ProDave

We were away for a couple of weeks only returned at the beginning of this week. the weather turned cold while we were gone and averaged around 10 degrees. So when we got back the house was cold, so we put the UFH on and lit the stove. that warmed things up quickly. Now the house is back up to temperature the heating is not coming on much. I think what this shows is how much the house keeps warm due to incidental heat of us just living in it, but of course with 2 weeks with no people, no cooking etc allowed it to cool down.

Or if BC fail it, tell the contractor that did the roof to rectify the issue at his expense.

It all depends where you are. empty plots are cheap enough and easy to find up here that I doubt a knock down and rebuild would make financial sense as there is no way you would find one as cheap as a bare plot. but in some areas the only way to find a plot is a knock down and rebuild.

Been on for 1 week here. Today topped out at 8 degrees outside but more like an average of 7. And 0 sun so no solar gain. You would be doing very well indeed to not need any heating with that outside temperature. I would say it is colder than normal, in previous years I have not turned it on until November. Perhaps I just lit the stove instead.

We only have UFH downstairs, and in the bathrooms upstairs. Thermostats currently set to 20 degrees, currently rooms sitting at 21, it has overshot a bit and all thermostats off. it's only about 8 degrees outside. But this is the sort of grey, miserable day, when regardless of what the thermometer says, you "feel" cold and when like this we tend to light the stove and get the whole house up to 24 degrees or so. That stops us "feeling" cold.

Our house is like that, it takes a long time to react to changes in outside temperature. That works well in hot weather. It keeps the daytime heat out long enough not to heat up the house, and then a night purge with windows open cools the house down. It only becomes a real problem when even the night time temperature is too high in a real heat wave so the house will eventually overheat regardless. That has only happened once up here so far which got me thinking about active cooling.

I could take you up the road and show you one that's about 4ft out of the ground and must be 10ft by 6ft. The farmer has made no attempt to move it. The field fence goes up and over the top and down the other side.

Having "nothing above it" should make no difference if the loft is insulated. Worth checking how much insulation is up there. If you have found a slower flow rate warms up better, try reducing this room to the 2l/min in the design?

They are plentiful up here. Almost every field has a pile of them in one corner, added to each year as ploughing brings more to the surface. Do you have a BIG trailer and fancy a trip?

What thickness was the "thermo insulation board"? Was that just laid on an existing concrete floor, or did you add more insulation underneath first? Are all rooms the same? or is there something different about the problem room?

I love the way you tell them Ian. I am very familiar with glacial boulders, loads of them in the ground here, this was the biggest one I dug out doing the foundations. Some got used shoring up parts of the bank of the burn, the smaller ones just got re buried. that big one remains as a corner stone by the drive.

I have worked on houses using I beams for the first floor, and you have a lot of drilling of the web for things like MVHR ducts, you would need some "service void" to avoid that. and if you need to drill larger holes, e.g. for drain pipes, you will probably have to use gusset plates as well.

I hear what you are saying. But his problem is one room takes forever to heat up. That room has plenty of flow, nearly twice the calculated required flow, and it is still taking ages to heat up. The other rooms even with very much reduced flow seem to be heating up okay. So yes in an ideal world you need to persist with balancing it so all rooms heat up at the same rate. BUT the main issue is why is this room taking so long to heat up, and I would say we have proved it is not a balancing issue so for the moment I see no point persisting with that line of attack. I would next be using an IR thermometer to see the actual floor temperatures of the different rooms. My guess is the problem room will have a very much lower floor temperature due to the floor make up in that room not conducting heat very well.

Well the design document you posted near the start of the thread only called for a flow rate of just over 2L/min, so if you are getting 4 that is good. I don't think you can have too much. So it must come down to the floor covering not letting enough heat through, or the room having a higher than expected heat loss.

But if you have a good flow rate and plenty hot water through the loops in that room., and it is still struggling to heat up, no change of actuator will solve that. It is more likely there is another problem, like excess heat loss from that room somehow?

Be careful what you mean by "cavity" A normal timber frame house has a cavity between the brick or block outer skin and the timber frame. If that is what you are talking about, then DO NOT fill that with insulation, it can lead to serious problems. What you should be insulating is the space within the timber frame, a 1975 house will almost certainly have been build with a 100mm thick frame. If that does not have any insulation then it is well worth filling it. Kingspan type insulation is good but it demands you cut it accurately and / or foam in the gaps at the edges. Mineral wool type insulation is a lot easier to fit.

Thermal Capacity is the term you are looking for. Decrement delay is another important parameter, which is basically a measure of how fast heat passes through. Insulation like glass wool, wood fibre, blown celulose etc have a long decrement delay where PIR type insulation has a much shorter decrement delay.

I take it each room has it's own thermostat? I only say that as all ours are set at 20 degrees and we don't get much overshoot.

Spotlights in a vaulted ceiling (or any ceiling) should not make the air test "difficult" You should be aiming for a sealed air tight layer, then a battened service void inside that before the plasterboard so your lights do not penetrate the air tight layer. You can get downlights that swivel, I fitted some nice square ones on a job recently (sory no pictures) or how about surface mount single spots that can swivel any direction?

Assuming the external hopper into which the sink and bath waste drain to, connects to the SEWER (not a rainwater soakaway) then It would not be hard to connect an external 110mm stack to that to take a proper toilet and well as the bath and shower waste. Pictures might help.

I guess it's the kitchen / diner you are having the problem with? they seem to run at a much higher flow rate to get more heat out.

Which way is north on the layout plan? You do know you cannot use a Cess Pit don't you? I would plan on a small treatment plant.

This one still exists in a park near where I grew up.

The owner has contacted the manufacturer, Vortice, and by reply to his email they sent him the full set of manuals. Very good service from them. The important one for this is the troubleshooting guide which I attach to this post in case anyone else is interested. PROMETEO_HR400_troubleshooting.pdf

I put in loads of Cat 5, to all rooms, and to a couple of places where I might want to put the broadband router. So far I have used just ONE of those cat5 cables, for a wired internet connection to my old desktop computer in the office. The BT home bub router, sat in the under stairs cupboard which is pretty central in the house, gives good wifi coverage in all rooms, How far through the build are you? If finishing joinery is not yet done and you need to route Cat5 cables, they can go behind skirting boards which might be an easy get out if you find you need a wired connection somewhere.