ProDave

@recoveringacademic Are you thinking of it just for tiles / slates, or are you thinking of it for the solar pv tiles (that they make some spurious half price claim for)? A company I worked for did some work on individual roof tile solar pv panels. In this contect we made a laser micromachining system that did one part of the manufacturing process. But the thing that struck me was you would have hundreds, possibly over 1000 individual solar panels to connect together, and I could imagine the connector system being a bit of a nightmare.

@billt Your system is unusual, but not disimilar to many I see in remote places up here. But I still by far maintain the best arrangement I have seen for such a system where the supply was from a stream at the bottom of the hill, pumped up with a hydraulic ram. So the water arrives in bursts, a small amount each time. For this they have a SEALED underground tank which is where the water goes. From the underground tank, there is a submersible pump, actually a borehole pump as it was all he could find. This pumps water from the underground tank to a large, probably 300L or so accumulator (pressure vessel rated for potable water) It then flows from there to the house. The sumbirsible pump is operated from both a pressure switch in the expansion vessel and a float switch, so as long as there is water in the underground tank, it will charge up the accumulator. This works very well indeed. You would think you are on a decent pressure and flow mains supply with always plenty of water on tap. You do need some safety systems which were missing when I first met the system. The relay driving the pump had welded, so the pump just kept on pumping. The water in the tank was up to 12 bar, there was no over pressure relief, and pipe fittings in the house were starting to let by. It now has a double relay system switching the pump and an over pressure relief on the pressure vessel.

A small combi is probably the root of the first problem. Fit a decent size or better, a system boiler and a good size unvented hot water cylinder. The second problem may be poor mains water pressure or flow rate. you mention a private water supply.. Borehole? Spring? moire details. If flow rate is poor fit an accumulator (big expansion tank rated for potable water) at the inlet to boost flow during high demand. You "solution" of a big water tank in the lof just ensures that all the taps get low pressure and flow, rather than that only being a problem if you turn on too many at once.

Just what do you want your attic water tank to do. If it is to provide the header for your how water, that's not just last century, the one before I think. Have you never been in a modern house and marvelled at the hot water coming out of the tap with the same force as the cold water? In warmer climates they put the hot water tanks outside, but that would not work very well here in the winter.

We made that mistake (were advised badly) at our last house, so we make sure we only ever get it desludged in a very dry spell when we know the water table is down, e.g. it was done just a couple of weeks ago after our long dry spring / early summer.

Every day is a learning day on BuildHub. That has certainly made it near silent, but I expect the flow is MUCH lower now. I will have to check on the flow meter if it is enough.

Interesting. I just copy a link and paste it in with Cntr V, no special tags or functions and it always works. Here is a boring example http://www.ukho.gov.uk/easytide/EasyTide/ShowPrediction.aspx?PortID=0256&PredictionLength=7

The standard, tried and trusted UPS2

A word of warning. Don't plant it in shingle unless you are VERY sure the water table will never come up high where you are.

It has 3 selectable speeds, no mention of curves. Oddly the fastest speed is quietest, at the slower speeds it has a very pronounced irrirating hum.

I wish I had read these last couple of posts 2 weeks ago. I deliberately bought a Grundfoss pump as I believed they were the best and disappointed to find I can hear it. Strangely it i quietest on it's fastest setting, at slow speed it has a pronounced drone. By comparison the "no name" pumps that came with the UFH manifolds are silent.

That reminds me. I priced a job this week to wire Jim's Gym. A 20 ft container, lined and insulated, with a pair of glass and timber French doors on the front.

I believe I have a resolution to this. I should know for certain before the end of next week if the offer that has been made is genuine and actually happens.. If it does I will tell you the outcome, and the action I took that I believe resulted in a resolution being offered.

Got it, by cutting and pasting https://gasproducts.co.uk/gas-regulators/pigtails/gaslow-easy-fit-1-5m-propane-gas-hose.html I am pretty sure the red easy fit ring is removable making them normal spanner operation. Otherwise BES have normal 1.5 metres hoses https://www.bes.co.uk/propane-pigtail-gas-hose-assembly-15m-pol-x-w20-16852

Your links are broken, they open this page again.

No problem at all. I am about 25 metres from my supply box to the house.

That is the UK wiring regs, There are two things that will limit the cable length, one is allowable voltage drop, and the other is the maximum circuit impedance allowed for a particular size of circuit breaker which will affect the "disconnection time" Put simply if the cable is too long and the impedance too high, then in the event of a short circuit, the circuit breaker or fuse might take too long to trip or might never trip. Both are overcome by fitting a larger cable than the current alone may suggest is needed.

As Jeremy says DP switch fuse and you can run as long as you like subject to things like volt drop, disconnection time etc in BS7671 Don't forget also a static caravan should be connected to a TT earth as well.

Have you considered doing what several of us have done. Don't get a temporary building supply (with a further cost to move it later) but instead make a permanent meter housing on a boundary and have the meter moved there, for good.

We are actually on what is rated as a 12KW supply, and that will be plenty for our house, even with an ASHP for heating (that's not much over 1KW anyway) In our case that came about because there is a 100KVA transformer serving 8 houses and I know if I had asked for a 21KVA supply there was a high probability of them wanting to upgrade that to a bigger transformer. The reality is I have the same size supply cable and same 100A fuse and could draw 21KW if I wanted to. As long as we don't all do that at once.

Just tell them 10KW They are after a figure for the "system" The man on the end of the phone does not know if this is a building site for 1 house, or a nuclear power station.

That then brings us to plot orientation. We have a south facing back garden, so all the main rooms face the back, look out over the garden and get the sun. The main room is triple aspect so looks over the front and side as well. Only the humble utility room is relegated to only having a north view over a (very quiet) road. So that would rule out a north facing plot. In fact yes that was another big issue with the plot we turned down, the back would have faced north. I sketched all sorts of bizarre schemes to try and come up with a front garden we could actually use and get the sun, without feeling like we were sitting on the driveway, and nothing really worked. Agree about kitchens. Something people don't think about when putting it upstairs either.

Not really. You have to work with the plot. It was easy with this plot as it was wide but not very deep, and a house like that, split down the middle very much models the traditional Scottish Croft house so it was not at all hard to design. One of the other plots we looked at was very much narrower and very much deeper and would have been a completely different design of house to the one we have now. One of the things we struggled with when trying to fit a house to that other plot, was dealing with a limited width south facing wall, meaning a lot of rooms would have no option but face north If the plot allows I can recommend a wide house as we have discussed split down the middle with the stairs and entrance, but that is not always possible. Our house is 12 metres wide, add a little over 3M for the adjoining single garage, and another 6M for the double car port. Not everyone has a 21 metre wide plot.

I too have not had any experience of anti English issues up here. I did however meet a (English) family who had moved here from the Borders where they said they were hounded out by the Anti English sentiment. I guess the Borders covers a large area.

Mine is very similar to that. It all stems from my plot suiting a wide, but not very deep house which fits that layout. Perhaps the more "normal" plot favours a narrow, deeper house that would not work with that layout.