ProDave

I have done some more looking around. What I find is the company that sold this unit to me are no longer selling this particular brand of heat pump (I won't mention the company or make of the heat pump in case it gets messy) That probably explains it's sale at a low price as selling off stock of a discontinued model. It was sold to me as "new" on 23rd June 2017. So I am very close to the 1 year guarantee expiring. Given my lack of reply from the company yesterday, I have now sent an email, and if no response is received on Monday I will follow up with a recorded delivery letter, making it clear I am making a warranty claim to rectify the problem with this unit. I will let you know how it proceeds. Perhaps a cautionary tale about buying cheap bargains in advance of when you are ready for them. Hopefully the fact I discovered and reported the issue before 1 year was up will be okay.

Looks like you can buy the gas in bulk (as I would expect a refrigeration engineer to do) for about £29 per Kg https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/R410A-Refridgeration-Gas-Air-Con-Virgin-Bottle-11-35kg-Unlimited-Quantity-s/302759201166?hash=item467ddac98e:g:MbAAAOSw3UZbA9zh

Given the history., I am hoping it is not a leak, but was supplied to me with no or low gas. When I first got it, I tried to run it up, but with no water connected. I expected the input to the PHE to start getting very hot very quickly and I would have then shut it off. but it didn't. it behaved as it is now, the compressor ran for a couple of minutes and nothing got hot. I didn't do any more then as I thought it was shutting down because of no water flow. And to be clear I didn't just run it and cook the thing, it honestly did not get hot. So if it's got no gas, that is how I received it. EDIT Just looked back at the event log for 10 months ago and it is logging water flow AND low pressure as faults so it was low on gas then, it has not just leaked out over the last 10 months.

So the gas cost I was quoted is about right, I need to work on getting someone cheaper for the labour. I will let you know how the conversation goes on Monday when I suggest the supplier pays for the re gassing. As I say when you run it, it is ONLY the output from the compressor that gets at all warm. That warmth never makes it anywhere near far enough around the circuit so at the drier and check valve both input and output pipes to both are stone cold. As the gas is so expensive, is is possible to fill the system say with compressed air to check for leaks first (obviously without trying to run it like that) and if the pressure holds, vent the air and fill with gas? Can I make any pressure tests at either of the Schrader valves? what sort of pressure would we expect at each?

Just to clarify it was sold to me as "new" 11 months ago, but I found out when I got it it was not actually "new". It looks in new condition i.e. it has not been installed anywhere outside, but the paper labels on all the connectors on the wiring loom suggest it might have been used as a training or demo unit. Anyway I have just found the "event log" and that confirms it is tripping on a "low pressure" fault so I think that confirms it either has a leak, or was supplied to me with no refrigerant. Monday's phone call could be "interesting" I did a quick search for refrigeration engineers up here and only one answered the phone this late on a Friday. He estimated £160 for the labour to re gas it and a similar amount for the gas. That sounds like a piss take to me. I can't think it's more than an hour to re gas it, and how much does 1.8Kg of R410A actually cost? Can you ask your mate what a proper re gassing cost would be? And to be clear it's a monoblock unit.

I am trying to comission my ASHP and can't get it working, and finding the supplier so far frankly useless. At first I thought it was a controls issue, because the web based diagnostics is not showing the water flow rate, so I thought it was refusing to run because it thought there was no water flow. But now I am coming to the conclusion that is a red herring and the on line diagnostics are not much of a reflection on what is actually happening. So I am trying to do some self diagnostics and wonder if it's a refrigerant problem. Here is the refrigerant pipework diagram from the manual What is happening, you give the heat pump a heating demand. the fan starts up. The compressor starts up and ramps up in speed. After a short while the output pipe from the compressor starts to warm up. Notice the term warm up, it is by no means "hot" just warm. Nothing much seems to flow around the regrigerant circuit, you can just detect slight warmth in the pipe going into the reversing valve, but I can't detect any warmth making it past there out of the reversing valve and certainly no warmth reaching the plate condenser. After a couple of minutes the inverter ramps up a bit faster in speed then it all shuts down. Am I right to be thinking this may be a lack of regrigerant in the system and that might be the problem rather than an electrical fault? I am trying to formulate an understanding of what might be wrong before I go back to the supplier wihich probably won't be until Monday now.

How about getting a local, or even a national paper to run a story. Headline: "If you want to build a house, get planning permission for a stable block and the council will never take enforcement action" Quote the HOP statement above. That should ruffle a few feathers. This would be good in the Daily Wail.

In our case (stick built timber frame) the builders made the window openings 50mm bigger in each dimension. They then lined the window openings with 20mm PIR insulation, fitted the windows, and foamed the remaining very small gap. The air tight membrane taped to the windows on the inside. Outside, cladding in Wood Fibre, Compriband was used to seal the wood fibre to the windows.

