ProDave

I am sure you all know I (plus help from SWMBO) am doing it "solo" Still ticking along. Not much in the way of blog entries lately as I have started a lot of stuff that is not yet finished so no blog entry for a while. I am currently held up waiting for the plasterer, one of the very few tradesmen I am "employing" just as I had a room ready for him to do, I phoned him only to find he was about to go off on 2 weeks holiday. I now have 2 rooms waiting for when he can fit me in. Until they are plastered and painted, I can't get on and lay the last of the UFH then lay the oak floor and start using those rooms. Until that is done, the house is being heated entirely by the UFH in the family room at the moment. Getting ready to install the flue pipe for the stove, flue should be here this week, scaffold is up ready, just need a decent weather window which is not so easy this time of year. Too cold and icy "up top" to even think about it at the moment. We have had a reprieve from the council tax valuer. He phoned the other day to see how we were doing, having noticed on one of his snooping visits we did not appear to be living in the caravan any more. So I started describing where we were and as soon as I mentioned no rooms have doors on them yet, he decided to postpone valuing it until early next year, so a few more months on band A council tax.

This is what drives me mad with joinery, you just can't seem to buy stuff that fits standard construction. i.e ready made door liners are not available in the required widths. I think your choice is buy the larger ones and rip / plane them down, or just buy some flat planed wood (available in a wider range of sizes) and make your own. much harder with oak as if they are just veneer then you can't just go planing them to size. Door liners hard to floor, cut carpet around them. If you have mvhr allow a larger gap under the doors for some air flow. I fix with screws, carefully positioned so the door stop when fitted hides the fixing screws.

These are mine from Stairbox, they must be the most basic you can get. The stringers will be varnished (have been now but not photographed) and they will be carpeted hence the mdf / ply treads. Note the dwarf newel posts ready for the fusion system handrails I linked to before.

Hi and welcome. That sounds all very interesting, we like pictures, look forward to them.

Mine was put there by LG the manufacturer of the heat pump, it's function being to help heat hot water, as an emergency heater if the heat pump has a fault, and to help defrosting. The pipework looks to be about 22mm.

My LG heat pump has one built in and I can confirm the element enters the tube from the bottom. It also looks like a right pig to dismantle of you ever want to get at it. The Willis heater just goes in series with the heat pumps heat exchanger so just in the flow from the heat pump. If you are not using the heater then water just passes through it.

Welcome from the North Island. I believe you are the first member on the South Island

A good compromise might be what we are using, the Burbidge fusion system. http://www.stairpartshop.co.uk/acatalog/fusion_system.html Get the stairs made with dwarf newel posts to match then buy the handrail system later. The handrails are available in pine or oak, and you can either have chrome or nickel spindles or glass panels. All easy to DIY install. Our stairs came from stairbox and they were happy to supply with the suitable dwarf newel posts for the fusion system handrails. Choosing something like this means you can leave the final decision on exactly what to have until a bit later. Our stairbox stairs do not creak.

With these things there is a huge difference between what a suit at a desk says, and what the men on the ground will do. If you can get the suit happy, the men on the ground will not bat an eyelid at 4 metres of cable inside the house.

Remove a brick again, pour in some rat poison, and replace the brick again.

Hi and welcome to the form. That looks stunning. What is the access track like? In my rambles I have passed by several derelict houses like that, but mostly inaccessible by vehicle. Some used as holiday homes. If you have a decent track so you can drive to it you are in with a fighting chance.

Try a simple wireless thermostat, NOT a wifi one. Don't know the range but it has to be worth a try.

No problem fitting sound insulation between posi joists Just some odd bits of 4*1 slotted through to hold it in place (okay, yes I admit, from a pallet or 2) Didn't bother actually filling the space between the webs.

If I have success with the first board, I will gladly take a look at yours @joe90 but I fear yours may be more terminally damaged.

You are not the first that I have know have a treatment plan float out of the ground. At least it was only water in it!!!!! Ours is concreted in, but even so I would never push our luck and will only get it emptied in the summer after a dry spell when I can be certain the water table is low.

Just a simple question having read the above. If the immersion now goes through their own pulsed controller, HOW will that operate if you are trying to dump variable amounts of surplus solar PV to the thing?

I remember now. I feel optomistic that this one is likely repairable. If you don't get anywhere I am willing to give it a try, obviously with no guarantee of success.

@Gav_P remind me of how yours failed? and what the symptoms are? I don't think it was as drastic as @joe90 one so might stand a better chance of repair.

Without some testing with a volt meter it is hard to be certain. One guess is the 2 core is L and N feed. The 3 core is then L and N out and switched L out on the yellow. The fact there is no yellow at the ceiling rose means another junction box somewhere. It is quite common to "loop at the switch" like this. The unusual thing is the 3 core containing L and switched L This would typically feed a bathroom fan giving permanent L and switched L for the fan, with just the switched L then going on to the light. Is this an upstairs room? if so look in the loft. Don't discount stupidity / ignorance and another hidden junction box above the ceiling.

Our house is built with a ridge beam (Kerto not steel) and the main advantage is it allows a warm roof design, so the whole of the interior space is inside the insulated envelope including any loft space not used as room in roof.

Interesting indeed. I did ours not long back. The only filters are either side of the heat exchanger core inside the mvhr. They are what I cal "cooker hood filter" material, just a woven sort of plastic mesh, though much much thicker than used in cooker hoods. When I checked ours, they were just a bit grey with what looked like ordinary fine, dry "house dust". I removed them, beat them outside, hoovered them clean, and put them back. I take it those filters did not start life black in colour?

can that even be enforced now as Code 6 does not exist any more?

Why do the council think what electricity supply you have is a planning matter?

I have not tried a timer yet, too many other things to do. but our conder continues to work without smell or any other issues.

change the lampholders, ditch the transformer(s) and fit GU10 LED's