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Everything posted by ProDave
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Well you already have a floor deck, so you would just add 25 by 50mm battens to contain the UFH pipes and dry screed, then finished flooring on top. So it is a simple matter to add a simple packing piece such that the nosing of the top stair ends at finished floor height. You can do that and fit the stairs later. Doing a wet pour up to the stairs would mean you have to guess exactly where the stairs finish, put some shuttering to contain the pour and no doubt have a bit to finish later. Or don't do the pour until the stairs are in. A dry mix is so much easier to get upstairs and lay.
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Second hand solar panels
ProDave replied to Russell griffiths's topic in General Self Build & DIY Discussion
Any progress on this? It seems we could use a pallet or 2 of these up here if the seller, or someone else is is willing to put them on a pallet and arrange delivery. -
It is all down to the local plan. In my case the plot I found was in open countryside and not zoned for housing, so there would be a general presumption against development. However crucially there are 3 defined exceptions in the local plan here that would allow it, and my plot satisfied 2 out of the 3 (it only needs to satisfy one)
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For UFH have you considered what we are doing, a dry "biscuit mix" screed between battens then wooden floor over: It would make the interface to the stairs a lot easier.
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Have you tried asking your planners to provide a copy of this map for you?
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Why are you having a wet screed on timber floor upstairs?
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IVT Ecolane ASHP - any owners out there?
ProDave replied to readiescards's topic in Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHP)
So when it's -18 outside, your house will need 18.6KW of continuous heat input, which your heat pump will not be able to deliver. My house is not as well insulated as @JSHarris but at that temperature will need 2Kw of heat, which my 5Kw ASHP will easily deliver. You would probably do better if you fitted high capacity low temperature radiators, the lower temperature water the ASHP has to heat, the better it's efficiency will be. -
That is one reason for the WBS. Once in a while you can crank that up and indulge in a room temperature I would not choose to pay to achieve (wood is free)
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Daikin Altherma ASHP Heat Output Issue
ProDave replied to GHDirect's topic in Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHP)
The no nonsesne product contains glycol antifreeze as well as inhibitor. I suspect the inhibitor is less of a necessity than say a conventional boiler and radiators. In my case the only ferrous metal in any of the heating system is the circulating pumps so not a lot to corrode really. -
Discount Offers of the Week
ProDave replied to Ferdinand's topic in General Self Build & DIY Discussion
If only we could get something other than O2 or vodaphone 2G here........ -
Daikin Altherma ASHP Heat Output Issue
ProDave replied to GHDirect's topic in Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHP)
Okay re glycol I used the cheap No Nonsense Inhibitor / antifreeze from Screwfix mixed to 25% As to "getting it in" I filled the UFH loops with it neat. Conventional wisdom is to fill the UFH loops one at a time with mains water and a hose. Well I did use a hose, but the input side was not fed from the mains, but a length of hose fixed to a stand with a funnel on the end into which I poured the neat antifreeze / inhiibitor until it came out of the other end into a bucket to collect it. I had got all the antifreeze in before all the UFH loops were finished so I then used up what was in the bucket before finishing off with plain water. -
Hi @Ballynoes Where in the Highlands are you? I am about 20 miles north of Inverness. My heat pump is working fine. The lowest I have seen so far this winter is -6 and it continues providing 37 degree water for the UFH without issue. It takes heat out of the air by cooling it, so if the air is already -10, it will probably exit the heat pump at -13 or even colder. The only "problem" with an ASHP in cold weather is when you ask a lot of it, e.g for heating hot water. At least 3 times now I have seen mine need to defrost when heating the hot water to 48 degrees, but I have never yet seen it defrost when just keeping the UFH going. If you are building to the insulation level you say, you will find the house only cools down very slowly when the heating goes off, so forget the concept of the house being "cold" in the morning before the heating comes on, it will just be a little less warm. If you are passing by this way you are welcome to call in for a look.
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I am more shocked at the plumber or kitchen fitter that hacked half the back of the cabinet out, rather than drill a hole for the waste pipe., or the "plumber" that used that flexi waste because it was quicker than doing a proper job. The right hand waste will need a plug in the unused overflow port and whichever washing machine hose point you do not use will need a blanking plug.
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Controlling individual room temps with one zone
ProDave replied to joe90's topic in Underfloor Heating
Open up the flow rate for the 2 loops to this room (don't unwind the flow meters more than about 3 turns in total or it all gets very wet!!!) If you can't achieve higher flow to those loops that way, then slow down the flow to the other rooms instead. -
What has happened to the installers? Why are they not sorting it for you? Time for a visit from a certain Welsh Plumber?
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Those bottom pipe connectors. Using an allen key, turn each one 1 turn anticlockwise. I think they may be the flow adjustment?