Is this the one where the building is being built in the wrong location on the plot and not following the plans? Surely they can enforce THAT issue? When building a house and living in a caravan on site it is normal to get temporary PP to use the caravan as a dwelling so the whole familly can legally live in it.

Most of the compression joints were unavoidable, things like valves, manifolds, the HW tank, pumps, etc. I think I only used 6 compression fittings just to join pipes together, and that was just to use them up.

Well it's all piped up now. As I suspected, it was a struggle getting enough antifreeze in. I filled at 3 points, the 3 highest points and only just got the required antifreeze in before finally topping up with water and bleeding. It's been holding steady at 0.6 bar for 48 hours, I guess 1 bar is a good pressure for final filling? I still have all the UFH pipework to lay and fill, UFH manifolds valved off at the moment. Should start laying the UFH pipe downstairs in a week or 2. 30 soldered joints and 22 compression joints and the only weeps were a couple of compression joints not tight enough

With a timber frame that is being clad (with block) it is usual to use Kwikstage or Cuplock and hang a few Hop Up's on the inside for the frame erection, then remove them as the brickies build up. With my own build and my own scaffold, I didn't have any hop ups. So when it came time to clad it and the scaffold was a little to close, I moved it in place. A gentle tap on each foot with a sledge hammer moves it about half an inch. Just keep moving up and down the run half an inch at a time and it's not long before you have moved a complete scaffold over 6 inches. Probably not official advice "don't do this at home" but if you are as stupid as me and try it, make sure EVERYTHING is removed from the scaffold and you wear a hard hat.

Another difference between England & Scotland? They are very hot on drain tests here, they like to see the drain before it is covered and see the pressure test at the same time. They even wanted to pressure test the drain run to the static caravan that arguably was not permanent. Though when I came to connect the final 3M section when the treatment plant went in, they were not available, and not the slightest bit interested in any of the pipework coming out of the treatment plant.

Best of luck with that. I have seen that on Grand Designs, and on one house up here. Both failed building control. Both inserted tacky looking bits of clear plastic to pass building control. I assume both lots of plastic are now removed and they ended up with what they wanted.

I used them because it would be near impossible to bolt mine down directly. I think it was designed by a previous car designer with the mounting bolt holes as inaccessible as possible. Using the feet you could tip the ASHP over, fit the feet, then stand it back up, drill and bolt down the feet. SWMBO insisted I bolt it down otherwise the wind would blow it over. I know it gets windy here but......

I have just mounted my ASHP (different make) and I used 4 of these anti vibration feet http://cpc.farnell.com/sip/02357a/anti-vibration-mounts-sold-as/dp/TL19203?st=anti vibration mount No problem bolting them down to the base. And cheaper from CPC than I could find on ebay

With my test kit, the bulb you squeeze to pump it up leaks air, solved by bending it's pipe double to "crimp" it while testing. When BC came to witness my drain test, they got bored and said "that will do" after watching a stationary manometer for a minute.

If you want cheap but quality, Click Mode are my choice http://www.discount-electrical.co.uk/product.php/389086884/click-cma036-mode-white-moulded-2-gang-double-pole-switchsocket-13a

Our last house we went for 200mm, that was nothing special in terms of insulation or air tightness. So I am going for 200 again on out new much better insulated and much ore air tight house, expecting to run the UFH at a very low temperature. 200mm is the obvious spacing with 400mm joist centres, anything else would be complicated.

I saw a simple arrangement that I am planning to replicate on my balcony. Substantial (5" square?) timber posts with a groove routed in opposite sides into which a plain square sheet of toughened glass is inserted.

If it's "agricultural" re name it a "tractor shed"

How long had it been used as "garden"? sounds like it might be a candidate for a certificate of lawful development if they can prove they have used it like that for long enough.

The moveable bit certainly exempts you from building control, so that's one less worry. That might also be the case with my static caravan, it might be that a fixed garden outbuilding of that size, while permitted development, might need building control, but not because it's moveable.

Isn't it about "use" rather than position? We persuaded the planners to remove the "caravan must be removed..." clause by pointing out that on the day of completion I could remove the caravan, and immediately replace it with an identical caravan in an identical position and it would be a a permitted development garden outbuilding. As long as we are not living in it after completion, it would not ned planning permission. I suspect this shepherds hut would be the same. If you do start sleeping in it, you are into the 28 day rule, so you could spend 28 nights in it per year without needing planning permission.

Your drainage details are usually a building control matter. Up here you cannot start until a building warrant has been issued, and sorting out a suitable acceptable drainage plan delayed us several weeks before building control were finally happy and issued the warrant.