ProDave

sagging loops in the duct runs? condensation forming in the sags? nasty bugs and smells breeding in the stagnant smelly water?

I have said before on another thread. The reason for smart meters is to enable half hourly charging so we can be charged a much higher rate should we have the audacity to want to cook our dinner at peak time (i.e at dinner time) But our masters don't have the balls, or honesty to say the grid is in danger of collapse and this is what we must do. No instead they try to promote them on the basis they will save you money and everyone will want that won't they. I predict this is the next miss selling scandal unfolding. I am shocked that the ASA have not stepped in to demand the real reason for promoting them to be told rather than the save money pack of lies.

I wish there was an open source heat pump available where you could customise the control algorithms. There are cetainly some daft things on mine that I would alter if I had the ability. In the absence of that, to make a heat pump fully customisable, you would have to build your own controller, that means understanding how the refrigeration plant is supposed to work and operate all the valves correctly in the right manner. I don't see that as feasible. So we are left with the more sensible option of use the controller built in, and do our best to find the hidden or undocumented features to ger the most from it, and where it lacks a particular function, think out of the box for a way to work with what you have, to make it do what you want.

That of course would be far too logical, so you can guarantee nobody will implement that.

Ar this time of year I would just leave it, they will be gone soon.

I have trees. Lots of trees and they are my trees. I will be ground mounting mine, to the south of the tree line to avoid the shading issue.

I sort of tested this short duration programing of my heat pump today. Last night was a cold night here. 2 degrees I measured outside at 7:30AM That was just the time the ASHP is programmed to start heating the hot water, which it did this morning in 2 half hour bursts. It has often been said this this low temperature but above freezing is the worst conditions. Well a lot of condensation came of the evaporator, but no ice formed and it did not feel the need to do a defrost cycle. So hopefully that has proved in normal use defrosting should not be a regular thing.

I did hear of someone that was given a condition to use Scottish slate and submit a sample. He submitted a sample of Spanish slate, the planners approved it and that was what he used. He omitted to mention where it came from.

For a block built garage I would go no more complicated than a couple of air bricks.

First thing don't panic over the over £85K protection limit. I am sure I read somewhere there is short term protection (6 months) for a LOT more than that. So you have time to make an informed choice. And when you find a good home for £85K chunks, please share it with us.

Hi and welcome to the forum. You have knocked @Stones (Orkney) off the most northerly member spot.

Things are a bit laid back round here out in the sticks. 1 & 2 never asked for. 3: I dug a few holes for the SE to look at. 4: he said ordinary strip foundations 5,6,7 just used and architectural technician 8 didn't bother 9 just a normal self build policy 10 didn't bother with any of that 11 Static caravan 12,13,14 like most around here didn't bother with any of that. No doubt some I just "got away with" so this is not advice.

Where I lived in Oxford, someone built a garage without PP. Rather than enforce it's removal, they planted a couple of concrete bollards on the footpath to prevent a vehicle getting to it.

Quite a lot of the timber frame kit suppliers here have a range of standard designs. But they won't always work well on any plot. A house at the bottom of our road I am sure is an example. Enter via their drive and you arrive at a blank gable end with no windows or doors. You can turn left and after 2 turns you eventually come to the "back" door facing completely opposite to the road. Or you can turn right and go through a gate that takes you into a garden and there is the front door. The house design seems completely wrong for the plot and I am convinced it is just a standard design plonked there with little thought.

The door arrived today, exactly when they said it would. Delivered by there own van who drove up from England yesterday, dropped one at Aberdeen this morning and a couple more to do in Scotland before he heads back. Ii was easy to fit, fitted perfectly and seems to work well.

Just buy an old touring caravan. Put the WM in there (might need to enlarge the door)

Are you serious? Swapping it was not on my "to do" list. But time to have a chat with Trevor?

No it was purchased new 3 or 4 months ago direct from Cylinders 2 go.

No, no luck. I can hold, push, pull, wiggle or otherwise manipulate the pipes and it makes not a jot of difference. I can't feel any vibration in the pipes. It's not affecting operation, just making me think I need to sound proof the airing cupboard that will eventually be built around it.

Not necessarily. Wired one at Tongue a few years back. As long as I am not too busy at the time and it can be arranged into sensible packages of a few days work with somewhere to crash for the night.

Well my single garage is less than 30 square metres so I have no requirement to ventilate it. I did not use any air tight tape on the garage itself so I have not "tried" to make it air tight. The insulated garage door is due to arrive tomorrow. I don't expect it to be air tight in any way, but probably less gaping great holes than an up and over door. There is a letterobox in the pedestrian door so that's "ventilation" I have insulated the walls of the garage to almost the same standard as the rest of the house. The (fire) door between the house and garage has the usual intumescent strip, and a draught proof strip around all 4 sides.

These are the only 2 paragraphs you need Small garages - garages of less than 30m2 do not require the ventilation to be designed. It is expected that a degree of fortuitous ventilation is created by the imperfect fit of ‘up and over’ doors or pass doors. With such garages, it is inadvisable for designers to attempt to achieve an airtight construction. A garage with a floor area of at least 30m2 but not more than 60m2 used for the parking of motor vehicles should have provision for natural or mechanical ventilation. Ventilation should be provided in accordance with the following guidance: where the garage is naturally ventilated, by providing at least 2 permanent ventilators, each with an open area of at least 1/3000th of the floor area they serve, positioned to encourage through ventilation with one of the permanent ventilators being not more than 600mm above floor level or where the garage is mechanically ventilated, by providing a system: capable of continuous operation, designed to provide at least 2 air changes per hour and independent of any other ventilation system and constructed so that two-thirds of the exhaust air is extracted from outlets not more than 600mm above floor level.

It's a local distributor thing. TNC-S is often supplied here even on an isolated single dwelling supplied from it's own transformer

There are specific rules about caravans and site sockets in the wiring regs that prohibit them being connected to a TNC-S earth. The danger with TNC-S is there is a combined neutral and earth. In the event of a neutral fault (not as uncommon as you might think) the combined neutral and earth can rise to near L potential. That is BAD news if you are standing on the ground and reach out and touch the earthed metal door handle.

Okay a different way of doing things over there. You electrician just needs to fill that in. It sounds like he has to install his CU, test it and then submit the form and they will come and connect it. Best he issues an EIC for the install as well.