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Daikin Altherma ASHP Heat Output Issue
ProDave replied to GHDirect's topic in Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHP)
Turn off the hot water and make sure the 3 port valve is in heating only mode and concentrate first on just getting it to work on heating only. I think what their engineer i saying is BS. If it is not, I would want it ripped out and replaced with something different. Ask the question directly to Daiken? Mine is on a programmer so I can have it on when I want it. It will start up fine from cold even when well below zero outside, yours should do the same. -
Second hand solar panels
ProDave replied to Russell griffiths's topic in General Self Build & DIY Discussion
I was wondering if there was someone close to him that could do that. It's a big ask to go and make a bulk purchase and then put them on pallets for distribution (palletways for instance about £100 to get a pallet up here) But if someone is willing sign me up for 30. I would be nervous just sending money to a stranger then finding they were completely dud, someone would have to have a look and take an educated guess on the condition, perhaps take a multimeter and check open circuit voltage on a few? -
Second hand solar panels
ProDave replied to Russell griffiths's topic in General Self Build & DIY Discussion
Argh no not face ache. I do not want to sign up to that tosh. Is there any way to contact him any other way? Anyone care to ask him for an ordinary email address and PM it to me? -
Normally the slot would be vertical for open, it looks to be horizontal at the moment,. i.e. closed. Can I see a close up picture of how those bottom row of pipes connect, I have not seen that type of manifold before.
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Wood burning stove and flue install
ProDave replied to ProDave's topic in Stoves, Fires & Fireplaces
In my case the flue came from flue-pipes.com It has to be 60mm from flamables. That sleeve was sold by the flue manufacturer as an insulated wall / ceiling sleeve so made for the job, you cut it to the angle of your roof, 45 degrees in my case. It is a hard sort of rockwool batt type material. Obviously as it is sold for this purpose by the flue manufacturer, it is a non flamable material, and as it's >60mm thick, it is okay for flamable material to touch the outside of the sleeve as that flamable material will be >60mm from the flue. -
Second hand solar panels
ProDave replied to Russell griffiths's topic in General Self Build & DIY Discussion
At £20 a panel I will have about 30. Now where can I find a proper advert and contact details? and what about sticking them on a pallet for delivery? -
Can I see a better square on close up view of the manifold, I can't see any flow meters. Also a close up of the actuators to see if they are "on" If in doubt as a test unscrew all the actuators and by default all circuits will be on BUT mark which one is which before removing them so they will go back in the same order (otherwise you will have a whole different problem to solve) Obvious question, can you hear that pump running?
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Wood burning stove and flue install
ProDave replied to ProDave's topic in Stoves, Fires & Fireplaces
The final bit arrived today, the 80mm aluminium duct to connect the stove air in to the duct going down under the floor (the first firing a dew day back was done with the stove drawing air from the room) I was keen to see how it performed, and whether the warnings people have given that it will overheat the room and I won't be able to get in for several days were true or not. So this morning I light the stove and kept it burning for somethng like 5 hours. I was running it at a fairly low load, but enough to keep the flue gas temperature high enough, so a reasonable burn, though no doubt at less than it's 4.5Kw rating. When I light the stove, the room it is in was at 20 degrees having been kept there by the UFH. It's in a reasonably large room, 5 by 7 metres, but this room opens by double doors onto the stairwell, and double doors the other side of the hall to the snug living room. All bedrooms open from the landing above. When I stopped loading the stove the room it was in was up to 24 degrees, and the snug living room the other side of the hall up to 23 degrees. The bedrooms had all risen about 2.5 degrees in the process as well. So no we didn't overheat or make the room unusable, though if you shut the door to that room and stoked the fire up, it would be easy to do so. So the conclusion is managed properly (treat it as whole house heating with all the doors open and don't burn it too high or too long) then it is a perfectly usable source of heat. Particularly so as generally we get all our wood for free. 24 degrees is not "over heated" but warmer than we would pay to heat a room. The ability to quickly get more heat upstairs is useful as we had been finding the heat transfer to the unheated bedrooms is not quite as good as I had hoped and I was starting to get complaints that our bedroom was down to 16.7 degrees. It is now back to over 19. The temperature today was 3 degrees outside so I would only expect the stove to get use when it is this cold or colder. If we wanted to with careful management, I am sure this one stove would heat the whole house with no other heating input. The original plan of having a second stove in the snug living room has been shelved, the one stove heats the whole house so no need for more complication end expense (plus installing a flue for that one would be a bit harder) -
I doubt the CRT would give permission for anything in the actual cut. And anything you put there would only survive until it was time to dredge that section. If you have ever seem them dredging, they have basically a 360 degree digger taken off it's tracks and mounted on a barge, and it digs the stinking black sludge from the bottom of the canal into waiting empty barges to be taken away, to restore navigation depth. Any pipe you put there would either be very vunerable, or under a thick layer of gloop and probably ineffective. The bywash is different, it won't get dredged and is probably a hard bottom, kept clear by the constant flow, so if you get permission that looks a good bet. I would not recommend going wading in the thick deep stinky mud at the bottom of a canal, though this one may not be as bad as some as the Llangollen has a flow to it as it is used as a water supply (you notice that going over the Pontcysyllte aqueduct)
