ProDave

I think the plumber is wrong to cancel this job. The "lockdown" document does not tell all industry and all trades to shut down. The document allows travel to essential work. Most of the tradesmen I have spoken to agree a leaking pipe or a fault with an electrical circuit are essential things to fix so allowed. Most of us now would not attend for a non essential think like change a light fitting,

Cluster flies get past the first seal in our Rationel windows, so when you open them for the first time in the spring a whole load of half asleep dopey flies fall in and you spend the next 10 minutes chasing them out.

I have sorted my timber needs for a while (assuming Wednesdays Multipanel delivery happens) But one thing I forgot is PAINT for the bathroom unit. Hatching plans for one last dash to find anyone selling paint tomorrow. is that irresponsible?

I haven't cut any skirting to length yet so can't try it. Carpets upstairs might go under (I like that but most professional carpet fitters don't) Oak or slate floor downstairs.

So I got a length of American White Oak from the merchant today. All they had that was close was 95mm wide so I had to cut the width down to 80mm (it looked silly at 95mm) One stock length of Howdens architrave will do a full length down to the floor and a shorter length with a corner block. So a decision has been taken not to use a corner block inside the bedrooms, just on the landing, and both sides of the downstairs doors. the length of timber I bought will make 17 corner blocks at a cost of £1.30 each.

Can someone please post these a day or more before the series starts. That's another on I have to search out if there is a repeat of that first episode.

Looks very nice.

22mm minimum. Most are VERY sensitive to flow rate and require quite a high flow rate, I had to fit a second pump to mine to satisfy it. So there is an argument if a long run for going up to 28mm.

In defence of the static caravan. Yes they are cold. One option might be add extra insulation around the outside and clad it in timber? We just accepted it would need a lot of heating and put a cheap wood burning stove in it.

Yes I know they are like marmite, but get yourself a static caravan, or even TWO. We paid just over £4K for one in decent nick including delivery. £10K would get you two, or better still if you can find a twin unit (less common here as most of the stock here is holiday park stuff, twin units are more common on residential sites) Go out to your caravan dealers TODAY or tomorrow while you still can. Choose one (or 2) and arrange delivery. You will need to do some ground work like prepare a hard standing base (compacted MOT1 did fine for ours)

Take that dust cover off the smoke alarm or it won't work very well.

Howdens have now announced they are operating "no contact" Do not enter the shop. Phone your order from the car park. A door will be opened and your order placed outside to take away. At least they are remaining open.

A bit like the one I finished wiring last week. There is a normal boiler programmer on the wall and next to it the heat pumps own "user interface" When it came to the customer "how do I operate it" I just said you turn it on and off and program the times with the normal programmer, just like you do any other heating system. The other box is for information only and diagnosing if it goes wrong. Don't touch it.

Indeed. I have just finished wiring a small semi detached house built by a small developer, that started in the Autumn, Even the mass estate builders recon 12 weeks per house.

Intertesting, not far from me. I wonder who built it and please show us some pics. Findhorn by any chance?

Bloody hell that was quick. Or was it not 8 Jan this year?

I am buying lots of joinery stuff this week, to try and ensure I can keep going if the merchants start shutting.

I chose 48 degrees by trial and error, as the hottest temperature I can just about hold my hands under without it hurting. So take washing up water, I can run that so hot I can barely put my hands in the sink. I can think of no reason why you would want it any hotter. We discussed legionairs a while back, and with an unvented hot water tank and treated mains water there really was no risk. But the standard procedure if you want to do an anti legionairs cycle is once a week you heat it hotter with the immersion heater.

A thermal store is a very bad choice for an ASHP as generally you have to store the water in the tank quite a bit hotter than your target HW delivery temperature.

Get a larger tank than you think you need with a high capacity heat pump input coil. That will still work fine with the oil boiler. Plumb the system with two 2 port valves, one for heating, one for HW, that will be easier to convert to an ASHP later. Avoid the work of the devil the 3 port mid position valve.

If I had the 1 year old boiler I think I would be using it. I presume you have a tank as well?

Because an ASHP generally will not heat water as hot as a gas or oil boiler, it is normal to have a larger capacity HW tank, and one with a high surface area input coil for better heat transfer, so sadly you probably do want a new tank.

That's pretty much the standard SSE supply head in use now. And note (to make a lot of electricians jealous) he has a meter with a built in isolator switch, which are common in SSE land.

That reminds me I have 2 parcels that have been in quarantine for about 5 days now so should be safe to open.

I am convinced mine is running on pre release beta testing firmware. My favourite "niggle" is you can only adjust the DHW temperature if the heating is on. So if I want to adjust the DHW temperature in summer, I have to go downstairs, turn on heating on the time clock,. go and turn one of the room thermostats up to create a heating demand, go back upstairs and adjust the DHW temperature, then go and turn the heating off again. When heating is off, it will only display the DHW set temperature and not let you adjust it. Mine has separate "water leaving temperature" settings for DHW and Heating.