ProDave

I had this problem with my own ASHP when I first installed it, except the flow rate I was aiming for was quoted in L/Min. First thing I did was buy and fit an in line flow meter so I could measure the flow rate I was getting. Then I solved it by fitting a second in line pump, so now i have the Wilo pump built into the ASHP and a Grundfoss pump in the plant room in the Flow line to help things along a bit. I never did sit down and calculate what flow I should have got and what pipework I would have needed to change to achieve it. Fitting the second pump seemed the easier option.

Yes you can do that. Rather than cut the conduit, just pull them out at the first accessible junction box. You really should terminate them in the conduit box and put a lid on it, which really means drilling a hole in a lid and fitting a grommet, or getting some plastic conduit box lids.

Altering a conduit system is not easy, especially if you can't get full access. If you are planning to cut conduit and alter it still with the cables in, and you think you can cut the conduit without damaging the cables, then best of luck with that, do let us know how you get on. And beware of cutting the conduit and then leaving part of the circuit without an earth. I would seriously suggest rewiring the whole lighting circuit, or you will end up with a rats nest at best / major bodge at worst. And when the customer says they want down lights in a lath and plaster ceiling, I walk.

I am not convinced that is the best cylinder for you. Look how high up the heat pump input coil is. You have a 210L tank but it has a "dedicated solar volume" of 60L so when heated by the heat pump, you are only going to get 150 litres of hot water. It is less surprising that you ran out of hot water when you realise that. It is quite possible with the temperature probe location that there could only be 100L of hot water left before the heat pump even knew about it. Moving the heat pump temperature probe to the lower pocket would not work, because the heat pump would never heat that bottom part of the tank so would never be satisfied. The solar thermal system usually comes with a self contained controller that monitors pipe and cylinder temperatures.

That shows the tank temperature was 47 degrees and flow and return from the HP both 22, so the HP was probably idle. Tank temperature had dropped to 33 degrees, water flow temperature out from the HP is now 43 degrees and water return temperature to the HP is 36 degrees (so delta T 7 degrees) The heat pump has turned on and is busy re heating the tank. There is a setting somewhere for DHW hysteresis, which is how much the hot water has to fall from your set point of 55 degrees before the HP turns on to re heat it. you might need to adjust that. 20 minutes showering at 6L per minute was 120 litres of water. What size tank? It would have to be a small tank to run out of hot water jst from that shower. Can you post a good picture of the hot water tank and give us details of it's size etc? Where is the hot water probe? you will see a thin wire going into a thermostat pocket somewhere on the tank. This needs to be as low as possible, if there is more than one thermostat pocket, make sure it is in the lowest one. When I first fired mine up I had the probe in the higher pocket, which meant you tank would be half empty before the HP even knew it was starting to run out of hot water, effectively halving the capacity of the cylinder.

(almost building related) Just back from the first trip away in out new (to us) caravan. and come back with a list of faults to fix, the most pressing being all the mixer taps leak. I have dismantled the worst one, the basin tap. It appears to be based on standard cheap domestic plumbing and appears to use a non thermostatic, i.e. manual 25mm mixer cartridge. The original cartridge is made my "Mixar" but putting "mixar" into an ebay search gixes 0 results, so looks like I am not going to get an exact one. So I then start searching for generic 25mm mixer cartridges and find they are not all the same with some important but subtle differences. This one is the closest I have found https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/273823021306?epid=1358563534&hash=item3fc11fb8fa:g:gVUAAOSwEDBdbp9B That's a very useful listing with a lot of dimensions and mine matches those pretty well. The issue appears to be how the cartridge locates into the tap body. This image shows it well It seems the standard 25mm mixer cartridges locate into the tap body by having two outward "pips" on the bottom that presumably locate into two holes in the tap body. Mine does not have those. Instead mine locates to the tap body by two notches on the outer edge of the body. That picture has 2 notches also but top and bottom, the notches on mine are 90 degrees to that. So that one is not going to work. I have found one that is close, this one. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265077498057?hash=item3db7d9a0c9:g:vUcAAOSw4tNgQhu1 That still has the two locating "pips" but also has the notches on the outer edge in the place I need them. I guess I could carefully cut off the unwanted pips and let it locate into the tap body with the two notches. The "problem" with this one is the main body of the valve is about 2mm shorter than mine. I guess I can insert some form of spacer if that proves to be an issue. But part of me is saying i should not have to be doing all this bodgery, I should be able to just buy the cartridge I want. So I invite the forum to help me find the right one.

We have similar except we want to paint some decking and some timber cladding the same colour. That seems to limit choice somewhat. Only a few suppliers sell decking and "fence" paint the same colour and only in a few colours, mostly brown. So to get the colour we want we had to go to the big orange DIY shed where they can do both in a range of colours at the counter where they mix it. I will let you know when we get around to doing it how successful that was.

