20mm short of the door. Oh dear. Get the tape measure out. Yep, 4000mm would do it, but the carpet is not 4000mm wide. the "4 metre" carpet i had been sold is in fact 13 feet wide SWMBO says I should have gone back to the carpet shop and said "we bought a 4 metre wide carpet and it is not 4 metres wide, change it please" I took a more pragmatic solution. Most of the hassle fitting a carpet is emptying the room. Even if they would take it back and make it wider it would be a lot of delay and hassle. The workshop will never be carpeted. I just had to find a way to "finish" the carpet in a way that looks like it was planned all along. So I start looking for Oak joining strips and came to Howdens who had a wide blank Oak threshold strip that would do the job nicely: Had I not told the storey of metric Vs imperial carpet how many would guess that was not a well planned design feature? P.S. Sorry about poor pictures, it was nut until I had pulled them off the camera I realised how poor they were.

A chap at our sailing club has a tiny stove in his wooden yacht, almost certainly smaller than your shed. It burns charcoal. You put a tea light in the bottom, load it up with charcoal, and light the tea light and it smoulders gently for some time keeping the boat warm without setting it alight. I put a small WBS in our static caravan, a very cheap one made in China from an on line supplier I had some offcuts of stone worktops that made a hearth and protection from the heat for the caravan. Nothing burned that should not have.

As @SteamyTea says nothing wrong with showering twice.

For reasons of silence, we turn the heating off completely at night. This is probably best described as a "design error" but the original pipework restricted the flow too much and I had to add a second circulating pump to help to get the water flow high enough. This works but there is a just audible low level hum from the second circulating pump that I would rather not have at night. Lessons to avoid this situation: For a HP install use larger (28mm) flow and return pipes. Do not route said flow and return pipes under your bedroom floor, and it you have to fit a second pump, do not fit it in the plant room adjacent to your bedroom. Even in the depths of winter the room temperatures drop a fraction of a degree overnight. So there is no impact on comfort.

Okay, radiators operating at 32 degrees are going to feel tepid, if not cold. They are not going to put much heat into the room. I suspect you want the rads operating at more like 40 or 45 degrees. I would start by turning the weather compensation function off, and running at a fixed flow temperature. Then you can experiment with that temperature and see what works best. Once you know for certain what radiator temperature you need in cold weather and not so cold weather, then you will have enough information to turn on the weather compensating function again if you want to.

I just sanded ours. Unless you pressed very hard with a hard pencil, the pencil marks should just rub off with the sander. Ditto the grease etc.