ProDave

The finer details of the survey was not published where I found it. It was conducted by the ECN and published in an electrical contracting magazine.

I found this recent survey 7% Claim reduced bills . 9% Claim increased bills. 23% Said main reason for fitting was to reduce bills. 47% Unlikely to have SM fitted in the next 12 months. 20% Fairly unlikely. 5% Very likely. 13% Fairly likely. 61% Had no issues with SMs 45% Found no benefits from having a SM . 29% Claimed more accurate readings . Any actual saving is small and lost in the noise. I doubt many people these days are particularly wasteful of energy so have little scope for turning stuff off. I have said before, I don't dispute the need for peak rate charging and hence the need for half hourly metering, it just incenses me that they are being "sold" on a false claim of saving the planet. In fact I was so incensed I have just fired off a complaint to ASA about that advert. The first time any advert has annoyed me enough to do that.

Not normally. Most of them run at a higher temperature when doing DHW and a lower temperature for space heating (so they run at a better COP) so you would not normally do both together.

The latest smart meter advert I saw last night claiming they are an essential part of solving global warming, I believe needs investigating by the ASA. I would complain about it to them if I knew how. Why can't they be honest and say the reason for them is half hourly metering so we can be charged more at peak times of the day and that might bully us into cooking our dinner at a different time of day and save the grid from collapse.

I am puzzled why he could not tell you the result immediately? The only time I was present for one, the result was known immediately.

Fit an outside oil fired system boiler driving UFH and an indirect unvented hot water tank. That will then be an easy swap for an ASHP. But for all the cost and waste of doing that I would just go for the planning permission for the ASHP. You can carry on with the build while that application gets processed.

Thad sadly is my opinion. The recent "Grand Designs Street" showing decent plots for £100K won't have done them any favours in that respect.

So this has all been working for a couple of weeks. SWMBO has all her music loaded onto it and it is doing it's job. One "request" : Can I make it so we can turn the hifi on and off from the phone as well. In theory that should be easy. But would mean modifying the Pi Music box code and adding extra features to their web interface, so in reality it is probably not a trivial exercise. Also following on from this later on I will implement a video version of this to give the tv's access to on line video like iplayer etc.

Surely somebody has done a home automation system based on the Rasppbery Pi? That would be where I would be looking.

Make sure it is a reputable make (LG, Mitusbishi, Panasonic, Carrier etc) Make sure it is inverter driven. This one ticks all those boxes. The questions to ask in this case a WHY has it been removed? It appears to be 4 years old Also make sure it IS in working order (i.e not removed because it stopped working) and make sure it comes with the manuals and ALL controllers that came with it (they can be hard to find or expensive if missing) Here is the service manual for this unit http://www.icglimited.co.uk/library/web/2. Panasonic/7. Air To Water Heat Pump/4. Service/MDF 06_09 E 3E5 Service Manual (PAPAMY1209176CE).pdf This is a 9KW ASHP Is that the size you need? It comes with a "easy to use remote control" Make SURE that is included. EDIT There is a picture of it in the advert so make sure if you win it that you get that with it.

Personally I am no fan of using an APP or similar to control lighting. You can't beat the convenience of a switch on the wall that serves the obvious function. but I would add fixed switches need a bit more thinking that normally given. e.g I am the only electrician I know that routinely provides 2 way upstairs / downstairs switching on the hall light, as well as the landing light. If wiring spider fashion to a junction box, make it somewhere accessible and KNOWN rather than the usual "hunt the hidden junction box" found in older houses.

^^ As above Our house is 7M by 11M It is entrance and stairs in the middle. Right hand half is the kitchen / diner front to back. Left hand half is utility room at the front and snug living room at the back. The two living spaces open onto the central hall with double doors so they can be open to make it all one big space, or closed if you want quiet (e.g you both want to watch something different on tv) Why do you want a downstairs bathroom? WC is all you need and we have that in the utility room (I admit that is not to everyones taste)

That is a very vague question. Go and start a new thread in the plumbing section with as much detail as you can. And welcome to the forum.

Go back and tell planning that "building regs say it MUST be rendered"

You will solve the "how big" issue if you draw some furniture on there and try moving it about. Re "we" agreeing on the kitchen. When I pushed too hard on adding input to the kitchen design, the response was "who does most of the cooking?. Do YOU want to do most of the cooking?"

The major issue I see is not so much the living room size, as too much window. So assuming you put the sofa at the bottom of your drawing so it faces the windows to the top and the side, where are you going to put ANYTHING else e.g tv etc? Model the room layout with all the furniture you want. and see how much room you actually need. My inclination is put the dining table over by the windows and have the bottom portion of the room as living.

I would do it all in mdpe, tee down to 20mm, mdpe stop cock and check valve mdpe bib tap adaptor. mdpe won't get very bothered about freezing, but copper will so if using copper you need a drain cock at the bottom of the standpipe.

Things that clip together and it's not obvious what you push or pull to unclip them annoy me. I encounter it frequently when trying to dismantle some bit of electronics to repair it.

Hi and welcome to the forum. Looks like a nice project. Good job you didn't specify which Christmas you intend to move in.

+1 to the above. Our MVHR is in the plant room next to our bedroom, and even without a door fitted to the opening, you cannot hear it in the bedroom at normal speed, I was surprised when I ran the numbers just how much heat you will lose through ventilation losses in a leaky house without mvhr even with decent insulation levels. There must be some cupboard you can fit one in, they need not be that big.

Wet plaster skim rather than tape and fill. No problem with peeling tapes.

I presume these things need to cut the grass every few days? because they don't collect grass cuttings. If ours was left much more than a week it would be impossible to cut without collecting the grass cuttings (or leaving clumps of thatch everywhere)

But the garage was designed to have a room above, which is the only reason the walls go higher than the ceiling level. So the bottom chord is taking a load. I can't recall if that bottom chord was really just hanging there, or whether they used joist hangers at the ends (I would have done) for additional support. This is the only time I have seen it done like that and was surprised.

I think the message is don't level it and turf it straight away. Give the made up ground some time to settle, then level it and seed or turf it.

I am assuming the truss supplier designed it like that, it was they that fitted the triangles to make a flat bearing point at point B.