The lawful development thing is usually an acknowledgement that you have done something without PP and got away with it long enough that they can't take any enforcement action. I don't see how that relates to this. If you have to demolish something before you can commence building then notify them that you have started the demolition and ask for confirmation from them that "the development has started" In our case we had a planning condition that the first thing we must to is create the new access from the highway before we can start building. I notified the planners when we started to do that and i had an email followed by a letter acknowledging that the development had started.

Mineral wool, Glass wool or Earth wool should cover that?

Why are you not going straight to appeal?

The batten is just to secure the OSB. Air tight membranes and taping go over the top of the OSB detailed here http://ardross.altervista.org/Wilowburn/insulating-the-roof/

So, to understand the full picture, you got PP to replace that old building with a new one but only put "rooms" in the ground floor leaving an empty loft? You now want to put rooms in the loft (just room in roof not a full on roof off and add a second story) and the LPA say no? Is that about it?

That's a batten to catch the edge of the OSB sheet about to go on. OSB sheeting first, air tight membrane, battened service void then plasterboard. In my original picture you see the batten running all the way down and behind the first bit of OSB already in place.

If you have a photograph of the previous mezanine I would say that is good grounds for appeal and just make it clear to your LPA that is exactly what you will do if it is refused.

I was using the loft roll for insulating my sun room floor so it did not need to be self supporting. Frametherm 35 used in my ceiling, self supporting between the rafters before being boarded. I did one test section where I put a strip in long before I was ready as a test and left it there for 6 months and it did not sag or fall out.

+2

What is the application? I successfully used Frametherm 35 for wall and roof insulation. If it does not need to be self supporting, I paid £20 per ROLL (about 6 square metres) of 150mm Knauff loft roll

Intello is the Bees Knees. Protect Bariair is pretty good but cheaper.

Tony Tray. A sheet of air tightness membrane laid over the top of the downstairs wall (lapping down the wall a bit) that then wraps around the ends of the joists. the upstairs panels go on that and then the membrane laps up the wall. It makes the job of making the house air tight oh so simple compared to taping every single joist end individually.

I did the wiring for a loft conversion with a similar issue and building control accepted and signed off with a fixed step in front of the window making the rise from the top of the step to the window less than the 1100mm. I think the important thing is the step is made as a permanent fixed feature so it's not going to disappear the day the completion certificate arrives. i.e don't just screw the step down on top of the carpet. I think it's a load of nonsense because if there was a fire, I very much doubt anyone is just going to stand in front of the window and burn because they can't get up the 1100mm to get out. But rules are rules.

Hi and welcome, looks very nice.

I would do neither. Electrics chased into walls and back boxes sunk into walls is so yesterday, and as an electrician I hate it. I would parge coat the walls to seal them, and then fix vertical 25 by 50mm battens to the wall. That creates a service void to run pipes and cables and the plasterboard screws to those. A 35mm back box fits nicely in the 25mm cavity and the 12mm of the plasterboard. Then it is SO much easier to do your wiring and plumbing and so much easier if you want to make alterations at a later date. It's even possible to run the wiring so you can literally add an extra socket just by cutting a hole in the plasterboard and picking up the cable. This is normal practice for an air tight timber frame, no reason not to do it on a block built house.

Unless it is an area with lots of bespoke one off designs with unique architectural features, for purely build for sale, I would stick to brick walls and tiled roofs. You will not alienate any buyers with that. Then by all means concentrate on quality, good windows, good insulation and air tightness, under floor heating, ASHP, MVHR but expect probably 50% or more of buyers to take no notice of that and be more interested in the kitchen and bathroom units. Most people on this forum are self builders wanting the best for them, not too bothered about cost, resale value or resale difficulties because for a lot of us, resale is something our children will have to worry about after we have moved out in a box.

@Onoff How long do you expect this battery strimmer to run for on a charge? will it be long enough? I strimmered the whole of our property last weekend, first time this year and it took about 2 hours and 2 tanks of fuel in the petrol strimmer. I would be mighty impressed indeed if you had enough spare batteries lined up already charged to match that length of running.

The "typical" 1930's semi has a living room at the front, a dining room at the back and the pokiest of tiny kitchens at the back behind the stairs and hall. I grew up in such a house and my sister still lives there still with the pokey little kitchen. About the best "simple" alteration is take down the wall between the kitchen and the dining room to make a kitchen / diner across the whole of the back of the house. That is a structural alteration involving removing a load bearing wall. It's even better if you can incorporate part of the hall into that opening up to square off the new room.